HHS tennis faces Central A foes in Lewistown

With now two meets canceled already this season, Havre High head tennis coach George Ferguson says, his players really need to play Friday in Lewistown.

The Blue Ponies, both varsity and junior varsity, were supposed to battle Great Falls Central and Chinook Tuesday, but rain washed the day out, while Havre also lost the season-opening Cut Bank Invite.

This means, an already important Central A Preview Meet Friday in Lewistown becomes even more so.

"We're at a really critical point in the season, as far as our building process goes," Ferguson said. "We're scheduled to play a lot of matches in the next few weeks, and we need them. We really need the weather to help us out."

Weather permitting, Friday's trip to Lewistown would afford the Blue Ponies plenty of court time as they're scheduled to dual Central A rivals Livingston and Lewistown, as well as play extra matches against both throughout the day. And not only will court time be important to the Blue Ponies in Lewistown, but divisional seeding will be on the line, as well.

"For me, this is the only week prior to the Lewistown Invitational in May, where we're after results," Ferguson said. "We use these head-to-head matches against Lewistown and Livingston as criteria for seeding the divisional tournament, so they are certainly important. Still though, we need to also make sure we play really good tennis and not take any steps back. So there's a lot of reasons this weekend is big for us."

Havre's young boys are considered the Central A favorite again this season, and while veterans like Tommy Brown, Jake Huston and Reese Bulkley are leading the way for the Ponies, Ferguson noted that, younger players like Josh Warp, Mick Chagnon, Trenton Maloughney and Troy Powell are among the many Pony boys making progress right now.

"Our boys team is starting to find its stride," Ferguson said. "This is one of the youngest boys teams I've ever had, so we're really trying to accelerate the sophomores and freshmen right now. And they're all doing a great job with that. We're throwing a lot at these kids, especially our first-year players and they're coming along. All those new freshmen, they're really picking it up. So not only is that good for the remainder of this season, it's really good for our future, too."

The Havre girls are anything but a young team this season, with eight seniors on the roster, and yet, Ferguson said, as the Ponies arrive at the halfway point of the spring, it's a group of younger girls who are starting to have a tremendous impact on the roster.

"Tamera O'Leary, Sylvia Wilting, Sydney Marchion, Angela Rhines, Kate Morehouse, and all our first-year players, they're really getting it now," Ferguson said. "With how many seniors we have, it's really crucial that that group makes a lot of progress this year, and they're doing it. Those sophomores, along with Angela Rhines, they've grown so much as players in the last six weeks. It's really exciting to see."

Exciting is also the word Ferguson chooses to describe Friday's trip to Lewistown. Havre has seen plenty of Lewistown in the last few weeks, but has had few varsity head-to-head matches against the Eagles. Friday will be the Ponies' first look at Livingston, a squad that expects to battle the Ponies tooth and nail at divisionals next month. The Livingston girls are the defending Central A champions and return a strong team again this season.

"It will be good to go head-to-head with both Lewistown and Livingston," Ferguson said. "Our kids are excited about it. These are the players and doubles teams we'll be playing at divisionals, so it's exciting to go up against them, see where we're at, and where we need to be come mid-May.

"Still, the biggest thing for us, though, continues to be the competition, the chance to get better," Ferguson said. "That never stops for us. We try to be better every shot, every point, every practice and every match, and that's the focus again this week. And if we do play better in Lewistown than we did in Cut Bank, the results will come anyway."

Havre will head to the Central A Preview Meet Friday in Lewistown. Next week is scheduled to be another busy one for the Ponies, who are slated to dual Butte Central, GFH and CMR Tuesday in Great Falls, before heading to the Glendive Invitational next Friday.