The Park Hill South girls’ tennis team was shorthanded without its top two players when Park Hill hosted and defeated the Lady Panthers 9-1 on Sept. 29.
Due to injuries, Park Hill South was without senior Vivien Hamilton and junior Hana Bytyqi in the match. Freshman Ainsley Arnold stepped up and was the number one for the Lady Panthers on the day for the first time in her young career and Shun Quinlan shifted up to the number two spot.
Park Hill South freshman Ainsley Arnold stepped up as the number one against Park Hill with Vivien Hamilton missing the match with an injury and Park Hill’s Elizabeth Ericksen beat Arnold 8-0 in the singles match.
Park Hill started the match off strong by taking all three doubles matches, although Campbell Woodbury and Sophia Nguyen put up a fight. With the other doubles match finishing up – with scores of 8-0 and 8-1 – there were four singles matches that started before the doubles match between Park Hill’s Katie Miller and Sydney Roberson finished.
The Lady Trojans pulled out an 8-5 victory to help sweep in the doubles matches. Park Hill also won in the top-2 singles matches as Elizabeth Ericksen beat Arnold 8-0 and Roberson defeated Quinlan 8-3.
Park Hill South’s only point of the match came in the number four singles match between Woodbury and Avery Whalen. The singles match came down to the wire with Woodbury pulling out an 8-6 victory.
Park Hill won the remaining singles matches, with the closest one being between Miller and Nguyen by a score of 8-6. Faith Maise defeated Hannah Draut 8-3 and Skylar Scamman came out on top over Josie Smith, 8-4.
The Lady Panthers and Lady Trojans began postseason play as both squads survived the Class 3 District 8 Quarterfinals on Oct. 3. Park Hill South narrowly defeated St. Joseph’s Central 5-4 and Park Hill beat Liberty North comfortably, 6-0.