Girls Tennis is the first of the fall sports to have its regionals to see who earns the right to compete at state and a few Kanzaland area athletes punched their tickets to the 3-2-1A girls tennis state competition with their performances at the Hillsboro Regional over the weekend.

The Sabetha Bluejays and Marysville Bulldogs will send girls to state in Hutchinson next Friday and Saturday October 12th and 13th. 

In the singles competition, two Kanzaland area girls finished in the top six to qualify for the state competition. Marysville Bulldog, Dani Schwarz breezed through the field going 4-0 on the day as the number one seed in singles play. Schwarz had no problem cruising to first place as in the first round she won 6-0, 6-0; second round 6-0, 6-1; semifinals won 6-2, 6-0 and in the finals won it 6-1, 6-1.

The other qualifier from the area in singles competition comes from Sabetha, as Jen Stallbaumer finished fourth at the Hillsboro Regional. Stallbaumer went 2-2 in action on the day, winning in the first round easily 6-0, 6-0. In the second round Jen meet up against her teammate Kyla Patron and won that match 6-2, 6-2. After falling in the semifinals to a girl from Hillsboro (4-6, 3-6), Jen went into the third place match and came up a little short falling 1-6, 3-6 but registering a fourth place finish.

Four teams from the Kanzaland area will be joining Schwarz and Stallbaumer at state as they performed quite well at regionals in doubles competition. The Sabetha Bluejays will be taking a pair of doubles teams to state as Jessica Romines and Laeny Edelman took third place and Amy Wysong and Ellie Montgomery won the Hillsboro Regional.

Romines and Edelman, after winning the first two rounds in highly contested matches, won the first round 7-5, 6-1 and then prevailed in the second round 7-6(5), 6-3. In the semifinals, Jessica and Laeny met up with the number one seed team and took match number one 6-4, but fell in the next two 2-6, 1-6. That didn't deter Romines and Edelman as they responded with a third place matchup win in three matches, losing match one 5-7, then winning the next two 6-2, 6-4 against Marysville's team of Kassie Breshears and Lauren Hawkinson.

For Amy Wysong and Ellie Montgomery it was a 4-0 day and first place finish. After cruising through the first two rounds 6-0, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-2, Wysong and Montgomery had a harder matchup in the semifinals. Amy and Ellie took down a team from Marysville in the semifinals 6-1, 7-6(4). As the number two seed in the doubles competition they meet up with the one seeded team from Marysville, Ashley Bruna and Hillary Ronnebaum. It was a tough battle and a three match final with Sabetha's team of Wysong and Montgomery coming out on top (6-0, 6-7(2), 6-3).

Marysville, like Sabetha, will be sending two doubles teams to state with Breshears an Hawkinson finishing fourth place and Bruna and Ronnebaum taking second in doubles.

In Class 4A only one Kanzaland area tennis player will be headed to state that's Atchison Redmen, Nikki Hare who placed fourth in the singles competition at the Topeka-Hayden regional. Hare is 19-10 on the season.

State competition for the Kanzaland area athletes comes about this Friday and Saturday October 12th and 13th.  State Information here

Full results from girls tennis Hillsboro regional (click here)