The doubles draw for Thursday’s Topeka City Tennis Championships was no picnic.
 
The top four teams in the seven team field all boasted a combined record of 62-6. The fourth seed at the tournament – Topeka High’s Adisyn Caryl and Haley Carpenter – owned a 14-1 record going into the meet.
 
The loaded field had Hayden’s Lauren Sandstrom stoked to get onto the court.
 
“I was totally looking forward to today,” said Sandstrom, who along with partner Emily Sheetz, brought a 19-3 mark into the tourney as the No. 3 seed. “Any time you have that kind of competition, you have to be excited.”
 
As pumped up as Sandstrom and Sheetz were for the tournament, their performance Thursday at the Kossover Tennis Center was even more thrilling. The duo emerged as city champions after taking a 7-5, 4-6, 10-4 victory over previously undefeated Katherine Krummins and Molly Gorman of Seaman in the championship match.
 
“I knew it was going to be tough and we just had to keep our mind set on the goal,” Sheetz said. “This year, we expected a lot out of ourselves and we’ve had really good energy all year. Lauren is a great help in keeping my attitude up. Topeka High, Rural, Seaman, I knew going into this it was going to be really tough and our nerves got to us a lot, but we had to stay positive, stay focused and keep our mind on the game.”
 
Their title paired with a championship from sophomore Ainzley Zulueta at No. 1 singles and solid showings in the No. 2 draws (second in doubles, fourth in singles) led the Wildcats to a narrow 26-25 win over Seaman for the team championship. The Vikings had runner-up finishes at No. 1 singles and doubles, got a first from Nina Del Zio at No. 2 singles and took third in No. 2 doubles.
 

 

The outcome of the No. 1 doubles bracket figured to play a major factor in the team standings and Seaman’s Krummins and Gorman came in as the No. 1 seed with a 12-0 mark and fresh off a victory over Washburn Rural’s tandem of Meredith Kucera and Emily Fritz at Tuesday’s Washburn Rural Invitational.
 
After handling High’s Caryl and Carpenter in the semifinals, the Viking duo carried that momentum over into the finals and jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead on Sandstrom and Sheetz. But almost as quickly as the Wildcat duo dug their hole, they climbed out of it, winning five of the next six games to take a lead.
 
“Me and Lauren never give up,” Sheetz said. “We always think there’s a chance and anything can happen when we’re playing. I just had to realize I know how to hit those shots, I know my serves will go in. Lauren hit some really great shots and we knew how we needed to finish the match.”
 
Neither team never could completely get the upper hand. But Sheetz and Sandstrom finally got a little separation in the third set to take their first city title.
 
Both acknowledged that experience might have been a deciding factor. The Wildcat duo spent all last year playing together, taking seventh at the Class 4A state tournament, while Krummins and Gorman are in their first year together with Krummins moving over to doubles from singles play a year ago to join Gorman, a freshman.
 
“It’s definitely an advantage,” Sandstrom said. “You could tell from the beginning of last year when Emily was a freshman and we started out for the first time, it was rocky at the beginning but by the end we improved so much just understanding how to play with each other. Now even at the start of this season we’ve improved tremendously. We get each other’s game and know what we’re good at. And we get each other’s attitudes so that if one of us gets frustrated, the other one can pick each other up.”
 
Sandstrom and Sheetz improved to 22-3 on the season against a tough schedule, the only losses coming to three 6A teams.
 

Zulueta, meanwhile, is 19-1 after taking her title on Thursday. And while she didn’t have to go three sets like her doubles counterparts, Zulueta had her hands full in a championship battle with Seaman’s Lauren Sweeney.
 
Last year, Sweeney was an undefeated Class 5A doubles champion, teaming with Grace Unruh to go 36-0. But with Unruh graduating, Sweeney has moved to singles this season and brought a 15-2 record into the tournament and was fresh off taking the title at Tuesday’s Rural Invitational.
 
