CHANUTE — Placing third at the SEK League Girls Tennis Championships on Saturday, the Parsons Vikings got their first taste of postseason action.
“I figured going into it, we were probably going to get third,” Parsons head coach Jane Posch said. “That’s about where we stood. We had some different choices of lineups and I was trying to prepare for regionals.”
Independence claimed the title with 43 points. Chanute was runner-up with 41 points, followed by Parsons (30), Labette County (23), Fort Scott (21), Pittsburg (19) and Coffeyville (7).
Parsons’ Lexi Jones placed sixth in singles while Bailey Siu finished ninth.
“Bailey had a really good day. She lost her first match then won out the rest of the day,” Posch said. “Lexi, who has played some singles, she ended up sixth and makes her honorable mention in the league. She had a great day. I put both of them in a tough spot playing singles because the four best players on the team were playing doubles.”
Parsons’ two doubles teams of Kadence Ball and Laila Haviland plus Heidi Shultz and Tenlee Kennett finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively.
“They played some of their best tennis of the year,” Posch said.
Labette County’s Pearson shines
Finishing in third place in singles, Labette County’s Lucy Pearson delivered one of the best showing for the Grizzlies in recent years at the league championships.
Pearson defeated Siu, 8-1, and Makayla DeLuna, 6-0, 7-5, before falling in the semifinals to eventual singles champion Ella Guernsey of Chanute, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals.
Pearson then beat Chanute’s Sarah Uhner in the third-place match, 6-2, 6-4.
Up next
Parsons and Labette County head to Independence on Friday for the Class 4A Regional Tournament, which will last two days.
The Independence regional is widely viewed as the most brutal in the state, featuring all of the 4A schools in the SEK League plus Wellington and Winfield.
