Top tennis player puts on game face

Some true competitors are hard to spot when they’re not in action. Even on the surface when initially meeting them, you may be surprised they’re able to aggressively excel as much as they do when they present such a welcoming and innocent demeanor. The high school sports world is full of these types of competitors and you can see the change take place as they step from non-playing surface to playing surface.

Park Hill junior Suzanne Barth is one of those athletes and it’s even more evident this season as she is working to not only return to the state tennis tournament’s championship match again, but to win that match after coming in second a year ago. Kirkwood’s Rachel Stuhlmann, who Barth lost to in consecutive sets (6-0, 6-0) last year, has graduated leaving Barth with the added motivation to claim what she had come so close to doing last year as a sophomore. Coach Rustin Reys doesn’t believe it’s a matter of ability, but mentality.

“She’s so talented that she just has to learn to use her weapons to the best of her ability,” Reys said. “If her game plan and approach is right, she can’t be beat.”

Asked what it was like to be selected as one of the team captains as a junior, Barth will respond humbly, but her coach says she is a natural selection based on her own work ethic. While she may be soft spoken in the hallways of Park Hill, Barth seems to become someone different when she steps onto the court for practice or a match.

“She’s very authoritative when it comes to leading the team and pushing herself hard,” Reys said. “She’s very competitive and wants to win 10-0 every match.”

“I don’t like losing,” Barth said of her approach to competing. “It’s important to stay mentally strong all day.

Park Hill lost its first conference meet in several years to Lee’s Summit West last week. Although Barth did not play, as a captain she knew how important it was to shake the loss off and set their sights on the post-season.

“We need to stay positive,” Barth said. “We lost the match earlier in the week, so we just need to stay together.”

Although bummed with a sore left wrist of late, Barth’s one more year of experience and practice could bring her back to the state tournament as a more mature player and her coaches believe it will be the way she handles adversity that could be the difference maker.

“She has all the skills to be a state champ because she has no shot that needs improvement,” Reys said. “If she can make good game decisions, she will do well.”

Park Hill looks to Homecoming

After a disappointing road trip and defeat at Jefferson City last week 40-14, the Trojans will return to their home field this week as they host North Kansas City and hold homecoming festivities at Shorty Preston Field. North Kansas City comes into Friday’s game with a 1-4 record after winning their first game of the season last week against Ruskin by a slim 22-20 margin. In addition to a conference game, this will be a final tune-up for both teams as next week will be the first round of district play.

While Jefferson City has more than a one hundred year football history, Park Hill coach Greg Reynolds hoped his Trojan team would be able to match their own recent decade of successes with the Blue Jays last week. Park Hill struck first when Trace Norfleet put the Trojans on the board with his four yard touchdown run. Jefferson City bounced back by scoring two touchdowns. The first was a 25 yard run by Same Turner while the other was a 42 yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Tisdel. Park Hill tied it up at 14-14 before the half when Nathan Wilson found De’Aris Flint for a nine yard touchdown pass.

Tied at the half on the road against a good team was a good place to be in for the Trojans, but Jefferson City came alive in the third quarter by scoring 19 unanswered points followed by another touchdown in the fourth quarter. Jefferson City’s Devon Moore produced several long runs against the Trojans included the first two touchdowns in the half. He ended the night with seven carries for 106 yards. While Park Hill’s Trace Norfleet had 138 yards rushing, he needed 26 carries to get it, which is well above his season average.

Park Hill is now 3-2 on the season with a 2-0 conference record coming into this week.

Fall Roundup: September 20-24

Park Hill Boys Soccer
Park Hill Soccer went 3-0 last week with wins against St. Joe Central, Ruskin, and Blue Springs. An 11-2 thumping of St. Joe started off the week followed by another convincing 9-1 victory against Ruskin with three goals from Cole Walker, two a piece from Ray Lee and Neal Sampson, and one from Nick Shepherd. They finished off the week with an exciting 2-1 victory over Blue Springs in overtime with goals from David Zdvorak and Quenton Noble. The Trojans are now 9-2-1 going into this week's competitions against Lee's Summit West and St. Joe Central.

