CHANUTE — Iola High’s junior varsity tennis players ended up their short season Monday at Chanute. It was the first year of tennis competition for most of the six Fillies’ players.
Holly Schomaker, a senior, and freshman Allyson Hobbs combined for the first time as a doubles team. They were 1-2 finishing sixth playing as Iola’s No. 1 doubles team Monday.
Schomaker and Hobbs’ win was a 6-3 decision over Coffeyvlle’s Taylor Neal and Jessica Soyoung. They lost 6-0 to Kalei Matthews and Shalie Matthews of Independence and lost 6-1 to Sam Cicero and Lauren Sullivan of Pittsburg.
“Holly and Allyson did a great job working together and we were excited for their win,” said Jennifer Bycroft, Fillies’ tennis coach.
“It’s too bad that we are losing Holly after this year. I wish she would’ve come out for tennis as a freshman to have had more time to work with her.”
Khrystal Smith and Chyanne Vaughn each played singles for the first time. Smith was in the No. 1 singles competition and Vaughn played No. 2 singles.
Smith lost 6-0 to Halei Matthews of Independence then dropped a 6-2 decision to Kenzie Rea of Parsons. Coffeyville’s Alexa Maulsby defeated Smith 6-3.
Vaughn lost 6-1 to Jenny Angleton of Chanute. Emily Gatewood of Parsons defeated Vaughn 6-4 and Vaughn lost 6-3 to Kristian Engle of Fort Scott.
“Khrystal and Chyanne did a great job with their returns and getting back to the baseline. They each improved with every match they played,” Bycroft said.
Playing No. 2 doubles for Iola were Shelby Brown and Judy Branstetter. Their best match was against Antonella Noguera and Lucianna Pereira of Coffeyville. The match went to a tiebreaker and Coffeyville won 6-5 (7-5).
Brown and Branstetter dropped a 6-1 decision to Morgan Stevens and Nikita Ghandi of Parsons. They lost 6-2 to Lyndsey Brothers and Jana Diefenbach of Labette County.
“I was amazed at how well Shelby and Judy did for as inexperienced as they both are since this is their first year of tennis,” Bycroft said. “They came close to winning that second match (against Coffeyville).”
