The winningest season in program history for the Park Hill boys’ tennis team came to an end in the Class 3 Sectionals with a 5-1 loss to Rockhurst on May 16.
The Trojans qualified one singles player, Ethan Slagge, and one doubles team, Tommy Matthys and Kobe Smith, to the state tournament but the spring is over for the team. Park Hill’s season comes to an end with a 19-3 record, which included a conference and district title as the Trojans took down St. Joseph’s Central in the district semifinals, 5-2, and Liberty in the district championship, 5-0.
“This was a fantastic win for us as we had won a nail-biter vs Liberty 5-4 during the regular season,” Park Hill head tennis coach Rustin Reyes said. “The win put us at 19-2, which is the most wins for a boys’ team at Park Hill.”
Park Hill’s second doubles team of Ethan Slaggie and Carson Beach beat Liberty’s doubles team 8-4 in the Trojans home 5-0 district championship victory on May 16.
The Trojans relied on their doubles teams to take down the Blue Jays in the district title match as they swept the opponent in that area. All three Park Hill doubles teams defeated Liberty by a score of 8-4.
Since Park Hill went up 3-0 in doubles play, four of the singles matches didn’t finish since wins by Smith and Josh Minter gave the Trojans enough points to decide the dual. Smith and Minter took down their Blue Jay single opponents with the identical scores of 6-0 in the first set and 6-3 in the second set.
Park Hill entered the season without a conference title in more than a decade, but it took the Gold Division by storm to claim the first title since 2010. The Trojans also won their first district championship since the 2017 season and will look to bring that dominance back to the tennis courts next spring.