Park Hill Girls Tennis
Park Hill Girls Tennis has had quite a streak of conference success of recent years, but it came to an end last week as they lost their first conference match in several years to a talented Lee's Summit West team 7-2 with both the top singles and doubles matches going to the Titans. The Trojans shook it off later in the week with a 9-0 shutout of Ruskin with Ashleigh Bos taking the top singles match 8-1.

Park Hill Volleyball
Park Hill only played one game last week, but it was for a special cause, as the Trojans took on the Liberty North Eagles in their inaugural Dig for a Cure game. Although having defeated them two times already this season, Park Hill got down early inthe first game, but battled to a 24-24 tie before Liberty finally broke it to take a 26-24 victory. The Trojans took the second game 25-18 before the Eagles defeated them 25-21 for the 2-1 victory. Park Hill is now 10-9-1 on the season.

Coach Lindsey Hood was disappointed with the loss, but pointed out the significance of the game off the court with the $4,400 the two teams were able to raise for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and Camp Quality, both receiving $2,200.

"We continue to work the big picture of life and remind them that volleyball is not everything," Hood said of the event. "We were very proud of our girls and even though we lost the match, our focus was how accomplished the girls should feel.

Park Hill Girls and Boys Cross Country

They had it marked on their calendars since early August and this past weekend the Park Hill girls cross country team let area teams know they mean business at the Rim Rock Invitational in Lawrence. Their 84 points gave them a first place finish ahead of 23 other teams. The Trojans' top runner, Kim Rau, came in fourth place with a time of 16:03.9.

The Park Hill Boys came in fourth in their division at Rim Rock with a team score of 187.

They will compete in one more event this weekend, the KC Metro Classic, before the Conference race next weekend.

Experienced Trojan golfers look to postseason

Girls high school golf season can be gone in the blink of an eye. Five weeks is all that separates the first week of match play and the conference tournament. For Park Hill golf coach Tari Garner, it’s been a season that has gone by almost too quickly as she’s coaching one of the most talented teams she’s seen in recent years. The Trojans feature two state qualifiers from a year ago, Anna Kloeppel and Stephanie Atkinson, along with Bailey Warlan, Sam Brunker, and Erica Crainshaw. All are returning varsity players from last year.

“We’ve got a great group of girls with great attitude,” Garner said. “It’s gone so fast.”

After catching up with the team last week during a match with Staley, Garner talked about how she is seeing signs of the team peaking at the right time.

“We’re seeing a tremendous drop (in scores) right now which is telling us we’re doing something right,” Garner said. “On average, we’re in the 80’s and we started in the 90’s.”

While the Trojan golfers have seen their scores drop, Garner hoped a lot of the kinks some were experiencing would be worked out with some practice days the team has coming up.

“I don’t know if it’s pressure or if they have to work more on the range,” Garner said. “I think what we need to do is back off and let them figure it out on their own. We’ll have time this week before conference.”

“I think we know our practice levels need to come up and focus needs to get a lot better,” Kloeppel said.

“I’m trying to not worry as much this year because last year we put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Crainshaw said.

Of course, the short season has been a long time in the making with this group making it a habit of playing and working throughout the summer to come into the season as prepared as possible.

“We worked like crazy this summer and would always have at least one day a week in the summer where we could all work together in addition to our individual time,” Crainshaw said.

“I definitely practiced more this year than in the past,” Kloeppel added.

Although an individual sport, these Park Hill golfers have found improving individually helped their teammates as well, whether it is in practice or getting through a bad round.

“We know what our strengths and weaknesses are, so when we have time we spend it working on those things,” Crainshaw said. “We all build off each other.”

“We all try to help each other so if one of us struggles one day we try to get them through it,” Kloeppel said. “I think when you see one person getting better it motivates you to get better too.”

