Park Hill South’s Ainsley Arnold lost her singles match against Park Hill’s Eladie Marshall in the 5-4 district loss to Park Hill on Oct. 2.
PLATTE COUNTY – The regular season is officially over for girls’ tennis as Platte County (15-7), Park Hill (7-7) and Park Hill South (2-12) began postseason play.
Park Hill and Park Hill South matched up in the first round of the Class 3 District 8 Tournament on Oct. 2. The Lady Trojans pulled off a 5-4 win – four days after closing the regular season out with a 6-3 victory over the Lady Panthers – to move on to the semifinals.
Park Hill South won two of the three doubles matches, but Avery Whalen and Jessica Yu pulled out an 8-3 victory over Hannah Draught and Norah Pruitt for Park Hill’s first point of the match. The Lady Trojans won four of the six singles matches – by Audrey Bolyard, Eladie Marshall, Skylar Scamman and Yu – to complete the comeback.
The tightest singles competition was between Scamman and Presley Davis with the Park Hill senior coming away with the 6-3, 1-6, 11-9 win. Whalen was also in a competitive one, losing 4-6, 6-1, 10-12 to Sydney Musgrave as Hana Bytyqi earned the other Park Hill South singles victory over Elli Gaddis.
In singles and doubles districts, Bytyqi and Ainsley Arnold pushed through as the second ranked doubles team. Park Hill advances to the Class 3 District 8 Semifinals as a team and will take on Staley (19-5) on Oct. 3.
Platte County started the postseason off with the singles and doubles Class 2 District 8 Tournament at Kearney High School on Sept. 29. The Lady Pirates had three of the four entries make it to the semifinals, with a state berth on the line.
Maggie McBratney was the only singles player to qualify to the semifinals after winning her quarterfinals match 6-3, 6-2. McBratney fell short against Bishop LeBlond’s Emily Weddle.
Addison Mayne and Olivia Holbrook entered the tournament as the top-seeded doubles team and played to their potential. The duo lost the first set in a tiebreaker as they beat Bishop LeBlond’s doubles team 6-7, 6-2, 10-6 to advance to state.
Platte County’s other doubles team was unseeded seniors and first year starters Lucy McClain and Delaney Bachmann who took down the No. 3 seeded team in the quarterfinals 4-6, 2-5. The Cinderella Story continued with a 7-5 and 10-8 win after losing 6-4 to the No. 2 seed in the semifinals.
Platte County will compete as a team against No. 4 seeded Kearney on Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. at home to start team districts. The Lady Pirates clinched the top seed in the Class 2 District 8 Tournament.