Superior tennis player headed to state
<p>Alise Ruthford returns a shot last week during the divisional tournament in Superior. She qualified for state.</p>
MINERAL COUNTY - For one Mineral County tennis player, the season isn’t quite over yet.
Alise Ruthford qualified for the state tennis tournment last week after she finished sixth at the divisional tournament in Superior.
Head Coach Angie Hopwood said Ruthford has come a long way this season and has brought some new weapons to the court. Hopwood said Ruthford has developed her game into something more than merely trying to get the ball over the net.
“What we’ve been working on this year is placement,” Hopwood said. “She has been working on running her opponent around and then going for a winner. That’s definitely improved on this year. I’ve been working with her on visualizing her approach to the net and then hitting a really hard angle shot.”
Hopwood said she was proud of the way the entire team played this year.
“I thought they did really well,” Hopwood said. “I saw vast improvement. They are playing really smart tennis.”
Ruthford will compete in Great Falls at the state tournament on May 14 and 15.