State Tennis begins Friday

The two-day march to a state title begins for a number of area tennis players tomorrow morning, as the Class 6A and Class 3-2-1A Girls Tennis State Championships begin at Topeka and Kansas City, respectively.

A total of 11 athletes from Southwest Kansas will head to Topeka for the Class 6A Championships, which will be played at the Kossover Tennis Center.

In the Garden City Regional, the host Buffaloes won the team title, despite not taking a singles or doubles crown. Two of GC's singles players, Sage Riggs and Carson Lineberger, finished second and third, respectively, and with two doubles teams making the cut to state, that was enough to give the Buffaloes the region team crown.

Riggs (29-5) and Lineberger (23-7) are among 10 singles players who have won 20 or more matches this season. Riggs is second to Manhattan's Jillian Harkin (32-0), also a freshman, in total wins.

Priscilla Vasquez (11-18) managed to get hot at the right time on the court, pulling off a pair of big upsets and finishing fourth at regionals to make it to the state tournament as the lone representative for Liberal.

Garden City and Dodge City each send a pair of doubles teams to state. The top doubles finishers for the Buffaloes at regionals were Carole Galia and Hannah Kipp, who finished second to Tia Hines and Elizabeth Jackson of Hutchinson. Galia and Kipp are 20-9 on the season heading into the state tournament.

Garden City also had the tandem of Brooke Ptacek and Ashleigh Chappel finish fourth at regionals, beaten out for 3rd by Dodge City's Jordyn Trombly and Becca Unruh. Ptacek and Chappel are 21-8 on the season, while Trombly and Unruh have made the most of their limited pairing on the court, posting a 9-3 mark.

The other team for the Red Demons are juniors Jewel Escobar and Mariana Ortiz-Arriola, who are 26-12 on the season as they head to Topeka.

The Class 3-2-1A Girls Tennis State Championships will be held at the Harmon Park Tennis Complex at Prairie Village, just outside of Kansas City. Players from Scott Community, Meade, Colby and Greeley County will make the cross-state trip chasing state gold.

Scott Community nearly won both the singles and doubles titles at the Meade regional last weekend to send a total of five players to the state tournament. Abbigail LeBeau (22-4) won the regional singles crown for the Beavers. Two doubles teams will join LeBeau at state - Cynthia Gonzalez and Lanae Haupt (19-6), as well as ISabela Gutierrez-Myers and Sadie Hermosillo (28-4). The teams placed second and third, respectively, at the Meade Regional.

Meade sends the regional doubles champions - Monica Gleason and Alison Unruh, who are 17-5 on the season, and beat Gonzalez and Haupt for the doubles title last weekend.

Greeley County will have a singles player and a doubles team at the state tournament. Senior Lauren Crotinger (15-5) placed 5th at regionals, while the tandem of Kyra Nolan and Karlyn Woelk (12-7) finished fourth in the doubles' draw.

Colby will send just one player to the state tournament - Mackenzie Dodson (26-7), who finished 5th at the regional tournament in Phillipsburg. Dodson has the third-most wins among qualifying singles players headed to state.

Brackets will be drawn during the coaches meeting before the tournaments.You can head to this site for more information. We will post results as we can get them on Friday and Saturday.