Tennis teams ready at the net for tournaments
The Bigfork tennis team managed to find a couple of dry days to play tennis over the past week-and-a-half, though the team's biggest match of what was its final week of the regular season was canceled due to inclement weather.
The Vikings traveled to Columbia Falls on Monday to take on the Wildcats and beat them 5-2. Bridger Mahlum defeated Parker Johnson 6-1, 6-3 in the No. 1 boys match.
Colter Mahlum dropped the No. 2 match to Miroslav Zvygelskiy, which was drug out to three matches with the final scores being 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-2.
"The experience of playing a long match will be beneficial heading into a tournament this week in Mission," said Paul Wallin, Bigfork High School co-head tennis coach.
Saturday the boys will compete in the Best of the West Tournament in Mission. It replaces the playing time that the girls get with this weekend's divisional tournament. Boys don't have a divisional tournament, and, due to a lack of numbers, they all advance to state.
Dylan Reichenbach beat his opponent in the No. 3 match, Tim Spencer, 6-1, 6-2. John Lyon also picked up a victory in his match, the No. 4 singles, against John Riffey, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
In doubles play, Bigfork's No. 1 boys Evan Jordt and Ryan Gembala defeated Brian Marcille and Vadim Zvygelskiy, 6-3, 7-5. In the No. 2 match, Seth Roessmann and Nate Roberson defeated Nice Emerson and Chris King, 6-4, 6-3. Bigfork's No. 3 doubles team of Colter Trent and Shane Parks dropped their match against Nathan Carr and Sam Negron, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
The girls didn't play in Columbia Falls and instead hosted Eureka, which does not have a boys team, last Tuesday May 4, and beat them 5-2. No individual scoring was available for this match.
Both the Vikes and Vals were to play in Libby on Saturday, and Troy was to attend the match as well, but it was canceled due to rain. Many of the team's matches have been canceled this year for that same reason, which has given the athletes a less competitive experience.
"Obviously, ideally we would've liked to have had better weather in the spring," said Paul Sullivan, Bigfork High School's other co-head tennis coach. "However, I am really happy with what I've seen in practice and in the exhibition matches the kids have played in after practice."
Divisionals
On Friday and Saturday the girls will compete in the Western B/C Division Tennis Tournament, which will be hosted by Bigfork. Matches will being at 10 a.m. both days and will be played at the Montana Athletic Club and the Bigfork High School.
The Vals will be without one of their top singles players, senior Kelly Deaton. She was in a horse riding accident last weekend in which she incurred a broken jaw. Deaton was playing in the No. 3 singles spot.
Jade Bosic will be the girls No. 1 singles player and Carolina Tietzel is playing in the No. 2 spot after beating Deaton in a challenge match three weeks ago. It has yet to be decided who will fill in for Deaton in the No. 3 spot and Bigfork will also have to select a No. 4 girl since each school can enter four singles players and two doubles teams and Bigfork has been rotating girls in the No. 4 spot.
In doubles play, Hannah Barrett and Claire Wilken will play for Bigfork in the No. 1 slot and Ariel Stallknecht and Kianna Wicklund will play in the No. 2 spot.
"Based on what we have, I'm very confident that we'll have a lot of girls advance to state," Sullivan said. "It's tournament time so things can get a little topsy-turvy, but as long as our girls stay on top of their game, we will be successful."
The top six singles participants and the top four doubles teams will advance to the state tournament. The boys and girls Class B/C State Tennis Tournament will be held May 17-22 in Missoula.
"We are ready for this weekend with the girls," Wallin said. "Although we haven't played a lot of matches lately, we have played within our team quite a bit."
The Bigfork coaches plan on spending this week getting the most out of the dry days leading up to the tournament, but probably won't be switching too much up as far as the focus of their practices.
"We're not going to do anything too special — just hit a bunch of tennis balls," Sullivan said. "Things will probably lighten up Thursday to give them some rest, but it's really just the culmination of our season's work. We try to teach them to play smarter and I think we've been successful with that on both accounts."