CROOKSTON GIRL’S TENNIS WINS IN ROSEAU, IMPROVES TO 10-1

The Crookston Pirate Girl’s Tennis team capped off their regular season with a 5-2 win at Roseau on Saturday. The Pirates, who started the season on August 25 with a 6-1 win against Roseau at home, end the regular season with a 10-1 record in duals and have locked up the number one seed in the Section 8A team tournament, which starts on Monday.

After Catherine Tiedemann lost a close singles match to Roseau’s Lindsay McFarlane (6-3, 6-4), the Pirates bounced back with singles wins by Emma Osborn (6-4, 6-1) and Brekken Tull (6-4, 6-2). Hannah Lindemoen dropped a competitive singles match against Roseau’s Haylee Bennett (6-3, 6-4).

“The girls played well,” head coach Cody Brekken said. “The day ended up being awesome. I thought maybe we’d be playing in 35-degree weather, but by sun up, it was 50 degrees and there was no wind, so the girls played well. Roseau came ready to play, but we showed a lot of improvement. It was Catherine Tiedemann’s last regular season match. She’s been a staple on the varsity program. She’s been a huge contributor for this team. Brekken is also getting into a really good swing at singles now, and playing confidently. 

The Pirates went on to sweep doubles with victories coming from the duos of Hayden and Halle Winjum (6-1, 6-2), Emma Gunderson and Abby Borowicz (6-2, 6-4), along with Macy Fee and Halle Bruggeman (6-3, 6-1). “We had the Winjums playing some doubles together just for something fun for them to do at the end of the year,” Brekken said. “Emma and Abby played great. They started really strong. We’re playing confident tennis from top to bottom right now. Same with Macy and Halle. They showed they could hang in there and win some points. So, yeah. It went well for us.”

The Pirates will start the Section 8A Team Tournament on Monday, October 5 when they host Parkers Prairie in a first-round match starting at 2:00 PM at the Crookston High School Tennis Courts. The Section semi-finals will be Thursday, October 8 and the championship will be on Tuesday, October 13. “We’re pretty excited,” Brekken said. “We had grades 7-12 down there Saturday. We didn’t get to do that very much this year. It was Catherine (Tiedemann’s) last regular season match, along with Linnea French, Ella Weber and Emma Boll. Emma Borowicz came with, too. They’re our five seniors. I addressed all of them. Everyone is excited for Sectionals here. We have to take care of Parkers Prairie first. We’ll take it one game at a time, and see who’s next after that.”