​Spencer, Cooper find success in KC Summer Slam Series

by Michael Smith, Grain Valley News


The boys high school tennis season may not be until the spring of 2026, but seniors Riley Spencer and Marius Cooper made sure to work on their game this summer.

The duo has been playing together during the summer in the Kansas City Summer Slam Series, which consists of six tennis tournaments in the Kansas City area spread throughout June and July.

Spencer and Cooper, who were the Eagles No. 2 doubles team in 2025, will likely be the No. 1 team going into next season. They have been working on their chemistry so far in the summer and through five, they have finished with three place-medals and one third-place finish in the series.

In the individual varsity standings in the Kansas City Summer Slam series, Spencer ranks second with 321 points and Cooper is fourth with 255 points out of 86 competitors. Some of those points were earned in the singles and mixed doubles brackets.

At the recent Jaguar Slam Tournament at Grain Valley High School, Spencer and Cooper won their first two doubles matches 8-5 before Maxon Chen and Tye Frashier 8-3 in the championship.

For Cooper, playing in the series has been a valuable experience as he’s building on the skills he developed in the spring.

“It is my first time playing singles during the summer and it’s helping me develop as a singles player,” Cooper said. “It was my first time varsity this last year. This event helps me play against some of the best players around the city.”

The series has allowed both players to try new things that they could possibly take into the 2026 season.

“We kind of experimented with a couple of different things,” Spencer said. “We’re able to see some things that other doubles teams aren’t, so it gives us opportunities to draw some plays up to experiment with. If it works, we can try it out during the season.”

Individually, Spencer has been working on sharpening his serve.

“I have been experimenting with my serve,” Spencer said. “I am trying to figure out if I can slice it out to the left when I am on the right side, so I can give Marius a chance to get an overhead if I can get one opponent out wide. It’s just about experimenting with spin and my toss.”

Cooper said he had multiple aspects of his game that he is focusing on.

“I have been working on a lot of things, just everything together,” Cooper said. “I have been working on my serve and just keeping my rallies going instead of trying to rip winners all the time. I want to make them make the mistake. And I have been working on lobbing it behind the opponents when I come up to the net.”

The Jaguar tournament was the last time the duo will play together in the series and both have set goals for the 2026 season.

“It’s always the goal to make it to state,” Spencer said. “Moving up a class certainly did not help last year, so it was an adjustment playing against Blue Springs South and Pembroke Hill. We are confident in our chances against Blue Springs South this year and we hope we can meet them in the championship and that will be enough to get us to state.”

Grain Valley seniors Riley Spencer, left, and Marius Cooper finished in second place in the varsity double bracket in the Jaguar Slam last Wednesday at Grain Valley High School. Photo credit: Michael Smith
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