Bulldogs Tennis Takes Title in the Rolla Central Missouri Classic
- RoMoAthletics
- Apr 20
- 5 min read
April 16th, 2026
It was a day where watching the tennis matches almost took a back seat to watching the radar. With the threat of storms rolling into the area pushed out until later in the evening the Central Missouri Classic seemed secure in the ability for it to be finished.
But with participants ranging from deep in the Southwest such as Reed Springs, Southern Missouri in West Plains as well as a team from North-Central Missouri in Sedalia Smith-Cotton, the timing and projected severity of the storms covered the gamut.
The weather forecast resulted in Sedalia Smith-Cotton choosing to forfeit the 5th place game in an attempt to get back before the weather would hit their area. This change resulted in moving up the 3rd place and championship matches where the Rolla Bulldogs won a thriller against Reed Springs.
Central Missouri Classic Breakdown
This was a flighted team tournament made up of 3 singles and 2 doubles teams. A total of six teams participated using a pool play format to establish seedings for the finals.
The Maroon Pool was made up of Rolla, Salem, and Smith-Cotton. The White Pool consisted of Willow Springs, West Plains, and Reed Springs.
All five matches between schools were played at the same time. Within the dual, players could only play in singles or doubles unlike in regular dual matches. However, players could change between singles and doubles when they began a different dual match.
The Bulldogs Power Through the Pool
The Bulldogs rolled through the Maroon Pool sweeping all 5 matches against both Salem and Smith-Cotton.
Reed Springs, who was down a couple of players due to food poisoning, had their hands full with Willow Springs and West Plains as they squealed out 3-2 wins.
In the 3rd place contest, Salem defeated Willow Springs 4 to 1 leaving Rolla and Reed Springs to wrap up the day in the Championship Match.
The Championship
The strategy Coach Vinyard used in Pool Play was to use his Dubs 2 (Cam Brown & Paxton Ledbetter) and Dubs 3 (Connor Johnson & Jack Greenway) and then throw his singles #1 Keaton Renaud and #2 Kyle Robinson along with our #6 either Tristan Ace or Logan Dunn.
The fact that Reed Springs was down players and chose to forfeit a doubles match, caused Coach Vinyard to make an adjustment. He moved Johnson up to play in Dubs 2 with Brown and then had Ledbetter move to the 3rd singles match. A risky move as the Dubs teams have played together all year with great success and growing chemistry.
But oh how did it pay off!
Heading into the Championship Dual, the Bulldogs were already ahead 1-0 due to the forfeit in the doubles contest. Brown and Johnson made quick work of their opponents, shutting them out 8-0 to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead.
In singles, Renaud fell to the extremely talented #1 Jack Hamilton to cut into the Bulldog lead, 2-1.
With that victory, the Reed Springs team and fans fan their voice and brought some energy to your typically stoic environment of a tennis match.
But the Bulldog fans and players decided to match the energy and it became an exciting and vocal environment at Ber Juan park.
Robinson was locked into a battle that ended up tying at 8-8 that went to tiebreaker rules where the first player to reach 7 in the next game would win. Robinson came up short and the contest was now tied 2-2 with Paxton Ledbetter still on the court.
It was a back and forth contest where Ledbetter took the early lead to hold serve only to all back and trail 6 to 7. Ledbetter locked in and rallied for the 8-7 victory and delivered the title to the hometown Bulldogs!
The Wrap Up
Coach Josh Vinyard enjoyed the day. “It was a super fun day and we got to face a really good challenge with Reeds Spring”
Vinyard was proud of the big senior. “He faced some tough moments against a really nice player and found himself down 6-7. He battled through this. He held serve, broke serve, and used that big serve to win his serve and help his team win a championship.”
As Coach Vinyard brought the team together after the squads shook hands, he gave his talk and shared the excitement of those gathered around.
Then the evening was capped with a water cooler dump on top of the 6’7” Ledbetter in celebration of the win.
Ethan Brown was there cheering on his friends and enjoyed the atmosphere at the courts. He likened it to what happens when the 6th man is present at the basketball games. He summed it perfectly saying “it was electric.”
Convo with Paxton Ledbetter
I spoke with Paxton Ledbetter the following day about the championship match. Ledbetter, who only picked up the racket his freshman year, was excited to pull out the hard fought 9-7 win. “I was super happy. I was feeling some nerves and excited to be put in that situation. Extremely relieved that I got it done and got the win for the team.”
When asked about the pressure he was facing when he realized it was all coming down to him to get the win, he responded “I was really just trying to keep myself calm. I knew if I let the nerves and the pressure get to me I wouldn’t play as well.“
As the Bulldogs #6, he thought he was matching up against their #3 player but it ended up being their #2. “Yeah my dad told me that when I got home. I didn’t think that they’d do that but it made the win feel even better and I was pretty proud.”
I had to ask about the water bath his team gave him afterwards.“It was great! I love having people like that who support each other so much. I’ve also never had that happen to me before so it was cool to have it happen for the first time.”
Tournament Results
Maroon Pool
Rolla 5, Salem 0
Salem 5, Smith-Cotton 0
Rolla 5, Smith-Cotton 0
White Pool
Willow Springs 4, West Plains 1
Reed Springs 3, West Plains 2
Reed Springs 3, Willow Springs 2
Finals Round
5th Place Match: West Plains over Smith-Cotton (forfeit)
3rd Place Match: Salem 4, Willow Springs 1
Championship: Rolla 3, Reed Springs 2
Next Up
4/20 Home vs Jefferson City (0-5) 4:00 pm
4/21 JV at Bolivar
4/21 at Willow Springs (5-14) 4:00 pm
4/22 JV at Lebanon
4/23 Home Tri with - Lebanon (11-4) & Farmington (7-3)
4/24 Waynesville Invitational
Pool Play Match #1
Rolla Defeats Salem, 5-0
Doubles
Cameron Brown & Paxton Ledbetter defeat Braiden Gapsch & Asmar Ramirez, 8-2
Connor Johnson & Jack Greenway defeat Blaine Caraday & Lincoln Atkinson, 8-2
Singles
Keaton Renaud defeats James Felkerson, 8-0
Kyle Robinson defeats Jordan Hubbs, 8-0
Tristan Ace defeats Canyon Warden, 8-0
Pool Play Match #2
Rolla Defeats Sedalia Smith-Cotton, 5-0
Doubles
Cameron Brown & Paxton Ledbetter defeat Hector Monroy & Jacob Windle, 8-0
Connor Johnson & Jack Greenway defeat Caleb Bologan & Rodrigo Larronga, 8-2
Singles
Keaton Renaud defeats Angel Luna, 8-1
Kyle Robinson defeats Jason Allain, 8-5
Logan Dunn defeats Rowan Prouty, 8-1
Championship
Rolla Defeats Reed Springs, 3-2
Doubles
Cameron Brown & Connor Johnson defeat Hayden McGrath & Blaze Clevenger, 8-0
Jack Greenway & Tristan Ace defeat Luke Sellers & partner, 8-0
Singles
Keaton Renaud falls to Jack Hamilton, 1-8
Kyle Robinson falls to Hunter Howe, 8-8 *Tie Break goes to Howe (2-7)
Paxton Ledbetter defeats Hoyt Gubin, 9-7
*A 7 point Tie-Breaker is used if score goes 8-8
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