The current era of Park Hill boys tennis is an era of doubles dominance, as demonstrated on April 30 at the Class 3 District 8 individual tournament.
Park Hill showcased both experience and youth in their district success, extending their streak of state qualification to 10 consecutive years as they swept doubles for the first time since 2017.
“Two months ago, I wouldn’t have predicted that we had two doubles teams qualify for state,” Park Hill head coach Rustin Reys said. “Two weeks ago, I would have said, yeah, there’s a chance.”
Park Hill senior tennis player Drew Miller rushes towards the net in the Class 3 District 8 individual tournament.
Leading the way was the experienced tandem of senior Drew Miller and junior Carter Lovitt, who returned to the district tournament after winning third in last year’s state tournament. The duo kept their undefeated district streak alive to cruise towards a third straight district doubles title.
“I lost in the first round my freshman year,” Miller said. “This has been quite the turnaround for me.”
Miller and Lovitt have dominated competition the past three years, using Lovitt’s 6-foot-4 frame to their advantage every opportunity they get.
“I think it’s because of how tall we are,” Miller said. “You can’t really hit it around him (Lovitt).”
For Miller, the season hasn’t been as smooth as he would have liked his senior year to be after missing some time through injury earlier in the year. He has been close to 100% for postseason play.
“He’s gained a little perspective,” Reys said. “He’s put a ton of work in, and that’s paying off.
He’s growing up and really learning how to handle adversity. He’s playing super well right now, and he was super sharp today.”
As the top-seeded team in the district, Miller/Lovitt made their path back to Springfield look easier than ever before. They dropped just one game in their first two matches, opening the day by cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Liberty and earning a third consecutive state tournament berth with a pair of 6-0 set victories over the No. 4-seeded team from Liberty North.
On the other end of the bracket, No. 2-seeded Park Hill freshmen Alex Kalis and Lane Marshall made their postseason debut by clinching a state tournament berth of their own.
“I knew they had a chance, I knew they had to win a couple of coin flips,” Reys said. “We had some expectations, but it’s hard to know when you’re putting kids into pressure spots, and they were in some huge pressure spots today and completely came through.”
Alex Kalis made half of Park Hill’s freshman state-qualifying doubles team.
The path for Kalis/Marshall was much more complicated, with Marshall calling their mindset “fearless” to open the day with a tough match against Park Hill South’s Cole Tenbrink and Sam Patel. Kalis/Marshall won the first set 6-2 before dropping the second set by the same score to force a super tiebreaker. The super tiebreaker put them on the ropes as they faced match point with a ball bouncing on the line before coming back to win it 12-10.
Lane Marshall celebrates becoming a doubles state qualifier as a freshman after winning his semifinal.
The tension still wasn’t over as Kalis/Marshall fell behind 3-0 to open the first set of their semifinal clash with Liberty, although they gradually pulled themselves back into the set, trailing 4-3 before serving to tie it at 5-5.
“We both got mad,” Marshall said of their early semifinal deficit. “We were like, ‘this is our chance, it’s a good opportunity, and we can’t waste it.”
The duo, which has played tennis, baseball and basketball together since elementary school, kept their fearless nature the rest of their semifinal. They eventually broke Liberty’s serve to take their first lead of the semifinal at 6-5, and held serve to take the first set 7-5.
From then on, Kalis/Marshall gained some confidence and momentum. They broke another serve to start the second set before clinching Park Hill’s doubles sweep with a 6-1 win in the second semifinal set.
The first all-Park Hill district championship since 2017 set the top two seeds against each other with vastly different experiences. Miller/Lovitt retained their district title for a third straight year, taking the championship match in dominant fashion after jumping ahead 4-0 and closing out the first set 6-2.
Carter Lovitt has won a district title all three years playing alongside Drew Miller.
After Miller/Lovitt took the first game of the second set, there was no coming back for Kalis/Marshall as they settled for a district runner-up finish with a spot in the state tournament secured.
Both of Park Hill South’s doubles teams advanced to the quarterfinals before facing elimination.
Tenbrink/Patel overcame Oak Park 6-1, 6-0 in the opening match before falling to Kalis/Marshall in the quarterfinal. Roberto Shepherd and Hendrik VanAsselt defeated Oak Park’s other doubles team 6-0, 6-3 before falling to Liberty North 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
In singles, Liberty ran the show with a sweep from its top-seeded players.
Park Hill South senior Henry Jacobs provided the greatest resistance as the No. 3 seed, but he was unable to avenge his district championship loss from last season against Liberty’s Logan Huyser. Jacobs and Huyser’s paths crossed in this year’s semifinal, where Huyser took the first set in a tiebreak 7-6(7-4). Jacobs had his state hopes conclude after losing the second set to Huyser 6-4.
Jacobs responded well in defeat to win the third-place match against No. 4-seeded Rudy Habiger of St. Joseph Central. Jacobs raced out to win the first set 6-1 before a more competitive second set ended with Jacobs finding the finish line with a 6-4 victory.
Habiger got to the third-place game after losing the semifinal to eventual district champion Andrew Beltran of Liberty. Habiger had previously ended the season of Park Hill South junior Graham Albani, with Albani winning his opening match 6-1, 6-3 before falling to Habiger via super tiebreak in the quarterfinal 6-2, 6-3, 10-8.
Cody Phan and Bond Pasley represented Park Hill out of the singles bracket. Phan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win in the opening round before losing to Huyser 6-1, 6-0, and Bond faced first-round elimination to 6-2, 6-3 against Liberty North’s Jake Smith.
Miller/Lovitt will head to the state tournament alongside Kalis/Marshall on May 14-15 in Springfield. For Miller/Lovitt, there are some expectations after medaling each of the previous two years, with hopes of gold this year.
“We want to win state, that’s the goal,” Reys said. “Now, you’ve got to go do it. It’s hard work, and it takes good play and good luck; winning some clutch points. They aren’t shying away from their goal.”
Miller/Lovitt will need to find the balance between remaining focused on their goal while also playing loose. They felt they played too tightly in last year’s state semifinal, which they lost, but reverted to a looser style in the third-place match, which they won.