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Nevada tennis pulls No. 2 seed in district tournament
Nevada Daily Mail
The Nevada Lady Tigers have been awarded the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Class 1 District 12 tennis (team) tournament. The tournament will be held at Warrensburg High School, Sept. 28-30.
Warrensburg is the top seed, followed by Nevada, Clinton, Knob Noster, Father Tolton Regional Catholic School, and Harrisonville High School.
By securing a top-two seed, Nevada receives a first-round bye and gets the winner of the Clinton-Father Tolton matchup, Sept. 29.
The Lady Tigers improved to 8-4 overall with a 7-2 Wednesday afternoon home defeat of Lamar.
Nevada tennis coach Samantha Short said she has been pleased with her team's performance to this point in the season.
"Three of the teams we lost to were really solid, and two of those matches could have gone either way," Short said.
Short said her team still has room for improvement heading into post-season play.
"(We) need to get rid of that spotiness, you need to have girls be solid in all areas," she said. "You can't falter at this point with your game, all the little things should be taken care of. There's some things we're still having to make corrections on, and it's pretty late in the year to be making major changes."
Short evaluated her team's performance so far this season.
"Our No. 1 doubles team, Megan Payne and Emma Cheaney is pretty solid," she said. "They've lost some close matches to some good teams. Our No. 3 doubles team, Erika Watanabe and Jaiden Cherry has only lost to Bolivar, so their record is phenomenal. If you count tournament play, they would be 14-1.
Cherry is a sophomore while Watanabe is a freshman.
"Jaiden and Erika complement each other really well," Short said. "Erika has played some big hitters and come up on the winning end of that, so that's impressive."
Short said she has been pleased with Watanabe's freshman-season performance, but still sees plenty of room for her to grow on the court.
"She has a lot that she's working on," Short said of Watanabe. "A lot of net-play that she still needs to figure out to be a better doubles player. Her baseline game is pretty solid most of the time.
"Jaiden has only lost one singles match and it was to Warrensburg. Overall, we have a really solid varsity group, especially on the lower half ---- Sydnie Baker is just killing it. Her forehand is much more solid than last year, and she can just run everything down now. She's a totally different player."
Singles results vs. Lamar
* Nevada No. 1 Megan Payne lost via forfeit to Grace Compton.
* Nevada No. 2 Emma Cheaney was edged by Brooklyn Dewey 8-6.
* Nevada No. 3 Erika Watanabe beat Grace Dunlap 8-2.
* Nevada No. 4 Sydnie Baker defeated Morgan Brisbain 8-1.
* Nevada No. 5 Jaiden Cherry blanked Kelli Sheat 8-0.
* Nevada No. 6 Courtney Smith beat Kayla Mayfield 8-2.
Doubles play
* Payne and Cheaney beat Compton and Dewey 8-3.
* Watanabe and Cherry bounced Dunlap and Sheat 8-2.
* Baker and Smith drubbed Mayfield and Brisbain 8-2.