CHANUTE — The Mustangs showed up in Chanute ready to play and got off to a hot start by winning five of their six singles matches against Ottawa in a double dual after Fort Scott backed out of the event and forced a format change.
Isaiah Fawson knocked off Ottawa’s Matt Schulz, 8-3, and Rhett Allen beat Carter McCullough, 8-5, in the originally scheduled singles matches.
With the double dual format, four Mustangs, who don’t usually play singles matches, got to play singles and had great results against Ottawa.
Elijah Fawson rallied to edge Ottawa’s Lawson Medlen, 8-7. Eason Cheung beat Isaiah Smith, 8-4, and Jackson Cone beat Westen Smith, 8-4.
The only singles loss Iola suffered against Ottawa was Jon Miller falling 8-5 to Thomas Nowatzke.
The Mustangs didn’t enjoy the same success against Chanute. Isaiah Fawson had to make a quick turnaround after beating Schultz and lost to Chanute’s top player Alvaro Ribas 8-2.
The rest of the Mustangs had longer waits with two hours between matches as Ottawa and Chanute faced off.
The rust showed. Iola went 0-5 in singles matches against Chanute.
In doubles play, the Mustangs were outmanned as Ottawa and Chanute played their top singles players on doubles teams in addition to their singles matches — bumping their doubles teams down to face less-experienced Iola pairings. Iola went 0-4 in doubles.
Iola will have junior varsity matches in Parsons today.
Mustangs have mixed results in Chanute
