The Crookston Pirate Boys Tennis team continues their solid play after a week and a half off and beat the Thief River Falls Prowlers 5-2 in a Section 8A dual at the Crookston High School Tennis courts.
Coming into the match, Crookston knew it was going to be extremely tough to pick up a win at first singles and that proved to be the case as TRF’s Jett Cornelius came away with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. But Crookston won the rest of the singles matches in competitive matches.
Grant Funk picked up a hard-fought come-from-behind victory as he lost the first set 7-6 (7-3 in the tiebreaker). He bounced back to win a marathon second set 7-6 (7-5 in the tie-breaker) to force a third set. Since the Pirates had four wins already, they played a super tie-breaker and won another marathon set 12-10 to win the match.
At third singles, Gunner Groven earned the only two-set Pirate victory of the match as he won 6-2, 6-3.
Fourth singles was another marathon as Crookston’s Sam Widseth won his first set 7-5. He lost a marathon second set 7-6 (8-6 in the tie-breaker) to force a third set. Widseth came out strong and dominated the final set with a 6-1 score to win the match.
In doubles, Thief River Falls dominated the first doubles match with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
Crookston won the second doubles match in three sets. Colton Osborn and Alex Zammert had a roller coaster type of a match as they won the first set 6-2. TRF won the second set 6-4 to force a third set. Osborn and Zammert bounced back to win the third set 6-3.
The third doubles was another three-set match as Crookston’s Jacob Halvorson and Sawyer Anderson cruised to a 6-1 victory in the first set. TRF bounced back to win the second set 6-4, forcing a third set. Crookston’s Halvorson and Anderson finished strong to win a hard-fought battle in the third set 6-4 to win the match.
Crookston improves to 5-5 on the year, but they are now 4-1 in Section 8A play.
| Crookston-5 | TRF-2 | Win | Score | |
| 1st Singles | Reggie Winjum | Jett Cornelius | TRF | 6-1, 6-0 |
| 2nd | Grant Funk | Spencer Hempel | Crox | 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-5), 12-10 |
| 3rd | Gunnar Groven | Kaleb Funk | Crox | 6-2, 6-3 |
| 4th | Sam Widseth | Andy Dagg | Crox | 7-5, 6-7 (8-6), 6-1 |
| 1st Doubles | Jack Everett Hudson Rick | Lucas Rantanen Carter Svensgaard | TRF | 6-1, 6-0 |
| 2nd | Colton Osborn Alex Zammert | Nathan Dearth Ian Lundeen | Crox | 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 |
| 3rd | Jacob Halvorson Sawyer Anderson | Jack Dodson Kameron Price | Crox | 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 |
