Different Team, Same Result for Country Day

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

October 19, 2013

KALAMAZOO — Behind his blistering serve, senior Garrett Goldman accomplished a tennis hat trick at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 championships, moved inside at Kalamazoo College’s Markin Racquet Center because of rain Saturday.

The East Grand Rapids senior won an MHSAA title at No. 1 singles, clinched second place for his team and kept Detroit Country Day from scoring a perfect 40 points.

Paul Ballard, tournament chairman, said this was an unusually competitive tournament.

“We had three teams with nearly perfect scores: Detroit Country Day up through the semifinals was perfect, East Grand Rapids and St. Joe were one point each from perfect,” he said. “It made for a very tight race up at the top.”

Goldman’s win gave EGR 27 points, one better than St. Joseph. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood was fourth with 20 points.

With just three seniors on the championship team, coach Josh Molino said he’s excited for the future of Country Day tennis.

“Last year, we had a senior-loaded team that did a phenomenal job,” Molino said. “We were one set away from getting 40 (points). This season, it’s a different team: a lot of new guys, a lot of young guys. 

“These guys play in the offseason. Each year we come back with a new set of goals of getting better each practice. I think that translates to getting better each match, and hopefully, we’re playing the best tennis come October toward the state tournament.”

The top-seeded Goldman, who defeated Country Day senior Rishi Patel, the third seed, 7-5, 6-4, knew his win would give his team sole possession of second place.

“I did know and that’s why I tried my best,” Goldman said. “I went out there expecting a tough match and I played my heart out and I got it done.

“I played him earlier in the season in a meet in EGR and won 6-2, 6-4. It did give me some confidence. I also beat (second seed Thomas Bellio, St. Joe); he played in the semis, so I went into this tournament pretty confident, expecting to win.”

Goldman took his first lead of the second set at 4-3.

“I sort of came to the realization that I needed to win and I needed to close it out,” he said. “I wasn’t about to let it go to a third set. I tried my hardest.”

Patel, who moved up from No. 3 singles last year, said he’s never faced a serve as hard as Goldman’s.

“He was probably serving above 110 mph and when it went in, it was hard to get back,” Patel said. “It was pretty hard to return indoors.

“It made a little bit of a difference (playing indoors) just because he hits a bigger ball than me. Outdoors, I can use the wind to my advantage and play more defense.”

Although Patel has two MHSAA titles at No. 3 singles, “This (third consecutive team championship) is more important, even though I lost, because I’m a senior.”

Molino credits Patel with the team’s success.

“He stepped up and really led this group of young guys,” the coach said. “We filled six or seven guys into the lineup and we worked hard all year. We had a goal of winning state again.”

EGR junior Grant Bailey gave Country Day sophomore Noah Karoub a battle at No. 2 singles with Karoub, the top seed, winning 7-5, 6-4, in one of the last matches on court.

“I liked being one of the last (on court),” Karoub said. “The (very loud) crowd is really important. It gives you confidence and makes you play better. I was grinding it out.”

Bailey said it was the second time this season he’s lost to Karoub. The first time was in a third-set tiebreak.

“Noah’s a great player,” Bailey said. “Congrats to him. I know he’s just going to scrap it out. I don’t think he missed a ball the whole match.

Bailey was playing on the court next to Goldman.

“I was watching Garrett’s match the whole time,” Bailey said. “I’m so happy for him. The team did fine. I’m really excited for us.”

Being one of the final matches, “I had the whole place watching,” an exuberant Bailey said after learning his team finished second. “Garrett just won, so we have the best player in the state. I’ve got the whole team cheering me on. It was a great experience.

“I love my team, what can I say. I’m really proud of our doubles. They were a big question mark coming in and they stepped up.”

EGR coach Mickey Mikesell had no idea his team finished second.

“I don’t follow that stuff,” he said. “I get out here in the trenches and watch the matches. I don’t really sit back there and count too much because I’d rather stay focused on these guys.

“Garrett is a personal student of mine at MVP, Grand Rapids, so it’s a pretty special day for me as his high school coach and his personal coach.”

Mikesell said his team is designed for tournament play.

“For example, we played Cranbrook earlier and lost three matches to five,” he said. “We played St. Joseph earlier and lost two matches to six.

“We’re all good teams, but from top to bottom, we have a lot of depth. And when you go to tournament play, you can have success that way.”

At No. 3 singles, second-seeded Jakob Gahn, a Country Day sophomore, defeated St. Joseph’s top seed, Kenny Garstecki, 7-6(4), 6-1.

