The Glacier boys and girls tennis teams each have the numbers to leave this week’s state tournament in Great Falls as champions, but neither has an easy path to a title.

The boys will have to knock off three-time defending-champion Missoula Hellgate to win the first team title in school history, while the girls are considered underdogs to defending-champion Bozeman.

“It’s definitely still Hellgate’s to lose,” Glacier coach Josh Munro said of the race for the boys’ title. “They’ve won three in a row and are definitely the favorite.”

One match that could go a long way toward deciding the title is Glacier sophomore Hunter Blalack’s first-round singles match with Hellgate’s Dylan Harvala.

Blalack finished fourth in last year’s tournament while Harvala was second in the doubles draw.

 “It’s a tough one,” Munro said. “That’s the two kids that were expected to push for getting into the championship, or at least third or fourth.

“It will be a competitive match and it will kind of set the tone for the rest of the tournament.”

Another Glacier/Hellgate clash likely awaits in the semifinals, where Glacier’s three-time defending singles champion Kellen Bates could face Hellgate’s Alex Braun. Braun lost to Bates in the final last year and the semifinals the year before. They’ve met twice this season, with both matches suspended due to darkness with Bates up a set.

Doubles will also play a big role in what Munro said should be a close race for the team title.

“If everything plays out according to seed for singles and other aspects, it could come down to how our two doubles teams compare to Hellgate’s,” Munro said.

Glacier’s top doubles team of Spencer Johnson and Britt Walton is coming off back-to-back titles at the Helena Invitational and the Northern AA divisional tournaments. While they’re both freshmen, Munro said they won’t be intimidated by facing older opponents.

“The nice thing about Spencer and Britt is in some ways they’re fearless,” he said. “They don’t know any of these kids, it’s just, ‘let’s go play some tennis and we think we can win.’”

Glacier has a second doubles team in the draw in Logan Iverson and Izaak Castren.

The Glacier girls boast a defending singles champion in Katya Kulikova and a two-time doubles champion in Veronica Walton.

Kulikova will play Bozeman’s Lane O’Donnell in the first round and could face Bozeman’s Christine Olivo in the semifinals. Olivo won last year’s doubles title before switching to singles this year.

“That will be a challenging match,” Munro said about a potential Kulikova/Olivo matchup. “Christine’s a good player. She’s a player like Katya who has been around awhile and has been a pretty successful player.”

Glacier’s Hailey Blalack, who placed third a year ago, is a contender in the other half of the singles draw. She’ll be tested in the first round against Bozeman freshman Madi Shea.

“She’s a talented kid and she’ll make Hailey work in that first round,” Munro said. “In the second round, Sofia Panarella from Hellgate is another talented freshman, but Hailey’s played her a couple times this year and won 6-2, 6-3 both times.”

Blalack could eventually face Great Falls High’s Molly Crum in the semifinals. Crum knocked Blalack out of the semifinals last year.

Walton will team up with Kailea Vaudt in pursuit of her third doubles title. Munro said their toughest opposition will likely come in the second round against Bozeman’s Renae Ockford and Sophie Allen, who defeated Walton and Vaudt in three sets in the finals of the Helena Invitational.

“They definitely didn’t get an easy draw playing them right away,” Munro said. “Their potential semifinal is the CMR team they lost a set to in Helena. We know we’re in for a battle in girls’ doubles and hopefully they step up and play.”

Glacier’s doubles teams of Kirstyn Haugenoe and Kali Mathison and Ingrid Ericksen and Molly Wright are also in the state tournament draw.

Flathead doesn’t have the numbers to contend for either team title, but it has a few individuals who hope to make some noise. Matt Widen and Glenn Strickler will take part in the boys’ singles draw while Sarah Christiansen and Barrie Sugarman will compete in the girls’ doubles draw.

Widen beat Strickler for third place at the Northern AA divisional tournament and will play Missoula Sentinel’s Lucas Veto in the first round.

“He’s a very conisistent player and we’ve been working with him a little bit to change up his game,” Flathead coach Sue Corrigan said. “He’s been hitting with Glenn this week and we’re hoping to see some new stuff out of him in Great Falls.”

Strickler has the tougher draw as he’ll face Braun in the first round.

“Glenn’s going to have a tough road ahead of him, but he’s been playing well and he’s been playing some good combination shots,” Corrigan said.

Christiansen and Sugarman didn’t team up until the end of the regular season when Sugarman dropped down from singles, but they gelled at divisionals, bouncing back from a second-round loss to place third.

“They’ve been working very hard together,” Corrigan said. “They are communicating well, hitting well. I know Barrie had some problems double faulting at divisionals, but she’s been working on her serve, she’s a little more confident, so I don’t think we’ll see the double-fault issue she had at divisionals.”

Sugarman and Christiansen will play Hellgate’s Anna Ballew and Mackenzie Keiper in the first round.

The state tournament begins today at 8 p.m. and concludes Friday.