5 Jackets qualify for state tennis

Five Kingfisher High School tennis players will get to experience the state tournament this year.

Both doubles’ teams and a singles player on Monday advanced to the Class 4A state tournament with their performances at the regional at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center.

Advancing were Xavier Ridenour at No. 1 singles, the No. 1 doubles team of Caden Kitchens and Will Shaver and the No. 2 doubles duo of Easton Pine and Jett Matson.

Those players will return to the OKC Tennis Center on Friday and Saturday.

Kitchens and Shaver eventually took third in their bracket, but not before pushing the top-seeded team from Henryetta in the semifinals.

The Henryetta duo won 6-3, 6-4, but the seven games Kitchens and Shaver took from them were more than in all their other matches combined.

After the loss, Kingfisher came back to knock off Weatherford 6-0, 6-1 to secure a spot at state.

That pitted them against Pauls Valley for third place. It went three sets before Kitchens and Shaver prevailed 12-10 in the tie-breaker.

Matson and Pine also locked up third place in their bracket.

Like their No. 2 doubles teammates, Pine and Matson faced top-seeded Henryetta in the semifinals and were defeated by the eventual champions.

They came back to beat Christian Heritage 6-3, 6-3, which secured a spot in the state tournament.

The team then improved its seeding with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Mount St. Mary.

It was the second win over MSM as Pine and Matson opened the tournament with a 6-2, 6-1 victory against the Rockets.

Ridenour opened his bracket with a three-set win over Owen Clark of Harding Charter Prep.

Clark took the first set 6-2 before Ridenour came back to win 7-6 in the second and then won the third-set tie-breaker 10-3.

Luke Thomas of CHA defeated Ridenour in the semifinals 6-0, 6-0.

Thomas surrendered just three games in his three matches en route to winning the No. 1 singles title.

Needing to win his next match, Ridenour delivered with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Logan Newberry of Oklahoma Christian School.

He eventually settled for fourth place as Ethan Lovell of Henryetta defeated Ridenour 6-1, 6-0 in the third-place match.

Drake Friesen finished one win shy of qualifying for state in No. 2 singles.

The junior placed fifth in his bracket.

After beating Cashen Shire of Chisholm 6-0, 6-1 in the quarter final round, Friesen was defeated by CHAs Noah Rinderman in the semifinals.

Jackson Coates of Pauls Valley then knocked off Friesen 6-1, 6-1 in the match that determined who would reach state.

Friesen, however, did bounce back to claim fifth place by beating Jackson Ramey of OCS 6-0, 6-1.

Overall, Kingfisher took third place in the regional with 21 points.

Henryetta claimed the title with 30.

CHA was the runner-up with 26.

Mount St. Mary was fourth with 20 points.