The Hillsboro tennis team ended its season Saturday at the Class 3-2-1A regional tournament at Hesston.
The Trojans? top player, Leo Sontag, won his opening play-in match against Rhian Born?trager of Haven in a super-tiebreaker, 2-6, 7-5 (10-7), then lost consecutive matches to Kyler Comley of Sterling, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals and Dylan DeLuca of Hutchinson Trinity, 6-3, 6-1 in the loser?s bracket.
?Leo unfortunately drew a tough first-round opponent from Haven, whose regular coach was not there at regionals and didn?t get Borntrager seeded seventh or eighth like he probably should have been,?said coach Stuart Holmes.
Sontag finished the season with a 13-17 record.
?I was pleased with how he battled through a shoulder problem and even after losing eight matches in a row, he came through with some great tennis at league, placing third,? Holmes said.
Hillsboro?s other entrant, Ty Carey, lost his play-in match against DeLuca, 6-0, 6-0 for an early exit. The senior finished his high school career with a 6-14 record.
?Ty really showed a lot of improvement this year,? Holmes said. His coachable attitude and hustle will be missed next year,? Holmes said.
CKL tourney?Leo Sontag finished above his seeding by placing third in No. 1 singles last Monday at the Cen?tral Kansas League tournament at Hesston.
Sontag came into the tournament as the sixth seed. He beat the No. 3 seed, Cameron Davis of Hoising?ton, 6-1, 2-6 (10-6) in the first round, then dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to Zack Brashear of Sterling.
Sontag came back to shut out Rhian Borntrager of Haven 6-0, 6-0 in the third-place match.
?The result of the third-place match showed how much Leo has improved over the last two and a half weeks,? coach Stuart Holmes said. ?He lost to his opponent 8-6 at the Circle meet and was able to dominate the match.
?Leo has worked through a fair amount of shoulder discomfort mid-season and now his improvement through hard work and making some adjustments are paying off.?
In No. 2 singles, Ty Carey went 1-2, with both losses coming in a super-tie?breaker, including a 4-6, 6-3 (10-8) loss to Sharp of Pratt in the opening round?a battle that lasted around two hours.
Carey then rallied to defeat Tran of Larned 9-1, then lost to Satterlee of Hoisington 8-8 (7-3).
?Ty played the best tennis of his career and was literally a couple of points from defeating the player from Pratt that ended up placing third in No. 2 singles,? Holmes said.
In doubles, River Cecil and Josh Funk lost a play-in match to Penka and Stanton of Lyons 9-1, then lost 8-8 (10-4) to Jeff Kaufman and Zach Froese of Haven and 9-2 to Penka and Stanton in the match for seventh place.