HESSTON, Kan. – After a strong finish to the 2025 season and with five of the six varsity players returning, the McPherson Bullpup girls tennis team opened their season in impressive fashion on Thursday, winning the Hesston tournament with three 3-0 finishes on the day.
The Bullpups finished with 29 points as a team, ahead of Hesston with 21 and Buhler with 19 in the team standings. Last year’s state doubles qualifying teams were kept intact as Avery Unruh and Quinn Liebl played #1 Doubles and Dragon Rodriguez and Lleyton Kuhn were the #2 Doubles team. Unruh & Liebl went 3-0 on the day for first place. McPherson coach Tyler Brown stated: “Great players find ways to win even when they aren’t at their best. That’s exactly what they did. They battled through some tough moments, found ways to win important points and finished the day undefeated.”
In #2 Doubles, Rodriguez & Kuhn also went 3-0 on the day and took first place. They opened with an 8-0 win in the first round followed by back-to-back 8-3 victories, winning 24 of 30 games for the day.
In singles, the Bullpups had a solid opening day as well. Last year’s #1 Singles player Maryn Sandbo was the only player to graduate from the varsity squad. Despite the loss, her sister Audra Sandbo is now on the varsity roster and opened with a 3-0 finish and a gold medal in #2 Singles. She was a back-to-back JV league champion coming into 2026 and got off to a great start in varsity play.
In #1 Singles, returning state qualifier Mayson Wiens went 2-1 and finished in third place. She opened with an 8-1 win before a loss against Wichita Collegiate in the semis. She bounced back in the third place match with an 8-2 win over Laine Wildener of Hesston, a returning state qualifier.
“Overall it was a great opening day for our girls”, said Brown. “We had three division champions and another top three finish, and more importantly, we saw a lot of things that make us excited about what this group can accomplish this season.”
Next up for the varsity squad is a home tournament Thursday, September 3 at 3:00 at McPherson High School.
