McPHERSON, Kan. – Playing on their home courts on Friday, the McPherson girls tennis team rolled to a 4A Regional title on Friday, claiming individual titles in Singles and Doubles and qualifying all six of their players for the 4A State Tournament.
The Bullpups posted a team score of 23, thirteen points better than second place Chapman with 10.
The largest amount of combined success on the day came in the Doubles bracket for McPherson. Avery Unruh and Quinn Liebl finished 4-0 and took the gold medals. After a first round bye, they beat Treya Pfizenmaier and Kate Larson of Clay Center 6-0, 6-1 to move to the third round. They defeated Madison Gardner and Gretchen Jones of Chapman 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the semis. It was another big win in the semis, beating Cora Merritt and Addalynn Casey of Chapman 6-1, 6-2. To no surprise, the biggest challenge of the day for Unruh & Liebl came in the title match against their teammates Dragon Rodriguez and Lleyton Kuhn.
Rodriguez & Kuhn also had a first round bye and won 6-1, 6-2 over Kate Griffin and Layla Fleming of Smoky Valley in the second round. In the third round, they picked up a 6-0, 6-1 win over Amelliah Budreau and Isabel Elder of Wamego. The semifinal match was a 6-1, 6-2 win over Zora Carver and Macy Nyquist of Smoky Valley. The stage was set for the all-McPherson championship match and Unruh & Liebl came away with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Rodriguez & Kuhn.
In Singles, the Bullpups came away with first and fifth place. Mayson Wiens took the regional title, going 4-0. After a first round bye, she dominated Reagan James of Goodland 6-0, 6-0 and then won her third round match over Carys Donahue of Wamego 6-1, 6-1. In the semis, Wiens was impressive in a 6-3, 6-0 win over Josie Baer of Chapman. She went on to win the championship match 6-0, 6-4 over Ella Linn of Goodland.
McKenna Paul also had a first round bye in Singles and opened the tournament officially with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Noelle Crouch of Smoky Valley. She fell in the third round to Linn of Goodland 6-1, 6-4, but recovered to win two matches on the back side, taking the elimination round match over Addison Riojas of Smoky Valley 6-0, 6-2. Paul went on to win the 5th Place match 6-0, 6-2 over Bobbi Pekarek of Abilene.
“The best part of the day is that all six of our girls qualified for State,” said McPherson coach Tyler Brown. “That’s something we’re extremely proud of to know that every girl that we put on the court today will get the opportunity to represent McPherson at State is pretty special.”
The 4A State Tournament will take place this coming Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17 at Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka.