The conference tournament is this Monday with the district tournament the following week.

Trojans topple Truman, travel to Jeff City

After a 61-20 trampling of Truman last Friday, this week the 3-1 Park Hill will make a long road trip to Jefferson City. The Blue Jays’ program is high on success and tradition, but they’re coming off a narrow 39-36 defeat last week against Columbia Rockbridge and are now 2-2 on the year.

“We’re going to be in a hostile environment with a good team and proud tradition. We have to be ready to play and if we do what we’re supposed to it will be a very good football game,” coach Greg Reynolds said. “I hope these kids represent what this program is, which is one I think is pretty good too.”

With the return of offensive tackle Adam Vanderpool to the lineup, the Trojans were able to turn out one of their most balanced and point producing performances of the season last week with 539 yards of total offense. Making his season debut, Vanderpool provides experience as a returning starter to an offensive line that has experienced some key injuries early in the season. This continued last week as junior Zach Anderson made his first start at guard due to an injury.

“It feels great, I was missing it a lot,” Vanderpool said. “I just have to play hard every play and let those young guys know you can’t take plays off.”

Park Hill jumped out to a 20-0 lead before Truman began to exploit a perceived weakness in the Trojan passing defense with a series of passes which led to a 5-yard touchdown pass to make it 20-7. Although up 34-7 at the half after several touchdown runs from Trace Norfleet, the Patriots kept attacking the flats of the Trojan defense which opened it up for a 41-yard touchdown pass and another deep pass which led to a touchdown.

“The flats, that’s where most of their passes were going. When we got to the flats, they went deep, so they mixed it up well,” linebacker De’Aris Flint said.

The final Truman score halfway through the third quarter to make it 41-20 was their last as Park Hill scored on the first play of the next drive when Nathan Wilson hit Flint for an 83-yard touchdown pass.

Park Hill’s 369 rushing yards was their best running performance of the season which is starting to resemble their ideal offensive play allocation which has heavily relied on the passing game prior to last week.

“It helps a lot especially when we play teams with two safeties. They play for the pass, so when we get the running game going, we just go over the top,” said Flint who had three catches for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Truman’s 252 pass yards was not a point of pride for the Trojan defense, but only giving up 19 rushing yards showed their run defense had stepped up over recent games. Although tackling can never be good enough, it’s been drilled into the players’ mindset as a key to their success.

“Tackling, tackling well. Our run blocking is getting better, but tackling needs to get a lot better,” Flint said.

Fall Roundup: September 13-17

Park Hill Softball
Trojan Softball started the week off with a victory against North Kansas City by a score of 9-0, but fell to conference power Truman 4-0 before participating in the Platte County Tournament over the weekend.

Park Hill Girls Golf
Stephanie Atkinson's 85 and Anna Kloeppel's 86 led the Trojans to an eighth place finish at the Truman/Chrisman Invitational last week. Those scores were good enough for top 20 individual honors with 23 teams and over 100 golfers participating. As a team, Park Hill shot a 402. In a match against Staley last Thursday, Kloeppel and Atkinson led the team again with scores of 44 and 47 respectively on holes.

Park Hill Boys Soccer
Park Hill Boys Soccer improved to 6-2-1 last week with two weeks against Truman (4-0) and North Kansas City (4-0). Two goals from David Ddvorak along with goals from Neal Sampson and Cole Walker led the Trojans to victory against Truman. A hat trick of three goals from Matt Russell and another from Zdvorak helped Park Hill past NKC. Goalie Shane Van Hooser was credited with shutouts in both games. They'll play at Blue Springs this week in their only scheduled game.

Park Hill Volleyball
Park Hill Volleyball fell in two games to rival Park Hill South 25-19 and 25-13 early in last week, but came back to win two matches against Truman and North Kansas City to extend their record to 7-6. Over the weekend they played in the Lee's Summit North tournament where they 3-2-1 and lost in the finals of the consolation bracket. The Trojans are now 10-8-1.

