HHS netters to host pair of duals this weekend

After several weeks waitng to start the season, the Havre High tennis teams will finally play at home at the Bill Vaughey Memorial Tennis Courts this weekend with duals against Glendive and Cut Bank. Since the Blue Ponies are still early in their season, HHS head coach Jeff Miller hopes to use these duals to further determine their lineup for this season.

"This week, we'll have everybody back, all of our varsity players and whatnot, so we're just trying to iron out who will be playing with our singles lineup and our doubles lineup," Miller said. "We're trying to get that all set this week and just hope everyone plays as good as they can."

The Ponies start the weekend with their dual against Glendive today. The Red Devils are a divisional rival for the Ponies whom they will face many times this season, so Miller looks forward to seeing how they match up with them.

"It'll be really good to play a team that's in our division," Miller said. "I think it'll just be really good to get us matched up with a team that we'll see throughout the rest of the year."

Along with getting to face a divisional rival early in the season, the Ponies also look forward to competing at home for the first time this season.

"It's really special for our kids to get out there," Miller said. "It'll be great to get to play in front of all the parents in our hometown and get some of our community out and hopefully watch the matches."

During their dual against Glendive, the Ponies will hold their senior day ceremony to celebrate their senior class. On the boys side, the Ponies will honor Conner McKay and Gavin Hall. On the girls side, the Ponies will celebrate Amaya Bliwernitz, Courtney Burchard, Cat Kaftan, Rayna Johnson, Emerald Tinsley, Kate Hemmer, Addison Golie, MacKenzie Kuhn and Willow Riggin.

Earlier this week, the Ponies scheduled another dual for this Saturday. In this dual, the Ponies will face Cut Bank whom they have faced already all this season. But after weather has forced the Ponies to either play indoors or cut their meets short, the Ponies will be happy to get as much time as possible outdoors this weekend.

"We're well overdue," Miller said. "We're super excited to get out there and get out and hopefully get all the matches in. Hopefully, no weather delays or anything and we'll be able to play."

Several Ponies will look to do well this weekend. The doubles team of McKay and Hall will look to continue their strong start to the season. In singles, Carter Spangler, Reid Kato and Callen Stoner look to continue playing well early this season.

On the girls side in singles, Johnson will look to play well after going undefeated in her matches at last week's Conrad Meet. The doubles team of Alera Chandler and Heather Herring look for another strong showing this weekend.

It is still early in the season, so the Ponies are still figuring things out and developing as a team. While Miller wants to see improvement in his players this weekend, the pressure is not too high this early in the season.

"It'll be important for us but it also won't make or break anything," Miller said. "It'll be good for us again to see people in our division in Class A that we'll match up with throughout the season and divisionals. Like I said, it's not a make or break situation, but it will be good for us moving forward."

The HHS tennis teams began their dual against Glendive earlier this morning at the Bill Vaughey Memorial Tennis Courts. The Ponies will then face Cut Bank in a dual Saturday starting at 10 a.m.