Doubles team sweeps at Parsons

PARSONS -- Fort Scott's No. 2 doubles team of Chris Lamb and Charlie Sercer went 4-0 and won their bracket at the Parsons Tennis Invitational here Friday.

Lamb and Sercer, who have an 8-1 record as a team overall this year, beat Quinton Hershey/Josh Mitchell of Coffeyville, 8-3, Andrew Payne/Seth Boyer of Independence, 8-7 (7-3), Jarrett Taylor/Elliott Brewer of Parsons, 8-4, and Josh Reed/Austin York of Pittsburg, 8-2.

"Chris and Charlie had a great tournament," Fort Scott head coach Lynn barr said. "They pulled out a win in a very close, hard fought match against Parsons and just played good solid tennis all evening."

The No. 1 doubles team of Colton Grillott and Brian Gorman went 2-2 and finished third. They had wins over Boone Ott/Zack Mitchell of Coffeyville, 8-1, and Jason Alexander/Alex Jack of Parsons, 8-6. They lost to Wes Goodrich/Anthony Davis of Independence, 8-4, and Miles Crowley/Clay Southern of Pittsburg, 8-2.

"Colton and Brian played some very good tennis at times, but slumped a little later in the evening," Barr said." They struggled a little against Parsons and just never could get anything going against Pittsburg. We have to give the Pittsburg team credit though, they played very, very well. But I don't believe that they are that much better than we are, if we are playing up to our potential."

Josh Grant was 1-3 in No. 1 singles. He defeated Pittsburg's Jon Hamilton, 8-4, and lost to Coffeyville's Max Manley, 8-1, Independence's Mason Posch, 8-0, and Parsons, Ryder Nush, 8-2.

Kai Simmons-Mims was also 1-3 as he played No. 2 singles. He beat Alex Smith of Parsons, 8-6. He lost to Indy's Skylar Stacy, 8-6, Coffeyville's Taylor Eastman in a tie-breaker, 8-7 (7-3), and Pittsburg's Josh Vannurden, 8-4.

"Both Josh and Kai played some good tennis today," Josh won a lot of points but until his final match against Pittsburg, just couldn't string enough together to win more games. Kai was in all of his matches with opportunities to win each of them. Both players gave us a great effort today."

Independence won the tournament with 11 points. Fort Scott and Pittsburg each had eight points but Pittsburg was awarded second place on the tie-breaker.

Wednesday, Fort Scott will finish a tournament that was suspended by rain at Pittsburg. Saturday, the Tigers will host a varsity tournament beginning at 8:30 a.m. Chanute, Pittsburg, Labette County and Coffeyville are expected to attend.

The Tigers will not be attending the Thomas Jefferson Tournament at Joplin. It had been scheduled for Friday .