With postseason play approaching, Manhattan High boys tennis put together one of its more complete team performances of the season, finishing second at the Centennial League Championship on Monday at Kossover Tennis Facility in Topeka.<\/p>\n
The Indians placed near or above their projected seeds across the lineup, something the coaching staff emphasized after the meet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were pleased with the second-place finish,\u201d head coach Tony Ingram said. \u201cCoach (Taylor) Satterthwaite and I thought the group did a good job competing around their seeds. Across the lineup, guys handled their spots well and gave us a solid overall day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jay Hoke led the way once again, going 3-0 to claim first place in No. 1 singles and secure his second straight Centennial League singles title. Hoke was dominant throughout the day, dropping just two games across all three matches.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Ingram pointed to consistency as the focus with postseason play approaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor regionals, it\u2019s about maintaining a rhythm,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s playing very well right now. He carries himself so well on the court\u2014not just as the top player, but as a tremendous teammate. He\u2019s rooting for others and helping off the court, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoke is expected to see many familiar opponents at regionals and is likely to enter as a top seed.<\/p>\n
At No. 2 singles, Henry He finished 3-1 to take fifth place, continuing what the coaching staff sees as steady progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like Henry has made some of the most growth from a competitor standpoint,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cHe had two very long matches.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his fifth-place match, He battled through a split-set contest and came out on top in a super tiebreaker\u2014an experience that stood out given his development over the course of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier in the year, he probably wouldn\u2019t have won that match,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cHis skills are improving, but more importantly, how he carries himself on the court has changed. His mentality toward competition is more focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
In doubles, Zac Morgan and Samuel Byerly went 2-1 to finish third, including a key win in the third-place match against Topeka High. After splitting sets, the pair closed it out in a super tiebreaker, 10-6\u2014a result that could help their seeding heading into regionals.<\/p>\n
Luke Nichols and Ayavanth Natarajan finished 2-2 and placed sixth. The pair picked up multiple wins during the day and showed progress, though they\u2019ll likely need a strong showing at regionals to advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth doubles teams helped themselves with their results,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cZac and Samuel set themselves up well for a strong seed. Luke and Ayavanth will need to take the next step and upset a team or two\u2014but that\u2019s within reach if they can play consistently. It starts with getting that first win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manhattan will return to Kossover on Saturday, for the regional tournament, where they\u2019ll compete against seven other teams for a chance to qualify for the 6A State Tennis Championships at Riverside Tennis Complex in Wichita, scheduled for May 15-16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With postseason play approaching, Manhattan High boys tennis put together one of its more complete team performances of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,319,9763],"class_list":["post-220783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-sports-competitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}