Ark Valley News - Hornet tennis ties for first, goes first, second at quads

Hornet tennis ties for first, goes first, second at quads
By Randy Fisher
Last Updated: April 20, 2017

It was another good week for the Valley Center High School tennis team.

The Hornets tied for first April 18 at Buhler and participated in back-to-back quads, winning April 13 at Circle and finishing second April 12 at Campus.

Valley Center and Sterling each finished with 16 points at Buhler. They were followed by Andover Central, Buhler, Kingman and Liberal.

"Overall, very pleased with our effort today," said coach Dean Schulz.

Garrett Rogers finished first at No. 1 singles. He beat Davis Roe (Kingman) 8-5, Dave Bhakta (Liberal) 8-2 and Kyler Comley (Sterling) 8-6.

Scott McCune was second at No. 2 singles. He defeated Luke Ingalls (Buhler) 8-6 and Josh Swier (Liberal) 8-0 before losing 8-2 to William Weiner (Sterling).

"Garrett played well after being sick since the Andover Tournament," Schulz said, "Scott came from 2-5 to win his first match but could not match the player from Sterling in the final."

Valley's No. 1 doubles team of Hayden Brauer and Colby Swift also finished second. They beat Wiehl/Engelken (Buhler) 8-5 and Moore/Marcelino (Liberal) 8-0 before losing 8-5 to Reilly/Thompson (Andover Central).

At No. 2 doubles, Josh Davis and Brandon McClure were fourth. They lost 8-7 (7-4) to Winters/Koch (Andover Central), defeated Siemens/Smith (Kingman) 8-0 and lost 8-2 to Cooke/C.Engelken (Buhler).

"Hayden and Colby played well, but they lost five games that they had leads in the final against Andover Central," Schulz said. "Josh and Brandon are getting better at doubles. (They) need to improve on their net play."

At Circle, the Hornets had 17 team points and tied for first with Haven. Hillsboro had two points, while the Thunderbirds were blanked. Two schools did not field a complete team, which created some schedule shuffling.

"Circle was short a No. 1 doubles, and Hillsboro only had No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles," Schulz said. "Overall, we played well."

Both of Valley's doubles teams finished first, while its two singles players were second.

At No. 1 doubles, Brauer and Swift beat Rohling/Rohling (Hillsboro) 8-1 and Isaac/Klein (Haven) 8-0.

At No. 2 doubles, Ethan Bauguess and Michael Harlicker defeated Wells/Caffrey (Haven) 8-4 and Fugate/Metzger (Circle) 8-1.

At No. 1 singles, McCune beat Carson Mosier (Circle) 8-5 but lost 8-3 to Luke Wells (Haven).

At No. 2 singles, Logan Snyder beat Dylan Wiens (Hillsboro) 8-1, lost 8-4 to Caden Nachtigal (Haven) and beat Logan Phillips (Circle) 8-2.

The day before playing at Circle, the Hornets finished second behind host Campus in another quad. The Colts had 12 team points, followed by Valley Center with 8, Augusta 7 and Chaparral 1.

"We mixed the varsity up today to get some of the younger players some experience," Schulz said. "The results were not the best, but we did get some valuable lessons on playing at the varsity level without getting totally destroyed."

Alex Schul took first at No. 1 singles. He defeated Carson Stevenson (Augusta) 8-2, Sean Reeves (Chaparral) 8-5 and K.J. Kohlhorst (Campus) 8-6.

At No. 2 singles, Brayden Ruble lost 8-3 to Dylan Stevenson (Augusta) and 8-2 to Caedon Odette (Campus) for third.

At No. 1 doubles, Davis and McClure beat Resendiz/Kjaer (Chaparral) 8-0 and Altenhofen/Bodyk (Augusta) 8-6, then lost to Chan/Talbert (Campus) 8-7 (7-3) for second.

At No. 2 doubles, Josiah Farney and Elijah Thornton defeated Spicer/Ummel (Chaparral) 8-3 but lost 8-4 to Kroeker/Lowery (Augusta) and 8-3 to Apsley/Page (Campus) for third.

JV wins own tourney — It also was a busy week for the junior varsity. The Hornets sent teams April 17 to both Hutchinson and Hesston, and played in tournaments April 13 at Andover Central and April 11 at home. Valley Center was also on the road April 18 at Goddard, but results were not available at press time.

At Hutchinson, both doubles teams finished second, and both singles players were fourth. Team points were not available.

At No. 1 doubles, Cale Cheney and Gabe Karst beat Clough/Schimdt (Campus) 6-2 and Pankratz/Henderson (Hutch) 6-3, lost to Bentley/McCabe (Buhler) 6-3 and beat Kohler/Klish (Derby) 6-3.

