Lamb, Sercer place second at Indy

INDEPENDENCE -- Fort Scott High School's tennis season opened here Tuesday with a tournament at Independence with the No. 2 doubles team of Chris Lamb and Charlie Sercer finishing second for the Tigers with a mark of 3-1.

"The conditions were less than ideal with the wind and the cold as we played later into the evening, and there are things that we need to improve on," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "But overall it was a good showing for our first match of the season."

Lamb and Sercer played No. 2 doubles and took victories of 8-4 over Chanute's Cody Diamond/David Collins, 8-1 over Iola's Mac Melvin/David Manbeck and 8-4 over Pittsburg's Josh Reed/Clay Southern. They lost to Independence's Wes Goodrich/Anthony Davis by an 8-0 score.

Josh Grant and Dustin Willard were 1-3 for a fourth-place finish in No. 1 doubles. Their win was over Michael Middleton/Chase Vaughn of Iola, 8-3. They lost to Chanute's Mason Johnson/Ian Cheshier, 8-4, Indy's Shane Ferguson/Omar Elshabassy, 8-1, and Pittsburg's Josh Annurden/John Hamilton, 8-3.

"The two-doubles team had a solid tournament," Barr said. "They played well together, executed pretty well and kept their errors to a minimum.

"We struggled some at one doubles at times, making errors and not executing as well as we should have. But they gave a good effort and will just need to keep improving in the coming weeks. "

In No. 2 singles, Kai Simmons-Mims was 1-3 for fourth place. He defeated Joel Simwings of Independence, who was filling in as Iola had an open spot, 8-6. He lost to Jimmy Quinn of Chanute, 8-2, Mason Posch of Independence, 8-1, and Mike Giffin of Pittsburg, 8-3.

Ben Bristley was 0-4 in No. 1 singles. He lost to Chanute's Matt Stutt, 8-5, Iola's Kent Toland, 8-0, Independence's Dan Porter, 8-0, and Pittsburg's Miles Crowley, 8-3.

Toland was a Regional champion last season while Porter finished third at Class 4A State.

"I was happy with the play of our singles players," Barr said. "Kai settled down after his first match and played some solid tennis the rest of the tournament. He is very quick and needs to make himself hard to beat.

"Ben has improved tremendously since last season and ... was competitive in the matches he should have been competitive in and played well at times in matches against two very strong opponents."

The Tigers host Nevada in a dual Monday afternoon.

NOTES -- The 2009 schedule is printed below as it was not able to be included in the team preview in the Weekend Herald-Tribune....

2009 FORT SCOTT HIGH SCHOOL

BOYS' TENNIS

Varsity