INDEPENDENCE — The Iola High tennis team came in fourth at a meet in Independence Monday afternoon.
Ethan Riebel played singles while Zach Pfaff and Trapper Boren and Payton Kern and Brody Thompson played doubles.
Independence earned a first place team victory while Parsons claimed second and Labette County came in third. Neodesha finished in fifth and Columbus placed in sixth as a team.
Riebel won one match and dropped two in his singles play. The Mustang first fell to Parsons’ Parker Ray, 8-1, before taking down Neodesha’s Landon Howell, 8-2. Riebel then fell to Labette County’s Kendall Green, 8-2.
Kern and Thompson won one match and lost two. The duo lost to Labette County’s Gabe Lunsford and Layton Vail, 8-5, before toppling Columbus’ Cody Ediger and Kyler Baylor in six rounds, 8-7. The pair then fell to Indy’s Tyson Martinez and Logan Holmes, 8-1.
“This duo is going to be fierce competition going forward,” said Iola head coach Chris Belknap. “They both are aggressive which is really good for playing doubles and having matches that will be very entertaining to watch. I really can’t wait to teach these guys lots of strategies to make them even better competition for future meets.”
Pfaff and Boren won one match and lost three. The duo defeated Indy’s Nathan Godwin and Josh Watts for their lone win of the afternoon. This was the first time the duo had played varsity doubles.
Iola matches up at Pittsburg on Thursday at 3 p.m.
