Bloomfield Hills' Pierce Shaya Playing for 4th Flight Title, 3rd Team Championship
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2024
BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Pierce Shaya’s career thus far at the MHSAA Boys Tennis Finals has been akin to eating at a buffet line, with there being a lot of variety that satisfies an appetite.
In his case, the appetite that’s been satisfied has been individual championships won in an unusual variety of ways.
When Shaya was a freshman, he won the Lower Peninsula Division 1 title at No. 3 singles with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Noah Vogel of Ann Arbor Pioneer.
As a sophomore, Shaya won another Finals title, but this time it wasn’t as an individual. He played No. 1 doubles alongside Merrick Chernett, and that duo won it all over Troy’s tandem of Srihari Ananthalwan and Rushil Kagithala.
Last year, Shaya went back to singles but was the team’s No. 2 player behind sophomore Jonah Chernett. Shaya controlled what he could control, winning the crown at No. 2 singles with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Chad Anderson of Rochester.
Three years, three different flights and three LPD1 Finals championships is certainly not a traditional resume for a high school tennis player. But that is the route Shaya has taken.
“I didn’t go into high school thinking I would play three different spots,” he said. “But I guess it’s very cool to be able to win it and now attempt to go 4-for-4.”
Indeed, Shaya this weekend will have a chance to add another highlight to his championship-laden career.
With Chernett not on the team this year because he moved to Florida, Shaya finally got the chance to play at No. 1 singles in his final year of high school and has taken full advantage of the opportunity.
Shaya is 20-1 on the season and seeded No. 1 at No. 1 singles for the Division 1 tournament taking place at Byron Center West Sports Complex and Grand Rapids South Christian.
His only loss came to Rochester Hills Stoney Creek’s Andrew Vincler, who is seeded second at No. 1 singles.
“Obviously everyone is gunning for me,” Shaya said. “It doesn’t really matter to me because I still have to go through everyone to win it. But the seeding is nice to show my season’s work paid off.”
Shaya also will be looking to help lead Bloomfield Hills to a third-straight team title.
Bloomfield Hills head coach Greg Burks had no doubt that Shaya would be able to handle the role as the team’s top man this year, and he has seen Shaya save his best for his last high school season.
“I would say his biggest improvements over the past year have been his forehand and serve,” Burks said. “They are both much bigger and heavier and at this level and the level he wants to get to, having both of those is a must. His volleys have also improved significantly.”
Shaya also hopes to have another title double with his younger brother, Connor, a junior.
Connor won at No. 3 singles last year with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Northville’s Josh Kim, and he is the second seed at No. 2 singles this weekend.
“I think our parents would love that,” Pierce Shaya said. “We trained a lot from (ages) 10 to 13.”
Shaya has a future in tennis beyond this weekend, as he has committed to play for the University of Michigan.
When he gets to Ann Arbor, he hopes his unique high school journey will have included four Finals titles in four different flights.
“It’s a very cool situation, I think,” Shaya said.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTO Bloomfield Hills Pierce Shaya takes a photo last season after receiving his championship medal. (Photo courtesy of State Champs Sports Network.)
No Just-Miss This Time: Groves Breaks Through with 1st Finals Win
By
Greg Chrapek
Special for Second Half
October 16, 2021
HOLLAND – This year’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Boys Tennis Finals had a new look.
Along with the return to their traditional format after last year’s COVID-driven changes, the tournament featured a new champion, several new competing schools and some brand new names to the Division 2 tennis scene.
Birmingham Groves, a five-time Finals runner-up, broke through and claimed the first boys tennis team title in school history. Groves finished the two-day tournament Saturday with 27 points to edge a familiar name, two-time reigning Division 2 champion Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, by one point. Last year’s Division 1 champion, Okemos, had moved into Division 2 this season and tied for third place with Midland Dow as both teams totaled 20 points.
For Groves and coach Dave Farmer, the title meant the end of a chase lasting a decade.
“I’ve been coaching here since 2010 and we’ve had several second and third-place finishes,” Farmer said. “This one is very special because it’s the first high school title I’ve ever won. I won three titles at Eastern Michigan University, but this is my first in 12 years of coaching high school tennis.
“We have a veteran team this year, and that is a big reason why we won it. We had great senior leadership and a lot of good juniors as well.”
Groves came into the tournament with nine seniors on the team and seven in the starting lineup. The Falcons were paced by their singles lineup but received big efforts from doubles down the stretch.
“We have a good group of singles players that carried us for the bulk of the year,” Farmer said. “Our doubles teams really picked it up in the tournament and really helped solidify the team.”
