Pirate Girls Tennis Splits Triangular

The Crookston Pirate Girls tennis team lost two three-set matches and came up short in a 5-2 loss to the Park Rapids Panthers in the first match of the Crookston triangular and bounced back to beat the Roseau Rams 5-2 for a split on the day in matches played at the Crookston High School tennis courts.

Crookston vs Park Rapids-
Crookston picked up wins at first doubles with Catherine Tiedemann and Emma Borowicz 6-2, 6-2. “I thought the girls really played well and they were putting shots away,” said Pirate Coach Mike. The second win came at fourth singles when Halle Winjum, a seventh grader, beat Chloe Johnson, a senior, 6-3, 6-4. “I thought that was the best match Halle has played this year,” said Coach Geffre. “That was a huge win for her and a good confidence win for her.”
Crookston lost the second doubles and third doubles match in three sets and Coach Geffre was disappointed they let a possible victory get away.
“It was kind of a frustrating one because we were in control of the second and third doubles matches at one point but we couldn’t pull it out,” said Coach Geffre. “This one will hurt a little bit more and if it was during the tournaments it will hurt a lot more. We need to improve our focus and we have to get our kids to understand we need to finish out our matches. Close doesn’t get you a win and the girls have to understand you have to hustle on every point. If the girls do that, we could have a good chance at tournament time.”

Elysa Christensen leaps for a return   Hannah Street eyes down the ball

Crookston vs Roseau
Crookston won all four singles matches and the third doubles match to beat Roseau 5-2.  The Pirates had a nice win at first singles when Hayden Winjum won a three-set match with an 8-6 victory in the third set.  “That was a nice one for her,” said Coach Geffre. “To win a tie-break over a quality opponent was nice.”  Catherine Tiedemann, Emma Borowicz and Halle Winjum all won their matches in straight sets. “All three of the girls played well against some very good players,” said Coach Geffre. “All of our singles players played well to earn the wins.”
The 5-2 victory was an improvement from earlier in the year and that pleased Coach Geffre. “We beat them 4-3 earlier this year without Jodi (Ostroski) in the lineup and now we beat them 5-2 so that was a nice improvement,” said Coach Geffre. “We still aren’t finishing our matches like we need.  I thought we played well at times and if we can get all 10 girls playing hard, finishing their matches we are going to be a tough team to beat.”
Crookston improves to 5-15 on the year and will wrap up the regular season on Tuesday in Grand Forks when they play Bemidji at Choice Fitness Center.

Hannah Lindemoen with a return   Audrey Harbott with a baseline return