Glacier netters divisional favorites, again

The Northern AA divisional tennis tournament’s opening-day schedule in Great Falls can best be summed up as a coaching nightmare.

All singles play — boys and girls — will take place today starting at noon at Great Falls C.M. Russell High School.

Boys doubles, on the other hand, will be held at the Hurd Court.

And if that wasn’t enough of a viewing challenge, Meadowlark Country Club will host girls doubles.

“Not the ideal situation,” Glacier coach Josh Munro said of play being held at three different locations.

But for Munro and the other coaches involved, Friday’s final session will be much more manageable — all the action will be at CMR.

The Glacier boys and girls are defending divisional champions. It was the seventh straight title for the boys last year, also in Great Falls, and the sixth overall for the girls.

Also competing in the Northern AA are Flathead, Great Falls High and Creat Falls CMR.

Flathead participated in the Western AA divisional last year in Missoula.

The top four individuals and doubles teams from divisionals advance to state, which will be held in Kalispell at the courts on the Flathead Valley Community College campus next weekend — May 17-19.

“The (Glacier) boys have a slight edge on top,” Munro said of this year’s divisional.

“It will all be about depth.

“The girls, CMR looks like they have the edge. We will have to play in order to take it from them.”

Glacier’s McKenna Johnson and Tyler Keller and Kyle Buckingham are defending divisional champs in doubles. Johnson has a new partner this year — Maggie Rudback — while Keller and Buckingham are together for a second-straight spring.

“Tyler and Kyle, after a good week in Helena, they just have to establish a good seed (at divisionals),” Munro said.

“Hopefully that will put us on track to score points at state.”

He said “it will be a battle” for Johnson and Rudback to win divisionals.

Glacier expects to do well in singles with junior Maria Frampton and freshman Rory Smith.

“I’m looking for our No. 1 kids to set the pace, take home No. 1 spots, set themselves up for state,” Munro said.

“Rory will do really well. He’s the favorite. We had pretty high expectations for him (this season) and he had high expectations for himself. He’s played some really good matches. Boys singles is fairly open (for state).”

Munro said Frampton’s main challenger at divisional will be Mackenzie George of CMR, the defending champ.

“A tough player,” Munro said of George.

“They played twice last week in Helena. Each won once.”

He said Frampton and George are “two of the top three (singles players) in the state.”

Advancing to state last year for Glacier were Johnson for the girls, her second trip, and Keller, Buckingham, Morgan Cordell, Logan Hill and Ben Desmul, all in doubles.

Cordell and Desmul were divisional runners-up a year ago. They have new partners this year.

Flathead had no state qualifiers in 2017.

Munro said the Western AA divisional (Missoula Big Sky, Hellgate and Sentinel) is strong in doubles, Southern AA (Bozeman, Helena High and Helena Capital) is strong in doubles and features a couple of tough singles players while Eastern AA (Billings Senior, Skyview and West and Butte) is very balanced with tough singles.

As far as the Northern AA overall ...

“Girls singles is very strong,” Munro said.

“Boys, not the deepest it has been, but it is very competitive. It’s anybody’s game.”

Northern AA Divisional

Thursday-Friday

At Great Falls

Glacier’s Lineup

Girls

Singles — Maria Frampton, Nina Friedman, Kari Inabnit, Izy Lyon

Doubles — McKenna Johnson and Maggie Rudback; Regin Koester and Katie Lessmeier; Liz Wilson and Kirsti Ericksen; Hannah Nikunen and Ashlyn Sliter

Boys

Singles — Rory Smith, Ryan Kelly, Trevor Woodward, Ethan Purdy

Doubles — Tyler Keller and Kyle Buckingham; Morgan Cordell and Hunter Watterud; Logan Hill and Drew Engellant; Micah Heil and Ben Desmul

Flathead’s Lineup

Not available.