ELLINWOOD — With the fall high school sports season still in its infancy, the Ellinwood girls’ tennis team already finds itself fighting a numbers issue.
The Lady Eagles, who have already been hit by a handful of ailments, have two juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen.
“I think we’re going to be OK,” Ellinwood head coach Lyle Stickney said. “We’re really young, but I’m OK with that. That means less bad habits to correct. We’re small in numbers, but we’re going to be pretty good.”
Stickney said he has is happy with the players he has.
“We’re really not overly deep, but we’ll be OK,” Stickney said. “I’m happy with the kids that we do have. I would like to have a few more just so we could have a full JV squad, but that didn’t happen.
“I’m happy with where we’re at, but we can’t have anyone go down. Looking around the area, it’s going to be a fairly even year. We should match up pretty well with the rest of the teams.”
The Lady Eagles return juniors Danae Patten and Rachel Doll, who finished fourth at the Class 2A state tournament last year as a doubles team.
Ellinwood opened its season on Tuesday afternoon at the Ellsworth Invitational.
The Lady Eagles finished sixth.
“We’ve got a lot of improvement to make,” Stickney said. “We played (on Tuesday) and I saw some good things out there. I saw some things we need to address, and we’ll get right on that.”
Patten and Doll combined for second place in the No. 1 doubles competition, falling to Central Plains’ Karli Beck and Breanna Schartz, 8-4.
Ellinwood’s No. 2 doubles team Katie Shafer and Liz Standlee finished fifth, going 2-2 on the day.
“Mikayla Monday, who plays No. 1 singles for us, was ill,” Stickney said, “so we had to move our No. 2 singles girl up to No. 1 and then bring a JV girl to play No. 2 singles.
“We didn’t do so well on the singles side. Almost all of our points came from doubles.”
Sierra Weatherman finished fifth in No. 2 singles play, and Mattie Shafer finished eighth as Ellinwood’s No. 1 singles player.
Ellinwood travels to Larned today at 3 p.m.

• Lady Oilers capture third
Central Plains’ doubles teams dominated at the Ellsworth Invitational, with both Karli Beck and Breanna Schartz (No. 1 doubles) and Keeley Hipp and Janae Ryan (No. 2 doubles) seizing first place.
The Lady Oilers, who finished in third place behind Hutchinson Trinity and Smoky Valley, also got a sixth-place performance from No. 2 singles player McKenna Hammeke and a seventh-place performance from No. 1 singles player Ryanna Hekele.
Beck and Schartz beat Jadyn Snyder & Esme Vazquez of Lyons 8-0, and eased past Smoky Valley’s Katie Bellah and Annie Reinert 8-4 before topping Ellinwood’s Doll and Patten 8-4 for first place.
Hipp and Ryan pounced on Hutchinson Trinity’s Morgan Cowles and Candice Strawn, winning 8-2 to open the competition. The Lady Oilers duo beat Allyson Denning and Ella Sherwood of Trego 8-5 to advance to the final match.
Hipp and Ryan beat Smoky Valley’s Kim Cassel and Tiffani Petterson 8-4 to claim first place.

HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS
Ellsworth Invitational

Tuesday

At Ellsworth

Ellinwood results
No. 1 singles — Mattie Shafer lost to Herzog, Ellsworth, 8-0; lost to Wilf, Trego, 8-6; lost to Hekele, Central Plains, 8-7 (7-5)
No. 2 singles — Sierra Weatherman lost to Hammeke, Central Plains, injury default; def. Ptacek, Ellsworth, 8-1; lost to Hasch, Concordia, 8-7 (7-4); def. Hammeke, Central Plains, 8-5
No. 1 doubles — Rachel Doll & Danae Patten def. Hittle & Zimmerman, Concordia, 8-0; def. Lanham & Reade, Hutchinson Trinity, 8-4; lost to Beck & Schartz, Central Plains 8-4
No. 2 doubles — Katie Shafer & Liz Standlee def. Gross & Morgan, Concordia, 8-1; lost to Cassel & Petterson, Smoky Valley, 8-3; def. Mercado & Troyer, Lyons, 8-5; lost to Denning & Sherwood, Trego, 8-6

Central Plains results
No. 1 singles — Ryanna Hekele lost to Morrical, Smoky Valley, 8-3; lost to Timme, Concordia, 8-6; def. Shafer, Ellinwood, 8-7 (7-5)
No. 2 singles — McKenna Hammeke def. Weatherman, Ellinwood, injury default; lost to Roets, Smoky Valley, 8-3; lost to Phillips, Trego, 8-6; lost to Weatherman, Ellinwood, 8-5
No. 1 doubles — Karli Beck & Breanna Schartz def. Snyder & Vasquez, Lyons, 8-0; def. Bellah & Reinert, Smoky Valley, 8-5; def. Doll & Patten, Ellinwood, 8-4
No. 2 doubles — Keeley Hipp & Janae Ryan def. Cowles & Strawn, Hutchinson Trinity, 8-2; def. Mercado & Troyer, Lyons, 8-4; def. Cassel & Petterson, Smoky Valley, 8-4