Tennis season gets underway

INDEPENDENCE -- Tennis season for Fort Scott High School began here Tuesday with a tough first tournament. The Tigers finished fifth out of the five teams here although the No. 2 doubles team of Elijah Wright and Joe Adams recorded a second-place finish.

"It was a typical first match, we struggled with consistency and unforced errors at times and then also had stretches where we played some good tennis," FSHS head coach Lynn Barr said. "There is still a lot of tennis to be played and the key is to keep working on doing things better and with more consistency."

Wright and Adams won their first three matches. They defeated Rhett Allen/Brett Plumlee of Iola, 8-3, to start the day. Then they downed Chase Tucker/Harlan Milligan of Independence, 8-4. They also beat Braden Robinson/Kolby Ussery of Chanute, 8-5. Their only loss came to Caleb Dial/Jared Wilde of Pittsburg by an 8-3 score.

"They played together quite a bit last season and that experience showed in this first match," Barr said. "They played some good tennis at times and it showed that they were trying to apply some of the things we have worked on in practice."

Alex Combs was 1-3 in No. 1 singles. His lone win came versus Chanute's Tyler Kasten, 8-2. He lost 8-1 to Pittsburg's Logan Benham and in straight sets to Iola's Colby Works and Indy's Zack Schroeder.

Jacom Bailey was 0-4 in No. 2 singles. He suffered straight-set losses to Iola's Isaiah Fawson and Indy's Logan Payne, an 8-6 setback to Chanute's Cameron Deitsch and an 8-1 loss to Pittsburg's Devin McAfee.

"I felt like both singles players, Alex and Jacob, played hard and had some good stretches," Barr said. "Unfortunately, they both did face some very good competition. In singles we have to keep making good choices on shot selection, remain patient and continue to eliminate unforced errors."

Alex Gorman and Micah Self played No. 1 doubles and were also 0-4. They lost to Iola's Tyler Heinrich/Mason Key, 8-3, Indy's Sam Hilger/Will Schabel, 8-2, Chanute's Drake Gilmore/Fisher Lund, 8-1, and Pittsburg's Dante Menghini/Ben Kangas, 8-4.

Fort Scott will host its home varsity tournament Tuesday afternoon.