Lady Buffs take 3 of 4 divisions, POY, Coach honors
When Garden City High School girls’ tennis coach Logan Bevis started the 2022 fall season back in the third week of August, his lineup looked rock solid.
He had three seniors, all of whom were good singles players, but also came with doubles experience in their previous seasons in the program. He also had a couple of returners to play doubles.
All seemed to be set. Until illness, injury, more illness and yet another illness sidelined one of his top two singles players in Brooke Ptacek, a returning doubles player in Chloe Powell and eventually also sidelining sophomore Jocelyn Kennedy, who had moved up to replace Powell.
Despite the lineup looking more like a yo-yo or jigsaw puzzle, Bevis was able to knit a group and put them on the court with impressive results.
The first goal was to win the Western Athletic Conference championship, which they did in early October by winning both singles divisions and one of two doubles divisions and finishing second in the other doubles competition. Winning 15 of a possible 16 points easily handed the Lady Buffs their seventh consecutive league crown and eighth in the last nine years.
The Lady Buffs also secured another Player of the Year honor when senior Sydney Nanninga, playing No. 1 singles for the first time in her four-year career, went 4-0 to claim the top WAC award. Another senior, Alivia Palmer, moved into singles play when Ptacek suffered a season-ending injury in mid-September. She would go on to win the No. 2 singles title while Peyton Tull (injured early but returned) teamed with freshman Quincy Nanninga to claim the No. 1 doubles gold medal.
A pair of sophomores – Kourtney Kneeland and Kennedy – finished second in the No. 2 doubles action but a week later Bevis would find out Kennedy, too, was out due to illness and thus was forced to replace her with another sophomore Danica Galia to team up with Kneeland in the 6A regionals and eventually the 6A state tournament.
The Lady Buffs secured their second most important goal when they won the 6A regional and qualified both singles players and both doubles teams. When it was all said and done, Sydney Nanninga was the only player in the same position as she was at the start of the season.
“The lineup we had at the beginning (Wichita Collegiate) was the optimum lineup we could put out there,” said Bevis, who has quietly continued to produce top teams in the WAC. “For the team chemistry, all three of our seniors (Ptacek, Sydney Nanninga, Palmer) were good singles players and at the time Alivia was the most likely to play doubles because she fits there well, too.”
The other senior – Powell – never stepped on the court with a season-ending physical condition that prohibited her from competing.
As a result of the topsy-turvy lineup throughout the season, several junior varsity players were able to step into varsity roles and produced well for Bevis.
“Our JV kids were awesome because in all honesty, the 5 through 8 or 9 players were all pretty much the same level,” Bevis said.
To provide a clearer picture of his challenges with the lineup, Quincy Nanninga had four different partners, Tull played with two while Kneeland partnered with three different teammates, each three times. Palmer would eventually split her season with three doubles tournaments and six in singles.
“It seemed like each week I had to pivot to a new lineup,” Bevis said. “I liked that the kids liked it, but it was always back to the drawing board. I would listen to the girls’ input, but at the end of the day I had to make decisions that were in the best interest of the team. It was just a matter of putting the pieces together to make sense.”
In the two weeks following winning the WAC, the Lady Buffs would go on to win the 6A regional tournament, qualifying the entire team. In a twist of irony, Palmer would deliver the best effort at the state, earning a 12th place medal to become the first singles player to place since Amanda Krug did it in 1996.
For the older Nanninga, her senior year exceeded all expectations.
She lost her season-opening match at the Collegiate Invitational and then went on a 27-match winning streak and would eventually finish the year 32-4. With that came the WAC Player of the Year award.
“I wasn’t sure how the season would go because I’d played doubles all three years,” Sydney Nanninga said. “I’d played one hundred percent singles in the summer and I played pretty good and it felt good going from doubles to singles. The biggest change was not having anyone to talk to out on the court. Sage and I (Riggs, 2021 WAC Player of the Year) were close and I just had to adjust mentally to be on my own.”
Nanninga recalled her first tournament at Wichita Collegiate where she faced a tough opponent from Wichita-Kapaun Mt. Carmel and the physical conditioning was evident.
“There’s a lot more movement – you’re running all over the court and in that first tournament it was a big change,” she said. “I was exhausted and I told myself I don’t want to play singles. It wasn’t as much fun as playing with Sage.”
But adjust she did and reeled off the winning streak going into regionals where she lost a heartbreaking match to her toughest WAC foe – Flaminia Lepri – a foreign exchange student from Italy playing for Dodge City.
“I think my style of play was more defensive and I think I could have been more aggressive,” Nanninga said. “It was really difficult at times when we first loss Chloe and then Brooke and then Payton was out some and Jocelyn missed at the end. The other girls came up and stepped up and did a great job.”
Nanninga said she wouldn’t change a thing about her four-year high school career.
“I wouldn’t trade it because I have a lot of great memories,” Nanninga said. “Both my parents play tennis and that’s how it started. Playing competitively wasn’t an option until high school.”
She hopes to attend the University of Kansas where she plans to pursue a degree in psychology and eventually settle into a career in clinical counseling.
She will remember all the big wins that she earned and minimize the tough losses sustained over those four years that produced four WAC team championships.
“I improved my mentality to play the game,” she said. “I would take every loss super hard my freshman year. Even though I had some tough losses, the main thing I wanted to take away is how to be better the next time.”
Western Athletic Conference
Girls Tennis – All-WAC 2022
| No. 1 Singles | Sydney Nanninga (SR) | Garden City |
| No. 2 Singles | Alivia Palmer (SR) | Garden City |
| No. 1 Doubles | Payton Tull (JR) / Quincy Nanninga (FR) | Garden City |
| No. 2 Doubles | Emily Estevane (SR) / Karen Lopez (SR) | Dodge City |
| Player of the Year | Sydney Nanninga (SR) | Garden City |
| Coach of the Year | Logan Bevis | Garden City |
