Senior Tennis star Maggie McBratney made history at the MSHSAA Class 2 state tennis tournament by becoming the first female tennis player in Platte County history to medal at state. 

“I am really excited about my accomplishment,” McBratney said. “It felt really good to win a match to make all-state tennis, and to additionally medal on top of that feels amazing.”

McBratney finished eighth in singles at the tournament, on the journey she had to defeat Springfield Catholic in round one.

“She was a lot better than me [Springfield Catholic No. 1] and was a returning state medalist,” McBratney said. “I just stopped when I hit the last shot to win it when I realized I’d won my first match there. I literally ran off and hugged my teammates and there was a lot of cheering which just made the whole experience surreal.”

After that match up followed an unfortunate loss to Notre Dame de Sion in the second round, which put her in the consolation bracket against a returning state medalist from St. Michael Academy. 

“Winning the second match [against St. Michael] was crazy as well, I was just in the zone doing my thing and then it was over and I had won it. The realization that I was going to get a medal which was great.” McBratney proclaimed with passion.

Zachary Keith, head tennis coach, helped her prepare for the tournament by dishing out a vast amount of tennis matches, which in turn totaled up to having McBratney playing the most matches played out of the entire singles bracket against various levels of competition to make sure she was in good shape to capitalize at state.

Overall, McBratney has had an absolutely ‘surreal’ senior season as a Platte County girls tennis player with the numerous accolades that she racked up at the end of the season. Seeing her being able to overcome the challenges presented to her throughout the season is just pure cinema and something that is a huge testament to Pirate Pride.