Tiger entries each 2-2 at State tourney

TOPEKA -- Both of Fort Scott High School's entrants were 2-2 at the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament here over the weekend. The meet was delayed one day due to rain and cold temperatures and was held Saturday and Sunday.

Seniors Courtney Crain and Kenna Savage, appearing as a team for the second consecutive season, finished the season with a 23-11 record. This was the third appearance in her four years of high school for Crain, who also qualified in doubles as a freshman with then-senior Kalia Dancy in 2010. Their qualification that year broke a nine-year run where no Tiger girl qualified for State at all. However, at least one entrant has qualified every year since.

"I couldn't be prouder of these two girls and how they performed in this tournament," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "They played this tournament the same way they have every match of their high school careers. They battled and gave it everything they could. They played their hearts out in the final match and it hurt to see their high school careers end that way. But they had a great tournament.

"These are great girls who have meant a lot to our program and will be greatly missed next season."

Sophomore Jennifer Harrison, who qualified in singles for the second straight season, finished the year with a 20-13 mark.

"Jennifer should be nothing but proud of her performance in the state tournament," Barr said. "(She) within a few points of advancing to the second day and earning a state medal. She has potential and with another year's experience is learning more and more about what it will take to compete at this level. If she really works this off-season, especially this summer, I'm sure she will be back at this tournament and in a position to finish even better next year."

Both entries were 0-2 last season here. Crain was 1-1 with Dancy her freshman season.

Crain and Savage began the tournament with a 3-6, 6-2 (10-6) win over Carlie Phillips and Katy Fink of Chapman, winning on the State tournament format where matches tied at 1-1 are settled with a "super tie-breaker" instead of a third set.

"Kenna and Courtney came out strong in the second set and dominated that set to force the super tie-breaker," Barr said, "and continued that strong play through the tie-breaker to take the win."

Jessica Steffen and Kendra Nachtigal of Buhler, the No. 2-seeded team who were 26-3 entering State, defeated Crain and Savage, 6-1, 6-1, in the second round, which knocked the Fort Scott pair into consolation.

"(They were) a very tough opponent who did a great job of controlling the net throughout the match," Barr said. "They forced us out of our normal game and didn't make many mistakes."

On Sunday, Crain and Savage came back and started things off with a 9-8 (7-2) win over Carly Wilson and Mallory Olberding of Abilene.

"We took an early lead, but the Abilene team fought back to tie it at 7 all and then won, putting us down 7-8," Barr said. "Kenna and Courtney showed a lot of grit at that point in the match being one game from elimination. They came out strong to take the next game to force the match to a tiebreaker, then continued that strong play through the tiebreaker to win going away in a very strong run of games."

Brittany Duer and Jessie Helman of Chapman, who were 27-8 coming into State, ended the Tigers' run with a 9-8 (7-1) win.

"This match was a heart breaker," Barr said. "We opened playing very well, but the Chapman team continued to play hard and kept themselves in the match and we were just never able to pull away. Chapman rallied back at the end to tie it and then take the 8-7 lead going into the final game. Much like the previous match Kenna and Courtney stepped up with their backs against the wall and played a strong game to force the match to the tiebreaker. This time though, it was Chapman who really stepped up and put a lot of pressure on us and we were just never able to get going in the tiebreaker."

Steffen and Nachtigal went on to finish in third place with a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Michelle Vogeli and Megan Muller of Topeka Hayden in the third-place match.

Emily Ediger and Camry Holle of McPherson (27-7) won the championship match, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0) over Lamie and Kaylee Page of Wamego. Tiger girls' basketball fans will remember the Page sisters from last year's Class 4A State Tournament, the finals of which were won by Wamego over McPherson.

Ediger and Holle are the third doubles champs in the history of the McPherson program. The Bullpups had Class 5A doubles champs in 1993 and 1996.

Harrison began singles play Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 sweep of Lily Gibson of Bishop Miege.

"These were two closely matched players and Jennifer played a good match," Barr noted. "She kept the pressure on her opponent's weaker side and was able to get her in trouble and force some errors and some weak shots that Jennifer was able to put away."

In the next round, third-seeded Megan Wong of Andover Central took a 6-0, 6-1 win over Harrison.

"Wong was a very strong opponent, hit the ball really well and took control of the match from the start," Barr said. "Jennifer had some stretches where she was able to put together several good shots and win some points, but her opponent was just too tough."

On Sunday, Harrison took a 9-4 win over Raquel Lopez of Baldwin in consolation play.

"Jennifer played a solid match in this round and was in control throughout the match except for one little run late in the match when Lopez won a couple of games back to back," Barr said. "Jennifer quickly closed out the match after that run."

Finally, Kinsey Ford of Abilene defeated Harrison, 9-7, to end her run at State.

"This was a tough match and a tough loss," Barr said. "Both girls played extremely hard and battled through a hard fought match. Jennifer had an early lead, but the Abilene player hung tough and really fought her way back into the match. In the end, the Abilene player just came up with some key points when she needed them to pull away and take the final two games and the match."

Wong went on to defeat Amber Zimmerman of Wichita Trinity, 6-1, 6-1, for third place.

Independence's Abbi Groff (32-6), runner-up last season, defeated McPherson's Ellea Ediger, 6-3, 6-4, to become the first Lady Bulldog to win a State singles title.

McPherson won its first Class 4A team title and second overall (Class 5A, 1999) with 51 points while Independence was second with 33 points. Topeka Hayden was third with 26 points followed by Andover Central with 24. Chanute tied for 10th place with Pratt, Parsons finished 13th and Fort Scott tied for 14th with Abilene and Chapman.

Two-time defending 4A champ Wichita Collegiate was moved down to 3-2-1A this year. The Spartans won that championship, which is their fifth straight overall.