“(Gahn) could pull off the winning shot,” Garstecki, a senior, said. “Other players couldn’t hit that winning shot. It’s just inches that separate wins from losses. In the first set, it was a tiebreaker, so it was pretty tight. He just played a little bit better in that tiebreaker.”

Brendan Childress and Andrew Joslyn, the top seeds on Country Day’s No. 4 doubles team, defeated second seeds Steven Meng and Alex Hubers, Cranbrook-Kingswood, 6-4, 6-3, to clinch the team title, even though they were the first finals match to finish.

Gahn said knowing the team already clinched didn’t make a difference in the way he played.

“Both things are important: the team victory and the individual victory,” he said. “I feel good that we won as a team and I feel good that I won as an individual.

“(Garstecki) played some great tennis. I feel like I was more consistent and more aggressive in the second. I came to the net more. In the first set, I was too passive and let him dictate the point, which he did remarkably well, as I learned.”

A pair of freshmen battled it out at No. 4 singles with top-seeded Davis Wong, Country Day, defeating No. 2 Ahmeir Kyle, St. Joseph, 6-0, 6-4.

Wong said he knew a week before that he could be facing a girl in the final.

“I know she’s a good player,” he said. “I looked up her records and she has really good statistics. I knew coming in, it would be a hard match whoever I played in the finals.

“In the second set, her game rose a lot and we had a battle. She played really well. She changed up her tactics and I just had to adapt to them.”

Garstecki said Kyle is a good addition to the team.

“She’s really good,” he said. “It’s good to play against her (in practice). She hits the ball really hard.”

Said St. Joe coach Pat Hoffman:  “Ahmeir has played in our summer program for years and has been on USTA teams, so she seemed to be a natural fit.”

Kyle didn’t lose a set until the finals.

“I was giving away points in the first set,” she said. “In the second set I started serving and volleying more and I was a little more consistent.”

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: Detroit Country Day doubles player Blake Burstein (left), coach Josh Molino (center) and No. 1 singles player Rishi Patel pose with their Division 3 championship trophy. (Photo courtesy of Detroit Country Day boys tennis.)

Greenhills Takes Back Top Spot in D4

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

October 20, 2018

KALAMAZOO — Winning six of eight flights, Ann Arbor Greenhills took home the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 team trophy Saturday at Kalamazoo College, the Gryphons’ first championship in three years but ninth over the last 11.

Greenhills clinched the title during the semifinals, but the real dogfight was for second place between Traverse City St. Francis and Allegan.

St. Francis won out with 26 points to Allegan’s 23, both behind Greenhills’ 38.

Ludington was fourth with 15 points, and fifth was a three-way tie between Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, Grand Rapids Catholic Central and Grosse Ile with 13 points each. 

“We were pretty deep and added a couple singles players to the top of the lineup,” Greenhills coach Eric Gajar said of his team’s success. “A guy who transferred and sat out last year at No. 1 (junior Sahil Deenadayalu) and a freshman (Mert Oral) who came in and played No. 3.

“We got to sort of bulk up the singles lineup, which meant we had some guys in the doubles lineup who were pretty good players as well.”

All six Greenhills winners were top seeds at their flights.

St. Francis coach Paul Bandrowski was thrilled with second place, the highest the team has ever placed.

“We’ve worked hard, and it took every single player to get there to make it work,” he said. “Every single player contributed at least one point from No. 4 doubles winning one match to the No. 3 doubles winning two points.

“We had a huge, huge two three-setters at No. 1 singles (in the quarters and semis) and won both of them. It took a battle at every position at every flight to fight through and win this.”

Gajar knew what to expect in the fight with Allegan, which switched divisions this fall.

“They were always a great Division 3 team, and they’re a great Division 4 team,” he said. “It took everything to beat them. We were fighting them all the way.

“We were head-to-head right to the end. Literally down to the last matches on the court at the state finals. The last hour on a rainy day inside at multiple locations.”

Allegan coach Gary Ellis was surprised to find his Tigers in D-4 for the first time ever.

“It was a shock, but a lot of good coaches and a lot of good teams,” he said. “We know Greenhills and St. Francis are as tough as anybody in D-3, and most of the teams in D-2.

“I knew it was going to be tough. I was very pleased with the way our guys played, too. We knocked off some seeds. We won some tough matches. We had five in the semis and three in the finals.”

Third is the highest Allegan’s boys team has ever finished.

