Manhattan High\u2019s girls tennis team put together a balanced performance Saturday, finishing third at the Emporia Invite against a field that included Mill Valley, Andover, Emporia, St. James Academy, and Derby.<\/p>\n
The Indians finished with strong results throughout the lineup, with both singles players placing in the top five and both doubles teams earning top-nine finishes.<\/p>\n
Sally Kastner led Manhattan in No. 1 singles, finishing fourth with a 2-2 record. Sutton Weixelman added a fifth-place finish at No. 2 singles after going 3-1 on the day.<\/p>\n
Weixelman entered the tournament as the No. 10 seed but worked her way into the top five, continuing a stretch of improvement after competing at No. 1 singles at the Topeka Seaman tournament earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can change the pace of the ball,\u201d Manhattan coach Tony Ingram said. \u201cShe can slice it really well. She also does a pretty good job with her forehand and ground strokes. Her competitiveness is there, and she\u2019s learning as she\u2019s going here at singles a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingram said the experience Weixelman gained earlier in the week helped give her added confidence Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s growing, she\u2019s improving, and she\u2019s staying consistent,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cBut she\u2019s a competitor, and that\u2019s half the battle there at that singles spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kastner, meanwhile, continued to show her consistency from the baseline. Ingram pointed to her conditioning and ability to stay in long rallies as two of her strengths.<\/p>\n
Kastner was seeded fifth entering the tournament and finished fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just stays consistent,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cShe\u2019s a long-ball hitter. She\u2019s going to be there and rally back and forth, and her conditioning is actually really, really great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingram also noted Kastner\u2019s ability to fight back in matches when she fell behind, something he said demonstrates how much she has developed as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s maturing as a tennis player, and as a senior that\u2019s expected of her. She\u2019s doing really great, and I was really proud of her and happy for her to get that fourth-place finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manhattan\u2019s doubles teams faced a different challenge Saturday, with the Indians entering the tournament without their usual No. 1 doubles pairing.<\/p>\n
Sophie Karr and Grace Koo moved into the No. 1 doubles spot and finished eighth with a 1-3 record. Emory Meusborn and Regan Berish took over at No. 2 doubles and finished ninth despite also going 3-1.<\/p>\n
Meusborn and Berish endured a difficult opening matchup before bouncing back and winning three consecutive matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really proud of their resilience,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cThe way they bounced back and went ahead and hung on in a tiebreaker and ended up going 3-1 on the day, which is a really good showing in a fairly tough field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karr and Koo\u2019s record did not fully reflect their performance, according to Ingram. The pair won its opening-round match in a tiebreaker before moving into the top eight, where the competition became tougher, including a matchup against the tournament\u2019s No. 2 seed.<\/p>\n
Ingram said the experience should benefit the young doubles team moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really took a learning mindset to it, and I loved their energy,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cYou could hear their voices throughout the court, cheering for each other and everything. That energy was something good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indians\u2019 third-place finish also reinforced Ingram\u2019s belief that Manhattan has more depth than perhaps initially expected.<\/p>\n
With both the varsity and JV competing at the tournament, the long day also provided an opportunity to see how players handled different situations and maintained their focus throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about being able to stay consistent and stay focused no matter what the score was, whether you\u2019re up big or down big,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cI think it shows there\u2019s a little more depth on our team. I knew there was, I thought there was, and it just helped prove that there\u2019s good depth on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The JV squad also finished third, with Emily Espinoza taking third at No. 1 singles. Manhattan\u2019s two JV doubles teams both finished third, with Audrey Alberg and Elliette Hailey placing at No. 1 doubles and Brylee Sanneman and Juna Althoff finishing third at No. 2 doubles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy it because it allows me to watch some of the junior varsity players play,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cAlso, those junior varsity players get to watch varsity players, not just ours, but other teams, and be a part of a varsity tournament. That\u2019s a great experience for our younger players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manhattan returned to competition Tuesday when it hosted a home quad at the new Cico Park tennis courts. Sabetha, Maryville and Washburn Rural will join the Indians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan High\u2019s girls tennis team put together a balanced performance Saturday, finishing third at the Emporia Invite against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,319,26626,130004],"class_list":["post-347542","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-tournament","tag-varsity-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347542","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=347542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}