FSHS hosts four-team tennis tourney

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's tennis team hosted a four-team tournament here Thursday with both doubles teams finishing in second place in their pools.

There were actually six Fort Scott entries as head coach Lynn Barr put a couple of players into the singles pools to fill in for Columbus players who couldn't come. There

Kalia Dancy and Michelle Buntain finished second in the No. 1 doubles pool while Ashlyn Baugher and Corina Harris were second in the No. 2 pool. Both teams finished with 2-1 record on the day.

"Our doubles play is beginning to really come around," Barr said. "Both teams played some good sound doubles today. They executed well and made fewer errors which helps them be more successful. "

Dancy and Buntain (3-2 on the season together) lost to Independence's Aubrey Near/Sammi Mayes in the first round, 8-0. But they defeated Lakyn Baughman/Lora Nance of Labette County, 8-4, and Kelsey Hill/Shaylee Thomas of Columbus, 8-5.

"They worked well together and also did a nice job of executing basic doubles strategies and were successful," Barr noted. " Both of these girls have really stepped up their games in the last few weeks."

Baugher and Harrison (3-4) lost to Molly and Lexy Mangan of Independence, 8-0, and defeated Kalsey Eckelberry/Paige Wells of Labette County, 8-3, and Marissa Shaurette/Ryleigh Schoech of Columbus, 8-4.

"This was only their second tournament together, but they showed a lot of improvement," Barr said. "The 8-3 win over LC was a good sign of this since they lost 5-8 to that same team a week ago in Pittsburg."

Both of the Tigers' primary singles entries were 1-2 and finished third. Heather Hobbs (6-12) played No. 1 singles. She lost to Kelsey Porter of Independence, 8-0, and Katie Anderson of Labette County, 8-1. Hannah Messer played in the bracket as the fill-in for Columbus. She lost to Anderson, 8-0, and Porter, 8-1. In the final match, Hobbs defeated Messer, 7-6 (7-3).

In No. 2 singles, Bailee Hall (1-2) was the primary player. This was her first varsity singles action and lost to Levi Dent of Independence and Amberly Richins of Labette County by 8-0 scores. Sammi Carr was the fill-in for Columbus and lost to both Dent and Richins, 8-0. In the final round, Hall defeated Carr, 6-0.

Because it was getting dark and the last matches were between two Fort Scott players, they agreed to play first-to-six instead of first-to-eight to speed things up a bit.

Independence won the tournament and will be the favorite to win another Southeast Kansas League title at the league tournament which begins at 8 a.m. this morning at Pittsburg State University.