Girls tennis sweeps Libby, Ronan

The Whitefish girls tennis team came away from last week without losing a match after competing in two Northwest A conference matches.

The Lady Bulldogs swept Libby on Tuesday before visiting Ronan on Thursday, winning both 6-0. The tennis teams battled the elements on both days with cold, wintery temperatures affecting the athletes.

Whitefish coach Patrick Dryden says despite the challenging weather, the Bulldog girls performed on the court and looked solid against Libby and Ronan.

“We had a very productive week…” Dryden said. “I’m pleased with the way we handled the weather conditions because that was certainly a big part of it.”

Dryden says the focus for the Whitefish team last week was for the singles players to improve passing shots and lobs when opponents are at the net and for the doubles teams to work on communication.

Dryden was impressed with Whitefish No. 1 singles player Lauren Brown who won both of her matches. Against Ronan, she played a top Northwest A player, Alyssa Pretty On Top, and had a competitive match.

“Lauren Brown had a nice match, she beat one of the better girls in the conference 7-5, 6-2,” he said. “That was a quality win.”

On the doubles side, Dryden also was happy with his No. 1 doubles team of Tallory Workman and Emma Trieweiler.

“Emma Trieweiler and Tallory Workman are undefeated in conference, so that kind of gives them a leg up on the competition when it comes to seeding for the divisional tournament,” Dryden said.

The team was supposed to play Class AA Flathead High School on Thursday, April 21, but the match was rescheduled to the following week on April 28.

Whitefish will play in the Libby Invitational on Saturday. The competition will be a tournament style and the team is looking forward to seeing several new opponents.

“It will be good to see different competition, I really like the fact that we’ll see some of the Class B schools,” Dryden said.

The Libby tournament kicks off Saturday at 9:30 a.m.