The Falcons also had a talented freshman in the singles lineup, and he made his high school Finals debut in a big way. Groves freshman Michael Liss won the No. 3 singles title as he defeated Will Seymour of Detroit U-D Jesuit 6-4, 6-3.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” Liss said. “I just tried to stay calm and not get upset at anything at all. I feel that as a team we were a cohesive unit, and we all pushed each other to get better. I’m just a freshman, but I know we’ve been really close to winning it as a team. We’ve finished second and third a lot so we really wanted to win it this year.”
Liss was not the only freshman to win an individual flight championship. Okemos freshman Suchir Nagisetty arrived on the Finals stage in a big way as well as he defeated Andrew Williams of Mattawan 7-5, 6-1, to clinch at No. 4 singles.
The win was especially meaningful for Nagisetty as he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Sid who won an individual flight title during his freshman season at Okemos in 2017. Sid was in attendance cheering and supporting his brother and has played his own role in Suchir’s development as a player.
“My brother coached me and trained me this summer,” Suchir said. “I wanted to follow in his footsteps and win a state title in my freshman year. It is something I’ve thought about for a long time. There is some pressure, but once you start playing the match your love of tennis takes over and you just concentrate on playing the game. Winning the title feels great, and it’s nice to have something in common I can share with my brother.”
A new name to Division 2 tennis but a familiar face on the state scene, Okemos sophomore Ethan Portnoy, came away with the No. 1 singles championship. Portnoy, who played doubles last season, moved up to No. 1 singles and defeated Connor Stafford of Grosse Pointe South 6-3, 6-4.
Like Nagisetty, Portnoy had a good example of what it takes to win an individual championship under his own roof as his older brother Josh Portnoy was a two-time Finals flight champion during his high school career at Okemos.
“It’s really cool to follow in my older brother’s footsteps,” Portnoy said. “I had a lot of confidence that I could do it. I played a lot of USTA (United States Tennis Association) tournaments in the summer and had a lot of tough matches, and I knew I could bring that experience to high school tennis.”
At No. 2 singles, senior Owen Goodrich of Forest Hills Northern wrapped up his career in a memorable way by outlasting Okemos senior George Fan in a grueling, three-set struggle 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
“I just took it one point at a time,” Goodrich said. “I’ve played him before, and I knew it was going to be a tough match. I knew he’s a great player, but he’s not invincible.”
Winning his final match as a senior was a fitting way to go out for Goodrich, who lost in the final at No. 4 singles as a freshman.
“I lost in the state finals to a player from Okemos as a freshman,” Goodrich said. “Now I win my final match in the state finals against a player from Okemos. I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish my senior year. It’s amazing.”
In doubles competition, winners came from four schools.
Grosse Pointe South, in Division 2 for the first time after having played in Division 1 for years, finished in a tie for sixth place and was led by seniors Blake Discher and Alex Prather. Discher and Prather teamed up to stop Thomas Ladwein and Aaron Li of Midland Dow 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1 doubles.
“We played really good,” Prather said. “It was one of our best days ever. This is the second year that we’ve played as partners, and we do a great job of supporting each other.”
The duo was determined to bring home a title for South, and even though they believed they could win, there was an element of awe when it was over.
“I thought we could take it with how much we put into it,” Discher said, “but in the end we were kind of shocked that we actually did it.”
The Jesuit No. 4 doubles team of Sam Owens and Stephen Cibulas won a tough struggle against Andrew Weitzman and Gabe Klein of Groves 7-5, 7-6 (2). The win was made even harder considering the duo had just spent plenty of energy getting past a tough Forest Hills Northern team in the semifinal round.
“We had a real tough match with Forest Hills Northern, and it drained a lot of our energy,” Owens said. “We had to be more mentally tough in this match. They were up 4-1 in the second half so we had to come back to win it.”
“We just played with more energy,” Cibulas added. “It was all about the energy. We also support each other really well.”
At No. 2 doubles, the Forest Hills Northern duo of Aaryan Singh and Anderson Halland were pushed to the limit before claiming a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, victory against Dylan Wolf and Alexandras Abarius of Groves.
Birmingham Seaholm, which tied for sixth with Grosse Pointe South, was paced by its No. 3 doubles team of Alex George and Alex Lewis. The Seaholm duo won the No. 3 doubles title by stopping Kyle Wang and Joey Lamberg of Forest Hills Northern 6-3, 6-3.
PHOTOS (Top) Birmingham Groves' Michael Liss returns a volley Saturday during his run to the No. 3 singles championship. (Middle) Okemos' Ethan Portnoy drives a shot during a No. 1 singles match. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)