The prep tennis season usually includes some variety in the roster. Tuesday in McPherson, Coach Zach Bartel mixed up his doubles lineup without his top doubles team in action. The Lady Panthers tied for seventh in the tough eight-team field.
The tournament again put No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the same bracket. Kaylin Wahlmeier paced the Lady Panthers with a ninth-place finish in the singles bracket. After an 8-5 loss to Liberal in round one, she rattled off wins of 8-2 and 8-1 against Liberal and Hays, respectively. She closed out the day at 3-1 with an 8-3 win over teammate Lakyn Smith.
Smith had a tough draw against the eventual singles champion, losing to Garden City's Sydney Nanninga 8-3 in the first round. Nanninga won 8-4 in the finals. Smith beat a McPherson opponent 8-6 and downed Salina South 8-1 to reach the ninth-place match against Wahlmeier.
Clarise Snapp and Mackenzie LaViolette opened the doubles bracket against the No. 1 seed and eventual runners-up from Hutch in an 8-2 loss. The duo lost an 8-3 match to Eisenhower, and an 8-7 (5) battle against Liberal to fall to the 15th-place match. That pitted them against teammates Danica Strickland and Kylie McCormick. Snapp and LaViolette won the match 8-6.
Strickland and McCormick lost their first match to Eisenhower 8-0, then lost 8-2 matches against Liberal and Salina South before running into Snapp and LaViolette.