Girls doubles win two at state
Lexie Bartkoski returns serve at the divisional tourney. Bartkoski and teammate Marissa Getts went 2-3 at the state A tournament. (Chris Peterson photo)
The doubles team of Marissa Getts and Lexie Bartkoski hung in there for a couple of wins at the state tennis tournament in Billings last week.
Getts and Bartkoski lost in the first round Thursday to Ashlee Burman and Katie Turner of Glendive 6-4, 6-0.
But the girls battled back in the consolation bracket, downing Shante Nielsen and Amanda Monger of Lewistown, 6-4, 6-0. In the consolation second round, the girls dropped Sydnee Madruga and Lairen Phinney of Corvallis, 6-0, 6-4 to advance to play Friday.
On Friday, Getts and Bartkoski faced Burman and Turner again and lost in a tough match, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
Teammate Tami Kolatschek went 0-2 in singles play, losing to Morgan Opp of Glendive, 6-0, 6-0 and then to Ellen Harmon of Lewistown, 6-2, 6-1 in the consolation round.
"Tami ran into a buzzsaw, meeting the eventual state A champion in the first round," girls' coach Jerry Smalley said.
He was pleased with Getts and Bartkoski's success.
"It was great to see Lexie and Marissa pick up a pair of wins,"Smalley said. "They played a tough Glendive team that finished fifth, A much tougher match the second time around.
"The girls just got pinched by the brackets. We met Glendive, the runaway state team champion, three matches out of our six. Most frustrating was having to play the East No. 2, Burman and Turner again in the consolation quarterfinals after having lost to them in the first round. All in all, it was a fun trip to Billings.The girls played hard and represented Columbia Falls very well."
On the boys side, both Parker Johnson and the doubles team of Vadim Zvygelskiy and Brian Marcille went 0-2 at the tournament.
Sophomore Johnson lost to Levi Pauley of Corvallis, 6-0, 6-1 and then lost in the consolation first round 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Justin Jensen of Havre.
Zvygelskiy and Marcille lost to Jesse Robins and Steve Sheehy of Billings Central in the first round, 6-4, 7-5 and in the consolation round, they lost to Emmett Wester and Aiden Goodman of Livingston 6-1, 6-3.
"It was a learning experience," boys' coach Gary Yee said. "They got to see what state was all about."