Tiger pair finishes 2-2 at State

WICHITA -- Fort Scott High's Davis Drake and Gage Addington finished their season with a 2-2 record in the doubles bracket at the Kansas Class 4A State Tennis Tournament here Friday.

Fort Scott's pair finished this season with a record of 17-9.

"Coming in as a sixth-place qualifier makes the State Tournament a challenge and Davis and Gage should be very proud of the way they competed," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "They were able to go 2-2 in a very tough State Tournament. It would have been nice to advance to the second day, they came within one win of doing that, but they played well and did a great job representing Fort Scott at this tournament."

Drake, a senior, and Addington, a junior, won their first-round match over Ben Zoller and Ramsey Mason of DeSoto, 6-4, 6-2. Ramsey and Mason lost in the first round of consolation as well and finished the season 22-11.

"Davis and Gage came out playing very good doubles, served well, returned well and took control of the net and the match early," Barr said.

Next up was a match against Dean Dahlseten and Peter Jensen of Hesston, second-place finishers at the Lindsborg-Smoky Valley Regional who drew a first-rond bye. The Swathers took a 6-2, 6-1 win.

"This was a very strong opponent and although Davis and Gage played some excellent tennis and won quite a few points, the opponent was very tough and we just couldn't string together enough points to win enough games," Barr said.

Dahlsten and Jensen went on to finish sixth and ended the year with an 18-6 record.

In consolation, Drake and Addington faced Quinton Schenk and Jack Klinege of Bonner Springs. They hadn't played much together this season, with only nine matches under their belt coming into State. Drake and Addington won 9-3 after trailing 2-0.

"Davis and Gage started out a little slow after a long break, Barr noted. "Once we got going we again were able to control

the net and the match."

Schenk and Klingele lost both thieir matches at State and finished 6-5.

In the fourth round, Drake and Addington faced Tyler Beardmore and Kevin Debald of Parsons. The Viking duo took a 9-3 win.

These teams faced each other three times previously with the Tigers taking a win at the Southeast Kansas League Tournament.

"The last two had been really close matches, but Parsons was playing very well in this tournament and they put a lot of pressure on us from the start," Barr said. "It wasn't that we played poorly;, Parsons just played a very good match. Parsons earlier had lost a tough match, losing in a third set tiebreaker to Winfield who went on to finish fourth in the tournament."

Beardmore and Debald (21-12) went on to finish 10th.

Independence seniors Gavin Webster and Tyler Posch successfully defended their doubles title, taking a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 (7-5) win over McPherson seniors Ben Davidson and Max Pyle in the finals. The McPherson pair were undefeated going into the finals, having defeated teammates Peter Horton and Ryan Horton in the semifinals.

Webster and Posch finished the season 36-2, with their only losses coming to Davidson and Pyle (38-1) earlier in the year. The Hortons finished third with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Winfield's Tucker Hoover and Sam Camp.

Freshman Tommy Hunter of Topeka Hayden (32-2) took the singles crown, beating Matthew Barlow of Abilene in the finals, 6-2, 6-2. His teammate, Blake Hunter, who finished third in 2011 and second in 2012, claimed third with an injury default over Travis Osland of Wichita Collegiate.

Collegiate won the team title with 42 points, while Hayden was second with 35 and McPherson finished third with 32. This is the sixth State title in eight years for the Spartans, who won 3-2-1A in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and 4A last season.