GRAND FORKS, N.D.(NewsDakota.com) – Cali Halgrimson and Hope Petersen, both juniors, competed at the state tennis doubles tournament this last weekend.

Round 1:
#4E Halgrimson/Petersen beat #5W S.Felderman/Helbling (Mandan) 6-4, 6-1

Quarterfinals:
#4E Halgrimson/Petersen lost to #1W E.Felderman/Vogel (Mandan) 6-3, 6-2

Consolation Quarterfinals:
#4E Halgrimson/Petersen beat #2W Egge/Wheeler (Minot) 6-3, 6-3

Consolation Semifinals:
#4E Halgrimson/Petersen lost to #4W McPherson/Beasley (Legacy) 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-2

Narration:
Last Thursday at the end of team day is when we finalized our Individual Regional Roster. Cali and Hope decided to play together at that point. They only played twice together during the season going 0-2. Several coaches wanted to seed Hope and Cali lower as they didn’t have a record, but they ended up with the #6 seed. During the regional tournament, they won their first two matches, making the semifinals of EDC and qualifying for state as the #4 seed.

With the #4 seed, Cali and Hope came out and played solid in their first round at state. They poached more than the other team and were more dominant at the net. We had a close first set and then rode that momentum to a 6-1 win in the second set to set up a rematch for Cali of last year’s state semifinals against Mandan’s Felderman and Vogel.

In that match, we tried to pick on Vogel as much as possible and Felderman is just a dominant player – so dominant that she beat the singles state champion in the team portion of the tournament! Felderman’s footwork, movement, consistency, and shot selections were fabulous. Vogel was consistent enough to let Felderman take over and they finished the match.

In the back draw, there was an upset and the #2 team from the west went into the consolation and matched up with us in the consolation quarterfinals. We were able to scout them a little in the previous match. Cali and Hope took the net over better than their opponents and had several points where we played enough defense to get the opponent to make the mistake. We did exactly what we needed to do to win and get us to Saturday play.

Saturday morning we faced a Bismarck Legacy team that is well coached and didn’t perform to their abilities at the regional tournament which is why they fell to a 4 seed. In the first set, we attacked more than Legacy and put them on their heels. Starting the second set, we played a very poor first five games putting us down 1-4. Even though we played poor, three of those games we lost were still at deuce. Cali and Hope turned it around and won five of the next six games to go up 6-5. With Hope serving for the match, Legacy was too consistent and attacked at the right spots to force a tiebreaker. Once they won that game, Legacy’s confidence grew and they stayed on the offensive the rest of the match. We also got on our heels and played tentative which then led to easy put a ways which helped inflate Legacy’s confidence. Legacy proved too much and won 6-2 in the third set. That Legacy team then went on to beat West Fargo’s #1 and #2 players in the 5th place match to make All-State.

By making the consolation semifinals, Valley City finished in the top 8 in the doubles state tournament.

Thoughts:
We went to state five years in a row as a team from 2013-2017, but Hope wasn’t on those teams so this was a new experience for her. Hope not only got her first taste of state tennis this year, she was part of a team that finished in the top 8 with Cali.

Cali has played in the state tournament four years in a row. In her first year, she played #4 for us for the team competition. In her second year, she played #2 for us in the team competition and then took 2nd place at state with Reagan Ingstad in doubles. We didn’t qualify for state as a team these last two years, but she did double up with Reagan to take 2nd at state for a 2nd time in doubles last year. Then, this year, she found a new partner in Hope and they went all the way to a top 8 finish.

I’m proud of these two for working together and competing hard by following our ‘ACES’. Their teammates came and watched the state tournament to support them and also to learn. Thank you for coming Rose, Maisie, Lexia, Olivia and Breck.

Hi-Liner girls tennis is on its way back up after losing all but two of our varsity players from a season ago. Our team is motivated to work in the offseason and play some tournaments. We have an excellent group of young women that love the game of tennis and their teammates. We had a lot of learning to do (and we still do!), but these ladies are up for the challenge. They want to learn, they want to be coached, they want to get better. This team will be very fun to watch as they progress through the years.

We do lose Rose Zeltinger and Bianca Depra to graduation this season. Rose was a rock for this team and was a H-Liner through and through. Bianca was a great teammate and helped lighten the mood with her quirky sense of humor. Both of you will be missed next season.

For pictures, go to the Hi-Liner Tennis Facebook page.