Roth sixth at Hesston Invitational

Led by Caroline Roth’s sixth-place finish in singles, Hillsboro’s tennis team placed sixth among the eight schools competing at the Hesston Invitational Satur­day.

Roth defeated Sophie Smith of Smoky Valley in the first round (8-6), lost to Emily Ryan of Central Plains in the quarterfinals (8-5), then defeated Kira Haxton of Smoky Valley (8-3) before losing to Sense Cad­man of Wichita Indepen­dent (8-2) in the fifth-place match.

“Saturday’s lineup was packed with quality singles players, including last year’s state champion in Class 3-2-1A, Anna Riedmiller of Independent,” coach Bob Woelk said. “Morgan Holo­pirek of Hesston was second to Riedmiller Saturday.”

Woelk said Roth has played brilliantly at times, but needs to develop a bit more consistency.

“I keep telling her to trust her shot-making because she has a full arsenal,” he said. “Sometimes she tends to try to aim shots rather than just stepping up and hitting the ball hard.”

Hillsboro’s doubles team of Shelby Johnson and Ellian Weisbeck won its opening match against Pat­terson and Brown of Smoky Valley (8-5), then lost to Hipp and Ryan of Central Plains, the eventual champions (8-1). The Trojan duo then lost to Shaw and Hicks of Indepen­dent (8-1) and then to Williams and Haeniggi of Andover Central (8-6) in the seventh-place match.

“The last match Saturday was a real heartbreaker as they lost in an extended tiebreak,” Woelk said.

Wichita Independent won the team title with 86 points, followed by Hesston (80), Andover Central (66), Smoky Valley (58), Central Plains (56), Hillsboro (32), Wichita Collegiate (26) and DeSoto (13)

Smoky Valley—Caroline Roth placed second in singles at the Smoky Valley Invitational Sept. 8.

The exchange student from Germany, who went in as the No. 6 seed, defeated Cassidy Kroboth of Ells­worth (8-0), Kaylin Beswick of Abilene (8-7) and Emily Ryan of Central Plains (8-6) to reach the finals against Morgan Holopirek of Hess­ton, who backed up her No. 1 seeding with an 8-0 win.

Gracie Damon, seeded 16th in the singles bracket, lost to Holopirek in the first round (8-1). In the consolation bracket, Damon lost 8-0 to Caeli Clennan of Hutch Trinity and to Rachel Duer of Cheney.

In doubles, Trojans Ellian Weisbeck and Shelby John­son, seeded ninth, won their opening match against Galloway and Johnson of Smoky Valley 8-5, then lost to the No. 1 seeded Hipp and Ryan of Central Plains (8-6) and to fourth-seeded Graves and Lamb of Ells­worth (8-6).

Hillsboro’s doubles team of Abby Fryhover and Kayla Gunn lost 8-0 to Brubacher and Martin of Hesston, 8-1 to Beran and Menges of Cen­tral Plains and 8-2 to Brede­meier and Waggoner of Hutch Trinity.

Coming—Hillsboro’s next varsity tournament will be a triangular at Lyons starting at 3 p.m. Sept. 19.

“We will play No. 1 through 6 in singles against Lyons and Nickerson, then turn around and play No. 1 through 3 doubles,” Woelk said. “So, everyone who goes will get a chance to play both singles and doubles. It should be a lot of fun.”

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