HHS netters gearing up for Havre Invitational

The Havre High boys and girls tennis teams are just two weeks in to competition, but things are starting to get serious. On Saturday, the Blue Ponies will be at home for the last time this season when they host the Havre Invitational at the Bill Vaughey Memorial Tennis Courts in Havre. The Ponies are coming off a strong showing last Saturday at the Conrad Invitational, and HHS head coach George Ferguson is hoping for more of the same — especially considering the Havre Invite will be the same teams and the same format as last week in Conrad. "It will be interesting to see where we're at on Saturday," Ferguson said. "Since we're playing the same type of tournament with most of the same kids, this will be a really good way to gauge just how much we're improving. It's been a difficult week as far as practice is concerned, the wind has been a big problem. But this weekend should really do two things for us. It should show as how quickly we're progressing from week to week, and it should also give us some great preparation for the tough three weeks we have coming up." Saturday's event will feature brackets for 1-2's boys and girls singles, 3-4's girls singles and boys and girls doubles. Each team will have three doubles teams in the field. The tournament draws are double elimination, so every player or doubles team in the field is guaranteed at least two matches. As far as the competition goes, HHS will be up against teams from Lewistown, Conrad and Cut Bank. However, Ferguson said rosters could look a little different than last week in Conrad due to music festival. "Again, we'll be able to judge how well we're improving because we'll probably see a lot of rematches from last week in Conrad," Ferguson said. "But there will also be some different kids because of other obligations this week. We'll be missing some key varsity players and I'm sure the other three teams will as well. "But the goal is the same this week as it has been the previous two," he added. "We just want to improve. We want to keep implementing the things we've been working on and make sure we're getting better. This isn't the time to worry about wins and losses. I just want to see the kids all play well and continue to move forward." As of now the HHS boys team will feature senior Kyle Miller, who captured the Conrad title last week in singles, as well as sophomore Justin Jensen, junior Keenan Dolezal, sophomores Blaine Grisak and Simon Mc- Cann and freshmen Jacob Holden and JJ Hovet in singles. The Ponies will be shorthanded in doubles, but their No. 1 team of Brayden Grimson and Danny Roe will be in attendance, as will the duo of Seth Allen Doney and Austin Christianson. On the girls side, Havre is dealing with an injury to senior doubles player Morgan McCann, so her partner, Jolee Landgraf will move to singles for now. Landgraf will join Christina Mack, Christina Plum, Danielle Faechner, Teresa Buerkle and freshman Chante' Brown. In doubles, the top duo of Courtney Kinholt and Hayley Donovan will lead the Ponies, while Kirsten Keller and Monique Wilson and Jade McCormick and Lainey Chagnon will also team up this weekend. "This is an exciting week for us," Ferguson said. "It's always fun to play on your home courts in front of family and friends. This is something the kids really look forward too. And we're excited to give the community a chance to see our program because it's not something we get to do too often. It should be a great day of tennis and as a team, we're really looking forward to it." Saturday's Havre Invitational tennis tournament will begin at 8 a.m. and run all day at the Bill Vaughey Memorial Tennis Courts.