Pony netters finding balance despite continued weather issues

It's right back to work for the Havre High tennis teams, and the Blue Ponies will need to take advantage of the court time they get today.

Havre was supposed to visit the Elks Invitational in Glendive for a Friday-Saturday affair, but for the second week in a row, weather has forced a change in the schedule. Instead, Havre is in Glendive today to get as much tennis in before heavy rain comes to eastern Montana Thursday night and through the remainder of the weekend. So, the Pony varsity teams will play at least four duals on Thursday, and HHS head coach George Ferguson said his teams will look to make the most out of another tough week of weather.

"This is a great tournament," Ferguson said. ""So I'm really thankful we're still going to get some of it in. The weather just keeps on coming in on the days we're all scheduled to compete and that's really frustrating. It's tough on everybody, changing things around, especially the kids. But we'll buckle down and do what we need to do to make it work."

Ferguson added that, while the tournament is scheduled to continue on Friday, the forecast is ominous, so, the Ponies are scheduled to squeeze four duals into today and that's what he's focusing on.

"Our goals are to just keep getting better," Ferguson said. "This is the time of the season where we're really grinding, really just trying to improve every time we get on the court. We are heading towards peaking at divisionals. That's always the goal."

And Havre seems to be heading in that direction.

The Pony boys are led by senior Josh Currie in singles. The Class A runner-up in 2021 has just one loss this season, and has been dominant all the way through.

"Josh is playing at a very high level," Ferguson said. "He's just so tough on the court. He's really mentally strong, and he doesn't get rattled. He's just a work horse, both in practice and in matches. He's having a great season."

The other Pony boys are, too. With the strong doubles teams of Trenton Maloughney and Caleb Spangler, Theron Peterson and Carter Spangler and Collin Miller and Conner McKay, the Ponies' lineup releases heavily on doubles in duals, something Ferguson has always believed in.

"In team tennis, you have to be balanced," Ferguson said. "Our boys have that with our doubles. We have a lot of experience this year in doubles, and moving Carter (Spangler) over to doubles, I'm really proud of him for accepting that challenge. He's a good singles player. He's worked really hard to improve from his freshman year to now, and he's making a big difference in our lineup, moving over to play doubles with Theron."

Balance has been key to the resurgent Blue Pony girls as well. With low numbers last year, the Ponies were often-times shorthanded, but that's not the case this season, as Havre's returners in Grace Crantz, Rayna Johnson, Chloe Bricker, Courtney Burchard, Cat Kaftan, Kate Hemmer, Mylee Shennum and Kylie Greenwood have been joined by newcomers that include seniors Lacy Preeshl and Claudia Ucin, as well as a host of freshmen and first-year players.

"Our girls team is really taking shape," Ferguson said. "We had a great nucleus of returners and they've all improved so much this year, but the new kids, whether it's our foreign exchange student, Claudia, or so many first-year kids and all the freshmen, it's just a completely different program this season, and that's exciting. The girls team is in a really good place right now, and it's showing by how we are doing in these matches. They're just really all doing a great job."

And doing well is what Ferguson wants to see in Glendive, and moving forward, ass Havre also hosts the tough Polson Pirates on Monday.

"We've got big matches the rest of this week, and next, and then that's it, then it's time to get ready for divisionals," Ferguson said. "This year has just flown by. A lot of that has to do with all the bad weather we've had to deal with, but no matter what, divisionals will be here soon, and we've got to do everything we can to be as prepared as we can be in three weeks, and that starts with the trip to Glendive and the matches against Polson on Monday."