PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. – The McPherson High School Girls Tennis team finished the 2025 season in Prairie Village in the 4A State Championships on Oct. 17-18, ending the season as the state runners-up for the second year in a row.
Wichita Collegiate won the state title with a combined score of 43. McPherson earned the No. 2 spot with 36 while the 2024 champion, Topeka-Hayden, finished 3rd with 19 points.
Bullpup senior Maryn Sandbo finished in 3rd place in the singles tournament. Sandbo earned the No. 3 seed going into the tournament, earning her a first-round bye. She won both matches in the first day in two-set sweeps, advancing her to the semifinals on Saturday. She would have to face a familiar foe on Saturday, Buhler High School’s Sofia Spies, where she fell in two sets in the semifinals. Spies would end up as the state runner-up. However, Sandbo bounced back to win the 3rd Place Match against Winfield’s Sophia Heger, winning in two sets 6-4, 6-1. Sandbo’s season ends with a 30-6 record.
Sandbo ended her tennis career at McPherson with many accolades. In her senior year, she finished on the podium in state while also medaling in the league and winning the regional title. She finished as a 4-time state qualifier, three-time state medalist, and over 100 career wins.
Freshman Mayson Wiens also took part in the singles tournament, entering the bracket as the No. 10 seed. Wiens won her first matchup in two sets, but fell in the next matchup to the No. 7 seed. Wiens moved to the consolation bracket, where she won her first match but lost the second, ending her freshman season with a 27-10 record.
Both Bullpup doubles’ teams placed in the top 5 with Quinn Liebl & Avery Unruh placing 3rd. The pair were the No. 4 seed in the bracket, giving them a first-round bye. They won their first matchup mightily in two sets, losing only two out of 14 games played in the match. That dominance carried into the next match, winning 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the state semifinals. They fought hard against Collegiate duo Blackman & Ramesh, but fell 6-4 in both sets. That Collegiate duo ended as state champions. However, Leibl and Unruh bounced back to win the third-place match in three sets, winning a tiebreaker in the third and final set. Their season record ends at 31-4.
Lleyton Kuhn and Alexandria (Dragon) Rodriguez finished in 5th in the doubles tournament. They did not have a first-round bye like Liebl and Unruh, but they still won their first two matches handily to advance to the state quarterfinals. Their Saturday started in the quarterfinals, falling to Independence’s Mattix & McLenon, who were the No. 2 seed. That duo ended up being the same team that Liebl & Unruh defeated in the third-place match. Kuhn & Rodriguez were able to bounce back with an 8-4 win to move onto the 5th-place match, where they’d win 8-2. Kuhn finishes her freshman season as a state medalist while Rodriguez earned her second state medal.
Five out of six participants in State for McPherson finished the season as medalists, with the lone non-medalist being a freshman who still had a dominant season. Sandbo is the team’s only senior, showing that McPherson Girls Tennis will continue to have a bright future, especially with two freshmen and a sophomore earning trips to State.
Thus ends another great season of McPherson Bullpup Girls Tennis.
