By Wesley Bauer | Opinion Editor
Two Pirates are playing in the state tournament beginning today after qualifying at the Midwestern League district tournament, which occurred early last week. On May 7, the doubles team of senior Heidi Boesl and her sister, freshman Katie Boesl, notched wins that allowed them to advance to state.
The boys team, which fought through adversity this season, did not advance any players to state after the district competition in Eugene. Head coach Bryan Trendell said a small roster put his team at a disadvantage from the start; each team is allotted 14 players, but Marshfield was only able to send 12 to district competition. Senior Will Moriarty was the only returning player on the roster.
“It would have been nice to have a full roster,” Trendell said. “If I would have known I was the head coach, I would have started recruiting earlier.”
The team came out with one singles win from senior Logan Alix. Moriarty believes the lone district win was due to a lack of experience stemming from the multiple match and practice cancellations due to weather.
“We practiced on the weekends whenever it wasn’t raining,” Moriarty said.
Although the team did not perform as well as they hoped at district, Trendell said he believes it was a great season nonetheless.
“It ended a really good season for boys’ tennis,” Trendell said.
Moriarty agrees.
“I think we could have won more matches, but just going to districts was an accomplishment because there almost wasn’t a tennis team,” Moriarty said.
Meanwhile, the girls experienced more success at their own district tournament. Head coach Aron Boesl said the girls competed well against opponents seeded much higher than them.
Junior Javiera Henriquez lost her first singles match in two close sets, 5-7 and 4-6.
“She played for two hours and fought with a girl way better than her,” Boesl said. “She never gave up.”
Doubles team junior Spencer Hurbis and sophomore Lindsay Brown won their first-round match in three sets.
Boesl’s daughters, doubles partners Heidi and Katie, won two matches, and despite a lost to Marist in the final, advanced to finals on May 11, where they picked up another victory that qualified them for the state tennis tournament where they play today.
Heidi said state will be challenging, but the sisters are prepared to give their all.
“It’ll be tough competition,” Heidi said. “Even if we lose, we’re gonna fight for it.”
Boesl said the team may have won more matches if they had been able to compete in more throughout the season. Despite this, he believes each player did a great job preparing for the district meet.
“The girls trained very hard this year,” Boesl said. “Tennis is an individual sport; you’ve got to take personal responsibility for you own game.”
