Lady Buffs Tennis: Monday, Sept. 28, 2020
The Garden City Lady Buffaloes tennis team had a strong overall showing on Saturday, Sept. 26, by winning their own invitational at the GCHS Tennis Complex.
The Lady Buffs, under the guidance of new head coach Logan Bevis, finished with 81 points to outlast Colby, which was second with 74 points. Dodge City placed third with 62 points while Scott City (60) and Great Bend (56) rounded out the top five teams in the 10-team field.
The tournament format combined No. 1 and 2 singles as well as No. 1 and 2 doubles in the bracketed competition.
Highlighting the day’s action for the Lady Buffs was the doubles team of Ashleigh Chappel and Sydney Nanninga claiming the crown with a hard-fought 8-6 victory over the No. 1 seeded team of Moyers and Popp of Great Bend, a team Chappel and Nanninga had lost to earlier in the season.
“We had a solid day as a team,” head coach Logan Bevis said. “Ashley and Sydney had a great day and won over a really solid Great Bend team. It was great to see the growth they’ve made in the past few weeks and the intensity they played with.”
Chappel and Nanninga were the No. 3 seed and opened with an 8-0 triumph over Nia Kaiser and Allyson Werth of Hays before an 8-6 win over Elizabeth Goetz and Emily Goetz of Cimarron. In the semis, the Lady Buffs’ duo dropped the Community team of Payton Tull and Alivia Palmer, who also are members of the GCHS tennis squad. The Community team was comprised of players from three different schools.
Tull and Palmer had defeated teammates Rilee McGraw and Chloe Powell n the quarterfinals, 8-4, before losing to Chappel and Nanninga in the semis. In their opening match, Tull and Palmer won out over Mariah Dechant and Sadie Jantz, 8-3. McGraw and Powell would go on to finish seventh, winning two matches in the consolation bracket, the last one an 8-2 triumph over Kaitlynn Faber and Dani Schroeder of Colby.
“Payton and Alivia had an amazing day,” Bevis said of the pair, who upset Scott City’s No. 1 team which had placed ninth at the 2019 Class 4A state tournament.
In singles play, junior Sage Riggs, who was seeded No. 2, finished third, losing in the semifinals to Colby’s Hayden Bellamy in a tough match, 8-6. Bellamy lost to Lady Eagles teammate Mackenzie Dodson in the championship match, 8-4.
“Sage had a tough match and loss in the semis, but she did a solid job recovering to take third in commanding fashion,” Bevis said.
Riggs bounced back to claim third place with an 8-2 triumph over Malorie Cupp of Scott City. Riggs had opened with a second-round 8-1 win over Ginny Ke of Hays and followed that up with another 8-1 romp over Sammy Nguyen of Dodge City.
Brooke Ptacek, who is the No. 2 singles player for the Buffs, took fifth in the overall singles event, winning her opening match over Grace Doughtery of Great Bend, 8-0, before dropping a tough 8-6 match to the eventual champ Dodson in the quarterfinals.
Ptacek then dropped Morgan Shorb of Hays, 8-5, and finished off her day with an 8-2 triumph over Nguyen of Dodge City, to place fifth and go 3-1 in the tourney.
“Brooke had her best tournament of the year so far, losing that tough match to the eventual champion,” Bevis said. “She played with an intensity that was really encouraging to see.”
The Lady Buffs’ mid-season busy schedule continues Thursday at the Hutchinson Invitational and then on Saturday travels to the McPherson Invitational.
Garden City High School 