Girls tennis team sending four to State
By Shelton Burch
Courtesy of Dodge Globe Sports Editor
Four Dodge City Red Demons girls tennis players qualified for the State invitational after scoring strong performances Saturday Regionals.
The Regional event took place in Garden City, Kansas. State is scheduled to take place Friday in Wichita, Kansas.
In Doubles, the duo of seniors Kameron Lowery and Mireya Chacon entered the tournament as the No. 9 seed and opened with a victory over the No. 8. They then fell to the No. 1 seed team by scores 6-3, 6-2 before winning consecutive consolation matches against the teams entering as No. 5 and No. 6 seeds. They finished the tournament in fifth place.
Victoria Garcia and Sammy Nguyen also competed in the doubles but were eliminated in the first round.
“Overall we had a great day at regionals, the Ladies played their hearts out and played really good tennis today,” Dodge City head coach David Snodgrass said via email. “As a program we always stress that we want to be playing our best tennis come October and today was proof that we did just that. For us to get all four of our seniors to qualify for state is an amazing feeling. It’s not how well you play, its when you play well that matters. And we played very well.”
Dodge City senior Marissa Wissar entered the tournament as a No. 10 seed in Singles. She also earned multiple upsets Saturday, beating the No. 7 seed before falling to the No. 2 seed by scores 6-0, 6-0 in the main bracket. She
then beat the No. 6 seed in the consolation ladder before losing to the previous No. 8 seed, finishing sixth in the tournament.
Finally, Dodge City senior Leah Stein followed up her 2017 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year recognition, finishing third in the tournament. Entering as the No. 4 seed in Singles, she beat the No. 13 seed by scores 6-0, 6-0 and the No. 5 seed by scores 6-1, 6-1 before falling to the eventual second place finisher by scores 6-2, 6-0. She finished the tournament with an upset of her own, beating the No. 3 seed to finish third.
The Dodge City Red Demons will now head to Wichita, for the State tournament Friday at 11 a.m.
