Renaud and Robinson Finish 2nd at the Springfield Invitational

RoMoAthletics
Apr 20
3 min read

Sophomore Kyle Robinson and senior Keaton Renaud finish 2nd at the Springfield Invitational.

April 15th, 2026

There were 48 teams at the Springfield Invitational played at the Copper Tennis Complex in Springfield, Mo. It is a highly competitive event that the top tennis teams in Southwest Missouri are eager to attend to see how they stack-up against the competition.

For the Dubs 1 duo of Senior Keaton Renaud and Sophomore Kyle Robinson it was a chance to serve notice that they are a team to be reckoned with.

“Keaton and Kyle played great tennis,” said Coach Josh Vinyard. “You could tell they were locked in from the start. They had a good balance between being focused and playing relaxed.”

The Springfield Invitational

The format was structured such that each of the 24 schools had to provide 2 doubles teams and 2 singles players. Everyone would go into ranked 48 team brackets attempting to keep teammates on opposite sides of the bracket. Bracket play provided every participant at least two matches.

The Bulldogs entered their Dubs 1 and Dubs 2 teams into the doubles bracket, while Connor Johsnon and Logan Dunn played in the singles tournament.

The Dubs 1 Team was on a mission as they won 4 matches to make it to the Championship against regional powerhouse the Branson Pirates.

Connor Johnson won his first match 6-4 against Carter Mayfield of Ozark. He then lost his next two matches to players from Poplar Bluff and Springfield Catholic.

Long Dunn lost both of his matches to a Bolivar and Hillcrest player.

The Dubs 2 team of Cameron Brown and Paxton Ledbetter lost their first match against Cap City and then defeated the Hillcrest duo of Wyat Workman and Kaden Anderson, 6-3. They then lost to a team from Lighthouse Christian.

Road to the Title Match

The Dubs 1 made quick work of Lighthouse Christians doubles 2 team and Webb City. They then squared off against Ozark and came away with an 8-2 win.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/912bb7_b442c00791114e01b7a5d4e8cca4d6c6/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Kyle Robinson and Keaton Renaud discuss their 2nd place finish.

Their next match found Renaud and Robinson on the outside courts and dealing with the wind. Early in the match versus Nixa, Robinson was serving down 15-40 and the duo was already trailing one game.

Facing a potential two game deficit against a quality Nixa doubles team was a hole that would be difficult to recover from.

But the young sophomore stayed composed and got it back to 40-40. There were 3 different times where the pair were “add-out” and they ended up winning that game.

After persevering through that battle, the pair pulled ahead and ended up finishing strong to get the 8-6 win to advance to the Championship.

Coach Vinyard loved the resilience of his Dubs 1 during the match. “It wasn't just Kyle's composure. Keaton stayed positive and was a great teammate through those tough points.”

In the title match, Renaud and Robinson faced the top seeded Branson due of Pierson Dean and Tyler Borger. The Pirates were too much for the Bulldogs as they fell in the title match 4 to 8.

It was the first time in recent memory that any Rolla team has made the finals of the Springfield Invitational. Luke Foster and WillHuber made the final four in 2023 and finished in fourth place.