Chris Peterson Havre Daily News cpeterson@havredailynews.com
The Havre High boys and girls tennis teams have waited through five weeks and two cancelled tournaments to finally make their 2008 season debut. And if the things are finally right with the weather, the Blue Ponies will do that on their home courts on Saturday at the 2008 Havre Invitational. The Ponies have suffered setbacks due to foul weather as both of their first two meets the Cut Bank Invitational and the Conrad Invitational were cancelled completely. So Saturday's meet, featuring Conrad, Cut Bank and Central A rival Lewistown will be HHS's first competition of the season. "We have some catching up to do," HHS head coach George Ferguson said. "To my knowledge, us and Lewistown are the only two Class A teams who have yet to compete. So that's what this weekend will be about for us, competing, getting match experience, and having fun playing in front of our home fans and family. We just need to play real matches against real competition." The Havre Invitational will be a tournament- style format, with boys and girls singles brackets as well as boys and girls doubles brackets. On the boys side, HHS will be paced by Shane Kemmer, Mason Sheppard and Dan Pizzini in singles, and the Ponies will also get a look at several younger players who will compete this weekend. In doubles, the Ponies will also be strong with veterans Todd Roe, David Zentmire, Kyle Miller and Brad Hansen, as well as newcomers Nate Christianson and Jake Ulgenes. As for the boy's tournament, Saturday will feature some great singles action with Lewistown's Justin Hartford and Shane Parker, as well as a pair of strong singles players from Cut Bank. The Eagles and Wolves will also bring strong doubles teams to Havre. "The boy's tournament should be very competitive," Ferguson said. "But what's important to us right now is just playing matches. In that respect, we're really far behind right now, that the emphasis this week has to be on just playing matches and getting our feet wet. The same certainly goes for the girls team." On the girls side, HHS will be paced by senior singles standout Katie Mariani, as well as the sophomore doubles teams of Courtney Kinholt and Haley Donovan and Jolee Landgraff and Morgan McCann. Havre will also have junior Mikaela Lipp and sophomore Christina Plum in the lineup this weekend, as well as a host of freshmen. "We're missing some key girls this week because of other obligations and injuries, but it should still be a good experience for all of our players. We have so many younger kids on the girls team, that we just need to play and then see where we're at. But then again, all of our kids need that right now. "It's been a really frustrating start to the season, practicing so much without playing on the weekends," he added. "So we're all really excited about this tournament. It's our only chance to play on our home courts, and we're just really looking forward to getting on the court and competing for the first time." The Havre Invitational will get under way at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. The tournament will run all day, and all the action will take place at the Bill Vaughey Memorial Tennis Courts
