Pony netters hit up Conrad

The Havre High tennis teams will learn a lot about themselves with this weekend's second meet of the season. That's because the Blue Ponies will likely be playing the same exact players they saw at the season-opening Cut Bank Invitational.

On Saturday, Havre will be in Conrad to dual Cut Bank, Lewistown and the host Conrad Cowboys/Cowgirls, the same three teams the Ponies played in a tournament format in Cut Bank. So, HHS head coach George Ferguson said it will be a good measuring stick for how quickly his teams are improving.

"There might be a few different matchups in Conrad, because these are duals and not a bracket," Ferguson said. "But, it will be pretty close to what we saw in Cut Bank, so we'll get a really good look at how quickly our kids are progressing from last week."

And progress is the only thing Ferguson is interested in right now, and that's why he says the Conrad Invitational, as well as next weekend's Havre Invitational, is such a good part of the Blue Ponies' schedule.

"This first three weeks, all we're working on is our form, our consistency, building our strokes, all the fundamentals," Ferguson said. "We're not overly concerned with our opponents or how many matches we win or lose. So, seeing the same players those first three weeks allows us as coaches, as well as the kids themselves, a really good chance to see how much they're improving with those aspects of their game. All we're trying to do is take those fundamental things we're working on every day in practice, to the court Saturday. That's our goal right now."

In Conrad, Havre will go with much the same lineup it did last Saturday in Cut Bank. All of Havre's boys, led by senior Jeff Miller, will get match time Saturday, while the Pony girls should have their full varsity lineup, while Ferguson said he'll work some of his junior varsity girls into the duals as well. He also noted that he is still experimenting with doubles partners at this point, another reason the Conrad Invite will be beneficial to his teams.

"These are our first duals of the year," Ferguson said. "And because it's so early, we can move some kids around, try them out in both doubles and singles, and see where they might be the best fit. It's nice to be able to do that early in the season, and this weekend will be good for that.

"Beyond that, we're just excited to get right back out there," he continued. "We're expecting pretty good weather again, and you never know, the next week, it could be the complete opposite. So it's important that we take full advantage of all the time we'll get on the court Saturday. It's important that we go out and just execute what we've been working on in practice, give our very best and play as well as we can. That's all we're looking to do this weekend."