Lady Pirates win divisional tourney

KALISPELL — The Lady Pirates have done it again.

Scoring over 60 points, they sealed their third straight divisional championship and will be headed to state.

“The girls team will be well represented at state and considering the big losses to graduation and Cali’s (Hislop) injury it is very cool to see the next generation of Lady Pirates do so well. State will be quite an unknown since we have so little state experience in this group, but their lack of experience hasn’t slowed them down yet,” Polson head coach Bob Hislop said.

At singles, Jane Probst took a monster win in the semi-finals over Whitefish’s Kate Klundt.

The two had split in the regular season.

“Jane played very intelligent second and third sets,” Hislop said of the winning performance.

Probst then went on to face Libby’s Jackie Mee in the final.

Mee is one of the top two players in the state, and Probst couldn’t pull off the win in that one. But she will be heading to state with divisional silver around her neck.

Lexi Cline will also be headed to state for singles, after a loss in the third-fourth place match to Klundt in what Hislop described as “two hard fought sets.”

In doubles, sisters Kayla and Kendyall Rochin played off a perfect conference record to finish off the pair of Nicole Newman and Anna Valentine for divisional gold.

“They played very clean tennis all weekend not losing a set in three matches and losing only 10 total games,” Hislop said.

Heather Mathison and Kelsie Jones were Polson’s second best and took third in the tourney. After defeating Bigfork’s Nicolette Peterson and Hanna Barrett to make it into the consolation final, they beat the Whitefish duo of McCara Cullen and Anne Miller 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to take their prize.

On the boys’ end, Polson doubles hitters had to face each other for a shot at state.

After the top pair of Tyler Engebretson and Stefan McCrumb fell to Whitefish, the No. 2 and No. 3 Pirate doubles teams had to face off against them to see who would get a chance at third place and a trip to state in the consolation final.

No. 2 pair Kyle Cooper and Shad Giles beat No. 3 pair Seth Hovenkotter and Justin Evertz to make their way into the consolation semi-final.

In that match, they continued their winning ways with an upset of McCrumb and Engebretson.

They went on to win again in the consolation final, 6-2, 6-1 to earn bronze and snag a spot at state.

“Due to our success on the first day, the worst possible scenario played out on day two,” Hislop said of the Pirate vs. Pirate competition.

It goes to show that come tournament time, it’s anyone’s time to shine.

Matt Roberts was playing well with an early singles win but had to drop out. He was ill, possibly from the flu or food poisoning, Hislop said.

Tom Deanovic also won a  match at singles.

Polson competes at 8 a.m. on Thursday and Friday at   the Summit Athletic Club and the FVCC tennis courts in Kalispell.