By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After coming up a point shy in its bid for the city girls tennis championship, Seaman never let Tuesday's United Kansas Conference meet get close, with the Vikings rolling to the team championship in their first year in the league by a 75-64 margin over De Soto at Kossover Tennis Center.
Seaman girls tennis poses with the UKC trophy after rolling to the singles, doubles and team championships Tuesday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman got UKC titles from senior Lauren Sweeney in singles and from junior Katie Krumins and freshman Molly Gorman in doubles while Kate Eckert and Ella Foxhoven added a runner-up finish in doubles and Nina Del-Zio finished third in singles.
Sweeney capped off her championship run with an 8-2 win over De Soto's Emma Hellerich in the singles final while Krumins and Gorman topped their Seaman teammates Eckert and Foxhoven in the doubles championship, 8-2. Del-Zio earned a third-place singles finish with an 8-0 win over Shawnee Heights' Annika Scheller.
Seaman senior Lauren Sweeney won the UKC singles championship Tuesday, helping lead the Vikings to the team title. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman doubles players Katie Krumins and Molly Gorman won the UKC doubles title Tuesday as the Vikings swept the singles, doubles and team championships. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I was worried because De Soto was hanging aound and they were in all the semifinals,'' Seaman coach Jamie Robinson said. "So even though it looks like on paper that we dominated, it was a little decey there. If we had dropped another semifinal match it could have got interesting quick.''
But it didn't happen, with Seaman doing everything it needed to do to put the title away by a convincing margin.
Now the Vikings will try to use Tuesday's title as a building block for Saturday's Class 5A regional at Emporia.
"It's definitely cool,'' said Sweeney, a state doubles champion as a junior. "This should give us a confidence boost for sure.''
Robinson agreed.
"The end of the season can get a little tiresome, especially in September because matches and meets are right and left,'' Robinson said. "September's very compressed so at the end of September there's always a slight burnout. This is a nice breather coming off a good league win and having a few days before going into regionals with a lot of momentum.''
Shawnee Heights finished fourth as a team, led by Scheller's fourth-place singles finish while Topeka West finished sixth.
Seaman, Heights and West will all compete in the Emporia regional, vying for berths in the 5A state meet at Andover Oct. 14-15.
UNITED KANSAS CONFERENCE GIRLS TENNIS
Team scores
Seaman 75, De Soto 64, Basehor-Linwood 48, Shawnee Heights 45, Lansing 34, Topeka West 26, Leavenworth 25, Piper 2.
Individual results
Singles
Championship -- Sweeney, Seaman, def. Hellrich, De Soto, 8-2.
Third -- Del-Zio, Seaman, def. Scheller, Shawnee Heights, 8-0.
Fifth -- Albright, De Soto, def. Bockman, Leavenworth, 8-0.
Doubles
Championship -- Gorman/Kremins, Seaman, def. Eckert/Foxhoven, Seaman, 8-2.
Third -- O'Brien/Collins, De Soto, def. Fandre/Endsley, De Soto, 8-5.
Fifth -- Johnson/Gilliam, Basehor-Linwood, def. Sharp/Tran, Basehor-Linwood, 8-1.
