Bulldogs send six netters to state
Chris Peterson / For the Pilot<br>Whitefish's David Hobbs returns a forehand during the divisionals on Friday. Hobbs and his partner Chase Pierce were eliminated in the second consolation round.
Whitefish freshman Matt Harris avenged his loss to Pol-son's Andy Dykstra earlier in the season and won the singles final, while the Bulldogs boys tennis team took home the team championship at the Northwestern A tennis meet in Kalispell on Saturday.
Harris defeated Dykstra 6-1, 2-6 7-5 in the final.
"Matt just attacked him and wouldn't let up," said Bulldog head coach Kathy Cummings.
Harris wasn't the only singles player from Whitefish to earn a berth at the state meet.
Bulldog Ian Hosek, who lost to Dykstra 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinal match, regained his composure in the consolation finals, defeating Polson's Derrick Roberts in two sets, 7-5, 6-4.
On the doubles courts, White-fish's teams of Kyle Jacobson and Ryan Rottenbiller, and Izaak Opatz and Ben James, dropped their first matches but held on to gain entry to the state tournament.
In the semifinal matches, Bigfork's Joe Wolstein and Owen Roberts beat Opatz and James, 6-2, 6-3, while Polson's Colton Woods and Brett Vandeberg defeated Rottenbiller and Jacobson in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4).
"They were kind of shell-shocked," Cummings said of the doubles pairs after their first round defeats, but "they came back and won the rest."
The consolation finals pitted the two Whitefish doubles team against each other.
Opatz and James defeated Rottenbiller and Jacobson 6-2, 6-4, but both teams will advance to state.
"I'm pleased with the way they played," Cummings said of her team. "I'm looking forward to success at state."
Last year, the Bulldogs didn't place at the state meet but had two players, Opatz and Rottenbiller, who gained experience there.
At the double-elimination state tournament on Thursday in Ronan, Harris will take on the number-four seed from the Eastern Conference, while the two Whitefish doubles teams will play pairs from the Southwestern Conference.
On Friday, the games will be played in Polson.