Ellie Kaser and Macie Keith saved their best tennis for the biggest moments, rallying through a challenging championship match to deliver a milestone victory for Platte County High School.
The Pirates’ tandem captured the Class 2 state doubles championship Oct. 23 at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, becoming the first in school history to win a state tennis title. Their achievement also made them just the second doubles tandem from a Platte County-area high school to claim a state championship, joining Park Hill’s Merritt Whitley and Suzanne Barth, who won in 2008.
“I feel like it means everything to me and Ellie,” Keith said. “I think we’re both equally as excited, and we thought it was crazy.”
The title capped a two-day run in which Kaser and Keith won four consecutive matches, navigating increasingly difficult competition before delivering when the championship was on the line.
“Definitely hard competition,” Keith said. “But I think me and Ellie both played our best and showed up in every match. In the end, it paid off and showed.”
Kaser and Keith had aspirations of winning a state medal for the first time in the program’s doubles history. But a state title was hardly even on their radar.
“We did not see this coming,” head coach Scott Blakley said. “To go down to State and know you have to win four matches isn’t necessarily something the Platte County tennis team, boys or girls, expects to do. We just wanted to win two matches and be all-state doubles players.”
The championship run put the Pirates in a dreamland they did not think was attainable. Point by point, that dream became a reality.
“Every single time we won, it just became like ‘this is the coolest thing ever’ in a lot of ways, with no intentions of actually coming home with the championship,” Blakley said. “They took advantage of their opportunity, they played some of the best tennis they played all year and we are living in a dream world. Just feeling like the coolest thing ever happened, and it did.”
The Pirates opened the tournament Oct. 22 with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 victory over Farmington’s Elaina Govero and Kailee Biri. That performance sent them into the quarterfinals, where they faced St. Dominic’s Sophia Wolf and Reagan Williams, the District 3 champions.
The quarterfinal proved to be a more demanding test. Kaser and Keith needed a first-set tiebreak to gain the advantage, winning 7-6 (8-6) before closing out the match with a 6-4 second-set victory.
With two wins secured, the Pirates had already established a new program benchmark. Kaser and Keith became the first doubles team in program history to win multiple matches at the state tournament, setting the stage for an opportunity to accomplish something even greater the following day.
“Going into it, the goal was to medal,” Keith said. “When we started playing our matches, we started to realize we can do this. Every match, I think we realized that, and we were able to build off the points and get more and more confident, and find a way to win.”
The stakes rose again Friday, Oct. 23, when Kaser and Keith returned to the court for the semifinals. Their opponents, Helias Catholic’s Jose Meystrik and Margaux Browning, entered as the District 4 champions and presented another difficult challenge.
“Definitely more focused than the first day,” Kaser said. “A lot more was on the line, and we wanted to win.”
Kaser and Keith responded with a strong opening set, earning a 6-4 victory to move within one set of the championship match.
Helias Catholic had shown an ability to recover from that position earlier in the tournament, advancing through its first two matches after dropping the opening set. The Pirates, however, left little room for a repeat. Kaser and Keith dominated the second set, shutting out Meystrik and Browning 6-0 to secure their place in the Class 2 championship match.
“They just played awesome tennis,” Blakley said. “There were moments where it felt like Helias could get right back in this, and we just closed the door every time. They put away volleys. They were aggressive. They were smart. They made their shots.”
The victory guaranteed the Pirates a chance to compete for the state title, but their work was not finished. Webster Groves’ Margaret Nakatani and Jillian Kisslinger, the District 2 runners-up, stood between Kaser and Keith and a place in Platte County history.
“So many emotions,” Keith said. “So nervous, still couldn’t believe that we were in the championship, but still excited for every point. Then the ending was crazy.”
The championship match produced some heavy pressure, but Platte County answered. Kaser and Keith again took the opening set, winning 6-4 to move one set away from the title.
Webster Groves answered in the second set, pulling away for a 6-2 victory to force a deciding super tiebreak. The teams would compete in a 10-point tiebreak, with the first tandem to reach 10 points, with a two-point lead, claiming the championship.
“I was feeling good, but also not the best because we just lost the last set,” Kaser said. “But I knew we could do it because we played a lot more tiebreakers than I would say anybody else. So I was feeling good, and it went good.”