Park Hill Girls Tennis
Park Hill Girls Tennis defeated Oak Park early last week 8-1 with top singles player Suzanne Barth winning 10-0 along with Kate Skorija and Sammy Young's victories. Barth teamed up with Brooke Barnard in the top doubles match to defeat their opposition 10-4. Against St. Joe Central, Barth, Skorija, Barnard, Anna Karsiewicz, Ashlei Bos, and Kelsey Midtbo sweep all six singles matches. After winning two doubles matches the final score was 8-1. They traveled back to St. Joe last Friday for Central's Invitational Tournament where they won two of the four flights and the team title. Barth and Bos won their singles flights while Skorija and Barnard finished third in their doubles flight. Park Hill is 6-1 in match play this season.

Trojan Volleyball gaining traction

First year Park Hill volleyball coach Lindsey Hood’s first week didn’t result the way her team would have liked with losses against Liberty and Oak Park. After their first win of the season last Tuesday against St. Joseph Central and winning the consolation bracket in the Winnetonka Tournament this past weekend, the Trojans have stormed back to a 5-5 record and are now looking to build on their momentum as they approach the heart of their schedule in coming weeks.

After a loss last week to Lee’s Summit West, Hood talked about how she is satisfied with the team’s progress up to this point.

“That’s a great team (Lee’s Summit West). I’m not happy with the result, but I’m happy with how we’re coming along,” Hood said. “We just keep working really hard in practice and I think tonight we proved it even though we didn’t take any games.”

The Trojans have a relatively young team overall with six freshmen playing on the junior varsity and varsity levels so they’ve given high importance to taking small steps with each practice and game. At the same time, seniors will play a key role in that improvement with senior Alyssa Moran running the middle with Mary Lou Mixon’s blocking and defensive strengths, Paige Hultz’s back row play, and Ashlea Williams’ utility role as someone who can play a number of different positions on the court.

While Park Hill’s focus is on a strong defense, they know success will require an offensive counter-attack.

“Our defense is looking great, the girls are learning to read hitters better,” Hood said. “That first week, I had to step back and ask whether we had enough offense because our hitters weren’t really connecting as much as I wanted. We’ve incorporated more into our practices now, but we don’t necessarily have a go to hitter yet.”

Next week the Trojans will host their inaugural Dig for a Cure game against Liberty North at Park Hill. The September 21st benefit game will race money for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Foundation and Camp Quality. Proceeds will be raised through t-shirt sales and raffle drawings at the game. The special jerseys that players will wear for the game have been donated.

“That will be a really big game, the girls are really excited,” Hood said. “We still need to treat it like any other game, but it’s an extremely great cause.”

Fall Roundup: September 6-10

Park Hill Girls Golf
The Park Hill girls continue to perform towards the top of their competition as they turned out two quality showings last week at the Blue Springs South Invitational and St. Joseph Tournament. In the best ball format at Lakewood Oaks in Blue Springs, the Trojans placed third with an overall score of 274. Anna Kloeppel placed sixth overall with a medaling score of 87. Later in the week at Fairview in St. Joseph, they shot a 379 which was good enough for sixth among the 18 teams in the field with all Trojans shooting below 100. They'll play a team match on Thursday before going into their final week of regular season play.

Park Hill Boys Soccer
Park Hill Soccer racked up a 4-1 record by beating local teams Oak Park and Liberty last week before disappointingly losing at home against Springfield Kickapoo and tying Springfield Glendale. Against Oak Park (3-0) david Zdvorak had two goals while Ray Lee added another. Zdvorak and Lee led against against Liberty with the two sole goals as they won 2-0. Assists were from Neal Sampson and Matt Russell. The Trojans fell 1-0 to Kickapoo before going scoreless in a 0-0 tie against Glendale. They are now 4-2-1.

