HHS tennis eighth at home meet

Hillsboro?s four-man tennis team placed eighth among the eight schools competing Thursday at the Hillsboro Invita?tional.
Two players short of a full lineup, the Trojans finished with 10 team points to trail Conway Springs (54), Ster?ling (51), Hutch Trinity (51), Circle (44), Sacred Heart (27), Smoky Valley (19) and Chap?man (18).
Hillsboro?s two singles entries each placed sixth.
Leo Sontag, playing at No. 1, lost 8-3 to Grant Bellar of Conway Springs, defeated Jon Dahlsten of Smoky Valley 8-2, then lost 8-3 to Zack Brashear of Sterling in the fifth-place match.
Ty Carey lost 8-2 in the first round to Logan Hughes of Trinity, then defeated Brandon Koch of Conway Springs 8-2 before losing 8-3 to Riley O?Neal of Chapman in the battle for fifth.
?Leo and Ty both played well enough to earn one win each in singles and were competitive in their other matches,? coach Stuart Holmes said. ?But (they) must develop more consistency.?
The Trojan doubles team of River Cecil and Josh Funk went 0-2 with 8-0 losses to Trinity and Chapman.
?Josh and River made some nice plays, but were not as consistent as their opponents, which takes time to develop,? Holmes said.
Smoky Valley?Leo Son?tag placed fourth in a 16-player singles bracket at the Ron Dahlsten Tennis Clas?sic in Lindsborg April 8.
Sontag defeated Jared Meier of Smoky Valley 8-5 and Matt Loomis of Pratt 8-1 before losing to Gabe Johnson of Abilene 8-2 in the semifinals, and 8-2 to Marcel Rimrodt of Concor?dia in the third-place match.
?Leo did a nice job of continuing to get his serve in on a windy day,? coach Stuart Holmes said. ?He especially played a good match in the semifinals. There were a lot of deuce games, so the match was closer than the 8-2 score might indicate.?
River Cecil went 0-3 in singles with an 8-0 loss to Martin, then an 8-3 defeat at the hands of Jon Dahlsten and an 8-1 loss to Nils Peter?sen, both of Smoky Valley.

The Trojan doubles team of Ty Carey and Josh Funk also lost all three matches?8-0 to Smoky Valley, 8-3 to Concordia and 8-2 to Wichita Collegiate.
Coming?The Trojans were schedule to compete at Sterling Tuesday, then will travel to Circle Thursday.

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