PHS tennis teams head to regionals
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Powell High School’s tennis teams put together some standout performances during a full week of competition against Cody, Sheridan and Gillette.
Boys No. 1 singles player Cody Akin won his eighth, ninth and 10th straight matches on the year — including beating a previously undefeated player from Gillette on Saturday.
“That was big news,” said PHS head coach Ray Bieber, adding that the boys sweeping Sheridan five matches to none on Friday “was pretty good, too.”
The Panthers’ No. 2 singles players — Kristian Stenlund for the boys and Hattie Pimentel for the girls — joined Akin with winning weeks, taking two of their three matches.
Powell’s boys and girls both showed overall improvement from an earlier match-up with Cody, but each came up short in dropping three of five matches on Sept. 15 at home.
In Sheridan, while the PHS boys earned the sweep, Sheridan’s girls returned the favor. Gillette beat Powell 4-1 in both the boys and girls match-ups on Saturday.
Bieber said his teams seemed to have fallen prey to the idea that the bigger schools, particularly Gillette, are unbeatable.
“You’d like to have a little bit better overall showing, but we played hard and then we saw that if we play well, we can be competitive with them. That was a good thing for us to realize that,” Bieber said.
He’s hoping for different results at this week’s north regional tournament and state next week.
Akin heads to the regional tourney as the top seed, with a 7-0 record in regular season matches. Stenlund, Pimentel and the girls No. 2 doubles team of Tessa Eller and Lauren Asher are all 4-3.
Bieber, however, isn’t only enthused about his players with winning records.
“I’m really actually looking forward to some of our people that have a 3-4 record or a 2-5 record to actually come through and beat much higher seeds,” he said. “We played a lot of teams close, and hopefully we’re going to come in and surprise some people at regionals.”
Results
For the boys, Akin took down Cody’s Zach Ross 6-1, 6-0 on Sept. 15, Sheridan’s Quinton Suska 6-3, 6-2 on Friday and then beat Gillette’s Dawson Miessler 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday. Miessler — who beat Akin at state last year — grabbed an initial 2-0 lead, but Akin “came back and just really dominated play,” Bieber said.
“He (Akin) really played well and hit the ball well, served well, strategically played really well against the kid,” Bieber said.
At No. 2 singles, Stenlund beat Cody’s Cooper Thompson 6-1, 6-2. Bieber noted that was a near-reversal of their match earlier in the season and said “we were really excited about his (Stenlund’s) play.”
The PHS senior later took down Sheridan’s Jaxon Porterfield 6-3, 6-1, then lost 6-3, 6-1 to Aaron Swan of Gillette.
At No. 1 doubles, Rhett Pimentel and James Sheets lost 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-0 to Brad Sankey and Joe Luedde of Cody, came back to beat Sheridan’s Noah Gustafson and Scott Rogaczewski 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, and lost 6-1, 6-4 to Cory Myers and Logan Myers of Gillette, though “they hustled quite a bit,” Bieber said.
No. 2 doubles players Dallin North and Miles Rumbolz lost 6-4, 6-3 to Bailey Lasko and Evan Wambeke of Cody, “really played well” to beat Sheridan’s Tom Terry and Liam Brown 6-1, 6-1, then lost 6-0, 6-1 to Garrett Seamans and Tim Hays of Gillette, Bieber said.
“That’s a team (North and Rumbolz) we’re really expecting to do well at state, hopefully,” the coach said.
No. 3 doubles players Aaron Jacobsen and Tanner Barngrover lost 6-4, 6-2 to Paavo Saukkonen and Gaston Osterland of Cody, rebounded to beat Sheridan’s Logan Jensen and Kellen Mentock 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 and lost 6-3, 6-4 to Jackson King and Colton Larson of Gillette, despite playing “really well.”
“They’re improving quite a bit,” Bieber said.
On the girls side, No. 1 singles player Madi Morrow lost 6-1, 6-1 to Meg Dickerman of Cody, 6-0, 6-0 to three-time state champion Julia Fenn of Sheridan and 6-3, 6-1 to Kelsie Sanders of Gillette. Bieber said Morrow played well against tough competition.
At No. 2 singles, Hattie Pimentel came back to beat Cody’s Elisha Smith 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, lost 6-1, 6-3 to Katelynn Brooks of Sheridan, then made an unlikely comeback to take down Gillette’s Grace Gordon 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Bieber said it’s easy to get demoralized after dropping an opening set 6-0.
“Just hang in there and do the best you can and see what can happen — and that’s what she (Pimentel) does,” Bieber said. “It’s kind of amazing, really.”
No. 1 doubles players Maria Kissner and Keegan McLain lost 6-0, 6-2 to Shaylee Schutzman and Tessa Blough of Cody, 6-3, 6-2 to Sammy Hamilton and Delainy Szmyd of Sheridan and 6-2, 6-3 to Brynn Holland and Sarah Bridges of Gillette.
No. 2 doubles players Tessa Eller and Lauren Asher beat Cody’s Lucille Sax and Zoe Pearson 6-4, 6-4 in what Bieber called “one of their best matches of the year.” Junior varsity substitute Georgi Kisgen joined Eller for the weekend’s matches, and they lost 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 to Sheridan’s Jillian Stalker and Anna Crabb and 6-3, 6-1 to Jessica Brennan and Kayla Sankovich of Gillette.
At No. 3 doubles, Kaylee Meyer and Jen Bonander lost 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to Cody’s Dorothy Shippen and Jessica Morales, though “they improved quite a bit from the first time they played,” Bieber said.
Michaela Kousoulos came up from the JV to partner with Bonander in a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Lennon Dregoiw and Libby Standish of Sheridan and lost 6-2, 6-2 to Grace Wiley and Tatum Barstad of Gillette
Kisgen and Kousoulos “stepped up and did well, and yet we were missing our varsity players, too.”
Play at regionals begins at 8 a.m. Friday in Casper and continues through Saturday. Brackets and full schedules are available at www.whsaa.org.
