The Glacier and Flathead tennis squads will learn a lot this weekend in Helena. The talent from Western AA, including Glacier’s two-time defending champion girls team and the two-time defending boys singles champion, will square off with the Eastern AA opposition at the final regular-season meet.
“The Helena Invite will be a great way to find out where we are,” Glacier head coach Josh Munro said.
This week’s cross-town meet between Flathead and Glacier was canceled. Local players have only two weeks of practice left to prepare for the divisional in Great Falls (May 10-11) and hopefully advance to the state tournament in Missoula (May 18-19).
This much is already certain: Glacier junior Kellen Bates, even if he’s only played a couple of local matches so far, is still as dominant as ever. He remains unbeaten on tennis courts in Montana throughout his high school career. Bates has bypassed most local matches this season to play at national tournaments, Munro said. Bates recently suffered a rare defeat, losing narrowly to the 10th-ranked player in the country. He’ll step back on the court in Helena and begin his pursuit for a rare feat, a third state title in a row.
In Bates’ absence, freshman Hunter Blalack has filled in nicely as Glacier’s No. 1 singles player. Blalack battled Hellgate’s Blake Miller, who Munro described as arguably the second-best player in the state, last weekend in the finals of the seven-team Missoula Invite. Miller needed three sets to beat Blalack. Also in Missoula, Mario Hernandez won the No. 2 singles finals and Ryan Edwards and Ryan Schmauch won in No. 2 doubles.
From Flathead, Glenn Strickler, the Braves lone state qualifier last year, advanced to the Missoula Invite semifinals in No. 1 singles before falling to Miller. The Braves also had two other singles players and a doubles team advance to the semis: Andrew Klingensmith in No. 2 singles; Tucker Moe in No. 3 singles; Tristan Dills and Tyler Beagley in No. 3 doubles.
The two-time defending champion Glacier girls team will find out how formidable a foe Bozeman is this weekend.
The Wolfpack have continued their usual dominance this season, led by a strong singles trio – Hailey Blalack, Katya Kulikova and Veronica Walton. Blalack took second at state last year behind Glacier senior Liana Bates and Kulikova placed third. The three girls dominated the No. 1 singles grouping in Missoula with Kulikova coming out on top over Blalack in the final. In doubles, Amy Snipstead and Kailea Vaudt continued to improve and sealed a victory in the No. 1 grouping. Keckeley Habel and Kayla Harwood advanced to the semis in No. 2 doubles.
For Flathead, Annie Marshall and Ashli Petek won in the finals for No. 2 doubles and Anna Milheim and Alexandra Moe lost in the finals for No. 3 doubles. Mackenzie Williams advanced to the finals for No. 4 singles.
“Bozeman’s girls are looking exceptionally strong. We will have to play well to beat them this year,” Munro said. “The Hellgate boys are looking very strong too. But we’re right there with these teams. We just have to put it together at the right time.”