Like Sandstrom and Sheetz, Zulueta welcomed the challenge she knew she would get from Sweeney, whom she had taken an 8-6 win over last Saturday at a tournament in Olathe.
 
“Last time we were both really tired because we’d played five matches before playing each other and it was a really long day,” Zulueta said. “I was glad we both were going to be at our best, a lot fresher today. It’s nice having competition like that, another competitor that can hit like me.”
 
Zulueta was again pushed, but again came out on top, taking a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
 
“The first encounter just gave me a lot of confidence,” Zulueta said. “It gave me strategies how to play her and I was able to use that.”
 

 
Last year’s Class 4A state singles champion, Zulueta has already proven she won’t be an easy mark for anyone trying to take her title this season. She said she’s improved immensely over a year ago and has backed that up with her performances so far this year.
 
Zulueta opened the season with an impressive title at the Wichita Collegiate Tournament of Champions, beating 2020 4A state champion Isabella Sebits of Wichita Trinity in the semifinals and then taking down 2021 3A champion and 2019 4A champion Emma Mantovani of Wichita Collegiate in the finals.
 
“My mental game has gotten a lot better,” said Zulueta, whose lone loss is to defending 6A champion Jillian Harkin of Manhattan. “I realized I need to make changes as soon as I can and find out what works best in a match. Before, I was pretty stubborn with mhy shot selection and kept trying to win points as fast as I could. My physicality got a lot better and I’m moving around the court more swiftly.
 
“(Winning at Collegiate) gave me a bunch of confidence. Playing two good players like that to start the season made me realize how much more I needed to work. It just gave me a lot of motivation.”
 
Hayden’s city title could be a nice boost of momentum as the championship stretch begins. The Wildcats finished third as a team at last year’s 4A state tournament and have their sights set on capturing a state title this season – something the girls’ program has never accomplished.
 
“Our team is looking pretty solid,” Sandstrom said. “Not only to we have Ainzley, Emily and I but our No. 2 doubles team (Sloane Sims and Briahna Barnett) and new No. 2 singles player (Grace Funk) is really improving.”





 
OTHER TENNIS STANDOUTS
 

• Marysville’s Shea Kramer improved to 17-3 on the season in singles play, winning titles at the Smoky Valley and Perry-Lecompton Invitationals in the past week. Two of Kramer’s three losses have come to returning state champions – Manhattan’s Jillian Harkin (6A) and Hayden’s Ainzley Zulueta (4A).

 
Marysville also won the team title at Perry, a tournament that featured eight of the 11 teams in their Class 3-2-1A regional.
 

• Washburn Rural is 9-0-1 in quads thus far this season. The tandem of Meredith Kucera and Katherine Fritz are 18-3 after Thursday’s City Meet with their only other losses coming to Blue Valley North’s Emma Razi and Nancy Di Palo and Seaman’s Katherine Krummins and Molly Gorman.

 
 

• Defending Class 6A state champion Jillian Harkin captured the title at a loaded Olathe South Invitational last Saturday, beating defending 4A champion Ainzley Zulueta of Hayden 8-3 in the semifinals and then topping Olathe Northwest’s Ella Novion 8-3 in the title match.

 
Harkin followed with a 2-1 mark at the weather-shortened KC Invitational on Tuesday, suffering her first defeat of the season with an 8-3 loss to Blue Valley Northwest’s Emily Chiasson, whom Harkin beat for the 6A state title last fall. Harkin is 20-1 this season.
 

• Sacred Heart’s Katie Weiss captured the singles title at the Buhler Invitational, dropping only 7 games in four matches. Weiss is 7-1 this season, her lone loss coming to Eisenhower’s Rachel Davis.

 

• Topeka High’s Adisyn Caryl and Haley Carpenter won the doubles title at the Topeka High Invitational, going 4-0 on the day to push their season record to 14-1 before Thursday’s City Meet. The duo previously won tourneys at Wamego and Topeka West and the only loss before city had come to Andover Central’s Grace Schaefer and McKinnley Evans.