At No. 1 singles, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett sophomore Will Cooksey breezed to a 6-0 first-set lead in the final before squeaking out the second set 7-6 with a 7-2 tiebreak over Deenadayalu to win the flight for the second straight season.

The only Liggett player still competing Saturday, Cooksey thanked the large contingent of players and parents for staying to cheer him on.

As reigning flight champ, “I felt a little pressure just knowing I had to repeat what I did, but it was a new opponent and I just want to congratulate Sahil on a great tournament,” Cooksey said. “He put up a great fight there at the end, and he worked really hard to get there.”

Deenadayalu knew he would have a tough match against his friend.

“Will’s just a great competitor, and he came out firing,” he said. “I didn’t really know what to do. I kind of eased into it in the second set.

“I started to step up more, hit bigger shots, and I started to go for a lot more on my serve. Then it started to work.”

A pair of Greenhills brothers, junior Kaan Oral and freshman Mert Oral, won at Nos. 2 and 3 singles.

Kaan Oral, who defeated St. Francis senior Elliott Bandrowski, 6-4, 6-1, went on court after his brother finished playing.

“I have to keep up the winning way,” he said. “I’ve played Elliott four times in two years and every time he comes out hitting those big shots. It was a great match. Kudos to him.”

Bandrowski, whose father coaches St. Francis, said he thought he played well in the first set.

“Actually I played pretty well throughout the entire thing,” he said. “(Oral) was able to figure out what I was doing a little bit and he was able to put some more balls in, and I started missing a bit more.

“I would say the biggest difference was him being able to put one more ball in than me.”

Mert Oral defeated St. Francis sophomore Charlie Schmude, 6-1, 6-0.

“I think that I’m really consistent and I’ve also been working on my serve, so I got a fair amount of free points,” Oral said. “Also, I think I was mentally strong on key points.”

Schmude credited his team with helping him get to the finals.

“I think my forehand is pretty big, but I wouldn’t have gotten here without my team playing good,” he said. “Last year I got third in 3 doubles. I’ve been playing singles all my life through USTA, so I like singles.”

Greenhills senior Taha Zirapury defeated St. Francis freshman Cody Richards, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4 singles.

“We’ve worked really hard this season, and to end it on a high note like this is amazing, especially senior year,” Zirapury said. “To really end your tennis career with a state title is really special.”

Zirapury figured playing a freshman would not be an easy task.

“I’ve seen some really good freshmen,” he said. “Our No. 3 singles is an amazing freshman. Going into it, I knew he was going to be a great tennis player, and I was up for the challenge.”

Richards won five games from Zirapury, who lost only four games total in the previous three matches.

“I learned that in every match you have a chance to win no matter who you go against,” he said.

While Greenhills’ No. 2 doubles semifinal match was the tournament clincher, the duo lost in the final to St. Francis top seeds Sean Navin and Brandon Chouinard in a nail-biter, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5).

Second seeds Drake Rosenberg and Joey Formicola did not know their semis win was the clincher.

The doubles semis were moved indoors to Minges Creek Athletic Club in Battle Creek before the finals were played at K-College’s Markin Raquet Center.

Moving inside was a plus for Rosenberg and Formicola, who were surprised at winning the crucial point.

“I’m not a fan favorite of the wind,” Formicola said. “My forehand’s very good indoors, and my serve is pretty big, and it’s a huge plus to our game to be inside.”

Navin and Chouinard were the only St. Francis individual title winners.

They were tucked back on Court 4 at the Markin Center, the farthest from the bleachers.

“The crowd was crazy,” Navin said. “I could hear two or three people after every single point. It was great to know they were behind us.”

Chouinard said one of the team’s goals was to finish first or second at the Finals “but we knew first was going to be hard because Greenhills is such a great team.”

At No. 1 doubles, Greenhills’ Trey Feldeisen and Henry Branch defeated third seeds Zach Sisson and Zach Lang of Allegan, 6-4, 6-1.

No. 3 doubles winners were Greenhills’ Nathan Rosenberg and Finn Feldeisen over Allegan second seeds Owen Clearwater and Walker Michaels, 6-2, 6-2.

At No. 4 doubles, Greenhills’ Harrison Li and Alex Schwendeman defeated Allegan second seeds Vance Muenzer and Ben Groth, 6-4, 6-0.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: (Top) Greenhills' Mert Oral sends a backhand during No. 3 singles action action at the Division 4 Final at Kalamazoo College. (Middle) University Liggett's Will Cooksey makes his way to a repeat title at No. 1 singles Saturday. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)