Finals Preview: Old Favorites, New Possibilities Highlight Title Pursuits
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 13, 2022
The favorites are often familiar at the Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals. But last season showed us there’s plenty of room for new achievements – and with more possibilities this weekend.
Troy in Division 1 and Traverse City St. Francis in Division 4 were first-time champions last fall, and Northville and Big Rapids are among candidates hoping to make similar history as play begins Thursday in Division 4 and Friday in the other three brackets. All championship matches will be played Saturday.
See below for a look at several contenders, and check out the MHSAA Website for brackets and more (Final rounds will be played at sites listed first below):
Lower Peninsula Division 1 at Hope College & Holland Christian
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills, 2. Troy, 3. Northville
Troy was first with 30 points, Bloomfield Hills second with 26 and Northville third with 23 last season, and they figure to dominate the top of the standings again in some order. Bloomfield Hills is seeking its first championship since winning back-to-back in 2017 and 2018, while Northville is playing for its first top-two finish.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks enter this weekend with four top-seeded flights, three second-seeded flights and a fourth seed. Senior Daniel Stojanov is seeded first at No. 2 singles and the reigning champion at that flight, while junior Aaron Rose is the second seed at No. 3 singles after winning No. 4 last year. Freshman Connor Shaya is the top seed at No. 4 singles, with seniors Drew Davis and Toni Vasile top-seeded at No. 3 doubles and junior Kierth Lingam and sophomore Dominic Pascarella top-seeded at No. 4. Pascarella won the No. 4 flight last season with a different partner.
Troy: The Colts’ repeat pursuit will be keyed by seven seeded flights, including the favorites at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles – seniors Srihari Ananthalwan and Rushil Kagithala, and freshman Derrick Kim and junior Nish Palepu, respectively. Ananthalwan was part of the No. 2 champion last season, and two singles players are returning Finals runners-up – junior Derek Blackwell, who played No. 2 in 2021 and is seeded eighth at No. 1; and Haresh Anand, who played No. 4 last season and moved to No. 2 this fall.
Northville: Sachiv Kumar was a headliner last season jumping from the fifth seed to the No. 1 singles championship, and he’s seeded second at that flight this time. All eight Mustangs flights are seeded, including two more in the second slots – sophomore Josh Kim at No. 4 singles, and senior Varun Varre and sophomore Brian Zhang at No. 4 doubles.
Clayton Anderson, Rochester junior: Another incredible story from last season, the reigning No. 1 singles runner-up made his run to the championship match while unseeded. This fall he is 22-0, with an early-season win over Kumar.
Dimitri Moriarty, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior: Last season’s second seed is the third seed this time and enters 20-3, with those defeats to Kumar, Anderson and LPD3 No. 1 singles top seed Owen DeMuth of Cranbrook Kingswood.
Lower Peninsula Division 2 at Midland Tennis Center & Midland High
Top-ranked: 1. Midland Dow, 2. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 3 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
Birmingham Groves last fall ended Forest Hills Northern’s two-year reign atop this division, edging the Huskies by a point 27-26 while Dow tied for third with 20. Groves is ranked No. 6 heading into this weekend, while Dow is seeking its first championship since 2016. Dow and Forest Hills Northern both are undefeated, but tied in an Aug. 27 match. FHN’s other tie came against No. 4 Mattawan. Forest Hills Central is seeking its first championship since winning back-to-back in 2014 and 2015, and its losses are once to FHN, twice to Dow and once to No. 5 Birmingham Seaholm.
Midland Dow: All eight Chargers flights are seeded third or higher, with five top seeds. Senior Thomas Ladwein is seeded first at No. 1 doubles with junior Boaz Qui after winning the flight last year with now-junior Aaron Li – the top seed at No. 2 singles. Junior Roofy Elsaadany and senior Aiden Tanis are the top seed at No. 2, with junior Vishagen Karthikeyan and senior Shubhan Nagarkar the top seeds at No. 3 doubles. Sophomore Nimai Patel is the top seed at No. 4 singles. Sophomore Austin King is the third seed at No. 1 after reaching the quarterfinals last season.
