Cruse sweeps in home tourney

Raifen Cruse finished unbeaten in No. 2 singles Tuesday as Fort Scott High School hosted a four-team round-robin varsity tournament.

Nevada was the team champion with 9 points followed by Coffeyville with 6. Fort Scott and Pittsburg tied for third place with 5 points each but the Tigers won a tie-breaker with more total games won, 29-19.

"Overall I was pleased with the effort today," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "We don't have much experience in the doubles positions, but they just need to keep learning, working and improving. The singles players have the most experience and we will need them to play well for us as the season progresses. Raifen had an excellent tournament for us, playing consistently in his matches."

Cruse (5-2) defeated Coffeyville's Ben Conn, 8-1, Nevada's Thadius Mason, 8-3, and Pittsburg's Ban Kangas, 8-3. He scored 3 team points on his own.

Alex Combs (2-5) finished third in No. 1 singles. Chris Frazier of Coffeyville took an 8-5 decision. Skyler Lanning of Nevada won in straight sets but Coombs swept Pittsburg's Caleb Dial in his final match.

The No. 2 doubles team of Elijah Wright and Joe Adams (1-6) picked up their first win of the season in their first match of the day, 8-1 over Coffeyville's Josh Wilson/James Boyle. Nevada's Nathan McCall/Brodrick Mason took an 8-4 decision and Pittsburg's Ivan Walter/Jamean Delp won the final match in a tie-breaker, 8-7 (7-5).

Quintin Parsons and Alex Gorman played their first varsity matches of the season, going 0-3 in No. 1 doubles. Mitchell Reitz/Zach Holman of Coffeyville and Jordan Sheehy/Sheel Patel of Nevada each took 8-6 decisions. Will Jewett/Jared Wilde scored an 8-1 victory.

Tuesday, the Tigers will play at Spring Hill.