Maggie McBratney wanted to finish her career playing singles, no matter the outcome.
With the challenge accepted, Platte County’s senior No. 1 not only qualified for the Class 2 MSHSAA Tennis Championships for the first time and made program history this week at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield. She won two of her first three matches Thursday and ended Friday as the first individual state medalist in program history.
McBratney placed eighth in Class 2 after becoming just the second player ever for the Pirates to qualify for state in singles.
“I feel very privileged to have witnessed Maggie’s journey,” Platte County coach Zach Keith said, “from C team as a freshman, to experiencing the challenge of of playing at No. 1 as a sophomore, to becoming a really successful No. 2 player as a junior, to winning more matches (in a season) at No. 1 as a senior than any female in PC girls tennis history. She is very deserving of that state medal.”
McBratney finished her senior season with a 27-10 record with none of the record-setting wins more important than Thursday’s first-round matchup with Springfield Catholic’s Lila Griesemer — for multiple reasons.
Prior to this season, no singles player or doubles team from Platte County had earned a victory at state. McBratney ended the dubious streak in dramatic fashion against a returning state medalist in a three-set battle.
McBratney’s 7-6 (5), 1-6, 10-3 victory put her into the quarterfinals and meant she needed only one more win to advance to Friday’s medal round. After dropping a 6-3, 6-2 match with Notre Dame de Sion’s Anna McGeeney, McBratney did just that with a 6-2, 6-2 sweep against Morgan Hilbrich of St. Michael the Archangel in the consolation quarterfinals.
“I think most people don’t actually play their best tennis at the state tournament because the pressure is much higher, but I feel like I had the privilege of watching the best match of Maggie’s career,” Keith said. “I was so proud of the way she rose to the occasion against such a good player. Even that way she battled back to win the third-set tiebreaker after Lila gained all of the momentum in the second set was really impressive.”
McBratney dropped her final two matches by scores of 6-2, 6-2 to Camdenton’s Kaylee Ann Doran and a rematch with Griesemer in the seventh-place match. The three losses for McBratney were all to medalists (fourth, fifth and seventh).
For the third straight year, Platte County sent multiple individual entrants to state with the doubles team of senior Lily Fish and sophomore Ellie Kaser going 0-2 in that bracket. They drew Barstow’s Atra Biria and Rose Biria, the eventual state champions, in the opening round then lost 6-1, 6-1 to Catherine Meystrik and Josie Meystrik in the the consolation first round.
The Meystriks did not make the podium but lost to the fifth- and sixth-place teams.
“These two were easily in the toughest quarter of the draw, which made for a bittersweet ending to the season,” Keith said. “That being said, it was very fitting for a four-year player like Lily Fish to get to finish her career at the state tournament. She is someone who I have a lot of really fun memories with as both a player and a great teammate. Ellie has an incredibly bright future. She is one of the most efficient doubles players I’ve coached, and she’s only going to get better and better.”
Platte County went into the season with only McBratney and Fish back from last year’s district champion, the first team in program history to make the playoffs. The Pirates returned to this year’s final but did not advance.
That placed additional importance on the Class 2 District 8 individual tournament the week prior.
McBratney made the final and finished second to join older sister Molly McBratney as the only singles state qualifiers in Platte County’s history. Molly McBratney won the championship in 2020. The Pirates have also sent five doubles teams to state over the past three seasons after Kaser and Fish finished as District 8 runnersup.
Kaser and Fish were first-time qualifiers. In fact, Kaser moved all the way up from outside last year’s top seven to play the No. 2 singles spot, while Fish moved up to No. 3 from No. 4, and they rarely played together in the regular season but became Platte County’s top doubles entrants with McBratney’s decision to play singles.
