2-time State qualifier leads Tiger tennis

Although there are 14 girls out for tennis at Fort Scott High School this season, leadership will have to come from young players as none of them are seniors.

Junior Jennifer Harrison is a two-time State qualifier in singles with a high-school varsity record of 37-20, going 20-13 last season. Also, classmates Char Hutchison and Emmah Reeves were 13-15 together as a doubles team last season. But the remainder of the Tiger roster has about 20 sets of varsity experience combined.

"Jennifer, of course, comes back with a lot of experience and we will be looking for big things from her this season," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr says. "Char and Emmah played No. 2 doubles last year and will likely be our No. 1 doubles team this year. They have to adjust to the higher level of competition, but I believe they are up to the challenge."

Harrison will play No. 1 singles while Hutchison and Reeves will be the No. 1 doubles team when the Tiger varsity makes its season debut Thursday at Parsons. Barr plans to put sophomore Alex King in at No. 2 singles and have sophomores Mikayla Norris and Breanna Leslie play No. 2 doubles.

King was 3-1 in limited varsity singles play last season and also 1-2 in doubles. Norris was 2-5 in varsity doubles. Leslie will be making her first varsity appearance.

"The girls showed a lot of improvement last week during our week of two a days," Barr said. "We are going to have some young girls stepping into varsity spots for the first time and it will probably take them a while to adjust to competition at that level."

Also out for tennis this season are sophomores Briana Williams, Emily Adams, Addison Cunningham and Ashlee Montojo, all of whom played primarily junior varsity last season, and freshmen Kendall Mason, Madi Larson, Aubry Terry and Savanah Dixon. Some of these girls played in Monday's home junior varsity tournament (results in the summary immediately below).

Independence, which is the Southeast Kansas League's dominant program, is expected to come out on top again this year. However, Barr feels that several other league teams return good players and that means there will be plenty of competitive matches in each tournament.

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2014 FORT SCOTT HIGH

SCHOOL GIRLS' TENNIS

Events begin at 3 p.m. unless noted.

VARSITY

Thursday.....................at Parsons

Sept. 4...

...Labette County Invitational

at Parsons

Sept. 11.............at Independence

Sept. 16.............at Independence

Sept. 18.....................at Chanute

Sept. 23............FORT SCOTT INV.

with Columbus, Independence and Labette County

Sept. 25....................at Pittsburg

Sept. 30....NEVADA (dual), 4 p.m.

Oct. 4...Southeast Kansas League

Tournament at Chanute, 9 a.m.

JUNIOR VARSITY

Sept. 2..PITTSBURG (dual), 4 p.m.

Sept. 9...

...Labette County Invitational

at Parsons

Sept.15.FORT SCOTT INV., 1 p.m.

with Chanute, Coffeyville

and Pittsburg

Sept. 22......................at Parsons

Sept. 29.....................at Chanute

Sept. 30....NEVADA (dual), 4 p.m.