The MSHSAA Class 1-2 singles and doubles tennis tournaments wrapped up on Saturday at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, and several local athletes claimed all-state honors.
Glendale’s Reid Jarvis went into a third set test to place third overall, while the Falcons’ doubles duo of Hayden Fulk and Spencer Weller placed fifth.
Rogersville’s Tucker Ethridge and Jack Gold also played three sets for a fourth-place win.
Springfield Catholic sophomore tennis standout Jason Nayar also went into a third set test, falling to tournament-long opponent Zale Shah of John Burroughs for a sixth-place medal.
Gavin Litherland and Carson Turner, longtime friends and recent Greenwood High School graduates, beat Joplin’s Thomas Jefferson to claim Class 1 seventh-place medals.
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Glendale’s Reid Jarvis definitely earned a third-place medal on Saturday for his efforts in the Class 2 singles tournament, and he’s only a freshman.
Playing in tournaments as young as eight, Jarvis decided to quit all other sports because he thought tennis was the right fit for him.
Obviously, he was right.
Jarvis made it all the way to the semifinal round before falling to Carson Gates of Staley High School 0-6, 4-6, sending him to the third-place game.
Jarvis faced Rock Bridge’s Zach Grueber, winning the first set 7-6(4).
A second set loss pushed the match into a third.
“That was tough,” said Jarvis. “It’s always hard after winning the first set and then losing the second set to find the energy and the willpower to come back and win the third.”
But his coach gave him an inspiring pep talk that gave him the strength he needed to go on.
Jarvis said, “He told me to keep doing what I’m doing. I was trying to break down his weaker sides. It was mainly mental for me, trying to keep my head up right and not get too worked up over lucky shots or bad shots by me.”
Jarvis turned the game around in his favor and won the set 6-3.
“I’m feeling really good,” he said. “My back was kind of bothering me there toward the end, but I was able to fight through it and win my last match. I’m excited to win my last match of the season and take third.”
Rogersville’s Tucker Ethridge and Jack Gold dominated in the first round against Dexter (6-1,6-1) and defeated state powerhouse team Barstow in three sets in the quarterfinal round (6-3, 1-6, 11-9) before falling to this year’s state champion team MICDS in the semifinals.
Playing for third-place and coming out fourth was good enough for them.
Gold said, “It’s a good feeling. We’ve improved each year we’ve been here.”
Ethridge added, “Our goal was to do better than sixth, and we did.”
The duo was all-state last year (sixth), and was unable to place in 2014.
This time around, the Wildcats battled Pembroke Hill’s (powerhouse school) Cormac Chester and Tripp Dearborn in three sets.
“It was a battle for sure,” Ethridge said. “We went in there thinking we would not do that great, and then everything started clicking.”
Even with the loss (6-4, 5-7, 2-6), it’s undeniable to two really compete well together.
Gold said, “Each of our games, we kind of just work together perfectly.”
Ethridge added, “We have two different games and they kind of balance, definitely.”
Ethridge will head off to Arkansas State University in the fall, while Gold is set to play his final year at Rogersville High School.
Springfield Catholic’s Jason Nayar found himself up against a familiar face Saturday morning.
Zale Shah.
Nayar battled the John Burroughs High School tennis standout in the team tournament on Thursday (DNF), again in the Class 1 singles first round on Friday (1-6, 5-7) and once more Saturday in the fifth-place match.
“My last match was pretty tight with Zale,” Nayar said. “I’ve played him so many times, and I really wanted that match but I’m pretty happy with sixth after not getting a medal last year. It feels pretty good.”
Nayar started off strong, winning the first set 6-3, but Shah took the second, 6-2.
Shah also put Nayar to the test in the third test (6-2), winning the fifth-place match.
Nayar also played three sets Saturday in the semifinals against another John Burroughs player, Ben Remis, affecting his stamina.
“It was really hard. It kind of just took a lot out of me. I just left it all out there since it was my last match,” Nayar said.
Only a sophomore, Nayar hopes to be back at the singles tournament in 2017.
“I’m prepared. I’m going to train a lot in the off season,” Nayar said.
Glendale duo Hayden Fulk and Spencer Weller may have started the tournament off with a loss to Rock Bridge, but they ended the tournament and their season with an extra special victory.
The two found themselves up against another Rock Bridge team of Kavin Anand and Luke Bouchard and were able to pull out a tough 7-5, 6-4 win for some seventh-place medals.
“We’ve never gotten a win over Rock Bridge, and we just beat a Rock Bridge team in our last match,” Fulk said. “That’s kind of ironic. And it feels good because every year we do better. Our freshman year, we lost districts in the final. Our sophomore year we won districts. Last year we qualified for state, and this year we got seventh.”
The two doubles together all four years at Glendale, and they even played together through USTA.
Fulk said, “Spencer just kills it. I mean, his serves really set me up… I think the mental side is big too. We’ve been such good friends for six or seven years. Everything clicks when we’re together.”
“When one of us gets down, we help each other up,” Weller added.
Both recent Glendale graduates, Fulk will continue his tennis career at William Jewell, while Weller will remain in Springfield to play tennis for Drury.
“We’ll probably play against each other,” Fulk laughed. “And Alex, our No. 4, he’s going to play at Truman State. So we’re all going to play each other eventually.”
There are some benefits to a 13-year-long friendship.
Gaining all-state status is one of them.
For the Gavin Litherland and Carson Turner doubles team, their strong friendship helped propel them in their final match on Saturday to a seventh-place victory.
“We’ve been really good friends since kindergarten,” Litherland said. “There’s some good team chemistry.”
The Greenwood duo beat Thomas Jefferson Independent’s Joseph Scott and Levi Vasquez 6-3, 6-4.
Litherland said, “It’s pretty cool. I went to state last year with one of last year’s seniors, Adam Brock, and we got out in the first round. It felt great to go farther in the tournament this time.”
“We’ve been training pretty hard for the last couple of weeks and it feels really good to be seventh. All the hard work paid off,” said Turner.
Litherland says he will possibly play club tennis at Mizzou. Also keeping the sport in mind, Turner is considering playing tennis at his chosen school, Arkansas State University.
