High School Tennis: Iola Mustangs
The Iola boys tennis team wrapped up their season on the first day of the 4A regional tournament at Independence High School on Thursday.
Singles players Jon Miller, junior, and Elijah Fawson, sophomore, and the doubles teams of Bret Plumlee, junior, and Eason Cheung, sophomore, and sophomores Adryan Nading and Royce Smith each ran into some early trouble in the opening round of the tournament.
Only Fawson, who had to play in a play-in game versus Labette Countys Zane Sweeten, got a win in the tournament. He beat Sweeten 9-4 before advancing on to face Chris Arnett from Ark City who was the sixth seed in the tournament.
Fawson lost in two games, 6-1 and 6-3.
Miller was the seventh seed in the singles bracket and he ran into the 10th seed Julius Maucher from Chanute in the opening round.
Miller and Maucher split the two games 6-4 and 6-4 so it came down to a 10-7 tie-break loss for Miller, ending his season.
Plumlee and Cheung were seeded 14th and had to face the three-seed of Donham and Butler from Winfield. Plumlee and Cheung lost 6-3 and 6-2.
Nading and Smith were the 18th and last seed in the doubles bracket and had to face Klotz and McGee from Ark City. The team was held scoreless as Ark City advanced with 6-0 and 6-0 wins.
The Mustangs will return their entire team next year in the hopes of a return to the state tournament.
It was sad to see the end of the season for the players, head coach Dan Berg said. But we felt since we didnt have any seniors and we competed well at most of the matches that we can look forward to next year.
