Weather may be the biggest story Thursday morning, but whether it’s outdoors at Flathead Valley Community College or inside at The Summit, by the end of the week the region’s top Class A tennis players will sort out who will advance to the state tournament next weekend.

Play begins Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Northwestern A divisional, with the top four singles players and top four doubles teams all advancing to represent the conference, which includes Columbia Falls, Polson, Stevensville and Whitefish, May 26-27 in Bozeman and Livingston.

“I’m pretty excited about the tournament and my girls are ready for this,” Columbia Falls girls coach Gene Marcille said. “I can’t say we’re the best conference in the state but it feels like it.”

Both the girls and boys draws are filled with experience, led by Wildkats senior Emily Getts, the top seeded girls singles player. Getts has won the divisional tournament and finished fourth in the state each of the last two seasons, and went through the conference regular season undefeated for the third year in a row this spring.

A pair of Polson Pirates, each of whom advanced to the state tournament a year ago, are joining Getts in the girls bracket. Marlee Congdon is the second seed in the divisional coming off a sixth-place finish at state last year, and her teammate Mollie Lemm is another returning state qualifier.

The Pirates also boast three past state qualifiers in the doubles field. Cassie Carlyle and Shawna Lenz are the top doubles seed and each advanced to state last year, although with different partners. Carlyle’s 2015 doubles partner, Olivia Hewston, is paired with Kyler Lundeen for the divisional tournament.

Four Whitefish doubles entrants also were a part of the state tournament a year ago and make the Bulldogs a formidable team once again this year. Partners Katie Fyall and Anna Peterson, along with Cailyn Ross and Hannah Madsen, all advanced out of the divisional a season ago.

“I think our girls are probably the favorites but Whitefish is really good,” Polson coach Bob Hislop said. “You just try and have the coaches prepare them and the kids go out and show what they can do.”

Hislop, who also coaches the Polson boys team, downplayed the significance of moving matches indoors, which appeared likely as of Wednesday night with rain in the forecast.

“We’ll tell them to prepare for everything, and to pack the bags in case we spend the night,” he said. “But our kids roll with it. I think teenagers roll with it a lot better than adults do.”

The Pirates boys should also be a force to be reckoned with, bringing back three doubles qualifiers from last season in partners Quaid Harlan and Colin Kenney — the top-seeded team in the divisional — along with Cadis Chowning.

Whitefish’s boys, however, are the favorites after an undefeated dual season in conference behind the one-two singles combination of Max Smyley and Eric Holdhusen. Both were state qualifiers last year and both figure to be among the top finishers in the divisional this time around.

“We’ve had a great regular season and I feel like we’re coming into the divisionals pretty strong,” Whitefish boys coach Chris Schwaderer said. “I think the kids are really tuned up. We’ve put a lot of time in the last few weeks into refining our lineup.”

The Whitefish doubles team of Chaffin Ross and Ryan Brown advanced out of the divisional last season and, while now playing with different partners, both are back in the field this year.

The divisional tournament is scheduled to run through at least Friday. If weather moves action inside either Thursday or Friday, the tournament would likely extend until Saturday.