With a chance to win the first district title in program history, the Platte County boys’ tennis team put up a fight but fell just short against Grain Valley on May 11.
For the second straight year, Platte County lost by a score of 5-4 in the district championship, this time with the Pirates being temporarily shorthanded on the day. Austin Vanek – who previously qualified for state with his brother Nathan Vanek in doubles – was unavailable to compete in doubles play, so Platte County had to adjust.
“We played without Austin Vanek due to an AP Biology exam that ended at 4:00, so the team used a doubles lineup that they’d only used one time this season,” Platte County head tennis coach Zach Keith said. “The adjustment resulted in Nathan Vanek playing doubles with Nathan Macaluso, and the two got the team off to a great start winning 8-3 over Grain Valley’s doubles team that had only lost one time this entire season.”
Shane Duggan and Jack Bralley moved from the number three doubles team to the number two doubles team and fell 8-5 against Ethan Miller and Ben Drinkwater. Gavin Nichols and Jack Forrest matched up with the Eagles’ defending state double medalists’ team of Carter and Kade Compton.
The Pirates’ duo defeated the opposition in the matchup earlier this season, but Grain Valley made more plays in the postseason matchup to come out on top by a score of 8-5. Platte County entered singles play knowing it had to get four of the six matches to win the postseason dual.
The Eagles started the singles off with a bang, when Platte County freshman Jack Bralley was taken down by third place district medalist Micah Seims, before Duggan pulled out a Pirate victory. Nathan Vanek fell short in his singles match, while his brother was back in time for his singles match.
“Austin Vanek played really well against Ethan Miller, who was really struggling in the heat. Vanek won 6-1, fell 6-2 and then won 10-2 in his final singles match in a Pirates’ tennis uniform and the attention shifted to courts one and two, where Nichols and Forrest battled the Compton twins in singles,” Keith said.
The first time these two matchups occurred in the regular season, both were decided in third set tiebreakers, but that changed in the postseason as Nichols pulled out the victory by winning the first set 6-4 and the second set 7-5. That tied the dual 4-4, making the district title come down to Compton and Forrest.
Compton narrowly won the opening set by a score of 7-6, but bounced back to take the next set, 6-2. The singles match – and the district championship – was decided in the third set 10-point tie-breaker when Compton ended up being the victor, 10-6, giving Grain Valley a 5-4 win.
“Words don’t really do justice to how incredible this match was from start to finish. I’ve coached in plenty of matches that come down to a final court to determine the 5-4 or 4-5 outcome, but never a match that was so incredibly contested at every spot throughout the lineup,” Keith said.
While the Pirates came up short of a district title and ended their season with a 9-7 record, they have three state qualifiers. Along with the Vanek brothers, Nichols – who finished in seventh place at state last season – remains to be the only Platte County singles state qualifier in program history.