Park Hill Softball
Park Hill softball went through a rough last week as they lost three games to Lee's Summit West, Park Hill South, and Liberty. After jumping out to a 6-2 lead, Park Hill South scored four runs in the top of the third and wouldn't look back. A valient comeback for the Trojans came up short as they fell 11-10. Bethany Sullinger contributed with a three-run homer along with Meghan Nelsen, Michele Rupard, and Liza Hill. On Thursday, the Trojans were stuck in a 3-3 tie with Liberty until the final two innings when Liberty added seven runs to complete a 10-3 victory over Park Hill. A Nikki Moss RBI triple to left in the first scored the only three runs for the Trojans. They're now 4-7 overall with a 1-2 conference record. This week's games will include road trips to Truman and Ruskin.

Park Hill looks to 'King of the Hill' match-up after season's first win

A win is a win. In Park Hill’s second game of the season against Ruskin last Friday, that’s all that mattered. Their 35-13 victory showed signs of improvement, but they realize there are still areas to improve and hope to build on their first win in this week’s King of the Hill matchup against rival Park Hill South.

Park Hill will be somewhat familiar with the new system South coach Mark Simcox has as he’s a former Park Hill assistant. Park Hill coach Greg Reynolds knows a few things about Simcox teams.

“They’re very well coached,” Reynolds said. “One thing I learned when Mark was our coordinator is he’ll find the one thing you need to take away and he’ll usually do it. This year we’re able to throw the ball a little better, which will help us.”

“Game three, nothing more,” Reynolds said of the rivalry. “The only thing more important is district play. It has no bearing on whether we make the playoffs or not.”

Special teams remained a point of concern again early in the first quarter last week after Park Hill was able to force a Ruskin three and out. The following punt was fumbled around the Park Hill 40-yard line and recovered by Ruskin which led to the first score of the game on an 18-yard touchdown run from Fred Kelley putting the Trojans down 7-0.

“They’re a team that you need to be ready for,” coach Greg Reynolds said of Ruskin. “They’ve been like that since I started coaching.”

Nathan Wilson and the Trojan offense rattled off 21 unanswered points putting Park Hill up 21-7 at halftime. The defense didn’t give up a scoring drive the rest of the game and held Ruskin to 110 yards rushing and 43 passing.

“I told them if we remained disciplined then we’d be able to overcome their speed advantage,” Reynolds said. “Defense did a lot better this week.”

Trace Norfleet gained 115 of the 217 total yards rushing for the Trojans on 18 carries. He added a two-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter to put Park Hill up 28-7.

A Ruskin 68 yard kick-off return for a touchdown put focus again on the Trojans’ special teams units.

“Hopefully we’ll get it fixed and everyone where they’re supposed to be so that it doesn’t cost us a game,” Reynolds said.

Ruskin wouldn’t score again though as Park Hill’s Luke Bossert scored on a 33-yard touchdown pass from halfback Norfleet to bring the final score to 35-13.

Fall Roundup: August 30 - September 3

Park Hill Volleyball
The Park Hill Volleyball team didn’t get off to start they wanted to last week as they opened their season with two losses to Liberty (20-25, 23-25) and Oak Park (14-25). Jenny Riddle led the defense with seven digs against Liberty ahead of Halley Knudson and Angelica Pasek’s five. Knudson added 11 digs against Oak Park and Molley Lien had six. Alyssa Moran led with six kills on offense. Park Hill will play Lee’s Summit West on Thursday.

“Our defense is working hard and we are working on getting better every day,” said first year coach Lindsey Hood.

Park Hill Girls Golf
The girls golf team continued to win against local competition as they beat North Kansas City and Oak Park last week at Paradise Pointe Golf Course. As a team, the Trojans shot a 214 in the rainy weather. Anna Kloeppel was a medalist with a score of 48. Park Hill will play in two tournaments this week.

Park Hill Cross Country
The Park Hill Girls Cross Country team placed fourth out of 11 teams last weekend at the Liberty Invitational with a score of 111. The boys team finished eleventh in the field with a team score of 253.

