By BRETT MARSHALL

Special to The Hays Daily News

GARDEN CITY -- Monday's Western Athletic Conference tennis tournament at the new Garden City High School courts offered Hays High an opportunity to salvage some conference pride.

Instead, coach Brett Jensen's crew left with any number of questions to be answered as they head to the Class 5A regional on Saturday at Valley Center.

That's what happens when your team, the defending champion, finishes third by virtue of both doubles teams placing second while the two singles players managed only one win each.

"A below-average day at best," a disappointed Jensen said at the conclusion of play Monday. "We had some tough losses to Great Bend, and considering we had been close with them in the past, I thought we might do better."

But the Indians went 0-4 against the victorious Panthers, who swept all 16 points to easily dethrone the Indians, who were third with seven points, two back of Garden City.

Perhaps the toughest loss of the day came at No. 2 doubles (Taylor DeBoer/Kelsey DeBoer) when they suffered a tough loss to Liberal (Jaycee Darroch/Stephanie Sanchez), in an 8-7 (7-2) tiebreaker.

"They hadn't lost to them all year, so that's always a tough one to figure," Jensen said. "But, credit to them, they picked it up the rest of the day and won their final two matches."

Jensen's No. 1 doubles team of Megan Bird and Janae Gagnon went 3-1 for the day, taking the silver medal. Their lone loss came against Great Bend's Brianna Schwartz and Jami McVey (8-3), but they rallied to post successive wins against Liberal's Alicia Collins and Jordan Apsley (8-0), Garden City's Jannette Martinez/Kaylee Keller (8-1) and Dodge City's Taylor Fischer and Sarah Raugewitz (8-0).

"It was a frustrating day for us in the singles," Jensen said. "We had expected to compete for one of the top two or three spots, but it just wasn't our day there."

Jensen said the Indians had been consistently finishing behind Great Bend in other meets involving WAC schools, so the third-place finish behind Garden City was a downer.

"Garden City played well and we had an off day," Jensen said. "There was tough wind conditions, but it was the same for everyone. You can't make any excuses out there."

Jensen said the team will put in a solid week of practice in preparation for the one-day regional on Saturday. Singles players and doubles teams must finish in the top six to earn a spot at the Class 5A state tournament, to be played Oct. 12 to 13 at Topeka.