Polson snaps up divisional net titles

Polson senior Whitney Zimmerman defended her Northwestern A singles title and helped her team win its seventh straight divisional tennis championship Friday at Flathead Valley Community College.

A prohibitive favorite after going unbeaten against conference opponents in the regular season, Zimmerman dropped just four games in her four matches en route to claiming a top seed for the state tournament.

“My serve was on I guess, so that was good,” Zimmerman said. “That was the best part.”

Zimmerman dictated the tempo of the championship match with her groundstrokes and forced her opponent, Columbia Falls freshman Emily Getts, to play defense. When Getts came forward, Zimmerman utilized lobs to quickly transition from defense to offense, and her array of slice forehands and drop shots prevented Getts from getting into a rhythm.

“With people that don’t have as much pace, I slice and lob more,” Zimmerman said. “Bring them up and move them around I guess.”

The tactic worked, as Getts admitted feeling fatigued at the end of the match.

“It was rough,” Getts said. “I got really tired at the end of the match and kind of ran out of energy. I’m just glad she’ll be gone next year.”

Zimmerman ran away with the opening set and led 2-0 in the second when her focus briefly lapsed. Thee straight unforced errors gave Getts triple-game point, but Zimmerman’s big backhand return set up a forehand winner and she stormed back to win the game.

Getts broke Zimmerman’s ensuing service game before the Polson senior comfortably won the next three games and the match.

“She’s just so consistent and hits good shots all the time,” Getts said of Zimmerman. “And her strategy is good. She knows how to play, it’s not just the consistency.”

Whitefish duo Megan Danczyk and Lindsey Viscomi won the doubles title, but the Bulldogs were unable to push Polson for the team championship, in large part due to the contributions of Polson junior Shannon Oakley. Oakley lost her quarterfinal singles match to Getts, but scored a pair of upsets in the consolation bracket against Whitefish’s Sloan Ellis and Ryan Chauner to place third. Polson edged Whitefish 55-45 in the team standings.

“I think Shannon was one of those people that could place,” Polson coach Bob Hislop said. “But having her get third was a really big deal. She’s been playing with legs beat to a pulp, severe shin splints, but she just did it. She wanted it bad enough.”

Oakley didn’t look like an underdog in the third-place match as she hit flatter groundstrokes than Chauner and ground out numerous long baseline rallies in a 6-1, 6-3 victory.

Polson’s doubles teams of Mollybeth Hendrix and Karly Rochin and Tegan Bauer and Libby Clay also qualified for the state tournament by placing second and fourth, respectively. Whitefish’s team of Haley Craven and Kendall Sattler took third.

“This was a year that we knew we were going to have some work to do,” Hislop said. “Six really good seniors graduated, all of them went to state last year. We try to coach everybody and keep everybody involved, even the JV kids, and we knew we had a pretty nice crop of girls coming in, but we weren’t going to win unless they stood up. Whitney and the doubles team were expected to do well, they both placed at state last year, but we had to have some of these young kids step up and basically all of them did.”

Whitefish coach Patrick Dryden said he was thrilled with his doubles teams.

“Looks like Polson won it again, but we gave them a run for their money anyway,” he said. “We made it interesting.”

Polson also won the boys team title with Dylan McCrumb topping teammate Brady Hislop 6-2, 6-4 in the singles final.

Brady, the son of coach Bob Hislop, was looking to repeat after winning last year’s divisional singles title.

“I don’t like playing my own teammates, that’s for sure,” McCrumb said. “My forehand, my slice, my overheads all combined pretty well.”

Brady looked posed to force a third set when he took a 4-2 lead in the second, but McCrumb won four consecutive games to close out the match.

“Dylan played a flawless match,” Bob said. “He had a couple times where he looked like he was going to crack a little bit and he didn’t. He just did what he did, and Brady missed a few more shots than he normally does.”

Whitefish’s Sean Janni and Logan Blades won the doubles title over Polson’s Hayden Congdon and Layne Zimmerman.

Boys

Team - Polson 58, Whitefish 30, Libby 28, Columbia Falls 10

Singles

Championship

Dylan McCrumb, P, def. Brady Hislop, P, 6-2, 6-4

Third place

Danny Leggins, L, def. Jason Schnackenberg, L, 0-6, 6-1, 6-4

Semifinals

McCrumb def. Schnackenberg, 6-1, 7-5

Hislop def. Leggins, 6-1, 6-2

Consolation semifinals

Leggins def. Holden Roberts, W, 6-0, 6-2

Schnackenberg def. Caleb Baumann, C, no score given

Consolation quarterfinals

Roberts def. Quaid Harlan, P, 6-4, 6-4

Baumann def. Nevada Kramer, W, 6-2, 6-3

Consolation second round

Roberts def. Patrick Valentine, L, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1

Doubles

Championship

Logan Blades/Sean Janni, W, def. Layne Zimmerman/Hayden Congdon, P, 6-2, 6-4

Third place

Tyler Dupuis/Sam Kinzle, P, def. Ian Myslicki/Lane Lusher, L, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4

Semifinals

Blades/Janni def. Dupuis/Kinzle, 6-4, 6-4

Zimmerman/Congdon def. Myslicki/Lusher, 6-2, 6-1

Consolation semifinals

Dupuis/Kinzle def. Nathan Fauth/Bailey Jack, W, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4)

Myslicki/Lusher def. Andrew West/Mason Gedlaman, C, 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3

Consolation quarterfinals

West/Gedlaman def. Jake Reny/Austin Nagle, L, 6-3, 6-2

Fauth/Jack def. Josh Potter/Gavin Thelan, C, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4)

Girls

Team - Polson 55, Whitefish 45, Columbia Falls 23, Libby 2

Singles

Championship

Whitney Zimmerman, P, def. Emily Getts, C, 6-1, 6-1

Third place

Shannon Oakley, P, def. Ryan Chauner, W, 6-1, 6-3

Semifinals

Zimmerman def. Sloan Ellis, W, 6-2, 6-0

Getts def. Chauner 6-2, 6-1

Consolation semifinals

Oakley def. Ellis, 6-0, 6-5

Chauner def. Emma Covill, C, 6-1, 6-3

Consolation quarterfinals

Oakley def. Taylor Rost, P, 6-7 (7-3), 7-5, 6-0

Covill def. McKenna Emmerich, C, 6-3, 6-2

Doubles

Championship

Lindsey Viscomi/Megan Danczyk, W, def. Mollybeth Hendrix/Karly Rochin, P, 6-2, 6-1

Third place

Haley Craven/Kendall Sattler, W, def. Tegan Bauer/Libby Clay, P, 6-1, 6-4

Semifinals

Viscomi/Danczyk def. Bauer/Clay, 6-0, 6-4

Hendrix/Rochin def. Craven/Sattler, 6-4, 6-3

Consolation semifinals

Bauer/Clay def. Caroline Carbo/Lauren Cain, W, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3

Craven/Sattler def. Kaya Hardgrove/Kaylene Hudson, L, 6-4, 6-4

Consolation quarterfinals

Carbo/Cain def. Peyton Anderson/Shawna Oakley, P, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3

Hardgrove/Hudson def. Courtney Seward/Hailey Sapa, C, 6-4, 6-4