JV Fillies have strong showing at Labette Co.

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Sports

September 7, 2017 - 12:00 AM

The Iola junior varsity girls’ tennis team made improvement on Tuesday in the Labette County junior varsity meet at Parsons.
The highlight was the No. 2 doubles team consisting of sisters Kassy and Sidney Shelby who went 2-1, grabbing second place medals.
The Shelbys started off with a 6-3 win over Chanute and followed that with a straight 6-0 sweep over Fort Scott. They struggled in the championship match, falling 6-3 to the eventual No. 2 doubles champs from Pittsburg.
“The Shelby sisters were fun to watch,” head coach Jenn Bycroft said. “Of course being sisters, they have good chemistry and communicated very well on the court.  They backed each other up, placed the ball extremely well, and are always moving their feet. Both are also aggressive at the net and put several shots away.”
 No. 2 singles player Cassidy Lowell went 2-1 and finished fifth overall. Lowell won 6-1 in the opening match versus Labette, she fell 6-0 versus Chanute and then got a 6-2 win over Neodesha.
“I was glad to see Cassidy get some wins today,” Bycroft said. “We still have some fundamentals to work on: making sure she’s anticipating the ball more, her footwork, and getting turned to properly hit the ball, but she had some nice placement shots and her serves were better today, too.”
The number one doubles team of Annika Hobbs and Jessica Tidd competed in their first meet together and while they went winless, Bycroft was pleased with their competitiveness despite their inexperience.
“Despite the scores and no wins, both Annika and Jessica played well.  This was their first time playing doubles together, and Jessica’s first ever competitive match.  I can see they have improved since beginning practice a few weeks ago so that’s encouraging.”
Hobbs and Tidd fell 6-2 in their opening match versus Labette, 6-1 in their second match versus Chanute and 6-3 in their final match versus Neodesha.
The junior varsity will be back in action on Sept. 18 at the Parsons home meet.

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