TOPEKA — Iola’s Colby Works has done something that very few tennis players can say. He won his final match of the season.
And now he’s done it for the second year in a row.
Last season, Works won the ninth-place match in Topeka. This year, he emerged victorious in the 11th-place match to earn his third medal in as many years at the 4A Kansas State Tennis Tournament.
“I’m proud he could get another medal,” Iola coach Dan Berg said. “He’s been a lot of fun to coach and he is a really good player.”
Works’ road to his medal was an up-and-down journey that included injuries, match-ups with close friends, match-ups with rivals and a very well-timed pep-talk from his coach.
Works’ first opponent entered the tournament with the worst record in the field at 8-18 and after some early jitters, the Iola senior was able to dispatch Andover Central’s Braeden Winters by giving up only three points to the junior over the course of two sets.
“I got down early, but then scored nine straight points to beat him so it wasn’t that stressful of a match,” Works said.
Next up for Works was a familiar face in DeSoto’s Luke Zoller.
“Luke is probably my best friend of anybody on the circuit, so to speak,” Works said. “We are really good buddies and we knew by looking at the bracket coming in that we were probably going to play.”
The two friends had a very competitive match with Zoller winning the first set with Works scoring only three points.
In the second set, Works gave the De Soto senior all he could handle by forcing the set into a tiebreaker.
Zoller won the tiebreaker, forcing Works into the consolation bracket to play one final match on Friday with a medal and opportunity to play on Saturday hanging in the balance.
Works made quick work of Shawnee Mission-Bishop Miege left-hander Dempsey Shannon to guarantee himself a medal.
“I practice with a lefty (Eric Sparks), so I was used to it,” Works said. “He was what we call a pusher. He just kind of got the ball back over, so once we started warming up I knew I’d have a good chance. It was nice because I didn’t have a whole lot of stress and didn’t have to tire myself too badly so I could feel fresh for Saturday.”
Works’ first opponent of the final day was the only freshman to make the field, McPherson’s Jarrod Nowak. Going into the tournament, Works considered the young player to be among the top-five players in the field. Nowak was the only one of the top players not in the semifinals and it was Works’ misfortune to draw him in the consolation rounds.
“I knew going in, that he was a really, really good player,” Works said. “I’d seen him play a couple of times this year, so I knew I had to be aggressive, but I just wasn’t feeling that great.
