JV tennis finishes third at home tourney

Pittsburg won the team title at the Fort Scott High School Junior Varsity Tennis Tournament Monday while a Tiger singles player finished in second place in the No. 1 bracket.

Pittsburg finished with 15 points while Chanute was second with 11 and Fort Scott came in third with 7 points, followed by the "SEK Combo" team with 4 and Iola coming in last with 3. The SEK Combo team was made up of extra players from Fort Scott, Pittsburg and Chanute to give a few more girls an opportunity to play. No. 1 singles had an open spot because one of the extra doubles players from Pittsburg was unable to attend the tournament. The Pittsburg doubles player who did show up was paired with a Chanute girls who was to have been an extra doubles player so that the Pittsburg girl could still play.

Alex King finished in second place in No. 1 singles for the Tigers. Every player in the bracket received a forfeit for the spot that the SEK Combo team had to leave open. King beat Iola's Khrystal Smith, 6-2, and Chanute's Angela Alger, 6-4. She lost to Pittsburg's Abi Felter, 6-4.

Ashlee Montojo played No. 2 singles for Fort Scott and finished fourth. She lost to Caressa Lowell of Iola, 6-1, Caroline Kimberlin of Chanute, 6-3, and Trina Paul of Pittsburg, 6-0. She beat Jocy Diaz, a Fort Scott player who was on the SEK Combo team, by a 6-1 score.

Diaz finished fifth. She lost to Paul, 6-1, Kimberlin, 6-0, and Lowell, 6-2.

Mikayla Norris and Kristian Engle finished third in No. 1 doubles. They beat Kelsey Hale/Tori Smith of Iola, 6-0. They lost to Jaymi Lawrence/Rachel Ungles of Chanute, 6-1, Sam Cicero/Aliza Benedict of Pittsburg, 6-2, and Tori Greer and Arianna Daniels of the SEK Combo team, 6-2.

Addison Cunningham and Emily Adams finished fourth in No. 2 doubles. They defeated Tori Danford/Judy Branstetter of Iola, 6-1. Then they lost to Jordan Graham/Maddy Stadler of Chanute, 6-2, and Emily Curlee/Chania Stewart of Pittsburg, 6-1. They finished with a win over Fort Scott teammates Breanna Leslie and Briana Williams, who were playing as the SEK Combo team, 6-5 (4).

Leslie and Williams finished in third place. They lost to Curlee/Stewart, 6-3, and beat Graham/Stadler, 6-5 (3), and Danford/Branstetter, 6-4.

"Overall we were pleased with the effort," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "The girls are continuing to improve. Consistency is of course still a problem, but that is expected at the JV level. Alex King had a very strong tournament and is continuing to show a lot of improvement."