Lake County Leader

This season, the Mission High School tennis team overcame its inexperience and still qualified for the MHSA Class B State tennis tournament May 17-19 at Great Falls.

The most senior-laden Bulldogs tennis player this year, Warren Castor, won his first and Mission’s only tennis match in either the singles or doubles match, but then was eliminated after winning two consecutive games.

“It was a hard State year for us and I knew that going into the tournament, our competition in singles and doubles this year was strong all the way around,” Ashley said.

Ashley credited Riley Hutchin for playing some of his best tennis of the season, despite falling in two straight matches.

“(Riley) played well all year long and he had a tough draw,” Ashley said. “We emphasized how much he controlled himself and he played his best tennis of the year. This year’s field was just tough this year.”

Ashley said she felt her team showcased significant improvement as they responded very well to players that play year round.

“I think it was a good year for the boys and Warren played good tennis against some great competition,” Ashley said. “It was really good for our (younger players) to get see what the State atmosphere is like.”

Ashley acknowledged she saw a big improvement from Trevyn Carter, Lalo Bravo, and Laurenz Ehlers.

“I really saw a huge improvement from them both from the beginning of the season to the end of the year,” Ashley said. “The last couple of weeks, they increased their level of play enormously. We’ve tried to have them concentrate on our win-loss record and how much they’ve improved themselves. They made huge improvements.”