Liberal’s Tarango named POY

When he assumed the duties of the girls’ tennis coach at Garden City High School in the fall of 2025, David Snodgrass knew that he had left his previous position in Dodge City with a squad poised to end the Lady Buffs’ nine-year reign as Western Athletic Conference champions.

That proved to be prophetic as the Lady Demons captured that title. Upon the conclusion of that tournament, however, Snodgrass also knew that he had a promising GCHS squad in waiting for the 2026 season.

He had every reason to be optimistic as the 2026 fall campaign got under way and he was rewarded on Oct. 5 when his Lady Buffs cruised to the WAC crown for the 10th time in the last 11 years.

The Buffs won three of the four divisions, sweeping four matches each in No. 1 singles, No. 2 singles and No. 3 doubles while going 2-2 and placing third in No. 1 doubles to compile 14 points. Liberal was a distant second with 9 points, Great Bend in third with 8 points, Dodge City fourth with 6 points and Hays fifth with 3 points.

The good news for Snodgrass and the Buffs, but bad news for the other four teams in the conference, is that only one player — Reese Kennedy playing No. 1 doubles with sophomore sister Macey — will graduate in the spring of 2027.

“We were fortunate to have good numbers out for the team this year,” Snodgrass said of his team’s uptick in players from 23 to 32. “We had a handful of players committed to summer tennis and others who came out to give us a lot of depth.”

In a schedule change that Snodgrass believes had a positive impact on the team’s season, the Buffs opted out of the early season Wichita Collegiate Invitational, which is usually played at the end of the first week of practice. Outside of the Class 6A state tournament, it is the toughest tourney in which the Buffs had been competing.

“It gave us an additional two weeks of practice to work on basic fundamental skills and to focus on looking at players to decide who were singles and who were doubles players,” Snodgrass said. “We got a lot better on our skill sets, especially with our doubles players. We worked on the ability to build points in matches and how to put points away.”

That schedule change saw the Buffs’ first tournament in Great Bend take place the second weekend of September and by the time the WAC tournament rolled around the first Monday of October, they had completed in seven tournaments in less than 21 days.

“I think with so many tournaments so close together, the girls just improved each time we were on the court,” Snodgrass said. “We got to see a lot of girls compete at both the varsity and junior varsity level. Our JV girls got to play in five varsity tournaments.”

After the opening tournament in Great Bend, Snodgrass felt like he and his assistant/wife Kelley had found the right combination for both singles and doubles.

That put juniors Vivian Whitham and London Ojeda in the No. 1 and 2 singles slots while senior Reese was paired with her younger sibling, Macey at No. 1 doubles. A pair of sophomores in Renley Just and Tegan Snodgrass combined for the No. 2 doubles team.

“We just thought Reese and Macey had meshed well in that first tournament and so did Renley and Tegan,” Snodgrass said. “Tegan had never played competitive tennis, but she’s so athletic that she just improved each week as did the others.”

The one-day, round-robin format at the WAC championship had the Buffs draw an opening round bye while the other four teams battled it out.

In Round 2, the Buffs were up against their toughest opponent in the Liberal Lady Red. The big match came at No. 1 singles where Whitham upended No. 1 seeded Evelin Tarango in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (4) that helped the eventual champions to a 3-1 match victory.

They followed it with another 3-1 triumph over Dodge City before closing the tournament out with 4-0 sweeps of Hays and Great Bend. Their 10 points after three rounds was enough to claim the title so the final match with Great Bend was relatively stress-free, Snodgrass said.

“It was nice to get that early advantage to take some pressure off the girls and they could just go out in that final match and enjoy themselves,” Snodgrass said.

There is little doubt that Snodgrass sees a bright future ahead with so many returners in 2027, but he always cautions that each season has its own personality.

“Nobody gives you anything – you’ve got to earn it,” Snodgrass said.

When the tournament concluded the Coaches did vote Tarango the Player of the Year despite her loss to Whitham that day. The Liberal ace had won 3 of 4 matches against Whitham and the evaluation came on the entire season. Snodgrass was named Coach of the Year.

Liberal’s Tarango earns WAC Player of the Year honor

Evelyn Tarango wasn’t sure what her senior season of playing tennis would look like after a solid junior campaign in 2025.

However, she had little expectation that it would turn out to be her best by far. Her 22-6 season record, including a WAC runner-up and regional singles tennis title, highlighted 2026 for the Liberal Lady Red player.

“I’m actually stunned,” Tarango said when she was informed she had won the WAC Player of the Year award. “Shocking mostly. I put in a lot of hard work before this season

Tarango said her improvement came in all areas of the game — consistency in her strokes, baseline play and serving.

“I spent a lot of time working on my game here in Liberal through the summer,” Tarango said. “I played in one summer tournament and played doubles in Garden City.”

Tennis wasn’t always on her radar screen when she arrived in high school. She competed in Cross country her freshman season before exchanging the spikes for the racket.

“I thought tennis would be easier than cross country but I was wrong,” Tarango said. “The mentality of playing the game is the hardest.”

Her biggest win of the season came in the regional finals where she found herself down 2-5 in the final set but then caught up and came away with the win over a Maize player.

The biggest battles through the regular season came against Garden City’s Vivian Whitham, where Tarango finished 3-1.

“She’s a tough competitor and we had some really good matches,” Tarango said. “It seems like our matches would always go to a tiebreaker.”

She is considering attending Seward County Community College in Liberal with an offer to play tennis, but she’s undecided as to what she will do. She plans to study respiratory therapy for her professional career.

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2026 Girls Tennis Final Standings

	TEAM	POINTS
1	Garden City	14
2	Liberal	9
3	Great Bend	8
4	Dodge City	6
5	Hays	3

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Western Athletic Conference
Girls Tennis First Team
(Champions of the WAC Tournament)

	PLAYERS	SCHOOL
No. 1 Singles	Vivian Whitham	Garden City
No. 2 Singles	London Ojeda	Garden City
No. 1 Doubles	Katie Rouse Marisol Banuelos	Dodge City
No. 2 Doubles	Renley Just Tegan Snodgrass	Garden City