Platte County’s girls tennis team is conference champions for a second straight season, convincingly confirming their repeat championship last week.
The Pirates dominated conference play this season, sweeping their way to a back-to-back title. This season has been especially impressive, with the Pirates defeating conference opponents for a combined score of 59-4.
The only teams to take points off of Platte County were Grain Valley and Raytown. Platte County rotated its lineup to defeat Raytown on Sept. 15, sweeping singles 6-0 with the trio of Addison Fleming, Veyda Chleborad and Carly Kisker all stepping up to win matches after the Pirates won one of three doubles matches.
Platte County completed the title defense with three 9-0 victories against Fort Osage, Belton and Truman last week.
Sophomore Clare Hayter has played a prominent role at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles this season.
The Pirates used their first-choice lineup to top Fort Osage on Sept. 21 as Kaser, Hater, Doll and Muir shut out their opponents, with Kaser/Macie Keith and Newberry/Muir also earning doubles shutouts. The closest match of the day came at No. 4 singles, where Newberry won 8-4.
Belton also saw the best of Platte County on Sept. 22 and came close to getting a point at No. 2 singles until Macie Keith preserved the sweep with a 9-7 win. The singles dominance was led by shutout performances from Hayter, Doll and Muir, with doubles dominance led by a pair of shutouts from Kaser/Macie Keith and Newberry/Muir.
Platte County’s conference sweep was confirmed with a 9-0 road win over Truman, led by shutout singles wins for Kaser and Doll. Truman was never close, winning no more than three games in a match.
The Pirates used another lineup to handily defeat Raytoen South 9-0. They swept singles with a combined score of 36-0 with the lineup of Macie Keith, Katelyn Newberry, Jayne Muir, Shaylin Keith, Addy Loessel and Greta Espeer. The No. 1 doubles team of Ainsley Scheib/Riley Scheib also earned a 6-0 victory, while Regan Anderson/Bevyn Green won 6-1 and Evan Skinner/Shae Sipes won 6-4.
Perhaps the most significant result was the Pirates’ 6-3 victory over St. Pius X on Sept. 23. It was Platte County’s first win against Pius since 2023, after losing the previous three meetings by a combined score of 19-1, including a pair of district championship defeats.
This time, Platte County won its second match in eight meetings against SPX on record since 2010. The Pirates’ 6-3 victory was just the second regular-season meeting between the two programs, previously losing 9-0 loss last year.
Platte County started with a 2-1 advantage from doubles as Ellie Kaser/Macie Keith edged out a 9-7 win at No. 1 doubles, and Katelyn Newberry/Jayne Muir earned a more comfortable 8-3 win at No. 3 doubles. The Pius tandem of Evie Ward/Brooklyn Meese defeated Clare Hayter/Macy Doll 8-2 to give the Warriors their first point.
The bottom of Platte County’s singles lineup led the rest of the way as Newberry (No. 4), Doll (No. 5) and Muir (No. 6) all won their respective matches with 8-3 scorelines. The top end of the singles matches remained close, with Hayter (No. 3) victorious 9-7 while Kaser (No. 1) fell to Ward 8-5 and Keith fell to Avery Smith 8-6.
The triumph handed Pius its first loss of the season. Platte County’s record stands at 10-2 as nonconference play ramps up with matches against Pembroke Hill (Sept. 30), Kearney (Oct. 1) and Raymore-Peculiar (Oct. 6), in addition to the Tana Stock Northland Invitational on Oct. 2, before individual districts.
As the only two teams in Class 2 District 8 with winning records, Platte County and St. Pius X are on track to meet in another district championship in October. This time, Platte County will have experience and confidence on their side.