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Sterling, Steward have strong day at home tournament

Published 9/28/2009 in Prep-Garden City

By JASON ELMQUIST

jelmquist@gctelegram.com

The moment couldn't have come at a better time for Garden City High School tennis members Kelsey Sterling and Kelsey Steward.

The tandem make up the Lady Buffs' No. 2 doubles duo and on Saturday, at GCHS' lone home tournament, Sterling and Steward won their first medal -- ever.

"I'm just glad that we did this good, here at home," Steward said after defeating the No. 2 doubles team from Colby (8-4) in the third-place match. "It just feels really good right now. I'm glad we did it here, in the middle of the season, because we started out the season winning like one out of three matches. ... Now, we're finally winning the majority of our games."

The third-place finish by Sterling and Steward helped propel Garden City to a fifth-place team finish with 27 points, just behind Hays' 29 points for fourth-place. Colby won the tournament with a team total of 45 points after winning three of the four brackets.

Garden City's No. 2 doubles tandem lost just one match all day Saturday, with it being an 8-1 loss in the semifinals to Great Bend's Julie Stoss and Emily Comte who went on to win the No. 2 doubles bracket.

"I wasn't really in it at that time," Steward said. "But I really wish we would have beat them and were playing for first and second."

After losing to Great Bend, Sterling and Steward then had to go through the Hays team of Megan Bird and Janae Gagnon, 8-4, to reach the medal match with the team of Megan Dougherty and Kim Gerstner from Colby.

In that match, the GCHS tennis players found themselves having to battle back from an early deficit.

Playing the third-place match at the tennis courts at Garden City Community College, Sterling and Steward fell behind the Colby duo 4-2 before rallying to win the final six games for the 8-4 victory.

"We just have fun out there," Steward said. "Kelsey's goofy and it's just really fun and we just tell each other that we can do this. We've done this a lot where we were down and have a good comeback, even if we don't ultimately win, we at least can come back."

Garden City's No. 1 doubles team of Erika Victor and Caitlin Walz finished in 10th-place. The duo opened with an 8-7 (7-5) loss to Cimarron's Laura Claro and Sharon Garcia and had just one win -- an 8-2 victory over GCHS jayvee team of Emma Corbet and Lynn Nguyen.

Paige Russell, Garden City's No. 1 singles player, took seventh in the tournament. Russell opened with an 8-5 victory over Renee Kippes of Hays before falling 8-1 to Dodge City's Hannah Thomas, who took third in the tournament. Russell defeated Pratt's Sam Kettering in the seventh-place match, 8-1.

"We've been working on some things in practice with Paige," GCHS coach Rod Robinson said. "In practice, she hits the ball really well and then gets out and starts playing and she starts getting defensive. So we're working on her offensive skills and we'll work on that some more in practice."

Aimee Brandt had the second-best finish for Garden City as she placed fifth in the No. 2 singles bracket. Brandt won her opening match against Meade's Devenie Borth, 8-4, before dropping her next two matches -- an 8-2 loss to Jenay Unruh of Dodge City and an 8-3 setback to Anna Yeager of Scott City. Brandt came back with an 8-2 victory over Liberal's Valerie Rito to earn the top-five place.

"As usual, she always plays hard," Robinson said of Brandt. "She never gives up and plays every point to win it. That's her best result this year, so she's been improving her play and also getting used to playing the singles competition and the level of it."

Scott City's Yeager had the best showing of any area players on Saturday. Leading her squad to a seventh-place finish, Yeager took fourth-place in the No. 2 singles bracket after falling to Hays' Hannah Pfannenstiel, 8-1, in the third-place match.

"Last year, I played No. 2 singles and I didn't do very well at all," Yeager said. "I knew that I had improved a lot, so I was hoping to do pretty well today. So I'm happy with the way I did."

Making things a little more difficult for Yeager was the fact that the third-place match was the final match of the tournament -- finishing nearly nine hours after the beginning of the tournament -- and she had to wait nearly an hour between her final matches.

"I wish I could have won the final match," Yeager said, "but I'm not ashamed of how I played."

Scott City's Elizabeth Huck had the best area finish in No. 1 singles by taking sixth-place after falling to Meade's Devenie Borth, 8-5, in the fifth-place match.

Ulysses' Angela Barbo and Courtney Cate had the best area finish in the No. 1 doubles bracket. The pair defeated Hays' Paige Lunsford and Bonnie McRae, 8-5, in the fifth-place match.

The Lady Buffs will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Hutchinson for a 10 a.m. start.

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Team scores -- 1. Colby 45; 2. Dodge City 42; 3. Great Bend 37; 4. Hays 29; 5. Garden City 27; 6. Liberal 26; 7. Scott City 24; 8. Meade 23; 9. Cimarron 19; 10t. Ulysses 16; 10t. Pratt 16; 12. Garden City JV 5.

GCHS results

Singles

No. 1 Paige Russell (7th) def. Renee Kippes, Hays 8-5; lost to Hannah Thomas, Dodge City 8-1; def. Virginie Kyaw, GC JV 8-1; lost to Megan Collins, Great Bend 8-1; def. Sam Kettering, Pratt 8-1.

No. 2 Aimee Brandt (5th) def. Devenie Borth, Meade 8-4; lost to Jenay Unruh, Dodge City 8-2; lost to Anna Yeager, Scott City 8-3; def. Valerie Rito, Liberal 8-2.

Doubles

No. 1 Erika Victor/Caitlin Walz (10th) lost to Laura Claro/Sharon Garcia, Cimarron 8-7(7-5); lost to Lunsford/McRae, Hays 8-2; def. Corbet/Nguyen, GCJV 8-2; lost to Clarkson/Riney, Pratt 8-2.

No. 2 Kelsey Sterling/Kelsey Steward (3rd) def. Carasco/Hernandez, GCJV 8-3; lost to Buntain/Goad, Great Bend 8-1; def. Bird/Gagnon, Hays 8-4; def. Dougherty/Gerstner, Colby 8-4.

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