Ellie Kaser and Macie Keith made program history in this past weekend’s Class 2 MSHSAA Tennis Championships but ended up short of the ultimate goal.
On Friday afternoon, Kaser and Keith became the first in program history to win a doubles match at state for Platte County, ending a lengthy and frustratingly lengthening streak that actually dated back to 2009 but picked up steam in recent seasons. The Pirates’ No. 1 duo and the Class 2 District 8 champions opened play Friday at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield with a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the first round over Dagny McCarver and Macie Coleman of Farmington.
However, Kaser and Keith dropped their next two matches — one in the championship quarterfinals of the 16-team bracket and the final one in the consolation quarterfinals — to finish one win shy of a top-eight medal.
“We had a good week of practice leading up. They both felt confident, played confident,” Platte County first-year coach Scott Blakley said. “You could just tell they had a good time; they played well together and had fun.
“It was a really good tournament for us. Getting to state in itself is big, but winning a match at state is very important for the girls and the program.”
Kaser and Keith finished with a 20-13 record in their first season consistently playing together in doubles.
Platte County advanced at least one individual entrant to state for a fourth consecutive season with six of the seven to qualify in that span in doubles. Prior to Friday’s match with Farmington, the Pirates were 0-12 all time at state in doubles dating back to Lisa Wyrwinski and Rachel Bumstead’s 2009 appearance in Class 1.
A second-year starter in a first season at No. 1 singles, Kaser joined Addy Mayne and Olivia Holbrook as the only two-time state qualifiers in Platte County’s program history. She went last year alongside now-graduated Lily Fish with the pair going 0-2 in the Class 2 tournament. Keith, a sophomore who moved up from No. 4 in the Pirates’ lineup to No. 2, became a first-time qualifier after playing singles in districts a year ago.
After a strong run to this year’s district title, Kaser and Keith put the annoying state streak in the past against the District 1 runnerups. However, Farmington held a 3-0 lead in the second set before ceding a big comeback that led to Platte County’s advancement to the quarterfinals.
“We didn’t get on the courts until like 2:45, so there was a lot of sitting around and nervousness,” Blakley said. “Against Farmington, we came out and played well, won some big points early, but as tends to happen in a lot of matches, the second set wasn’t as easy.”
The competition stepped up from there with a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Helias’ team of Josie Francka and Josie Meystrik on Friday to drop to the consolation side of the bracket. Kaser and Keith then saw their tournament end Saturday morning with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Madeleine Jones and Taylor Taggart of Springfield Catholic.
Helias placed fourth and Springfield Catholic seventh in Saturday’s medal rounds.
“Helias was a really solid team and didn’t really make any mistakes,” Blakley said. “We kind of had opportunities where it felt like we were going to get into the match but that didn’t really happen. Springfield Catholic had what felt like a home match for them since they all train there. We played decent in the first set but kept losing all the big points.”
Platte County actually advanced two doubles teams to the District 8 finals to sweep the state berths in both 2022 and 2023 but didn’t have any individual wins at state prior to Maggie McBratney’s run to an eighth-place finish in singles and the Pirates’ first-ever state medal last season.
The state success for Kaser and Keith builds on a second straight Class 2 District 8 runnerup finish behind St. Pius X with the nearly the entire roster coming back next year to chase the program’s second playoff berth and first since 2023. The Pirates went 13-7 in duals this season and entered the district championship match on a nine-dual winning streak, which incidentally started following a 9-0 loss to St. Pius X in late September. The Warriors won the rematch 5-0 with the final four matches not finished with the result decided.
