Senior Taylor Lind waits to recieve a serve from opponent Ray-Pec.

The Lady Pirates tennis team faced off against Ray-Pec in the first round of team districts. The Lady Pirates came into districts as the fourth seed and Ray-Pec as 5th seed.

The Lady Pirates failed to beat Ray-Pec, in result they were eliminated out of districts in the first round. Coach Liz Hunsaker said there were a lot of matches that the tennis team should have won this year including this one.  

“We will be better next year,” Hunsaker said. “We have a lot of younger players that are going to step it up.”

The girls’ record during the regular season was 3-8. They also received 2nd place in a tournament at Excelsior Springs and a 4th place finish at a tournament held here in Belton.

Senior Kelsie Monasmith said she had a good season but that she wishes the weather would have been nicer.

“I feel like we had a good season because we were all friends,” Monasmith said. “But we had a lot of injuries, which hurt us.”

The Lady Pirates lost the district match 4-5, junior Lauren Cook being the only member of the team to win a singles match.

Senior Taylor Lind said she and the team should have been more focused.

“I feel like it was one of our best seasons,” Lind said. “There was no drama and we got along better.”

Senior Courtney Clear said she felt it was a pretty good year but it could have been better.

“The team did better than the past three years,” Clear said. “But the whole team could have played more united.”

Courtney Clear and Taylor Lind will be competing in the doubles matches in the individual Districts and they both said that they were excited because they think that they will do well, but they were also nervous. The singles Districts begins Oct. 7.

It has been very hot in the past weeks, the tennis team has been preparing themselves to get used to the heat by practicing more outside.
   
“We’ve practiced a lot , we know its hot out so we ran them inside and outside,” Hunsaker said. “ We’ve had three full challenge matches to be ready in the heat”
  
Varsity player sophomore Kaytlin Gooch played on the tennis team last school year and has worked on improving her skills all throughout the spring in summer.
   
“I have basically lived at the courts this summer just practicing every day,” Gooch said.
  
Sophomore Samantha Hill said she has been running to prepare for this action packed season.
   
“I have definitely been running a lot to make my legs stronger,” Hill said. “I think the most important thing to do to prepare is to hit every day or as much as possible.”
  
Hill competed in her first tie breaker at the meet in Lee’s Summit, she said it she felt intimidated by the experience.
   
“I have never been in that situation before so it was very nerve wracking,” Hill said. “She started making bad calls and I got over whelmed , that’s probably why I lost.”
  
Expectations of the team this season vary from coach to player, but still remain exceptionally high.
  
Sophomore Rachel Smith is all about having fun and trying her hardest to succeed. Smith competed with the tennis team last year and she said she continues to grow as a player.
  
“I expect my teammates and myself to try their hardest and have good sportsmanship throughout  their games,” Smith said.

   In the world of tennis, being passive and shy won’t get a player anywhere, Hunsaker said she expects her team to be aggressive as well as competitive in their matches.
 
 “I think they will be competitive and get the job done,” Hunsaker said. “The first game jitters are out of the way.”
   
Gooch said she would like to do the best she can do this season.
   
“I’m expecting the best we can do this season and that means winning,” Gooch said.
  
Now that their first match of the season is out of the way, the girls’ tennis team is ready for action and looking forward to the rest of their season.

Assistant Coach Andrew Mullen said Cook took fifth place in singles.

“As a sophomore that’s a pretty big deal because that is the highest of anybody I can remember placing in districts for Belton individuals,” Mullen said.

Although Cook said she thinks fifth place is a big accomplishment for a sophomore she feels she should’ve done better.

“I feel I did as good as a sophomore, but I’m not going to stop there,” Cook said. “I’m going to try to go for first next year.”

Other than Cook’s win, Mullen said they only had one other win in a match by one of the doubles teams.

“After that, we didn’t do so hot, but the girls worked really hard, it’s just that the competition seemed to have had a better background in tennis and so our girls struggled at times,” Mullen said. “Our girls actually looked pretty decent on the court, it’s just the other players looked more decent.”

Ford, who got a bye and didn’t have to play in the first round because of high expectations on her, said she wishes she’d come out with a win, but said “it is what it is” and that it was still a good end to her season.

“I feel like I have grown a lot these past four years as a player and worked hard to get where I am,” Ford said. “I am pretty proud of myself, even if I didn’t get the win that I was hoping for.”

Ford said she thinks that everyone did their best in districts and that the girls should be proud of how they did.  

“The outcome in the end isn’t all that matters this year,” Ford said. “A lot of the girls bonded throughout the year and we all have made friends that will last us a lot longer than any medal at a tournament.”

Head Coach Liz Hunsaker said that Lee’s Summit West is the number one seat in the district.

