State, divisional week for AA, A, B-C tennis
The high school tennis season for Class AA teams could very well finish like it began — indoors.
There is an 80 percent chance for rain, with wide-spread showers and slow-moving thunderstorms, today and a 60 percent chance on Friday for the state tournament on the courts at Flathead Valley Community College.
“It’s kind of fitting for a season that started so wet and terrible and now it will most likely end in wet weather,” Glacier coach Josh Munro said.
Play is scheduled to begin this morning at 8 a.m.
Girls singles has already been moved indoors to the The Summit with all the other action at FVCC.
“We’ll try to play ahead a little if we can,” Munro said.
“We will go straight inside (when it rains). We’re going to get it at some point, so we might as well play (outdoors) while we can.”
Weather has forced previous state AA tournament action in Helena, Great Falls and Bozeman indoors, which resulted in play being held at all hours of the day, night and early morning. Local tournament officials are hoping to avoid that scenario.
Bozeman, Missoula Hellgate and Billings Senior are the three teams to beat on the girls side. Great Falls C.M. Russell is sitting on the edge while Glacier is hoping to “fight our way into the battle,” Munro said.
For boys, it’s wide open. Seven teams, including Glacier, have a shot at the team title.
“It will come down to champions (singles and doubles),” Munro said for the boys crown.
“Six kids (boys) have a shot at winning (singles). That shifts a lot of points around when it all plays out.”
Included in that singles group is Glacier freshman Rory Smith.
Boys doubles features three stellar duos in Jackson Pederson and Andrija Martinovic of Bozeman, Ethan Violette and Cody Curtis of Missoula Sentinel and Jesse Howard and Cole Tolleson-Knee of Missoula Hellgate.
“We only have three girls (Maria Frampton in singles and McKenna Johnson and Maggie Rudbach in doubles), but we’re not out of it (a trophy),” Munro said. “We have some good girls.”
Frampton won a divisional title last week while Johnson and Rudbach finished second.
Glacier has seven boys competing. In addition to Smith, the Wolfpack has three doubles teams entered in Tyler Keller and Kyle Buckingham, Logan Hill and Drew Engellant and Morgan Cordell and Hunter Watterud, who finished 1-2-3, respectively, at divisionals.
“We’re one of the seven,” Munro said of boys teams in the hunt.
“We have the numbers (seven individuals).”
Flathead, which did not have a state qualifier last year, has one in singles players competing in Ethan Hawkins. He finished fourth at divisionals.
Northwest A divisional
At Libby
Play is scheduled to begin today 10:30 a.m.
The Polson girls, who had its string of 10 straight divisional titles snapped a year ago by Whitefish, are favored again with Libby and Whitefish close behind.
Whitefish is the team to beat on the boys side. Polson, the defending champions, will also contend.
The Whitefish boys posted an impressive 14-1 dual record this spring. The Bulldogs are led by divisional top seeds Brendan Buls in singles and Mark Anderson and Forrest Kobelt in doubles.
“Brendan has a business-like-attitude, really focused, really intense,” Whitefish coach Chris Schwaderer said of his standout.
“He brings the same game every time he goes out there. He has a lot of skills, is very athletic.”
Anderson and Kobelt have just two years of tennis experience, but have shown incredible improvement.
“Both are good athletes, they take well to coaching and have developed rapidly,” Schwaderer said.
“They are an interesting team. I’m looking forward to see what they can do.”
Whitefish’s Eric Holdhusen, the defending divisional champion, is seeded third.
The Polson girls have the tops seeds in Shea McGuinness for singles and Kyler Lundeen and Berkely Ellis for doubles.
“Most people think she’s been a surprise, but we knew she was pretty darn good,” Polson coach Bob Hislop said of McGuinness.
“She has been the understudy to some pretty good players, has grown up a lot mentally in the last year. She is a very analytical tennis player.”
She is undefeated this season, along with Lundeen and Ellis.
Lundeen won a divisional title a year ago with a different partner.
“They are real solid,” Hislop said of his top doubles team.
“They can get beat like anybody else, but you will have to have your best day to beat them. They are very athletic, been in other sports, they are capable kids.”
The top four singles players and doubles teams advance to state, which begins next Thursday in Missoula.
Divisional Seedings
Girls
Singles
1) Shea McGuinness (Polson)
2) Claire Carloss (Whitefish)
3) Isabelle Martineau (Libby)
4) Mehki Sykes (Libby)
Doubles
1) Kyler Lundeen / Berkely Ellis (Polson)
2) Aubrey Hanks / Olivia Potthoff (Whitefish)
3) Jessika Jones / Marissa Wood (Libby)
4) Laurynn Lauer / Morgan Snyder (Libby)
Boys
Singles
1) Brendan Buls (Whitefish)
2) Johnny Moore (Polson)
3) Eric Holdhusen (Whitefish)
4) Niels Getts (Columbia Falls)
Doubles
1) Mark Anderson / Forrest Kobelt (Whitefish)
2) Kaiden Forman-Webster / Sam Schultz (Polson)
3) John Gilk / Tristan Grein (Columbia Falls)
4) Carson McDaniel / Joe McDonald (Polson)
State B-C
At Great Falls
Bigfork’s Ellie Berreth will be a favorite to claim a singles title for girls as she’s the lone returning state placer back from last year’s tournament.
She finished fifth in 2017.
Berreth was sharp at divisionals, winning 6-0, 6-1 in both her championship and semifinal matches.
Bigfork’s Ahna Fox finished fifth in doubles a year ago at state, but has a new partner in Meredith Bedford. Fox and Bedford rolled in their divisional finals match, 6-0, 6-4.
For the Bigfork boys, Colton Reichenbach and Clayton Reichenbach will look to improve on last year’s fifth place state finish in doubles. The divisional champs won their final last week 6-2, 6-1.