By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
Before weather permitted outdoor practice, the Lone Peak High School tennis team could be found in the school gym rallying the ball within green tape boundaries. The seven all-girl squad consists of four seasoned players, three who are new to the sport, and had just one outdoors practice before their first match up against Red Lodge on April 15.
Starting in mid-April, LPHS tennis players have faced teams in the region, learning the quality of competitors and practicing matches ahead of more competitive tournaments. Head coach Libby Grabow discussed how the team is doing ahead of the Dawg Bite Invitational in Helena this weekend, May 2-3.
Grabow highlighted seniors Libby Coltea and Addy Malinowski, who are looking forward to playing doubles together in divisionals in mid-May. Malinowski has played with the Big Horn tennis team for all four years and played singles last year. Grabow said it’s important each player gets experience playing alone, outside pairs to strengthen their confidence.
“People want to play doubles a lot because I think they’re comfortable having another person,” Grabow said on the phone with EBS. “But it’s really good for them to play singles too and have to kind of navigate those calls.”
Another standout player on the tennis squad is sophomore Catherine Coltea, who made it to the State Class B-C quarter finals last year with now-graduated Vera Grabow. Catherine plans to play singles in divisionals and states this year.
Other players include junior Poppy Towle who is contributing as a third year player for the Big Horns and freshmen Rowan Mitchell, Zoë Luchini and Maeve McRae who are playing tennis for the first time in a competitive environment.
Though matches at this point serve as opportunities to learn and practice against other teams, Grabow said that the team is winning about half of matches.
“It’s a mental game, a big mental game as well,” Grabow said about the one-on-one nature of tennis. She looks forward to this weekend, where the Big Horns will play against teams all over the state—some schools like Baker High School will travel all the way from the eastern border of Montana to Helena to compete.
Grabow thinks that this is a great opportunity for the Big Horns to get time on the court with a variety of skilled players.
“The first day is full of tennis … it’s so full of teams,” Grabow said. “[It’s] a really nice way to see a lot of teams play, and then you kind of can see where people are.”
With a small roster, Grabow likes to mix and match players for doubles and finds that each of the players of the seven-athlete team contribute in different ways.
As snow subsides and the sun lingers for longer days, Grabow looks forward to practices outside on the high school’s tennis courts, where players can feel how it is to play in a more realistic environment. Being able to better predict the bounce of a tennis ball on an outdoor court, and the way lighting, wind and noise impact play—both mentally and physically—may serve the Big Horns well as they advance through the season.
