Temperatures soar as Iola hits courts

CHANUTE — With the thermostat set on “bake,” Iola High’s tennis team opened the 2013 season Thursday afternoon.
Each of the Fillies’ entries — singles players Megan Smith and Katie Lieurance and doubles teams of Alexis Hobbs and Bobbi Sinclair and Shelby Reno and Cyanne Vaughn — went 1-3 on the day.
“This first match of the season is always tough to know where to place each player,” Iola head coach Jenn Bycroft said. “Lots of factors weigh into this. We lost two seniors who played varsity all last season, so that makes it hard to replace sometimes.
“Overall, though, I thought we played well,” Bycroft continued. “Of course, there are always those silly mistakes, like double faults, but all of the girls improved as the matches went on. There were many games that went to deuce, and many players were pretty evenly matched. Hopefully, we can improve as we move forward.”
Smith handled the number one singles duties. She dropped an 8-5 decision to Emily Depew of Neodesha before defeating Cierra Oplotnik of Columbus, 8-0, through injury default. Smith fell to Sami Brown of Labette County and Rebecca Wendt of Chanute by identical scores of 8-1.
In number two singles play, Lieurance fell to Taylor Eustice of Neodesha 8-3 before defeating Abbey Peterson of Columbus, 8-2. She dropped an 8-1 decision to Emily McCoach of Labette County and an 8-0 setback to Chanute’s Shelby Stair.
Hobbs and Sinclair made up Iola’s top doubles team. They fell to Wittum and Lambert of Neodesha but rebounded to thump Atkinson and Murdock of Columbus, 8-1. Hobbs and Sinclair fell to Smith and Closs of Labette County, 8-3, and to Liudahl and Thuston of Chanute, 8-0.
Reno and Vaughn, in number two doubles, opened the afternoon on a strong note, defeating Dent and Franklin of Neodesha, 8-3. They dropped an 8-6 heart-breaker to Kitch and Murillo of Columbus, then fell to Stevenson and Page of Labette County and Angleton and Bearrick of Chanute, 8-1.
Temperatures hovered in the low to mid 90s through the early portion of the competition until the protective layer of clouds cleared out of the area, sending temperatures soaring to 100 degrees in short order.
Iola returns to action next Thursday to host its first, and only, matches of the year on the IHS tennis courts. The Fillies host Parsons, Independence and Columbus, starting at 3 o’clock.