This year, CHS girls’ tennis coach Sophie Chambers decided to seek out more JV playing opportunities for her team in order to build more depth in the program. So on Wednesday morning, Chillicothe’s highest six JV players traveled to Macken Park, just off Armour Road, to play in the North KC JV tournament. The other participating teams were Staley, North Kansas City, RayPec, Oak Park, Raytown, Richmond, and Savannah.
For Chillicothe, junior Sarah George and freshman Jasmine McLean played in the Doubles A bracket. Sophomores Summer Gatson and Rian Mathews played Doubles B together, and freshman Lexy Lybarger and sophomore Sophia Littleton competed in the Doubles C bracket. All bracket play was set up as a blind hat draw. At the end of the day, Chillicothe left with fourth place medals in both the Doubles B & C brackets while Doubles A finished in 7th place. Coach Chambers reports that it was an incredibly valuable day to get to focus their full coaching support and feedback to six young, developing players. She noticed every player really improve at a specific skill throughout the day, and as coaches, they found lots of teachable moments regarding partner spacing, score tracking, and more. Plus, every player got a win, which was tough to do with so many large schools present.
Final Results:
Doubles A — George & McLean (7th place) — lost to Ray-Pec 0-8, lost to Savannah 0-8, beat Raytown 8-3
Doubles B — Gatson & Mathews (4th place) — beat North KC 8-5, lost to RayPec 4-8, lost to Savannah 5-8
Doubles C — Lybarger & Littleton (4th place) — beat Richmond 8-3, lost to RayPec 0-8, lost to Savannah 3-8