HHS tennis wins first invitational
With victories in all four rounds Friday at the Ellinwood Quad, the Hillsboro High School tennis team left with a first-place finish.
"This was our best day so far this season," head coach Stu Holmes said. "They guys have been working hard in practice, and it was neat to see them win the quad."
The team scored three points in both number one and two singles play, two points in number one doubles, and one in number two doubles.
Clay Shewey won all three of his matches in number one singles play.
He defeated Kevin Davis of Ellsworth 8-3, Nathan Krause of Russell 8-1, and Ethan Thomas of Ellinwood, 8-5.
Jarod Hamm did his best Shewey impersonation with three victories of his own, 8-5, 8-1, and 8-6.
"They both had their best day," Holmes said of the singles players. "They were consistently mentally tough, and played great."
Taylor Hagen and Ben Heyen nearly had a sweep as well in the number one doubles play, winning their first two matches 8-6 and 8-5.
In a tough loss to Aaron Koetter and Cody Bryant of Ellinwood, the Hillsboro duo fought hard, but dropped an 8-7 decision.
"They played really well most of the day," Holmes said.
Nolan Dirks and Mathew Brown dropped their first match of number two doubles play, 8-1, but came back with an 8-5 victory against Russell.
An 8-1 loss to Ellinwood in the final match ended their day with a record of 1-2.
Trojan Invitational
HHS entered two teams April 15 into the Trojan tennis invitational.
The Hillsboro Red team finished in fifth, while the Hillsboro White team took eighth.
Shewey (HR) earned 12 points with a fourth-place finish, and the doubles team of Hagen and Heyen did as well after a first-round victory.
Shewey and the HR doubles team would lose their next two matches, but secured fourth with the first-round victory.
Shewey defeated Wade Patterson of Douglas-Leon 8-7 in a tie-break, while Hagen and Heyen won 8-0 against their opponents from Neodesha.
Dirks and Mark Prieb, playing for HR as the number two doubles team, also won their first match, 8-0, against Douglas-Leon.
Two more losses gave them fourth place, which earned eight team points in number two play.
After losing his first two matches, Brown defeated Sean Brown from Douglas-Leon, 7-3, to capture seventh place and two team points.
The Hillsboro White team earned six points, with all of them coming in number two play.
After losing his first match to Jordon Bontrager of Hesston, Brandon McMillen defeated Sean Brown 7-2.
He would lose his next match, but earned four points for his sixth-place finish.
The final two teams points for HW were earned from Jared King and Sam Bookless, after a seventh-place, 7-4 victory against a team from Douglas-Leon.
Circle tournament
HHS spilt eight matches April 10 at Circle, finishing in second place out of three teams.
Singles players Shewey and Prieb competed for the Trojans, and the doubles teams of Hagen and Heyen, and Brown and Hamm competed in the double events.
Number one single Shewey lost his first match against Valley Center, but ended the day with an 8-0 victory against Circle's Will Peterson.
Prieb lost his initial match of the day with Sam Page of Valley Center, but also came out strong against Circle.
Prieb defeated Kevin Smith 8-0.
The number one doubles team of Hagen and Heyen were downed by champion Valley Center in its first match as well.
The duo came back strong against Ryan Coffman and Tyler Schiesser of Circle with an 8-3 victory.
Brown and Hamm kept the pattern the same for the Trojans by losing their first match against Valley Center, then defeating Kyle Brady and Kyle Williams of Circle, 8-2.
