Fillies’ tennis team has a flurry of action

Iola High’s Fillies had a long week of tennis action. The varsity players have one more go of it this week.
The Fillies will play in their last Southeast Kansas League tennis tournament Saturday at Independence, before preparing for the Kansas Class 4A regional tournament Oct. 7-8 at Chanute.
Iola’s varsity played at Coffeyville Tuesday. The Fillies’ junior varsity played Monday at Chanute and went to Neodesha on Tuesday.
In varsity play, junior Katana Smith dropped four matches Tuesday in No. 1 singles for Iola. She dropped an 8-6 decision to Callie Mcaskill of Coffeyville and went down 8-4 to Jessica Curlee of Pittsburg.
Smith lost 8-2 to Madison Wendt of Chanute. Parsons’ Sarah Ong beat Smith 8-0.
“Although Katana’s outcome doesn’t show it, she plays really well and is very patient with her shots,” said Jennifer Bycroft, Fillies’ head coach. “She has nice ground strokes and works very hard on every point. She doesn’t give up.”
Junior Abbey St. Clair battled through her four No. 2 singles matches despite not feeling well. She notched an 8-3 win over Aubrie Navarro of Coffeyville.
St. Clair lost 8-0 to Pittsburg’s Brittany Wilde, to Malina Kipp of Parsons and to Chanute’s Breianna Brooks.
In No. 1 doubles, Shyanne Hendry and Megan Smith lost 8-3 to Coffeyville’s Abudu and Smith and 8-4 to Pittsburg’s Reed and Short. They dropped 8-0 decisions to Parsons’ Mosier and Rogers and Chanute’s Ramos and Thuston.
In No. 2 doubles, Hannah Barclay and Katie Lieurance claimed an 8-5 win over Coffeyville’s Jones and Neal. They lost 8-1 to Pittsburg’s Long and Baden then 8-0 to Parsons’ Jump and Harris and to Chanute’s Akridge and Ungles.
At Neodesha in junior varsity play all the Iola girls played a singles match and a doubles match. It was  just Iola and Neodesha.
Iola got singles match wins from: Shelby Reno, 6-5  (8-6) over Sarah Banzet; Caressa Lowell, 6-4 over Allyson Busch; Emmalee Seabolt, 6-1 over Heather McDonald. Iola’s Alexis Hobbs lost 6-5 (7-3) to Avery Wood, Felicitas Aguirre lost 6-1 to Isabella Troy and Jessica Adams lost 6-0 to Morgan Chilcott.
Neodesha swept the doubles matches. Reno and Lowell lost 6-1 to Banzet and Busch, Hobbs and Aguirre lost to McDonald and Chilcott and Seabolt and Adams lost 6-1 to Troy and Wood.
On Monday, the junior varsity was at Chanute.
Sabrina Graham played No. 1 singles, losing 6-2 to Patty Stevenson of Labette County, 6-0 to Casey Gambel of Chanute Gold and 6-4 to Megan Barnow of Chanute.
In No. 2 singles Brianne Jett lost 6-0 to Haley Markham of Chanute Gold and to Labette County’s Emily McCoach and 6-3 to Coffeyville’s Jordan Graham.
Lieurance and Aguirre played No. 2 doubles for Iola and lost 6-0 to Labette County’s Tiffany Sexton and Caitlin Class and to Fort Scott’s Kandice Rost and Sammi Carr. They lost 6-5 (7-4) to Burroughs and Glass of Coffeyville.
In No. 2 doubles play, Baleight Seeber and Khrystal Smith lost 6-0 to Chanute Blue’s Angela Alger and Lynzie King and 6-2 to Navarro and Nolen of Coffeyville. They dropped a 6-1 decision to Fort Scott’s Natalie Carr and Danielle McDowell.