Pounding pavement

Flathead and Glacier will head in different directions for Class AA divisional tennis action on Thursday.

Flathead goes south to Missoula for the Western AA, which includes Big Sky, Hellgate and Sentinel.

Glacier, on the other hand, travels east to Great Falls for the Northern AA with Great Falls High and Great Falls C.M. Russell.

Play in Missoula starts today at 11 a.m. and winds up Friday at Playfair Park and the University of Montana.

Great Falls court action begins today at noon and also concludes Friday. CMR will host the event.

The top four singles players and doubles teams from divisionals advance to state, which begins May 18 in Kalispell at the Flathead Valley Community College courts.

“As far as the team goes, it’s going to be a battle with CMR in both boys and girls,” Glacier coach Josh Munro predicted.

“CMR has two very strong girls singles players in Mackenzie George and Gail Parambi. They also have two tough doubles teams.

“We have an edge in doubles, but it’s likely going to come down to back-draw singles matches and who can get some players into the consolation semifinals and finals,” Munro stressed.

“In boys, the teams are all more balanced with Great Falls having the edge in singles and CMR having solid players at top in both. We will need to have good success in doubles and then get a couple singles deeper in the draw to pull it out.”

Glacier’s No. 1 doubles team of Maya Buckingham and Anna Cecil won a divisional title last year.

“Maya has reached state twice,” Munro said.

“McKenna Johnson reached state last year with a different partner placing third at divisional.

“Holland Blalack has made state the last two years, once in singles and once in doubles. He was second last year at divisional in singles.”

The Glacier boys and girls both won Northern AA divisional titles last year, which was held at FVCC. Also competing were the two Great Falls schools and Flathead.

The Flathead girls were third a year ago at divisionals while the boys were fourth.

The news for Flathead, especially on the girls side, is not who is going, but who isn’t. The top singles players — senior Kaylin Flaxman, senior Katie Stobie and junior Isabelle Sherman will not be participating because of International Baccalaureate testing being held the same days as divisionals.

Thus — those three players can’t qualify for state, “which is too bad,” Flathead coach Sue Corrigan said.

“It makes it difficult for us to compete at that level (without our top players).”

With divisional in Kalispell last year, the girls could play and test at the same time.

“We will manage,” Corrigan stressed,

“I have some young girls who are eager to play. This will be a learning experience for them.”

Testing will not be a problem for the boys. Junior Ridge Lemke and freshman Ethan Hawkins are the top two singles players.

“He played well at Helena,” Corrigan said of Lemke.

“That was a good litmus test. All the schools (AA) were there.

“Ethan has worked on his competitiveness,” she continued.

“He’s winning the big points. He has gone to a tie-breaker in every match. He is somebody to watch in the future.”

Corrigan has high hopes for the No. 1 doubles team of Rydell Welk and Nick Buenz. Both are seniors.

“They played singles last year,” she said.

“They have a chance of making it to state in doubles.”

Despite the damp, dreary, wet spring, Corrigan feels her players are ready.

“I’m pleased with how far we have come,” she said.

“We played a lot of matches without any practice. The kids have done pretty well with that.”

Class AA Divisionals

Glacier Lineup

Girls

Singles — No. 1 McKenna Tinseth; No. 2 Maggie Rudbach; No. 3 Nina Friedman; No. 4 Kari Inabnit

Doubles — No. 1 Maya Buckingham/Anna Cecil; No. 2 Tessa Howe/McKenna Johnson; No. 3 Libby Hill/Meagan Gillespie; No. 4 Kitty Paulson/Katie Lessmeier

Boys

Singles — No. 1 Holland Blalack; No. 2 Graham Friedman; No. 3 Chase Skelton; No. 4 Trevor Woodward.

Doubles — No. 1 Tyler Keller/Kyle Buckingham; No. 2 Akhil Patel/Hunter Watterud; No. 3 Jack Desmul/Morgan Cordell; No. 4 Ben Desmul/Logan Hill

Flathead Lineup

Boys

Singles — 1. Ridge Lembke; 2. Ethan Hawkins; 3. Kiegan Snider; 4. TBD

Doubles — 1. Rydell Welk/Nick Buenz; 2. Will Taylor-Lewellen/Garrett Regoli; 3. Liam Crowley/Paul Harms; 4. David Marburger/Trevor Weyer

Girls

Singles — 1. TBD; 2. Lauren McCarter; 3. BD; 4. TBD

Doubles — 1. Delani Long/Maisie Hanson; 2. Tess Huckeba/Olivia Mohatt; 3. Sierra Dilworth/Hailey Fennell; 4. TBD