Kansas City, Mo ? At this point, Emily Wang and Scott Elwell both consider summer tennis tournaments tune-ups for when they begin their college careers this fall.

Even a national qualifying tournament.

Wang, a 2003 Free State High graduate set to attend the University of Illinois, lost her United State Tennis Association Missouri Valley Seg. II Sweet 16 Qualifying semifinal match Wednesday at the Plaza Tennis Courts. Lynzee Kever, who lives in Oklahoma but practices with Mike Wolf Tennis Academy in Kansas City, beat Wang, 6-0, 6-3.

Wang will play Callan Smith, from Kansas City, Mo., for third place at 12:30 p.m. today.

“You don’t feel as much pressure in terms of impressing people, but I still put pressure on myself to win,” she said. “We played pretty even the whole match, I think I was just half a step off.”

Elwell, headed to Iowa after graduating from Lawrence High, lost his consolation semi to Steven McGaughey, Des Moines, Iowa, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. It was the third time Elwell had played McGaughey and the second straight year he lost to McGaughey in the consolation semis.

A win would’ve propelled Elwell into the Top Eight ranked players in the Missouri Valley region and qualified him for the Super National in August.

“I don’t think I was going to play in it anyway. I was just doing this to stay sharp,” Elwell said. “But I still would have liked to win.”

Scott Elwell, a 2003 Lawrence High graduate, posts the score during his match. Elwell lost his USTA Missouri Valley qualifying consolation semifinal at the Plaza Tennis Courts Wednesday in Kansas City, Mo.

McGaughey, reputed to have the field’s biggest forehand and great passing shots, simply wore down Elwell. Ninety-degree temperatures and humid conditions didn’t help, either.

“I couldn’t find a rhythm at all,” Elwell said. “He’d hit the ball as hard as he could and it’d either be a good shot or a bad shot, but there wasn’t anything I could do with it.”

It was Elwell’s third tournament of the summer, all of which were qualifying tournaments for this week’s event. He also played doubles with Garrett Gates, a high school rival from Shawnee Mission East. Elwell will have to play doubles in college, something he rarely did during the high school season.

“That’s OK. It was fun,” he said. “I’m actually a better net player in doubles than I am in singles.”

Wang took second in doubles Tuesday, as she and her partner, Christy Greenly, lost to Colleen Rielley and Amanda Craddock, 5-6, 6-3, 6-4.

No matter how she finishes today, Wang will play singles and doubles at the Super National Hard Court tournament in San Jose, Calif. She and Elwell had both played in two Super Regionals, in Omaha, Neb., and in Springfield, Mo., in early June to qualify for this week’s tournament a tournament on which she’s still focused.

“I just need to be more consistent,” Wang said. “That’s the main thing.”