Forest Hills Northern: Seven flights are seeded, and all seven are seeded fourth or higher with two singles and three doubles pairs on the second seed lines. Senior Anderson Halland was part of the No. 2 doubles champion last season and is teaming up with junior Aidan Beyer for the fourth seed at No. 1. Senior Kyle Wang is back after finishing runner-up last year at No. 3 doubles, and he’s seeded second at No. 2 this weekend with junior Sam Deroos.
Forest Hills Central: No. 1 singles senior Sammy Yin is the top seed at the top flight, with six more flights seeded between third and fifth in their respective brackets. Yin made the semifinals last season, also as the top seed, and enters the weekend 32-3 with two wins over King this fall.
Connor Stafford, Grosse Pointe South senior: He’s seeded second at No. 1 singles after also reaching the semifinals last season. He’s 14-3 and defeated Yin on Sept. 10 in their lone match this fall.
Nolen Kovan, Birmingham Groves senior: The reigning No. 1 singles runner-up upset Yin last year to reach the championship match and is back as the fourth seed. He’s 17-7 but with five losses to LPD1 contenders and the two LPD2 defeats to Yin and King, those two both coming Aug. 27. He defeated Stafford last week in their lone meeting of the season.
Lower Peninsula Division 3 at Mason, East Lansing & Haslett
Top-ranked: 1. Ann Arbor Greenhills, 2. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 3. Detroit Country Day
No team other than the three mentioned above has finished among the top two in this division since 2013, and no one else has won the Division 3 title outside of those three since the first fall LP boys tennis season in 2007. Cranbrook has won the last two team championships and six of the last seven, with Greenhills claiming the 2019 title. The Cranes won last season with 32 points, five more than Country Day and seven more than the third-place Gryphons. Greenhills defeated Country Day by six points to win last week’s Regional.
Ann Arbor Greenhills: For the first time since 2018, three-time No. 1 singles champion Mert Oral isn’t topping the lineup. But senior Chakor Rajendra has taken over and earned the top seed coming off the No. 3 singles title last season and having won the No. 4 championship when he was a freshman. Total, the Gryphons are seeded first at seven flights. Senior Rishi Verma is the reigning champion at No. 2 singles and the top seed at that flight as he seeks his third title after also winning No. 3 in 2019, while sophomore Kabir Rajendra is the top seed at No. 3 singles after finishing runner-up at No. 4 last fall. Greenhills didn’t make a doubles final in 2021, but is seeded to sweep with senior Mustafa Zirapury and junior Alex Ye at No. 1, senior Ismael Metwally and junior Lucas Nor at No. 2, seniors Arjun Prabhakar and Dylan Carvette at No. 3 and junior Charles Branch and freshman Ajay Purohit at No. 4.
Cranbrook Kingswood: All eight flights are seeded second, third or fourth, with five second seeds and some experienced contenders leading the way. Senior Owen DeMuth is seeded second at No. 1 singles after finishing runner-up the last two seasons at that flight. Junior Caden Che is the third seed at No. 3 coming off last season’s championship at No. 4 singles. Junior Andrew Fink is seeded second at No. 1 doubles with freshman Jace Bernard after winning No. 2 last season with sophomore Ryan Michaels, who is seeded fourth at No. 2 singles. Sophomore Aryan Tiwari was part of the No. 4 doubles runner-up last year and this weekend is seeded second at No. 2 with senior Evan Foltyn.
Detroit Country Day: All eight flights are seeded, with freshman Luke Zhang leading the way as the top seed at No. 4 singles and senior Clay Hartje the second seed at No. 3. Hartje was part of the No. 3 doubles champion in 2019 and the No. 2 doubles runner-up last fall.
