Beeters rolling on the tennis court

The Chinook Sugarbeeters are the two-time defending Class B-C state champions in girls tennis. And Tuesday afternoon at the Bill Vaughey Memorial Tennis Courts, they showed why.

In a round-robin format that featured both varsity and junior varsity matches, the Beeters were highly successful against the Havre Blue Ponies.

At the top of the lineup, Chinook’s Brooke Nicholson, one of the favorites in Class B-C singles, won twice, as did Chinook’s top doubles tandems of Lauren Harshman and Cortney Gunderson and Hattie Niederegger and Sierra Swank. The Beeters also got multiple wins from Megan Pruttis at No. 2 singles and Nicole McCracken at No. 3, and at the end of playing more than 20 matches, HHS head coach George Ferguson had nothing but praise for his counterparts from Chinook.

“Coach (Thom) MacLean has just done a fantastic job with tennis in Chinook,” Ferguson said. “When you watch his kids play, you see why they are so successful. They are very consistent in all phases of the game. They keep the ball in play, they don’t double fault, they hustle hard to every ball. Our kids do those things, too, but on Tuesday, they (Beeters) were a lot more consistent than we were. Chinook has some very good players, too, many of them have been coming to our tennis camp the last few years, so I knew going in just how tough they would be. And because of how good they are, and were on Tuesday, they really showed us what we need to work on to get to where we want to be.”

As good as Chinook was on Tuesday, Ferguson is still encouraged about his own teams’ prospects as the season goes on. Marca Herron won a singles match for the Ponies, and in other contests, Havre players did play well, especially some of Ferguson’s younger players, many of whom are just learning the game.

“I was excited about what I saw from our freshmen,” Ferguson said. “They are only six weeks into their tennis careers, and you could really see them starting to get it. All of our newcomers really put their best foot forward, and that group just has so much potential. So, it was a good day for them, and they gained a lot of experience.

“As for our varsity, I don’t think we played to the level we’re capable of,” Ferguson added. “And Chinook being as good as they are, that compounded things. I thought our varsity kids played much better in Cut Bank over the weekend than they did on Tuesday. But, at the same time, our kids work really hard and they will get better. They know they can be much better, and they know our best tennis is still ahead of us. No matter what happened on the courts on Tuesday, all of our goals for this season are still out in front of us.”

Next up for the Ponies is a trip to Lewistown Saturday for the Central A Preview Meet, as well as a junior varsity competition in Havre against Lewistown that same day. Chinook will be in Fort Benton this weekend for several duals.

Chinook vs Havre

Singles

Brooke Nicholson, CHI def. Paige Nelson, HAV, 8-0; Megan Pruttis, CHI def. Meggan Smith, HAV, 8-1; Nicole McCracken, CHI def. Ashley Hoffland, HAV, 8-0; Jamie Roth, CHI def. Marca Herron, HAV, 8-3; Larissa Getten, CHI def. Kadyn Acor, HAV, 6-2; Nicholson, CHI def. Smith, HAV, 6-0; Pruttis, CHI def. Nelson, HAV, 6-0; Bailey Zumbrun, CHI def. Masha Makarova, HAV, 6-0; Erika Arnold, CHI def. Mackenzie Tommerup, HAV, 6-2; Pruttis, CHI def. Alex Donaldson, HAV, 6-0; Herron, HAV def. Arnold, CHI, 6-4.

Doubles

Harshman/Gunderson, CHI def. Bernard/Vogel, HAV, 8-1; Niederegger/Swank, CHI def. Stoner/Huebsch, HAV, 8-2; Zumbrun/Arnold, CHI def. Solomon/Gobin, HAV, 6-4; Harshman/Gunderson, CHI def. A. Donaldson/Lindbloom, HAV, 6-1; Niederegger/Swank, CHI def. K. Donaldson/Miller, HAV, 6-0; McCracken/Roth, CHI def. Fee/Murphy, HAV, 6-2; Zumbrun/Getten, CHI def. Padgett/Nault, HAV, 6-2; Niederegger/Swank, CHI def. Bernard/Vogel, HAV, 6-2; Harshman/Gunderson, CHI def. Stoner/Huebsch, HAV, 6-2; Roth/McCracken, CHI def. K. Donaldson/Miller, HAV, 6-0; Nicholson/Swank, CHI def. Vogel/Bernard, HAV, 6-4; Zumbrun/McCracken, CHI def. Fee/Murphy, HAV, 6-1; Getten/Roth, CHI def. Acor/Makarova, HAV, 6-5 (7-1); Arnold/Pruttis, CHI def. Gobin/Solomon, HAV, 6-2; Harshman/Gunderson, CHI def. Nelson/Smith, HAV, 6-3; McCracken/Zumbrun, CHI def. Strobel/Schaub, HAV, 6-1; Nault/Smith, HAV def. Padgett/Tommerup, HAV, 6-4.