Hank DeFord
Last weekend the Palisade tennis team competed in a big two day tournament in Denver, for the Smokey Hill Amy Howe Memorial Invitational. They played their hardest and performed amazing with a great comeback from the consolation bracket. The team ended up placing third out of 8 teams.
The tournament was Friday and Saturday with Palisade having 6 boys competing. “Overall it was pretty alright,” says Andrew Kirshenmaan a junior at Palisade. He has played tennis since freshman year, and also runs track. Kirschenmann plays doubles meaning he plays with a partner. His partner is Canaan Ross who is also a sophomore. They dynamic duo won their first match with a score of 6-2, “then we played a really good denver school and we lost to them by a little bit,” says Kirshenmaan. They then played in the consolation bracket and won their first and second match, so four matches in total Friday. “We really clutched up and made the consolation finals.” says Kirschenmann. The Bulldogs ended the day ready to come back and compete Saturday. “Saturday morning we played for third place with two teams left and unfortunately got dogged on.” Palisade ended in third place overall. Palisade’s tennis team is combined with Central High School’s. They are currently placed 5th in 4A region 8.
Kirshenmaan’s final insights were, “Overall we learned a lot and had some really good competition, best competition we’ve had all season. We really enjoyed the experience. My biggest takeaway is definitely to hit the ball in bounds more.” Give the team some support for their next tournament The Western Slop Invitational this Saturday.