Park Hill Girls Softball
The Trojans were able to improve on their 2-3 record coming into last week by adding two wins to their total. Makenzie Porter added her third win in a 7-4 victory against Staley early last week. Michele Rupard threw out two runners on defense along with Micalla Rettinger’s double and RBI’s from Rupard, Liza Hill, Samantha Snodgrass, and Paige Downs.

An 11 strike-out performance from Truman’s Paige Parker led to a shutout of the Trojans in a 10-0 loss last Thursday in their first conference game.

Rallying from four runs down to take a 7-6 lead, St. Joe Central tied to the game in the sixth inning to go into extra innings. Park Hill pulled away in the eighth to win 10-7. The Park Hill offense was led by Rettinger, Nikki Moss, Bethany Sullinger, and Rupard. The win was Porter’s fourth of the year on the mound for the Trojans. With a 4-4 record and 1-1 in conference play, Park Hill will play Lee’s Summit West, Park Hill South, and Liberty this week.

Park Hill Soccer gains attention, lives up to hype

One of the bad things about the Park Hill boys soccer team’s trip to the Missouri state semi-finals and finishing above the rest of the teams in the Kansas City area last season is they won’t be sneaking up on many opponents this year. On the other hand, getting Metro Sports to televise their first game of the season in the Olathe Tournament against some of Kansas’ top teams is a sign that Park Hill’s soccer program is getting the recognition they’ve earned.

Coming into this year the Trojans haven’t been able to turn out the best performances against many of the teams in this tournament, which they usually participate in to open the season. It was especially challenging going up against Olathe South, a team which had prior to last season been to the Kansas 6A state finals six consecutive years. Although a rebuilding season for a young South team, there’s something to say about that kind of success and what a win could do for Park Hill’s confidence and reputation.

“Metro Sports was a double-edged sword for us,” coach Dustin Sollars said. “The kids got excited, but they also caved to the pressure a bit, our first half was bad.”

Much the same could be said about their opponent as Park Hill and Olathe South played the entire first half without scoring and a 0-0 halftime tally. Sollars mentioned conditioning, stringing the ball together, and up the field defense as challenges in their first half. Play from central backs Devon Belew and Joel Gordon took away some aggressive attacks from South to prevent several scores.

The story was very different in the second half as Matt Russell scored the Trojans’ first goal ten minutes into the second half. Combined with a tough defense, Park Hill controlled the tempo which allowed them to see more scoring opportunities. Ray Lee added their second goal later in the half with Nick Shepherd putting the finishing touches on the 3-0 victory in the final moments. Lee and David Zdvorak contributed assists with goalkeeper Shane Van Hooser earning the shutout as Park Hill won their first game in front of the locally televised audience.

“The second half we were a little more composed and held our positions on the field better,” Sollars said. “Our big players stepped up and played well, and that helped get us going.”

In the semi-final game, after controlling the ball most of the game and seeing more shots, the Trojans weren’t able to finish as they lost against Blue Valley North 2-0. The following night they defeated Olathe NW 2-1 after being down 1-0 at halftime. Zdvorak and Cole Walker scored on assists from Neal Sampson and Zach Stuhlman in the victory. Park Hill finished third in the tournament which ties their best which was last achieved in 2003. Ray Lee and Quenton Noble received All-Tournament team honors.

Park Hill plays Liberty at the Park Hill District Soccer Complex this week and will host a pair of Springfield teams in Kickapoo High and Glendale High over the weekend.

Trojans look for first win against Ruskin after up and down game against Liberty

Coming off an uncharacteristic performance in a 35-14 loss in week one against Liberty, Park Hill will travel to Ruskin this Friday hoping to earn their first win of the season. They’ll be facing a Ruskin team newly consolidated with the former Hickman Mills High School and coming off a 45-6 thumping of Truman.

