The Houston High School tennis team traveled to Springfield last Thursday for the Class 1 District 5 Individual District Tournament at the Gillenwaters Tennis Complex.
Each of the eight squads in the competition enter two singles players and two doubles teams in their respective brackets, with the finalists advancing to the state tournament.
Senior Connor McKinney and junior Jack Sandberg played singles for Houston, and McKinney earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament. The Tennis Tigers’ two doubles duos included juniors Kaleb McGiboney and Maggie Wolfe in one pair and junior Riley Wilson and freshman Elijah Jones played in the other.
McKinney won 6-1, 6-1 in his second round match against an opponent from Osage and advanced to the quarterfinals. In Sandberg’s second round match, he won the first set 6-2, lost the second 6-2 and then fell 10-7 in a third set tiebreak.
“I thought had he put the pedal to the floor and got an early lead in the second set he would have won the match,” said HHS head coach Josh McKinney, “but he let his opponent back into the match and couldn’t recover.”
Connor McKinney then drew Springfield Catholic senior Joey Daues in the quarterfinals and lost 6-2, 6-3. Daues went on to finish second, falling to senior teammate Brett Crockett in the final, 6-2, 6-2.
In doubles, Wilson and Jones played in the first round and played well but lost the match in three sets to a pair from Liberty. McGiboney and Wolfe advanced by forfeit through to the quarterfinals and played the second-seeded duo from Springfield Catholic and competed well against the eventual champions but lost 6-2 6-1.
The Team District Tournament took place on Monday of this week, and No. 7 Houston was blanked by No. 2 Logan-Rogersville, 5-0.
“Overall, I thought we had a pretty good season and saw a lot of improvement,” coach McKinney said. “Hopefully we will have some kids get out this summer and really work on their games and be ready to step into new roles on the team next year.”
On Monday of last week, the Tennis Tigers beat Liberty 7-2 in a home match at Westside Park.
Scores:
- No. 1 singles: Connor McKinney won 8-0.
- No. 2 singles: Kaleb McGiboney won 8-0.
- No. 3 singles: Jack Sandberg won 8-3.
- No. 4 singles: Maggie Wolfe won 8-3.
- No. 5 singles: Gavin Altman won 6-0.
- No. 6 singles: Elijah Jones lost 5-6.
- No. 1 doubles: McGiboney/Wolfe won 8-2.
- No. 2 doubles: Altman/Riley Wilson lost 9-7.
- No. 3 doubles: Carli Cummins-Drake/Nola Smith won 8-3.
“I was proud of how Nola and Carli stepped into the varsity doubles lineup for their first varsity match and really played well,” coach McKinney said.