At No. 2 doubles, Josh Dessenberger and Sam Benz lost 6-2 to Hill/Hopkins (Derby) and then defeated Alexander/L'Ecuyer (Campus) 6-3, Lehr/Shah (Hutch) 6-2 and Pfister/Caywood (Buhler) 6-4.

At No. 1 singles. Kyle Stamm lost 6-4 to Nick Barrow (Buhler) and 6-3 to Grant Sacket (Derby), downed Parker Reese (Campus) 6-3 but lost 6-0 to Joe Blake (Hutch).

At No. 2 singles, Jarrett Bartlett lost 6-3 to both Corbin Schwartz (Hutch) and Nick Weippert (Buhler), then defeated both Kaydn Mockl (Derby) and Zach Tucker (Campus) by scores of 6-2.

The rest of Valley's JV squad finished second at Hesston, five points behind Wichita Trinity. Trinity had 30 team points, while Valley Center had 25. Then came Conway Springs, Hesston, Newton, McPherson, Derby and Smoky Valle.

Valley's doubles teams were first and second.

At No. 1, Farney and Thornton defeated Griffitt/Archuleta (Derby) 6-1, Cary/Vigilius (Trinity) 6-3 and Miller/Dobson (McPherson) 6-0 for first place.

The Hornets' No. 2 team of Ethan Phillips and Donnie Rowson beat Hopkins/Liu (Derby) 6-3, and Gibbs/Ebenkamp (Conway Springs) 6-3 before falling in the finals 6-0 to Boles/McDonald (Trinity) for second.

At No. 1 singles, Snyder beat Michael Martinez (Derby) 6-1, lost to Aaron Fuqua (Hesston) 6-3 and beat Noah Pennington (Trinity) 6-3 to finish third.

At No. 2 singles, Ruble lost a pair of tough matches en route to a seventh-place finish. He fell to Kory Rash (Trinity) 6-5 (8-6) and to Reuben Peachey-Stoner (Hesston) 6-5 (8-6) before shutting out Adin Repingle (Smoky Valley) 6-0.

"Overall, we played well," Schulz said. "Brayden lost his first match in tiebreak to the eventual champion, then came from 2-5 down to lose the next match in tiebreak. He is making progress."

The JV finished third April 13 at Andover Central. The host Trojans won the event with 25 points, followed by Andover with 16, Valley Center 12, Wichita Collegiate 8, Circle 4 and Wichita Independent 2.

Each of Valley's competitors, singles and doubles, finished fourth.

At No. 1 singles, Cheney defeated Connor Reed (Collegiate) 7-2, lost 7-5 to Jacob Hammil (Andover) and 7-5 to Zach Beatie (Andover Central).

At No. 2 singles, Trevor Reed defeated Noah Pelner (Circle) 7-0, lost 7-3 to Alex Engels (Andover Central) and 7-0 to Miles Cooper (Andover).

At No. 1 doubles, Jerrett Barton and Stamm defeated Joyce/Pringle (Circle) 7-0, lost 7-1 to Leedom/Belt (Andover Central) and lost 7-6 to Graham/Qaki (Collegiate).

At No. 2 doubles, Jeremiah Gamble and Jarod Robertson lost 7-4 to Schaffer/Ritchie (Andover), defeated Lara/Prodinger (Andover Central) 7-0 and lost 7-2 to Armbrister/Lasater (Andover).

Valley's junior varsity hosted a tournament April 11 and squeezed out a victory. The Hornets accumulated 17 team points to edge out Bishop Carroll with 16. Eisenhower and Wellington each had 15 points, while Maize picked up 13. Wichita Heights failed to score.

Stamm, playing No. 1 singles, was second. He defeated Rowen Mayo (Eisenhower) 8-1 and Tamer Elhaj (Heights) 8-1 before losing 6-0 to Maize's Connor Gooding for second.

Both of Valley's doubles teams placed second as well.

At No. 1, Charles Taylor and Karst beat Wise/Wetta (Eisenhower) 8-6 and Bond/Warren (Heights) 8-0 but lost a close match to Rademacher/Long (Wellington) 8-6 in the finals.

Phillips and Rowson played No. 2 doubles. They beat Weingartner/Hersh (Eisenhower) 8-1 and Hobson/Morris (Heights) 8-0 before losing 8-2 to Carroll's Hguyen/Taylor for second.

Valley's No. 2 singles player, Dessenberger, lost 8-6 to Eisenhower's Jake Weingartner, beat Mohammed Ullah of Heights 8-2 and lost to Carroll's Brock Lashley 6-3 to place fourth.