Bulldogs fight hard at state tournament

It was a tough state tournament, but the Bulldogs tennis team went down swinging.

Whitefish finished the tournament in eighth in overall team scores. Billings Central, Hardin and Dillon rounded out the top three.

The Dogs got a solid start on Thursday at FVCC. Eric Holdhusen picked up a 6-3, 6-0 win in his first match against Jonathon Leonardson of Dillon, and the doubles team of Brendan Buls and Thomas Carloss took down Cairo Morton and Jake Pankratz of Billings Central. Ethan Pothoff dropped his first match against Bradley Rakich of Dillon 6-3, 6-1 but picked up a win in the first round of the consolation bracket.

Then the going got tough.

Holdhusen fell to Jeff Fournier of Belgrade in the quarterfinals, then won against Pothoff in a battle of teammates in the second round of the consolation bracket. Holdhusen lost his second match in the third round, falling to Jory Opp of Glendive 7-5, 6-1 on Friday. Opp ended up taking third place in the tournament.

“[Holdhusen] gave it a great shot,” head coach Chris Schwaderer said. “He played his game throughout the tournament, he played aggressively and did everything he should, he just came up short.”

Schwaderer also noted Pothoff’s grit in the tourney.

“Everyone he played he gave a real battle,” he said. “He went down swinging, which is what he wanted to do.”

After their big first round win, Buls and Carloss ran into Jake Sedahl and Nate Korb of Havre in the quarterfinals, falling 6-3, 6-2 to put them in the consolation bracket. Jet Campbell and Mark Southam of Dillon handed them their second loss in the second round, 6-2, 7-5.

Schwaderer said he was pleased with how his team started, but reiterated how important every match is in the tournament.

“I was happy. I thought that we got off to a really good start on Thursday, with a couple of our guys winning really tough first round matches to score some points and start moving the right way in the bracket,” he said. “State is tough, there’s a lot of good teams there that we don’t see ordinarily, and you always have to bring your best game to the state tournament, because everyone is ready to go and you can never take a match off.”

Looking at the offseason, Schwaderer said the focus is going to be on developing the team’s raw potential over the summer.

“Going into next year, we’ve got a lot of kids who are kind of raw and young and what I’d really like to do is get on the courts this summer. They’ve got a lot of potential, I’ve seen that develop through the season, they’ve come a long way,” he said. “Given the length of the season for tennis, we know if we want to be better we can’t just limit it to those two months.”

Class A State Tournament

Thursday

At Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell

Team Scores — Billings Central 20, Hardin 17, Dillon 16, Havre 14, Polson 12, Glendive 11, Belgrade 7, Whitefish 6, Livingston 2, Lewistown 2, Butte Central 2.

Singles

First Round

Bradley Rakich, Dillon, def. Ethan Pothoff, Whitefish, 6-3, 6-1; Eric Holdhusen, Whitefish, def. Jonathan Leonardson, Dillon, 6-3, 6-0.

Quarterfinals

Fournier def. Holdhusen 6-1, 6-4.

Loser out

First Round

Pothoff def. Hanson 6-1, 5-7, 6-1;

Second Round

Holdhusen def. Pothoff 6-4, 7-6 (7-1);

Doubles

First Round

Brenden Buls/Thomas Carloss, Whitefish, def. Cairo Morton/Jake Pankratz, Billings Central, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1;

Quarterfinals

Sedahl/Korb def. Buls/Carloss 6-3, 6-2;

Loser out

Second Round

Campbell/Nelson def. Buls/Carloss 6-2, 7-5;

Singles

Loser out

Third Round

Jory Opp, Glendive, def. Eric Holdhusen, Whitefish, 7-5, 6-1;