Tiger doubles 1-2 at State; Indy, Parsons finish in top 4

TOPEKA -- Fort Scott High School's Kyle Altic and Bryce Daly finished 1-2 at the Class 4A State Tennis Tournament here Friday while the Southeast Kansas League made a good showing as a whole with two teams finishing in the top five and a doubles team winning State.

"I was proud of the way Kyle and Bryce played," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said of his senior pair, who finished the season 11-6 together. "I know this was not the way they wanted their season to end, but with everything considered, they should be proud of their season. I know they had big hopes for this season, but with Kyle's injury during basketball, he missed a big part of the season, and Bryce has been having shoulder problems for much of the later part of the season and just couldn't do much with his serve other than put it in play most of the time.

"These two are great kids, with no quit in either one of them. I'm disappointed for them, because without the injuries I'm sure their season would have turned out much different, but unfortunately that is a part of the game and we should all be proud of the way they hung in and battled this spring."

Altic and Daly defeated Paola's Seth Roberts and Jobie Debrick in the first round, 6-4, 6-3. The Paola duo had the same record as Altic and Daly going into the match, which was a rematch from a tournament at Chanute earlier in the season.

"These were two pretty evenly matched teams," barr said, "but Kyle and Bryce played some solid tennis when they needed to and were able to come away with the win. We were able to get control of the net for most of this match and able to keep Paola on the defensive most of the time."

Evan Keller and Brian Peck of Wellington defeated Altic and Daly in the second round, 6-0, 6-0. They were the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament and went on to finish second. Peck had been to State last year with a different partner and finished 11th.

"This was a very tough opponent," Barr said. "Kyle held serve in the opening game, but then the Wellington team just was too good the rest of the way."

The Tiger pair needed to win again in order to advance to play on Saturday and have a chance to win a medal. But Coffeyville's Quinton Hershey and Josh Mitchell thwarted those plans with a 9-3 decision.

"This was a tough way to end the season Friday evening, but Coffeyville came out and played a very good match against us," Barr said. "They really took control of the net and kept us on the defensive for most of the match. We were able a few times to get in and attack, but they lobbed very well and were able to drive us back and keep us from being able to mount a consistent attack."

Wichita Collegiate won its first Class 4A State title finishing with 38 points. McPherson was second with 25 points while Parsons came in third with 20 and Independence was fourth with 19 1/2. Collegiate and McPherson are each in their first year in Class 4A -- Collegiate moved up from 3A while McPherson dropped down from 5A. Collegiate won 19 State titles when it was in Class 3-2-1A, including 12 straight between 1991 and 2002 and three in a row from 2008 to 2010.

Juniors Gavin Webster and Tyler Posch of Independence won the State doubles crown by defeating Keller and Peck, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, in the finals. To get there, Webster and Posch beat Collegiate seniors Clay Holden and Hunter Morris in the semifinal, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5. Keller/Peck beat Parsons seniors Parker Robertson and John Paul Hurley in the other semifinal, 6-2, 6-1. Holden/Morris took over Robertson/Hurley in straight sets, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.

Hershey and Mitchell went on to win the ninth-place match over Abilene's Kaynan Anderson and Connor Kijowski, 9-5.

Lindsborg-Smoky Valley senior Quinn Dippel won his third straight State singles crown with a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Topeka Hayden senior Paul Flynn in the finals. Dippel finished 33-0 and has lost just one of 104 matches in the last three years.

Parsons junior Payton Hays finished seventh with a 9-3 win over Hesston's Collin Martin.