Mission tennis has full week

BIGFORK — Both the boys and girls of Mission tennis tied Valley Christian 3-3 on April 20 to highlight a week of busy hitting.

The boys fell 4-2 to hosting Cutbank on Friday and the girls pulled out another 3-3 tie. A bunch of other matches at the Bigfork tournament on Saturday provided the Mission players with a little extra practice in one of the last weeks before the divisional tournament.

The Mission girls have added three more to their squad and will finally be able to fill out a full varsity lineup, head coach Kimimi Ashley said.

The team also sorted out a No. 1 doubles spot.

“We have made Anna Fehrs and Sarah Bowers as our No. 1 doubles team and we feel that together they will be able to do some damage at the tournament and earn the girls’ team some big points. When they are focused on the court they communicate well together and are tough,” Ashley said.

The pair played together at the Bigfork tournament on Saturday.

The change puts Jane Makepeace at the No. 1 singles position. She took two quick matches against Valley Christian and Cutbank at the No. 2 spot, and faced a tough Superior opponent for an equally fast loss at the No. 1 position against Superior’s Alex Conrow.

“Jane is getting better at trying to put angles on her shot placements, but she just needs to add quicker footwork to her games. She can’t let girls win a point off of her that would’ve just taken one more step to get to. This is going to be real important now that she is at No. 1 singles,” Ashley said.

Perhaps Mission’s top performer for the weekend, foreign exchange student Jasmine El-Menshawy won all of her matches against Valley Christian, and Cutbank. A 7-5, 6-3 win at the No. 3 singles was the team’s sole win against Superior.

“She moved up to No. 2 singles in a tournament at Bigfork on Saturday and moved up her level of play with each player, ending with win.”

After losses to  Bigfork and Libby, El-Menshawy won big against Cutbank at the spot.

“I am very pleased with her determination out there on the court. Nothing seems to rattle her. She would be down by four games on those girls and she would fight her way back into it,” Ashley said.

The boys were already looking to state when they faced Cutbank.

“We got the chance to play six time State Champion Cutbank on both Friday and Saturday,” Ashley said. “So I had Clayton (Makepeace) and Wyatt (McCollum) switch their No. 1 and No. 2 spots each day so that they both get to see Cutbank’s No. 1 and No. 2 players. It was all preparation for State play,” Ashley said.

Clayton had to face a tough competitor in Libby’s Alex Cislo on Bigfork.

“His (Cislo’s) game is frustrating because it is so slow paced and he just seems to hang around,” Ashley said of Clayton’s opponent. “Clayton did well in that he fought his way back into it and just came up on the short end with a 7-10 loss.”

Ashley said McCollum had a strong week, with a 6-2, 6-4 win at Valley Christian in the No. 2 singles spot and then faced Cutbank’s top dog, Josh Paulson, on Friday.  

“Even though Wyatt lost his match against Paulson, he has gotten the most games off of him than his last six opponents have,” Ashley said.

The fact that both Clayton and McCollum took out the Cutbank’s No. 2 singles player spells hope for State, Ashley said.

The Mission boys play at Corvallis on Thursday and both boys and girls play on Friday at Ronan against Ronan and Troy.