Bulldogs, Pirates eye tennis titles

The Daily Inter Lake

Danni Paulson of Whitefish and Brian Dubuque of Polson are the top seeds in singles play for the Northwestern A Divisional tennis tournament, which gets under way today in Kalispell at two locations.

In doubles, Emily Fors and Malika Erickson of Polson are seeded No. 1 with Lane Averill and Pete Collins of Bigfork the top seed for the boys.

The Polson boys and Whitefish girls are defending divisional champions.

"I'd like to," said WHS coach Patrick Dryden of holding on to the title for another year. "We've been kinda passing it around between Columbia Falls, Polson and Whitefish."

The Polson boys return eight of 10 players from last year's team.

"If we do our job, we have a legitimate chance to win the boys," said PHS coach Bob Hislop.

Play starts today at 2 p.m. with girls singles and doubles and boys doubles at the courts at Flathead Valley Community College. Boys singles will take place at The Glacier Tennis Club at The Summit.

Play resumes Friday at 8:15 a.m. If the tournament runs according to schedule, the championship matches on Saturday will take place at 1 p.m.

Top four singles players and doubles teams advance to state.

Girls

Singles

1. Danni Paulson, Whitefish. 2. Taylor Beach, Whitefish. 3. Jen Orchard, Polson. 4. Emily Emmert, Columbia Falls.

Doubles

1. Emily Fors/Malika Erickson, Polson. 2. Kaia Lock/Ashley Brunett, Bigfork. 3. Nikki Freebury/Crystal Nieves, Columbia Falls. 4. Beth Bermel/Trisha Smith, Bigfork.

Boys

Singles

1. Brian Dubuque, Polson. 2. Frederick VonSchweinitz, Columbia Falls. 3. Izaak Opatz, Whitefish. 4. Brian Kehn, Libby.

Doubles

1. Lane Averill/Pete Collins, Bigfork. 2. Logan Klein/Brett Vandeberg, Polson. 3. Aaron Miles/Joe Wolstein, Bigfork. 4. Cody Harrison/Ryan Rottenbiller, Whitefish.