“They’ll go through sectionals, probably,” Hunsaker said.

Assistant Coach Andrew Mullen said the game’s end results are deceptive.

“Because of Lee’s Summit West’s private lessons, they are able to play on a totally different level than a lot of the other schools in the area, and our performance doesn’t show the true depiction of what we actually play like,” Mullen said. “I know Megan Ford had some of the best shots I’ve ever seen her do and the score didn’t show how hard Lauren and Erin and Emily played, but I watched them and I think they were doing great.”

Junior Taylor Lind said that even though the team didn’t win they did play well. She also said she really disliked playing Lee’s Summit West.

“We played fine as a team, but when you have mean girls to play against it’s hard to play good and like them,” Lind said. “I figured out that I am better when I play nicer people, because the girl from Ray-Pec yesterday was really nice, but the girl from Lee’s Summit West was just mean.”

Along with some unsportsmanlike conduct from the some of the players, the team also faced some additional distractions from the players’ family members. Lind said that every time she missed a shot the brother of her opponent would shout out “yes!”.

Although the circumstances weren’t the best and the team didn’t take the victory, junior Courtney Clear said she thinks the team still played the best they could for the most part.

“I didn’t do well, but I think the team did well because we actually won some of the games during the matches,” Clear said.

Due to this loss, the tennis team is done with team Districts. However, they will be participating in single Districts Oct. 8. The team has entered two players for singles matches and four players for two pairs of doubles matches.

Head Coach Liz Hunsaker said she is very proud of the girls’ performance.

“It was very nice to have the tables turn,” Hunsaker said. “When we played Ray-Pec earlier in the season we lost to them 4-5, and Coach Mullen and I both felt that we should’ve won that game.”

After facing defeat against Ray-Pec at their own courts, Hunsaker said it was really nice for the girls to turn around and win in districts when Ray-Pec’s girls were all pumped up and at their own courts.

Junior Taylor Lind said she feels the game went really well.

“I thought we all tried our hardest and I’m glad we beat Ray-Pec,” Lind said. “I was really excited.”

Junior Courtney Clear said she thinks that seniors Erin Kauser and Emily Newcomer “kicked butt” with their doubles and that she and Lind did pretty well with their doubles too. Clear said sophomore Lauren Cook, Lind and Newcomer did really well with their singles matches.

Assistant Coach Andrew Mullen said he thinks the game was the peak of a very long season.

“I thought that every girl stepped up and did the shots that they needed, the serves they wanted and the kind of play that they worked so hard all season for, and it all came together in the biggest victory we’ve had here in quite a while,” Mullen said.

The girls will continue on in Districts and play Lee’s Summit West Oct. 5.

Assistant Coach Andrew Mullen said the Ray-Pec game was interesting because the girls had already started playing Sept. 2, the original date for the game, but then it got cancelled.

“The rain delayed it for three weeks, which makes it sound like we were in monsoon season, but that’s just the timing,” Mullen said. “It took three weeks to get us back out on the courts and it’s another one we had in the bag and I think we ended up giving it away, which is unfortunate because once again the girls played pretty good, just not as good as needed to push them over into the victory.”

The team won four out of six of their singles matches so all they had to do in order to win the whole thing was to win one out of three of their doubles matches. Senior Erin Kauser said she was very upset about losing because they almost beat Ray-Pec for the first time in many, many years.

“Our number three doubles was winning and then lost it so it was up to the number one and number two doubles and we both lost it at deuce and the score was 8-10 so we really almost had it,” Kauser said.

Senior Emily Newcomer said that being so close but not actually winning the entire game was extremely disappointing.

“My eyes were like a waterfall,” Newcomer said.

But even though the team didn’t have the win in the bag, Newcomer said she thinks everyone played the best they could, which she said makes it easier to deal with. And despite the disappointment of the loss, Newcomer said the game was still fun.

“It felt pretty awesome winning my singles, and my doubles with Erin was so much fun,” Newcomer said. “We talked in British accents with our opponents and played well.”

Kauser said going into the game that she expected the end results to be better than they were.

“I really thought we were going to win,” Kauser said. “We did a great job, so I’m happy about that, and hope to do it again when we play them again Monday for districts.”

Kauser said she is excited about getting the chance to play against Ray-Pec in districts and said she thinks there’s a good chance that they will win if they have their minds set on winning and going their best.

“I want to beat them,” Kauser said. “If we go out there and do our best, we will.”

Districts start Oct. 4.

Assistant Coach Andrew Mullen said the girls handled their matches against the Bears pretty well.

“With William Chrisman we came really close in a very winnable match, but we just fell short,” Mullen said, “which is unfortunate because I thought we played hard enough to deserve the win.”

