Nevada netters upended in Class 1 district semifinals

After dispatching Knob Noster on Monday in the opening round of the Class 1 District 12 tennis tournament, the third-seeded Nevada Tigers were then derailed by No. 2 Warrensburg in Tuesday’s tourney semifinals.

With the loss, Nevada concludes the team-play portion of its season, 12-3-1.

Playing on their home court at Grover Park, Warrensburg needed the minimum five matches against Nevada — taking the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches, and then sweeping a trio of doubles matches to secure the victory.

In the No. 1 singles match, Warrensburg’s Sung Cho knocked off Tanner Gotschall in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. The No. 2 singles match was also decisive, as Cory Conley tripped up Nevada’s Sam Rea 6-1, 6-1.

Warrensburg’s No. 1 doubles team bested Gotschall and Caleb Theis, 8-1. Warrensburg continued its dominance in the No. 2 doubles match, as Joshua Banks and Brock Hepler toppled Rea and Gabe Barnes, 8-2. In the No. 3 doubles match, the Warrensburg duo of Joshua Terrell and Jacob Christopher defeated Colson Fisher and Jace Lanham, 8-3.

“(This) brought an end to our (team-play) season,” said Nevada head coach Clayton Wheeler. “We finished the year with the best record since I became coach. The only losses this year came from (No. 1 seed) Bolivar and Warrensburg, and they are good teams.”

Continued Wheeler, “Our losses this year have been due to small gremlins that we cannot seems to get past. Those issues show themselves at very critical times. We are hoping that we can break some of these issues in time for today’s individual district tournament in Bolivar.”

Hosting sixth-seeded Knob Noster at the Nevada tennis courts Monday, the Tigers breezed to a 5-0 victory.

In singles matches, Nevada’s No. 5, Barnes bounced Brady Wenger 6-1, 6-1. Meanwhile, Nevada’s No. 6, Lanham, steamrolled Jacob Bailey 6-1, 6-0.

Nevada then swept the doubles matches. Nevada’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams — Gotschall-Theis and Rea-Barnes, doubled up their opponents by identical scores of 8-4. Nevada’s No. 3 tandem Fisher and Lanham, blanked Eli Turner and Ethan Courter, 8-0.

“We played great,” Wheeler said Monday.

Warrensburg carried over the momentum from its victory over Nevada into the district title match, toppling top-seeded Bolivar, 5-3.

WCC accolades

A trio of Nevada netters garnered All-West Central Conference accolades. Gotschall (7-6) and Rea (12-5) were tabbed to the All-WCC team, while Caleb Theis (11-5) was named as an Honorable Mention selection.