Platte County shows reason for optimism in both big win, tight loss

Platte County started and finished another busy week with diametrically opposed results both potentially important to setting the stage for postseason success.

A dominant 8-1 victory over Grain Valley on Monday at Platte County High School likely results in another Suburban Conference White Division title and the top seed in the upcoming Class 2 District 8 tournament. The 7-2 loss at home to Central (St. Joseph) on Wednesday provided the Pirates an opportunity to play a full slate of highly competitive matches against a Class 3 opponent.

“I was incredibly pleased with how well we came out and competed against Grain Valley. Obviously, it’s a rivalry dual, and I thought our guys did a nice job of not getting too overhyped, but also came out focused and prepared,” Platte County coach Zach Keith said. “I knew (Central) would be a tough matchup for us, but it was good to get into a real battle at this point in the season. On one hand, I was disappointed at our performance, but I’ve also been doing this long enough to know that matches like this generally make you better in the long run.”

Platte County (10-3) clearly knew the stakes in the ongoing series with Grain Valley, which likely will be the No. 2 seed and top impediment to a second a straight district title for the Pirates.

After a recent switch, Platte County stuck with a new set of doubles combinations and senior all-state No. 1 Gavin Nichols and fellow senior Aaron Vaughan, the first-year starter at No. 4, came away with an important victory over Grain Valley’s top team. The Pirates then made it a 2-1 advantage out of with juniors Jack Bralley and Hayden Cook grinding their way to an 8-5 win at No. 2.

Previously, Nichols and Cook had been paired together, while Bralley and Vaughan had been at No. 2. The outcomes with the swaps were important with seniors Daniel Bunge and Quentin Miller seeing a 17-match winning streak come to an end in a tight 8-6 loss at No. 3.

Platte County removed any doubt with a sweep of singles.

With Miller still playing doubles only, an encouraging performance came from junior Paul Havemeier at No. 6 singles. He trailed 6-0 and 9-6 before winning the final five games to take an 11-9 win to close out the Pirates’ team victory.

“At that point, our team had already won the match, and it would have been very easy for him to mail it in and decide it just wasn’t his day,” Keith said. “Instead, he slowly chipped away at the lead, fought back, and never gave up. It was fun watching him battle back.”

The singles matches were mostly competitive, although Nichols and Bralley — the lone returning starters from last year’s quarterfinalist and the most successful team in program history — were 10-3 winners at the top two spots. Cook (10-4 at No. 3), Vaughan (10-5 at No. 4) and Bunge (10-7 at No. 5) were also winners before leaving Havemeier as the last one on the court.

Platte County 8, Belton 1

Improving to 2-0 in White Division play, Platte County traveled to Belton on Tuesday and didn’t suffer any letdown after the big win the night before and Central looming the next day.

Nichols and Vaughan were 8-5 winners at No. 1 doubles over Belton’s top two players, while Bralley and Cook continued to gel in limited time together with an 8-1 victory. Bunge and Miller quickly rebounded from the previous day’s loss and posted an 8-2 win at No. 3.

Platte County’s five singles victories were dominant, including 8-1 margins for Nichols, Vaughan, Bunge and Havemier, and Cook’s loss at No. 3 was a 9-7 battle. Bralley took an 8-3 decision at No. 2. The Pirates now have just one conference dual left at William Chrisman next week to lock up the title.

A scheduled dual with Raytown on Thursday ended up canceled due to inclement weather and will not be made up.

Platte County’s final week of the regular season starts with a home dual against Class 1 Savannah, which finished third at state last year. The Pirates travel to William Chrisman on Tuesday.

Central (St. Joseph) 7, Platte County 2

The Pirates lost three singles matches in third-set tiebreakers Wednesday afternoon, coming up on the wrong side of three tight results that led to a misleading final score.

The trouble started in doubles.

Central dominated at No. 1 with an 8-0 shutout, and Bralley and Cook dropped the No. 2 match by a score of 8-6. Bunge and Miller made it two straight wins overall with an 8-6 triumph, but Platte County went into singles needing four victories to steal the dual.

“The only troubling thing was we didn’t play well at No. 1 doubles and started too slowly at No. 2,” Keith said. “Getting down 1-2 against a good team like Central makes life really tough.”

Platte County still had a chance with Havemeier taking a 6-4, 6-3 victory at No. 6 and then three other matches going to tiebreakers. However, Central’s Kevin Pogemiller improved to 2-1 on the season against Nichols, who won the second set but ended up with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 loss. Bralley won the first set and lost the final two, including 10-5 in the third. Bunge’s 3-6, 7-5, 12-10 loss proved the longest but ultimately the Pirates would’ve needed all three of those to have a chance with Central taking the Nos. 3 and 4 matches in straight sets.

Two more chances remain for Platte County to figure out the entrants for next Friday’s Class 2 District 8 individual tournament. Nichols enters as the three-time defending singles champion, but the options for the other entrant into the bracket include Bralley, Cook, Vaughan and Havemeier.

In addition to Nichols making a third straight trip to the Class 2 MSHSAA Tennis Championships, Platte County advanced a pair of doubles teams last year. Bralley played on one of those tandems, but the other qualifiers were graduated seniors. Bralley could pair with Cook or Vaughan, while Bunge and Miller seem a strong possibility to continue their successful pairing to make a run at advancing in their first year as starters.

Platte County hosts the individual tournament before the team bracket matchups start the following week.