12-man squad for Tiger boys’ tennis

Fort Scott High School’s tennis team opened its season Tuesday at Independence with a five-team round-robin varsity tournament. There are 12 players out for this year’s team, three of whom won letters last season.

Elijah Wright and Joe Adams are the Tigers’ seniors. They’ve both been in the program for four years and are three-time letter winners. Nick Patton is a second-year sophomore and won his first varsity letter last season. Junior Allen Santana is in his third year in the program and sophomore Hollis Reeves is in his second.

There are seven first-year players: senior Mannie Gonzales, junior Brady Peel, sophomores Jadyn Royal-Bey and Johan Hill, and freshmen Weston Pellett, Sage Hill and Garren DeMott.

In Tuesday’s tournament, Patton played No. 1 singles, Santana No. 2 singles, Wright and Adams No. 1 doubles and Royal-Bey and Gonzales No. 2 doubles.

Santana had a second-place finish in his division. He won his first match by an 8-1 score over Pittsburg’s James Delp. He fell to Independence’s Samsung Mah in his next match, 8-4, before beating Iola’s Eason Cheung, 8-1, and Chanute’s Julius Macher, 8-4, to finish with a 3-1 record.

Wright and Adams, who were 14-5 together as a doubles team last season, also had a 3-1 day for second place. They defeated A.J. Monsour/Jake Russian of Pittsburg, 8-3, Independence’s Sawyer Hayward/Dom Mendoza, 8-1, and Iola’s Jon Miller/Brett Plumlee, 8-3. Chanute’s Fisher Lund/Brayden Frederick took the last match of the day, 8-2.

Patton, 9-6 in varsity singles last season, was 2-2 for third place in No. 1 singles. His victories came over Kevin Carter of Pittsburg and Elijah Fawson of Iola by 8-1 scores. Logan Payne of Independence took an 8-2 win and Jordan Robinson of Chanute got by Patton in a tie-breaker 8-7 (4).

Royal-Bey and Gonzales were paired together for their first tennis tournament as the No. 2 doubles team and were 0-4. They fell to Griffin Cooper/Paul Worsley of Pittsburg, 8-1; Gave Wright/Garrett Muninger of Independence, 8-0; Adryan Nading/Royal Smith of Iola, 8-4, and Kolby Ussery/A.J. Bolling of Chanute, 8-0.

The varsity next plays Tuesday, April 27 in their home tournament. Nevada, Pittsburg and Coffeyville will also be present.

The junior varsity season got underway with a triangular at Pittsburg on Thursday which also included Chanute. The next JV outing is Wednesday at Nevada beginning at 4 p.m.