Victory over South tops Trojans' week

The Park Hill boys tennis team had a solid string of victories against Oak Park, North Kansas City, and Park Hill South before hitting a patch of rough matches in the Pembroke Hill Invitational last weekend where they lost to Blue Valley Northwest (2-1), Pembroke Hill (3-0), and Blue Valley North (3-0). All three teams are considered some of the best in Kansas and Missouri.

"We've had some pretty decisive wins at the 5 and 6 spots, that's kind of what we've been seeing. We're making them do things they don't like to do always in terms of style, but we're stretching them and seeing them develop into stronger players," Coach Tim Kalis said.

Michael Jones, Blake Barnad, Christian Reinmiller, Drew Nickell, and Max Schoettger all won their individual matches in racking up a 7-2 victory over Oak Park to start off last week. Ian Pauley added to the mix the next day against North Kansas City with his 6-3, 6-2 victory along with the doubles pairs of Jones/Barnard and Schoettger/Nickell. The Trojans concluded their victory streak against Park Hill South in what could be considered a mild upset with a 6-3 win. After South's top players Griffin Smith and Zach Royal won their singles matches, the Trojans rattled off four straight singles victories from Reinmiller, Nickell, Schoettger, and Chris To capped it off with his first varsity victory. That setup the momentum for the doubles team to finalize the win heading into the weekend invitational.

"They're a solid team and they have their top couple kids back. They're extremely strong at the top," Kalis said of South. "It could have gone either way, possibly been a 6-3 swing the other way as well."

"They really feed off each other. Their leadership as captains (Nickell and Jones) has been excellent," Kalis said of the mix between classes his team has. "It's good for a freshmen (Barnard)to play with one of our captains (Jones) in doubles because it has allowed him to step up as well."

"So far we've exceeded where the expectations probably were at the beginning of the season, but the goals have never changed," Kalis said.