When the doubles portion of Tuesday’s Class 2 quarterfinal favored Warrensburg, the response proved swift and decisive from a lineup playing with impressive poise considering the relative inexperience of a lineup with five first-year contributors.
Platte County rattled off four quickly successive singles victories to earn a 5-2 victory over the visiting Tigers. In just the second playoff dual in program history, the comeback from a 2-1 deficit advanced the Pirates to the state semifinals for the first time — another superlative for in a growing list of achievements during a lengthening run of success.
Once relegated to dilapidated or off-campus practices with no true home facility, Platte County continues to reach new heights and now will collect the first state trophy in program history and can finish no worse than fourth in Class 2.
“I try my best to educate these guys about the historical nature of what they accomplished, but that’s not an easy task because they were little kids when we were playing all away matches and practicing on two courts at Seven Bridges or the crumbling courts behind Paxton (School),” said Platte County coach Zach Keith, who has been with the Pirates since their inaugural season in 2009-10. “I was worried we might lose our fighting spirit when we started getting nice things like tennis courts, home matches, and talented players who show up as freshmen with existing playing experience. And maybe in some ways we have.
“We are probably less likely to get in a physical fight with our opponents,” he joked. “But in other ways these guys just continue to show up, put in a ton of work, and get better and better.”
In fact, Platte County played for a district title each of the past four years since the state went to three classes and have now reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. The Pirates made a championship dual just once prior to the current streak.
Platte County’s playoff debut in 2023 ended with a loss to Helias.
This time around, Warrensburg (15-1) entered with an undefeated record and then took a 2-1 lead out of doubles. The Pirates took the No. 1 match with seniors Gavin Nichols and Aaron Vaughan scoring a dominant 8-1 victory but then fell behind.
“Warrensburg came out with a ton of emotion and energy in doubles,” Keith said. “Their parents and fans traveled extremely well, and they did a great job of getting loud and supportive of their team. I was impressed.
“I told the guys before the dual that our mantra was: ‘Fight.’ I knew it wouldn’t be easy and that we’d have to fight at some point. We responded really well by coming out really strong in singles.”
Indeed, Platte County not only won four singles matches to seal the victory but led in the other two, as well.
Nichols, who has played three-plus years at No. 1 and qualified for state all four years as an individual, evened the dual with a 6-0, 6-2 win. The final three victories came from the group of first-year starters.
A 6-2, 6-0 win for junior Hayden Cook at No. 3 and a 6-2, 6-2 win for senior Daniel Bunge put Platte County up 4-2. The honor of clinching the dual went to junior Paul Havememeier, who prevailed 6-1, 6-3 at No. 6 and allowed another celebration to commence.
Platte County entered the season with only Nichols, now a four-time state qualifier in singles, and junior Jack Bralley back from last year’s program-first district championship team. Bralley moved from No. 4 to No. 2 in singles, while Cook, senior Aaron Vaughn (No. 4), Bunge and Havemeier also made the lineup. Uniquely, Havemeier only plays singles while Bunge formed a formidable No. 3 doubles team with fellow senior Quentin Miller.
Those seven players helped Platte County (15-3) advance to play Branson (19-7-1) in next Friday’s Class 2 semifinal round at Cooper Tennis Complex. The two teams actually matched up on April 4 during the regular season as part of Platte County’s trip south to compete in the Branson Doubles Invitational.
In a dual the day before, Platte County defeated Branson 7-2 and then went on to take the team title of the flighted doubles-only tournament. However, Keith noted that Branson has altered the lineup since that meeting and expects a different challenge.
The winner advances to play either MICDS (11-3) or Westminster Christian (14-4) in the championship later in the day, while the losers of the semifinals play for third.
“We’ll have our work cut out for us against a really good Branson squad,” Keith said. “This is literally the public school (Class 2) state championship. We know Branson is well-coached, has a great culture of success, and will be very motivated to beat us. We will have to play our best tennis to win.”
Up first, Nichols and the doubles team of Bralley and Cook play in the Class 2 MSHSAA Tennis Championships individual tournaments Thursday and Friday, also in Springfield. Nichols seeks a third state medal in four tries after placing seventh as a freshman and sixth as a junior coming off his fourth consecutive Class 2 District 8 single title — the only four in program history.
Bralley goes back to state for a second year with Cook after they finished as the district doubles runnerup last week.
A year ago, Bralley went to state with Hayden’s older brother Jaron Cook — a duo that went 1-2 after also placing second at districts. Platte County has sent a doubles team to state each of the past three years, and last year, Jack Forrest and Austin Vanek — two of the four graduated starters — became the Pirates’ first state medalists in that division. They actually eliminated Bralley and Jaron Cook in the consolation part of the bracket after topping their teammates for the 2023 district championship.
Prior to last year, Platte County’s doubles teams had gone a combined 0-6 at state, starting with the first individual qualifier in 2010 (Ethan Savage/Aaron Stout).