“I expect them to be a wide open team with a lot of speed and their line to be big enough to use it with the two schools combined,” Reynolds said. “If we can’t tackle then it’s not going to be just eight yard, but 80 yards.”

If there was one thing the Trojans took away from last Friday’s loss to Liberty, it was the importance of tackling. Liberty used its size advantage on the offensive line to utilize their quarterback and the option game to pick on the Park Hill defense. The Blue Jays methodically drove down the field several times in the second half which contributed in part to 29 points in four consecutive scoring possessions.

It was a tale of two halves for Park Hill as they went into halftime with a 14-6 lead after quarterback Nathan Wilson impressively found Trace Norfleet and De’Aris Flint for touchdown passes of 18 and 42 yards. Flint finished with seven receptions for106 yards while Wilson went 28 for 42 with 249 yards passing, some of the highest passing numbers for a Park Hill team in recent years. This has been mostly due to the Trojans’ historically strong running game which wasn’t able to build momentum against Liberty.

“We probably threw more tonight than any time in the last couple years,” Reynolds said. “There will be more passing than in the past, but no, we’re not going to throw that much. We still need to get the ball to two or three running backs we think are pretty good.”

Even with the passing game performance, the Trojans had several mental mistakes hurt them in the second half including dropped passes, a lost fumble, and a failed punt attempt. All of which followed a Liberty 81-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the half.

“We played a good football team, if you take away special teams and tackling, then it’s a lot closer game,” Reynolds said.

The Trojans believe they will improve as younger players become more comfortable and aren’t seeing the early season loss as a signal to go a different direction.

“I don’t think we’re going to have to change anything. Whether they believe it or not, some guys came in and doubted themselves tonight,” Reynolds said. “We found out in the first half that this is fun and worth all the hard work though.”

Fall Roundup: August 24-28

Park Hill Softball
The Trojan softball team had a busy first week of the season with five games in the Greater Kansas City Tournament. They went 2-3 with wins against Smithville (5-3) and Oak Grove (7-3). One of the losses came at the hands of Staley (10-4) earlier in the week,

Park Hill Girls Tennis
The Park Hill girls tennis team got off to a hot start last week as they defeated Liberty 7-2 and Park Hill South 6-3 to start the season 2-0. Against Liberty, top singles player Suzanne Barth won 10-8, but the doubles team of Barth and Brooke Barnard fell 11-10 when they lost the tiebreaker 7-3. Later in the week, the Trojans hosted Park Hill South where the number two doubles team of Kate Skorija and Anna Karsiewicz came back from a 2-7 deficit to win 11-10 after they won the tie-breaker 7-1. They'll play St. Theresa's Thursday at the Country Club Plaza.

Park Hill Girls Golf
Anna Kloeppel helped the Park Hill girls golf team win their first match of the season last week against Winnetonka and Park Hill South at Hodge Park as her 44 gained her a medal in the nine hole match. As a team, the Trojans compiled a score of 193. Earlier in the week, they started the season at the Liberty Invitational with Bailey Warlan and Stephanie Atkinson placed in the top 20. They play Winnetonka again this week along with Oak Park.

Park Hill Girls Cross Country

Coach Jason Parr's voice could be heard across the Park Hill campus last Saturday when the team held their first ever time trial event on the two mile course Parr designed and created. With constant team messages of 'Run Strong' and 'It's not about you' filling the air, the time trial set the tone for next week's first race at Liberty.

"I've spent four years on this course, developing it so we can have some races hosted here. We hope to plan a quad meeting sometime next year. It's two miles and another lap could turn it into a 5k," Parr said.

Freshman Kim Rau took first place with a time of 12:10 with the top seven comprising of three freshmen and four sophomores.

"We're very experienced and talented, but young and we've got a lot to learn and work to do. We're excited," Parr said.

"A race like that will give girls an opportunity to have some fun. I think we'll do really well on our varsity and jv levels to build success," Parr said of the Saturday's upcoming Liberty race.