Boys tennis wins five matches to close out regular season

In five days the Bulldogs played five matches against a range of Western A divisional foes.

Whitefish played host to Ronan, Libby, Polson, Corvallis and Hamilton last week, recording wins against each of them.

“I think this last week has been really productive for us,” said Whitefish head coach Chris Schwaderer. “Even in a short season we have our ups and downs. We’ve had a really solid year with mostly wins, but our biggest test lately has just been to figure out who’s going to play where and in what doubles combination.”

At No. 1 singles, Bulldog senior Jayce Cripe was undefeated last week. For the remainder of the lineups Schwaderer switched players into different roles to consider.

Whitefish’s Joe Brandt played at No. 2 singles all week long and appears to be settling into that role. He won four matches, including two three-set matches, and lost to Corvallis’ Aaron Powel in a close match — 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Throughout the week Bulldogs Aydin Mulholland, Johnny Nix and Austin Gunset switched in and out to fill out the rest of the singles lineup.

Whitefish’s No. 1 doubles team is the pair of Aaron Dicks and Highland Lee-French. Dicks has solidly held his role on that doubles team, but just a couple weeks ago Lee-French moved from No. 2 singles to the top doubles team. Schwaderer has liked what he’s seen out of them.

Last week against Libby, Polson and Ronan, Schwaderer switched up the No. 1 doubles and put Jack Robertson on the court with Dicks. That duo beat Ronan and Libby, but fell in three sets to Polson. For the matches against Hamilton and Corvallis, Schwaderer reunited Dicks and Lee-French — the team won both matches without much strife.

Throughout last week’s matches, Schwaderer tried an assortment of alternate combinations for the No. 2-3 doubles teams to find the ones with the most chemistry with the postseason approaching quickly.

“This last weekend it was exciting to see how well everyone took to their spot and where they fit in on the team,” he said. “I don’t think that I’ve seen the entire team play this well all at the same time until this weekend. I’m just very encouraged going into the divisional tournament that the players are where they need to be and really developed and evolved to where they’re playing some of their best tennis.”

Whitefish is now preparing for the Western A Divisional Tournament, which due to a forecast of inclement weather has been moved up to begin Wednesday afternoon. Schwaderer says the postseason tournaments are always tough, and will be a battle both mentally and physically.

“We just need to be competitive and when we get there we’ve got to be prepared,” Schwaderer expressed. “The tournaments can be challenging, they require a lot, people have to reach deep and just kind of deal with adversity and long days…”

“It’s really a test of what you’re made of and I’ve got a lot of confidence in this team, I think that they are really competitive,” he added.

The divisional tournament is a double elimination format and if you win you keep advancing in the winners bracket. For team scoring, wins in the winners bracket are worth two points and wins in the losers bracket are worth one point.

The tournament is scheduled to be held in Polson and will begin Wednesday, May 19 at 2:30 p.m.

Whitefish 6 Ronan 0

Singles

Jayce Cripe (W) d. Dillon Prettyontop 6-1, 6-3. Joe Brandt (W) d. Brady Dresden 6-0, 6-3. Aydin Mulholland (W) d. Caden Bourdon 6-0, 6-0. Austin Gunset (W) v. Isaac Cantlon 6-0, incomplete.

Doubles

Aaron Dicks/Jack Robertson (W) d. Beau Decker/Connor Cornwell 6-4, 6-4. Highland Lee-French/Mason Kelch (W) d. Larenz Alvarez/Vicente Ortega 6-4, 6-1. Fin Stagg/Jesse Burrough (W) d. Joey Parnell/Dylan Schock 6-1, 6-3.

Whitefish 7 Libby 0

Singles

Jayce Cripe (W) d. Michael Hollingsworth 6-1, 6-2; Joe Brandt (W) d. Ryker McElmurry 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Aydin Mulholland (W) d. Ayden Montgomery 6-0, 6-0. Austin Gunset (W) d. Morgan Davis 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles

Aaron Dicks/Jack Robertson (W) d. Colton Halvorson/Ryan Collins 6-0, 6-1; Highland Lee-French/Mason Kelch (W) d. Trevor Collins/Cylis Goddard 6-0, 6-0. Fin Stagg/Jesse Burrough (W) d. Zach Fantozzi/Thomas Roark 6-0, 6-0.

Whitefish 6 Polson 1

Singles

Jayce Cripe (W) d. Colter Wilson 6-0, 6-0. Joe Brandt (W) d. Brock Henderson 6-0, 6-1. Aydin Mulholland (W) d. Tate Barentsen 6-1, 6-0. Johnny Nix (W) d. Chris Lake 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles

Michael Smith/Torrin Ellis (P) d. Aaron Dicks/Jack Robertson 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Highland Lee-French/Mason Kelch (W) d. Trent Wilson/Owen McElwee 6-7(9) 7-5, 6-3; Fin Stagg/Austin Gunset (W) d. Otto Lund/Noah Trosper 6-1, 6-2.

Whitefish 6 Corvallis 1

Singles

Jayce Cripe (W) d. Cade Kelley 6-0, 6-1. Aaron Powel (C) d. Joe Brandt 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Johnny Nix (W) d. Paul Powell 3-6, 6-4, 10-6. Aydin Mulholland (W) won by forfeit.

Doubles

Aaron Dicks/Highland Lee-French (W) d. Marshall Fehr/Jason Bay 6-0, 6-4. Jack Robertson/Mason Kelch (W) d. Luke Sangster/Nik Talia 6-4, 6-4. Fin Stagg/Austin Gunset (W) d. Ryan Hutchinson/Grant Wilcox 6-4, 6-1.

Whitefish 7 Hamilton 0

Singles

Jayce Cripe (W) d. Andy Purcell 6-0, 6-3. Joe Brandt (W) d. Colin Haney 6-1, 6-2. Aydin Mulholland (W) d. Dawson Berglund 6-0, 6-0. Jesse Burrough (W) d. Max Naidl 6-2, 7-5.

Doubles

Aaron Dicks/Highland Lee-French (W) d. Liam O’Connell/Jackson Heath 6-0, 6-1. Jack Robertson/Mason Kelch (W) d. Logan VanDenberg/Isaac Harmon 6-1, 6-3. Fin Stagg/Austin Gunset (W) d. Cooper Gurney/Ryan Jordan 6-2, 6-1.