Blakley provided some reassurance that they had been preparing for this moment long before this week. They had regularly played super tiebreaks against teammates Clare Hayter Macy Doll, all they had to do was finish the job.
“You’ve played more super tiebreakers than anybody here,” Blakley told his team. “You are ready for this moment, believe in each other, and go win a state championship.”
For Kaser and Keith, the decisive moments called for one final response. They delivered it emphatically.
“I did not breathe for like 10 minutes,” Kaser said. “I was hoping one of them would mess up. Everyone was so tense, nobody was moving, you could hear a pen drop.”
Platte County doubles tandem Macie Keith and Ellie Kaser react after winning the Class 2 state championship on Oct. 23 in a super tiebreak. Photo Credit: MSHSAA
After equally trading the first eight points of the super tiebreak, Platte County gained some momentum that ultimately delivered the championship. That momentum started with a volley from Kaser, which made it 5-4, setting up the most consequential run in program history, as the Pirates won the final six points of the match to win the tiebreak 10-4.
“Everyone was just running towards us and screaming,” Kaser said. “It was just so unreal; it’s still unreal.”
After four victories in two days, the Pirates had reached the top of the Class 2 doubles field and accomplished something no Platte County tennis player had done before.
“I remember being probably the happiest I’ve ever been,” Keith said. “It was unreal. It was so exciting and I’ll always remember it.”
For Kaser, the championship represented the culmination of a high school career that included three consecutive appearances at the state doubles tournament. The senior’s final individual appearance ended with the accomplishment every ambitious high school tennis player dreams of.
“For my senior year, I definitely wanted to medal,” Kaser said. “A lot was on the line. It was going to be my second to-last time going to State, so I definitely wanted to do something that I didn’t in the last two years, and it worked.”
The victory also served as the culmination of a successful two-year partnership with Keith. The pair defended its District 8 championship Oct. 9, earning another trip to Springfield before putting together the four-match run that delivered the state title.
Their back-to-back district championships provided the foundation for a postseason in which they continued to raise the standard, ultimately finishing their high school partnership as state champions.
“I’ll just never forget when it happened,” Blakley said. “This feeling that this is not real. We’re going to wake up from the dream, and we found out that it wasn’t in fact a dream, and so every day we get to live it more and more.”
The accomplishment gives Platte County tennis a landmark result to build on, establishing the program’s first state doubles championship and adding another chapter to the school’s history of success.
“This is a huge victory for Platte County,” Blakley said. “The girls did, and it’s their doing and I’m so proud of them. It’s also huge for this community, the tennis community here. They all have a place in it.”
Blakley was humbled to be part of the championship coaching staff, which included assistant coaches Kim Schank and Ron Keith. He also knows the feat would not have been possible without those who helped build the foundation, including past players and coaches, some of whom include Zach Keith, Anna Nutt and Taylor Stodden.
The triumph showed how far the program has developed over the past two decades. Blakley remembers the days of the old tennis complex, which was just two courts, and the team was never able to host matches.
“We didn’t really know what we were doing,” Blakley said. “It was more about fighting and battling. I feel like that core value that Coach Zach Keith instilled in us, battling and fighting for every point, is evident throughout the generations.”
Platte County has since developed into one of the city’s most respected public school tennis programs with an eight-court complex. Today, not only are state medals now in the realm of possibility, so are state titles.
“It’s just huge,” Blakley said. “Whether you play for the guys team or the girls team. Whether you were a C-team player, a JV player, a varsity player, it just means so much to us to achieve this mountain-top that is winning a state championship.”
Ellie Kaser and Macie Keith on the podium after winning the Class 2 state championship on Oct. 23 at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.
Blakley also had the honor of putting the state championship medal on Kaser, a player he has known since she was a sixth-grader.
Macie Keith became the first state champion in her family’s illustrious history, which stretches as many as five decades of playing experience. She was medaled by her grandfather, assistant coach Ron Keith.
For Kaser and Keith, the championship was the product of not just two days of excellent play, but years of dedication and hard work. When the final point fell in the super tiebreak, Kaser and Keith had done more than win four matches. They had made history.
“We’re going to have to add another board that says ‘State Champions,’” Blakley said. “I don’t know how long it will take to get another up there, but I know that we have one, and that is incredible.”
As founding coach Zach Keith has been known to say, “A win for one is a win for all.”