Polson boys take three

POLSON — Over a long weekend of tennis, a variety of Polson boys chipped in to get big team wins over Hamiton, Ronan and Stevensville. The Polson girls knocked off the same competition but both boys and girls fell to a tuned Corvallis squad - for the Lady Pirates it was the first team loss of the season.

The extremely narrow loss came after a few points just slipped away from the Lady Pirates in the battle.

As Polson head coach Bob Hislop put it, Polson junior Jane Probst “almost pulled an upset over one of the state favorites Megin Madruga.”

He added that the performance was coupled with a big two-set win over Hamilton’s Kelsey Jura to complete a strong weekend for the Lady Pirates’ top singles contender.

“She has steadily improved all season and is willing to do the work it takes to get better,” Hislop said.

After losing the first set to Madruga 6-4, Probst forced a tie-breaker in the second. Finally, Madruga came out on top, 8-6.

Polson’s Kelsey Howell was the other Lady Pirate to win a set at singles against Corvallis. Howell took the first set 6-2 at the No. 3 singles position, but couldn’t hang on in the next two. 

The combination of Lexi Cline and Jenni Reilley is a good one for Polson, but it couldn’t quite overcome the Blue Devils when a 7-5 tiebreak in set three ended things at the No. 2 doubles spot.

Against the Southern A competition, the Polson boys pulled out some good wins individually and at doubles to push them over the hump as a team.

Andrew Storro took a couple key singles wins for Polson, finishing a perfect 2-2 on the weekend. Neither came easy, and none was more clutch than his defeat of Hamilton’s Cody Tredik at the No. 4 singles spot. After splitting the first two sets, Storro’s 6-3 victory in the third combined with a Polson sweep job at doubles for a 4-3 Pirate team win.

Storro’s victory against Ronan required him to muster out the extra points in a second set tiebreak over Chief Spencer Sucha.

Hislop was also pleased with doubles pair Shad Giles and Kyle Cooper, not to mention the guy who had to square off against each team’s best lone hitter, Polson senior Tyler Engebretson.

“The team of Kyle Cooper and Shad Giles went three for three over the weekend and played a fabulous match versus Stevensville No. 1 on Saturday afternoon. Tyler Engebretson played some very solid singles at the No. 1 spot versus a weekend of very tough competition,” Hislop said.

The Polson boys play at Columbia Falls on Saturday. The Polson girls host Anaconda and Columbia Falls on Saturday.