Michael Mascarin, St. Clair senior: The No. 3 singles runner-up as a freshman, Mascarin played No. 1 doubles last season (reaching the semifinals) and is the third seed at No. 1 singles this weekend. He’s 24-5 with two losses to DeMuth and a third to Chakor Rajendra.
Landon Coates, Stevensville Lakeshore senior: The fourth seed at No. 1 singles is 20-1, his only loss coming in August. He also was in the No. 1 bracket last season, but unseeded.
Lower Peninsula Division 4 at Kalamazoo College & Western Michigan University
Top-ranked: 1. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 2. Traverse City St. Francis, 3. Big Rapids
Traverse City St. Francis emerged from years of contention to win its first championship last fall, and should be in the mix for a repeat although 2021 runner-up University Liggett is the favorite to add to its most recent title won in 2020. St. Francis scored 34 points last season to win by seven. Big Rapids is seeking its first top-two Finals finish and should make a nice jump from last year’s tie for seventh.
University Liggett: The Knights will attempt to reclaim the championship on the strength of seeds at every flight, with two top seeds and four second seeds. Junior Sebastian Courtright was last season’s runner-up at No. 1 singles, with senior George Anusbigian runner-up at No. 2 and senior Gerry Sherer runner-up at No. 3; they are the second seeds this weekend at Nos. 1, 3 and 2, respectively. Senior Steve Wheatley and freshman Griffin Marchal are the top seed at No. 1 doubles, and senior Ryan King and freshman Niko Cooksey are top-seeded at No. 2.
Traverse City St. Francis: Four top seeds and plenty of championship experience should have the Gladiators contending deep into Saturday. Junior Tristan Bonanni is the reigning No. 2 singles champion and seeded third at No. 1, while sophomore Owen Jackson is seeded first at No. 2 singles after winning No. 3 last year and junior Chris Bobrowski is top-seeded at No. 3 coming off a runner-up finish at No. 4. Seniors Charlie King and Derek Berta are the top seeds at No. 1 doubles after winning the No. 3 title last fall, and sophomores Eli Schmude and Max King are the top seeds at No. 2.
Big Rapids: The Cardinals are seeded at six flights and also seeking their first Finals flight championship. That may come in doubles, where junior Dylan Walsh and sophomore Mason Sleeper are the second seed at No. 3 and senior Elijah Haynes and sophomore Ari Ziska are the second seed at No. 4.
Simon Caldwell, Grand Rapids West Catholic freshman: West Catholic graduated last season’s No. 1 singles champion and could have the next, as Caldwell enters his first Finals as the top seed at that flight. He’s 26-0 with half those wins by 6-0, 6-0 scores.
Daniel Pero, Brooklyn Columbia Central junior: The fourth seed at No. 1 singles made the semifinals at that flight last season as the fifth seed. He’s 13-0 and has lost five points total and none since mid-August.
PHOTO Traverse City St. Francis’ Tristan Bonanni returns a volley during a No. 2 singles match at the 2021 Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
Cranbrook Kingswood Wins 6 Flights to Regain LPD3 Championship Reign
By
Scott Hassinger
Special for MHSAA.com
October 22, 2023
KALAMAZOO – By winning six of the eight flights, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood can once again call itself the Michigan Lower Peninsula Division 3 boys tennis champion.
One year after relinquishing its title to Ann Arbor Greenhills, Cranbrook totaled 37 points to finish first Saturday in completing the two-day tournament at Kalamazoo College.
Detroit Country Day took the runner-up honor with 28 followed by East Grand Rapids (20), Holland Christian (17) and St. Joseph (15) to round out the top five.
The top-ranked Cranes earned titles at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 singles and won three of the four doubles flights to clinch their second team championship in three seasons.
"Last year's Finals came down to the wire, and Greenhills ended up getting us by a point. That was an absolute gut-wrencher,” said Cranbrook head coach Steve Herdoiza. “All the flights we lost last year were ones we came back and won this time. I'm really proud of our boys. All of them found a way to play their best tennis on the last day of the season when it mattered the most."
