Some day questions might come up about the best team in program history.
Platte County senior Aaron Vaughan hits a shot during a match in the Class 2 District 8 championship dual with Grain Valley on Wednesday at Platte County High School.
With the possibility still ahead, Platte County might have distinct and defensible arguments between lineups in an ongoing memorable two-year stretch. The Pirates’ 6-0 shutout of Grain Valley in Wednesday’s Class 2 District 8 championship dual at Platte County High School sends them back to the playoffs for a second straight year.
A win over Warrensburg (15-0) in Monday’s state quarterfinal matchup would send Platte County to state as a team for the first time.
Prior to last spring, Platte County had never won a district championship, and the program’s first trip to the playoffs ended with an opening-round loss to Helias. However, the 2023 Pirates sent Gavin Nichols to state in singles along with a pair of a doubles teams.
In last Friday’s Class 2 District 8 individual tournament, Nichols secured his fourth straight singles title, while juniors Jack Bralley and Hayden Cook finished second in the doubles bracket. Bralley went as part of last year’s district runnerup doubles team, as well.
So the current inundation of Platte County might have less individual representation but have seven players seeking one more dual win that would guarantee the Pirates their first-ever team top-four state trophy.
Platte County senior Daniel Bunge hits an overhand shot during a match in the Class 2 District 8 championship dual with Grain Valley on Wednesday at Platte County High School.
“I love a lot of things about this group,” Platte County coach Zach Keith said. “They love to compete and literally want the best teams to win because they want to play them. I also love how cohesive this team is. They spend a lot of time together off the court and have been very intentional about that. I’m not saying that last year’s team didn’t do a good job of those things, but this year’s team is just really, really good at it.”
Platte County graduated four seniors from last spring and uniquely have used five players to fill those spots.
With Nichols having played three-plus seasons at No. 1, Bralley moved up from No. 4 to No. 2 while Cook (No. 3), senior Aaron Vaughan (No. 4), senior Daniel Bunge (No. 5) and junior Paul Havemeier (No. 6) all became first-year varsity contributors in singles. Havemeier only plays singles with senior Quentin Miller forming a formidable No. 3 doubles team with Bunge.
Platte County (14-3) only suffered three losses in the regular season — all to Class 3 opponents (Park Hill, Park Hill South, Central (St. Joseph).
After a first-round bye in Class 2 District 8, Platte County dispatched Raytown 6-0 in a semifinal that also allowed for the unofficial completion of a sweep of Suburban Conference White Division foes after their regular season matchup ended up canceled due to inclement weather. That set up a rematch with Grain Valley, which lost the regular season matchup between the two teams 8-1 a little over two weeks earlier.
Platte County dominated all three doubles matches — 8-2 for Nichols and Vaughan at No. 1, 8-4 for Bralley and Cook at No. 2 and 8-3 for Bunge and Miller at No. 3.
Platte County junior Hayden Cook prepares to hit a shot during a match in the Class 2 District 8 championship dual with Grain Valley on Wednesday at Platte County High School.
Nichols (6-1, 6-3), Bralley (6-1, 6-0) and Cook (6-2, 6-2) secured quick singles sweeps to bring a quick conclusion to the matchup. Platte County also led in all three of the other singles matches at the time of completion.
“Grain Valley is a quality, well-coached team that has been playing very well the last two weeks,” Keith said. “We knew we couldn’t come into a match like this with low energy or things could get tough fast. We played smart tennis with great energy right out of the gate in doubles, and that set the tone for the entire match.
“We basically took every one of their punches and methodically played excellent tennis to pull away for the win.”
Warrensburg defeated Willard 5-4 in Thursday’s Class 2 District 7 championship dual.
Platte County has two opponents in common with the Tigers, who also beat Grain Valley 7-2 during their undefeated regular season. The Pirates played Willard early in the season and scored an 8-1 win.
Class 2 District 8 Individual Tournament
Nichols improved to 21-5 on the season with a sweep of three singles matches as the No. 1 seed Friday at Platte County High School. He continues to build out the resume of the best player in program history by every measure with the fourth consecutive district title that sends him to state for a fourth time seeking a third top-eight medal.
Platte County senior Gavin Nichols hits a shot during a match in the Class 2 District 8 championship dual with Grain Valley on Wednesday at Platte County High School.
In addition, Bralley and Cook — a team formed late in the season as Keith eyed the right combinations to maximize district finalists — earned the No. 2 spot in the bracket and held seed but needed a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 win over Grain Valley’s Riley Spencer and Campbell Childers in the semifinals to reach the championship match.
However, Grain Valley’s top-seeded team of Ben Drinkwater and Trace Compton held on for a 6-2, 0-6, 10-6 tiebreaker win to take the district title after a nearly disastrous second set.
Only the two district finalists advance to state, and Bunge and Miller — Platte County’s second double entrant — saw a successful season end with a fourth-place finish. They combined to go on a 17-match winning streak at one point this season but ended up with the No. 4 seed and dropped their semifinal in straight sets to Drinkwater and Compton.
Vaughan went into the singles bracket at No. 6 but lost a marathon third-set tiebreaker to William Chrisman’s Brandon Keltner in quarterfinals. Keltner came back from a loss in the first set for a lengthy 4-6, 6-4, 13-11 victory and a won a semifinal in another tiebreaker before losing to Nichols 6-0, 6-0 in the final.
Nichols lost just one game in three matches.
Platte County junior Jack Bralley and senior Quentin Miller celebrate after the Pirates won the Class 2 District 8 championship dual with Grain Valley on Wednesday at Platte County High School.
Having taken over as No. 1 late in his freshman season, Nichols goes into state with 82 career singles victories. He became the first singles qualifier in program history as a freshman and then went 3-2 to also become the first medalist, finishing seventh.
A tough, random draw in the state bracket Nichols’ sophomore year resulted in a 1-2 trip that ended with him off the podium. Last season, Nichols made the state quarterfinals for the second time in three tries, and he again went 3-2, finishing sixth after a loss in the fifth-place match.
Platte County’s last three years have produced the majority of state opportunities for a program started in the 2009-10 school year. The Pirates’ only qualifiers before Nichols won the singles district tile as a freshman were the doubles team of Ethan Savage and Aaron Stout in 2010.
This now marks three straight seasons with at least one doubles team going to state.
Bralley joins Nathan Vanek as the only two-time doubles qualifiers in program history. Incidentally, Bralley went last year with Jaron Cook, older brother of this year’s partner Hayden Cook. Last year’s Bralley-Cook team went 1-2 at state and bowed out with a loss to teammates Jack Forrest and Nathan Vanek, who went on to place sixth and become the first doubles state medalists in program history.
Prior to 2023, Platte County didn’t have a state doubles victory. The teams of Stout and Savage and Nathan Vanek and older brother Austin Vanek in 2022 both went 0-2.
This year’s state singles and doubles tournaments will be held Thursday and Friday, May 16-17 at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield. The team semifinals and place matches will be the following Friday at the same location.
