Bobcats end season at state

Matt Unrau

Mineral Independent

Although, no one brought home hardware at the state tennis tournament in Missoula, the Lady Bobcats proved to be a tough out.

“Everyone was competitive,” says Coach Rick Barreth. “It didn’t always get them victories, but they were competitive.”

In a strong showing Alex Conrow ended the tournament with two match victories before being forced out on Friday morning. Conrow started the tournament strong by winning her first match against Keli Gentilini of Baker, 7-6, (9-7), 6-3.

She then lost her second match of the day to Kelsie Hansen of Chinook. Hansen went on to place third in singles.

This moved Conrow into the consolation bracket where she won her first match in that bracket late Thursday night against Kelly Johns of Conrad. She lost her first set 3-6, but then battled back to win the next two sets, 7-6, 6-4.

Coach Barreth describes this as a continued trend for Conrow who comes from behind to snatch matches from her competition. It is also an example of her killing instinct as she knows how to close out her matches.

However, Friday morning proved to be the last match for the graduating senior. She lost to Morgan McDivitt of Cut Bank, 2-6, 2-6.

Superior’s other singles player, Sammie Woodard, had a shorter tournament but had the unfortunate luck to draw very hard competition in her first match. She lost to  Shaleigh Straub of Baker 4-6, 4-6, and then in the consolation bracket lost to Johns 5-7, 1-6.

It was a great year for Woodard as she sported the best singles record for the Lady Bobcats in her first season as a singles player.

Woodard along with Conrow are the only seniors on the team. Losing there top two singles players is the exact scenario as Superior had last year. Coach Barreth says it will be tough to replace two great competitors. “We’re really going to miss their competitiveness,” says Coach Barreth. “We’re going to lose a lot by losing them. But, we have younger players that we will try to develop.”

Some of these younger players already have state tournament experience. Doubles player Catie Goodpasture and Cari Chamberlain also made it to the state level, which Coach Barreth describes as an amazing feat due to the fact that they have only played together for three weeks.

However, they also went down in two straight matches losing the first to Zoanni/Nelson of Wolf Point, 5-7, 1-6. In the consolation round the pair won their first set, 6-4, lost a close second set, 6-7, and then lost the remaining set, 0-6, to end their tournament and their season until next year.