After Friday's matches were suspended around midnight, play resumed at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with No. 3 and No. 4 singles at the Portage YMCA and a few doubles matches at Stowe Stadium on the K-College campus.
Rain, however, chased all those flights playing outdoors back inside shortly after to the Markin Racquet Center for the remainder of the day.
Play in all four singles flights picked up again Saturday in the quarterfinal round.
Top-seeded Saahitth Reddy, Detroit Country Day's junior and No. 1 singles player, outlasted Cranbrook junior Ryan Michaels 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the finals.
The match fell just a few minutes short of taking three hours to complete.
Reddy also defeated Michaels in straight sets in a regular-season dual between the two schools this fall.
Cranbrook won that match with Country Day 5-3.
There were moments in Saturday's match when it looked like Michaels would best Reddy this time around.
"Saahitth is a such a great player. You do what you can to win, and sometimes it just doesn't work out for you," Michaels said.
Michaels held a 4-1 lead at one point during the second set.
"I should've won that set comfortably. We were holding serve and then I broke to love. A real turning point for him in the third was when he broke me and then he had serve after going up 4-3," Michaels added.
Reddy said it was the emotional support of his teammates during the match that carried him through.
"I just didn't want to give up. When my teammates started cheering me on, I kind've got emotional and that usually helps me. My forehand and down-the-line shots are my biggest weapons. (Michaels) was playing really well in that third set, so I just had to stick it out," Reddy said.
Herdoiza commended Michaels for his effort.
"The heart and tenacity that he showed is Ryan in a nutshell. You are never going to find an ounce of effort missing from that young man's game. It's all just will power and desire," Herdoiza said.
Cranbrook senior Caden Che defeated top-seeded Dan Marin from Country Day 6-4, 6-4, at No. 2.
Top-seeded Jace Bernard from Cranbrook lived up to his pre-tournament seed with a 6-3, 6-4, win over East Grand Rapids' Mikey Beusse in the No. 3 finale.
No. 1 seeded junior Amaan Khan from Cranbrook downed St. Joseph freshman Eeshaan Ale 6-2, 6-1 in the final at No. 4 singles.
Herdoiza also praised Khan's performance.
"I haven't seen Amaan's stats or anything yet, but he might've had one of the more dominant seasons. He wasn't just winning matches, but in some of those he was giving up only 10 points or less. That's real dominance," Herdoiza said.
Devin Kozal and Jace Konwinski from Ada Forest Hills Eastern defeated Country Day's No. 1 doubles unit of Achyut Reddy and Charlie Khaghany 6-3, 6-3.
"Country Day had good ground strokes and are kind've shifty, but Devin and I stuck together and got it done," Konwinski said.
Kozal and Konwinksi, who are cousins and live next door to one another, controlled the net throughout the match.
"We do drills in practice where our No. 1 and No. 2 singles players hit with us, and that really helps us prepare for matches like these," Kozal said.
Cranbrook sophomores Cole Kirschenbaum and Kenneth Hu pulled off a 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 finals win over East Grand Rapids' No. 2 tandem of Charlie Lentz and Luke Lentz. The Cranes' No. 3 doubles unit of freshman Ryan VanDyke and senior Ben Stevenson were champions at No. 3 doubles. Stevenson and VanDyke were victorious over Country Day's Thomas Bresson and John McKany 6-1, 6-3.
"In the first set we played very smart by getting to short balls, the net and by finishing off points," Stevenson said.
VanDyke felt it was him and Stevenson's aggression from the onset of the match that was the difference.
"I thought we attacked early and asserted our dominance at the net," VanDyke said.
Cranbrook seniors Ketan Swami and Kevin Guo defeated Joe Mulder and Tommy Rosmarin from East Grand Rapids 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 doubles.
(Click for more photos from High School Sports Scene.)