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Nevada takes dual from Tigers
Fort Scott High's tennis team played for the first time at home this season but dropped a best-of-9 dual to Nevada, 6 matches to 3.
Davis Drake picked up a pair of wins. He won the No. 1 singles match, 8-2, over Nevada's Sam McCoy and teamed up with Raifen Cruse to take the No. 2 doubles match from Skyler Laning and Anthony Do, 8-7 (7-2).
"Davis continued his excellent play," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said of his singles play. "He was in control throughout the match and did a great job of building points and breaking down his opponent.
"Davis and Raifen had a good solid match. Davis continued playing very good tennis. Raifen started out playing a little tentatively, looked a little nervous playing with Davis for the first time, but once he settled in he did OK. Raifen's singles is coming along faster than his doubles play, but that should improve as he gets more practice."
Cruse, a freshman, lost to Laning, 8-5, in No. 4 singles but Barr complimented him on his hustle.
"(Cruse) doesn't have a lot of match experience, but he hustles and gets to a lot of balls and gets them back and makes his opponent hit some extra shots, and that will keep him in a lot of matches," Barr noted.
Alex Combs was a winner in No. 3 singles, beating Skyler Crews, 8-3.
"Alex played a very good match and was in control pretty much throughout," Barr said. "Alex played consistently, didn't make too many errors and did a good job of keeping his opponent off balance."
Nevada's Andrei Ziabchenko defeated Hayden Barr, 8-4, in No. 2 singles. Do beat Jon Carpenter, 8-1, in No. 5 singles. And Nevada's Chris Miller downed Tim Higgins in No. 6 singles, 8-4.
"Hayden played well at times, he had his serve going pretty well and was hitting some good forehands, but the Nevada player was just more consistent," Barr said. "Jon felt like he struggled with consistency and keeping the ball in play. But he played hard and just needs to keep working and improving. Tim is another player without very much playing experience and he had a pretty close match. Tim hustles and is getting better, he just needs to keep working and improving."
McCoy and Ziabchenko defeated Barr and Combs in No. 1 doubles, 8-4. Crews and Miller beat Carpenter and Higgins, 8-0, in No. 3 doubles.
"Hayden and Alex played some good tennis at times in their match, but the other team just came up with a few more points at some key times," Barr said. "This was the first time Hayden and Alex played together, with some more time together they will be able to eliminate some of those coverage errors that hurt them.
"Tim and Jon seemed to struggle a little more in their doubles match. Again, Tim hasn't played a great deal of doubles, so hopefully with experience they will play better."
The Tigers will be in Parsons this afternoon for the Labette County Invitational. Play begins at 3 p.m.