Tiger tennis suffers from effects of storms

PITTSBURG -- Due to damage at the courts at the Woodland Hills Golf Course, Fort Scott High School's home junior varsity tennis tournament had to be moved to Pittsburg State University Monday.

"It is too bad that we had to play this tournament in Pittsburg," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "Due to the wind damage to the fence at Woodland Hills, we had no choice. It would have been nice for these kids to get the chance to play at home."

The Tigers entered two doubles teams. Hayden Barr and Michael Flater played No. 1 doubles and finished in third place. They lost their first match to True Williamson and Malik Nauremberg of Parsons, 8-5. They won the last three matches, beating A.J. Capps/Bryan Lewman of Independence, 8-6, and posting identical 8-5 scored against Chanute's Ryan Allen/Danny Benavides and Pittsburg's Shannon Dial/Zach Stewart.

"Hayden and Michael had a pretty good tournament.," Barr said. "They still need to play at a more consistent level and learn to put away points and matches that they have the opportunity to end. But overall they both played some good tennis yesterday and hung in and won some close matches."

Jesse Guerro and Jon Carpenter were 0-4 at No. 2 doubles. They fell in a close one, 8-6, to Parsons' Chance Hurley/Rand Hurley in their first match. Other scores were an 8-1 loss to Indy's Kyler Brown/Garrett Whitson, an 8-1 loss to Chanute's Ethan Bush/Caleb Jones and an 8-2 loss to Pittsburg's Taylor Cronister/Ryan Newcombe.

"Jesse and Jon lost a close one against Parsons in their first match and although the scores weren't as close they played some pretty good tennis in the remaining matches," Barr said. "Both of these guys have improved a lot since the beginning of the season."

The Fort Scott junior varsity's next meet will be Friday, playing here again in Pittsburg High's meet.

The varsity team's meet at Parsons was suspended due to rain on Friday. The Tigers' home varsity tournament scheduled for Saturday had to be cancelled due to the damage at Woodland Hills. The Parsons tournament will be concluded this afternoon but it does not appear that the home invitational can be made up.

"We would like to reschedule, but it is doubtful that we will be able to at this point in the season," Barr said. :It would have been nice for the varsity players to get a chance to play at home, but I'm afraid it may not happen. With our tennis facilities it is becoming difficult find teams wiling to come here to play."

The Fort Scott varsity is also scheduled to play Friday at the Chanute Invitational.