Iola High’s Fillies were able to make several changes to their varsity lineup on Thursday, when they hosted the Iola Invitational.
The changes were largely successful with the Fillies able to win matches with both their singles players and their top doubles team.
“I would’ve liked to see a few more wins, but I can’t complain too much,” Iola coach Jenn Bycroft said. “ I switched the lineup around for our home matches. Last week, I only took four to compete at varsity, but I wanted to have a full lineup for our only home match. Anticipating the ball and footwork are two things that we constantly talk about and need to continue to work on as a team. We’re getting better. We’re getting stronger.”
Carley Cescon was the top performer of the day for the Fillies. The first-year tennis player played No. 2 singles after playing No. 2 doubles last week in the season-opening meet in Chanute.
The junior went 2-1 on the day, including a 6-5 (7-5) tiebreaker victory over Columbus’ Bethany Robinson.
Junior Erin Klubek also made the switch from doubles to singles. Normally on the Fillies’ No. 1 doubles team, Klubek played as Iola’s top singles player and finished her day with a 1-2 record.
Klubek’s win came over Columbus’ Abbey Peterson. Klubek controlled the match through out and won 6-2.
With Cescon and Klubek playing singles, that forced changes to both of Iola’s doubles pairings.
Macayla Bycroft was joined on the No. 1 doubles team by freshman Allie Utley, seeing her first varsity action.
Bycroft and Utley got off to a great start by beat the Columbus team 6-2.
Their second match of the day was a heartbreaking loss to the team from Independence in a 6-5 (7-5) tiebreaker. They finished the tournament 1-2.
Junior Sloan Geddry joined sophomore Jennifer Tidd on the No. 2 doubles team. They finished the meet 0-3, but had several close matches, including a 6-5 (8-6) tiebreaker loss to Parsons.
