Tiedemann and Borowicz Advance to State Tennis Tourney

Emma Borowicz, Catherine Tiedemann and Hayden Winjum (Picture by Francine Olson)

The Crookston Pirate Girls Tennis team had a great day at the Section 8A Individual Tournament at Courts Plus in Fargo, North Dakota with Emma Borowicz and Catherine Tiedemann finishing second place in the doubles tournament to advance to state and Hayden Winjum finishing third place.

SINGLES-
Hayden Winjum, a freshman, beat Grace Hinojos of Wadena-Deer Creek 6-4, 6-0 in the semi-finals to advance to the championship match.  “That was a girl she lost to earlier in the year, so it was a nice win,” said Pirate Coach Mike Geffre. “Hayden started a little slow and picked up her play to get the weekend.”
In the championship match, Hayden lost Natalie Kinkel of Park Rapids 6-0, 6-0.  “Kinkel beat everybody in the tournament in straight sets, so she was playing some great tennis,” said Coach Geffre. “Hayden played well, but ran into a very good opponent.” In the true second match, Hayden lost to Jodi Ostroski of Roseau 6-1, 6-1 to finish third place. “There were some great points in the match,” said Coach Geffre. “Hayden made her work really hard, but Jodi is a great competitor and has been to state three years in a row and you could tell she wanted to go back her senior year.  Hayden really played a very good match, it was just Ostroski was a little better today.”

DOUBLES-
Catherine Tiedemann and Emma Borowicz, a pair of sophomores, lost 7-6, 6-4 to Abby Morris and Kendra Coborn of Park Rapids in their semi-final match.   “It was a great match and one we would like to have back because we were serving in the first set leading 6-5,” said Coach Geffre. “We played really well and played a couple of tight games and Park Rapids played well.” Tiedemann and Borowicz beat Jenna and Maggie Dietrich of East Grand Forks 6-3, 6-2 in the third-place match.  “We played pretty well to get the win and I don’t think East Grand Forks played their best,” said Coach Geffre. “But we played pretty well.”   The Pirates had everything go the way they needed to get a true second match and beat Abby Burquest/Megan Aren (Parkers Prairie) 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 to advance to the Minnesota State High School League State Girls Tennis tournament.  “We played really well coming out of the gates, hitting great shots and then we stopped moving,” said Coach Geffre. “We got rolling and played our best tennis in the third set.  It was interesting in the third set when we were up 5-0 and 40-15 and lost a couple points, but they settled down and refocused and finished it.  They were excited and they had a great day of tennis.”

Coach Geffre was happy with his team’s effort in the team tournament and in the individual tournament with a lot of underclassmen. “The individual tournament was dominated by seniors and we had the youngest players playing today with a freshman and two sophomores,” said Coach Geffre. “This will be a great experience for Emma and Catherine and I think the kids have realized that we can play with anybody and it should get all the girls fired up for next year to make a statement.”

Tiedemann and Borowicz will play in the first round of the Minnesota State High School League Individual Tennis tournament at the Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center in Minneapolis at 10:00 a.m. on October 25.

Hayden Winjum          Catherine Tiedemann and Emma Borowicz