Whitefish girls tennis returns senior-heavy squad
The Whitefish High School girls tennis team is preparing for the new season through bouts of sunny weather and storm systems riding through.
That’s the nature of spring sports, though.
This season the girls team features 10 seniors and several returners from the team last year that finished in second place at the State A tournament.
Girls tennis head coach Patrick Dryden says the team had a productive offseason, meeting up often to play. Since official high school practices began, it's been rocky between battling time off for spring break and then challenging weather.
Despite that, he says the team has a lot of skilled athletes which makes good competition internally for the No.1 singles and doubles spots.
“We’re going to have some good battles over the next couple of months,” he said.
Highlighting the squad for the singles side are returning seniors Anyah Cripe and Lauren Brown who were among the Bulldog girls top singles players last season. Brown qualified for state and Cripe narrowly missed making the state tournament, but finished high at divisionals. Dryden says both are coming out firing.
“Lauren Brown and Anyah Cripe are back and they both are stronger and both have a lot better serves than they did last year,” Dryden said. “Those two have the unenviable task of trying to fill Gracie Smyley’s (last year’s No. 1 singles player) shoes.”
Dryden says senior Emma Shaffer and sophomore Alivia Lusko are both contenders among the singles players as well.
“The competition on the singles side is going to be really interesting — that’s going to take a long time to shake that out and see where we end up,” he said.
For doubles, Dryden is excited to have junior Tallory Workman return. Workman qualified for state last year, though she will need a new doubles partner this season. The coach isn’t sure who will fill that role but has plenty of girls stepping up for the challenge.
Other seniors include Sophie Olson, Ashley Gunset, Emma Trieweiler, Addie Oehlerich, Elliette Haigh, Maile Vine and Piper Dudley.
Last year Whitefish brought home second place in State A. This year Dryden likes how the girls are playing so far and believes that serving has improved.
“We’ve got a little more pop in our serve than we have in past years,” he commented.
The team hopes to minimize errors and play consistent matches as the season gets underway.
The Lady Bulldog tennis team will launch into the new season with a match against Columbia Falls at the Grouse Mountain Park courts on Thursday at 3 p.m. Then on Saturday they will travel to Polson for a doubleheader against Dillon and Polson.
