Snyder misses medal but hits milestone at state

Kaitlyn Snyder’s quest for a state medal fell three point shorts at the state tournament in Springfield Friday. Snyder lost her first match, won her second, and her third match would have secured a place on the medal stand. But after splitting the first two sets with Ella Kinder of Rockwood Summit, Snyder dropped the tiebreaker 10–7.
Despite her disappointing finish, Snyder put together a historic tennis season for Republic. Her second-round victory at state was her 30th match win of the season. She’s the first Republic player to ever reach that mark, and only the 13th Missouri girls player to win 30 matches in a single year.
In the opening round of the tournament, Snyder faced Liberty’s Colby Kelly, ranked in the top 400 nationally. Kelly’s edge in deuce points led to a lopsided victory.
“Kaitlyn struggled to convert deuce points,” says coach Dan Vales. “Colby won almost every deuce point, and won 6–1, 6–2. If Kaitlyn was able to win a majority of those deuce points, it could have been a completely different match.”
Snyder rebounded with a straight-set victory over Madalyn Smith of Fort Zumwalt South, overcoming a slow start to win 6–3, 6–0. That set up her match with Kinder, which was shortened because of rain delays earlier in the day. After Kinder won the first set 6–1, Snyder responded with a 7–5 win in the second set. Instead of playing a full third set, Snyder and Kinder squared off in a tiebreaker, which Kinder won.
Snyder finished ninth at state for the second straight year, and is the closest to a Class 2 state medalist of any Republic tennis player. She also won titles at Nixa, Republic, and in the Central Ozark Conference Tournament in 2018. And she was the first Republic tennis player to reach the finals of the Springfield Invitational, where she finished second.
“Kaitlyn obviously played a huge role in our program the last four years. She won a ton of matches for us and set an example for the other players on the team,” Vales says.