Senior Emily Newcomer  won her singles match, 10-2. She won her doubles match, along with her doubles partner senior Erin Kauser, as well. Newcomer said she thought it was “pretty stinkin’ awesome” to win.

“I always try hard, but I tried very hard today also,” Newcomer said. “I figured I’d win.”

Junior Taylor Lind got the chance to play her doubles with her best friend, junior Courtney Clear. She was really excited after they won the match because she said she was really angry going on the court and then while she was on the court she was still really angry, but she used her anger during the match which helped with her serves and slams.

“Courtney would save my butt like a million times and she would come up and get something that I missed,” Lind said. “Courtney was just getting them and it’s the best I’ve ever felt, really; I honestly have never felt better in my life.”

Since both she and Clear were kind of mad while their match was going on, Lind said she thought they were going to lose.

“But no, we didn’t!” Lind said with excitement.

Mullen said the team has shown much improvement since the beginning of the season.

“Coach Hunsaker and I have definitely seen improvement from the team on many levels,” Mullen said. “The inexperienced players have greatly improved their abilities and understanding of the game and the varsity players have refined aspects of their game that needed tuning.”

Although the girls have improved, Mullen said the problem is that other teams have done the same.

“We must try to improve at a faster pace than others in order to showcase our talents on the court,” Mullen said.

The girls tennis team will play Ray-Pec next Monday after three weeks of delay from their original game against the Panthers on Sept. 2 which was cancelled and rescheduled due to rain.

After pointing out that Park Hill South is a state qualifying school, Head Coach Liz Hunsaker said the team did as well as could be expected. She said the girls didn’t play bad or get down on themselves, and they even took some games to deuce point.

“Our doubles played a lot stronger on the court even though the competition was way higher,” Hunsaker said. “That’s all you can expect them to do.”

Assistant Coach Andrew Mullen said the girls definitely had their hands full. He said they were up against a team with a lot of experience.

“I think that some of the girls stepped up and kept Park Hill South on their toes,” Mullen said. “Not giving up against a team like that says a lot about our determination, despite the final results not being in our favor.”

Hunsaker said she thinks senior Megan Ford played some of the best tennis she has played in a long time.

“Megan scored four against a girl who is third in the state,” Hunsaker said. “That’s pretty good right there.”

Ford said her match against Park Hill South was her best match of the season. She said she played the way she used to, which she really liked.

“The girl I played, placed in state last year and I was able to keep up with her and play really well,” Ford said.

Ford said the team took a lot from their matches and didn’t get down on themselves throughout their games.

“I think the team did really well considering the competition we were up against,” Ford said.

Junior Taylor Lind said she thinks most of the girls played well. She said Park Hill South is a tough team but most of the girls managed to get at least a game on them.

“I think we played one of our best,” Lind said. “Everyone was just really determined during this match, and even though we didn’t win we were still great.”

Ford said singles came down to tough rallies and in the end the other team was better at making the winning point. She said the team still needs to work on communication between the two players in doubles.

“There is still a lot of improvement that all of us can make, but I think that everyone is doing a good job of stepping up and working hard toward that goal,” Ford said.

Sophomore Lauren Cook held her own in her intense singles match as all the teammates and coaches from both sides gathered around silently, waiting to see who would take the win.  Cook finished ahead, 10-6, and remained the only varsity girl to win.

Cook said that her thoughts going into the game were that she really wanted to do well.

“I think we did good for playing who we played,” Cook said. “I think we all could have won if we had played an easier team.”

Junior Taylor Lind said she didn’t know what would happen or what to expect from the game.

“I was extremely nervous,” Lind said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous.”

Senior Megan Ford, who said she’d rather the girls took things from Wednesday’s game and put it in the past, also said the team definitely improved in Thursday’s game.  She said that both Lee’s Summit and Lee’s Summit North have always been tough to beat.

“We had some close matches,” Ford said. “With a little more practice we could definitely beat them.”

Regarding what the girls need to work on, Ford said communication is a big thing in doubles and staying more focused in singles is important as well.

Junior Courtney Clear said they also need to improve on winning deuces since they did poorly.

“We did better than yesterday, but we still can improve,” Clear said.

Coach Andrew Mullen also had some things he felt the team needs to focus on.  This included working on consistency, getting to the ball and serves.

“Serves are bad news right now,” Mullen said.

Mullen said that despite the less than exciting scoreboard, it shows the places the team needs improvement.

“I was very happy with the way the Belton girls conduct themselves,” Mullen said.

Mullen said the team left him impressed considering the fact that half the team had never played a match before.

The team will get the chance to gain even more experience this weekend at the Lee’s Summit tournament.