Tiger tennis 2nd in final regular-season tourney

PITTSBURG -- Fort Scott High School's tennis team took second place behind host Pittsburg in the final tournament of the regular season here Thursday. The Tigers had one division champion, two seconds and a third in finishing with 12 points.

"We played pretty well today in our final regular-season match," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "We have a week now to practice, keep improving and finalize our line up before the SEK Tournament next Saturday. Hopefully we can build on the momentum gained in these final two tournaments leading into league."

Jennifer Harrison and Char Hutchison, who had been paired up as a doubles team lately, each played singles here. Harrison won the No. 1 bracket to improve to 9-2 in singles this season. She defeated Bobbi Sinclair of Iola, 8-3, Abbey Peterson of Columbus in straight sets, Chania Stewart of Pittsburg, 8-2, and Marlee Perez of Labette County, 8-1.

"Jennifer played very well, played smart and was aggressive when the opportunity presented itself to attack her opponent," Barr said. "She stroked the ball confidently and played very well.

Hutchison (9-1) finished second in No. 2 singles. She beat Chyanna Vaughn of Iola, 8-1, Maddie Baden of Pittsburg, 8-5, and Paige Burleigh of Labette County, 8-2. Baden was filling in for a vacant Columbus position. Hutchison lost to Pittsburg's Ashlee Beitzinger, 8-2.

"Char's loss came to a very good opponent, who moved well, defended well and put a lot of pressure on Char to try to win points against her," Barr said. "In the matches against both Pittsburg players, Char struggled with consistency on her forehand, but with only the top group of players in practice this week, she will be able to get some additional reps to help iron things out."

Emmah Reeves and Alex King were paired up for the first time this season and played No. 1 doubles, going 2-2 for third place. They beat their first two opponents, Jennifer Tidd/Tori Smith of Iola, 8-6, and Laythan Kitch/Madi White of Columbus, 8-4. They lost to Abi Felter/Sam Bollinger of Pittsburg in straight sets and Haley Page/Laney Baughman of Labette County, 8-2.

"Emmah and Alex played some good tennis today," Barr said. "We made some changes to our normal doubles strategy to try to capitalize on each player's strengths and they were able to do a nice job and were definitely competitive in all of their matches accept against a very strong Pittsburg team. We will get these girls some more court time together this coming week as well as we try to sort out our line up for the league tournament."

Emily Adams and Mikayla Norris (6-1) were paired together for the second time this week and finished second with a 3-1 mark. They beat Erin Kublek/Macayla Bancroft of Iola, 8-2, Caliah Murillo/Journey Tedlock of Columbus in straight sets, and Megan Thomas/BreAnna Albertson of Labette County, 8-3. Madison Vogel and Alexa Yantis of Pittsburg posted a straight-set win.

"They still need to play at a more consistent level at times," Barr said. "But they are playing well together and with another week of prac-tice should continue to improve.

We will need a good tournament and a good finish from them to score us points in next week's league tournament."

The SEK Tournament will be seeded on Wednesday in Parsons. The tournament itself will be held in Pittsburg a week from today.

NOTE -- With the KSHSAA releasing 2015-16 classifications today, sites of tennis Regionals were also announced. The Tigers have been assigned to the Class 4A Regional at Independence on Oct. 9-10....