Huron Hangs On for 3rd Straight Title
October 19, 2013
By Geoff Mott
Special to Second Half
MIDLAND -- With two doubles matches left at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Tennis Finals at the Midland Community Tennis Center, Novi found itself rooting for Birmingham Brother Rice.
If Brother Rice could beat two-time defending champion Ann Arbor Huron at No. 3 and No. 4 doubles, all three schools would share the 2013 team championship.
While Brother Rice pulled out a win at No. 3 doubles, Huron’s No. 4 doubles team of Will Brenner and Orion Sang held on for a 6-3, 7-5 win over Patrick Hamill and Dan Lunghamer to give the River Rats their third-straight Division 1 title.
“It was better that we didn’t know the state championship was on the line,” said Sang, who didn’t know Huron had won the title outright until he was mobbed by teammates after the win. “I had a little feeling that it was close because everybody was fighting so hard.
“This feels good. We always thought about (winning a third state title) and that’s been in the back of our minds.”
Now the River Rats are champions again, winning with 30 points. Novi finished runner-up with 29 points while Brother Rice finished third with 28.
“We knew we had to win out but we just wanted to go out and do the best we could,” said Brother Rice senior Joey Hildebrand, who teamed with David Weatherford to beat Huron’s Jason Chen and Austin Luker, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 at the No. 2 doubles title match. The win set up the dramatic final two matches.
“It feels great because we wanted to give our team a chance to win this.”
Novi junior Tim Wang captured the individual championship at No. 1 singles. After a hard-fought 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over No. 5 seed Justin Hyman of Rochester Adams, the top-seeded Wang went on to knock off Northville’s No. 2-seeded Connor Johnston 6-1, 6-3 in the final.
Johnston fought off No. 3 seed Michael Dube’ of Detroit Catholic Central for a grueling 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) win in a semifinal.
“I knew Johnston had a really tough match and while I had a three-setter (in the semifinals), Johnston was cramping up after a really tough match,” Wang said. “I had good shots today. I was playing great, and after he broke my serve in the second set, I found an extra gear.”
Wang ate bananas and drank Pedialyte to counter cramping issues that affected a lot of the athletes.
“I pride myself in fitness, and I’m really blessed that I haven’t had problems with cramping,” Wang said. “I might have been the No. 1 seed, but I had to play my best. This means a lot to me because it came down to who wanted it the most.
“I was ready to grind it out.”
Novi’s Koushik Kondapi won the No. 3 singles title with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over top-seeded Colin Williams of Huron while Novi teammate Maxx Anderson had treatments for cramps twice before delivering a 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 win over Brother Rice’s Jack Winkler for the title at No. 4 singles.
“I think I became smarter with the cramping,” Anderson said. “I almost defaulted but my coach wouldn’t let me. If he would have said yeah, I would have defaulted. But I could hear my teammates chanting my name and there was no way I could stop.”
Ann Arbor Pioneer sophomore Ian Yi captured the No. 2 singles title, beating Rochester Adams’ Oliver Li 6-1, 6-2 in the final. Yi, who beat Ann Arbor Huron’s Kevin Mei in the semifinals (1-6, 7-5, 6-1) for the fourth time this season, had lost twice to Li this year.
“I went hard for all of my shots,” the 14-year-old Yi said. “I was able to edge him on big points. Coming in my goal was to get to the semifinals. I was really loving it when the people were cheering for me. It pumped me up even more.”
Huron’s six seniors have provided the leadership for another title run. While Jack Petersen (No. 1 singles), Kevin Mei (No. 2) and Colin Williams (No. 3) came up short of individual titles, seniors Aaron Brodkey and Akihiro Ota returned to clinch back-to-back titles at No. 1 doubles.
The doubles team’s only blemishes on the season came in a pair of eight-game pro sets, and Brodkey and Ota never lost a regular set on the year. After winning 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals against Victor Flynn and Will Norris of Grosse Pointe South, Brodkey and Ota beat Brother Rice’s Connor Parks and George Hamaty 6-4, 6-2 in the final.
“There really wasn’t any extra pressure on us because we worked so hard all year to get the No. 1 seed,” Ota said. “We wanted to prove we were that good and it was a tall order (with the competition). This feels really good to go out on top.”
Teammates since seventh grade, Brodkey and Ota became leaders together while setting an example for the younger doubles players.
“We’re best friends,” Brodkey said of Ota. “You could ask me any question about him and I’d know it. When we break down for hitting drills, we don’t even join the group. We just hit with each other.
“We’ve made a pretty good team. I hit big shots to set him up at the net and he has some of the best hands you’ll see in the state in doubles.”
Top-seeded Brendan Dillon and Joe Paradiso captured the No. 3 doubles title for Brother Rice, outlasting Huron’s Michael Bondin and Danny Friedman for 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in the title match.
“I had a large group back this year with six seniors with a lot of experience,” Ann Arbor Huron coach Stefan Welch said. “Brother Rice and Novi were so close last year and you know they wanted it so bad this year so we knew it would be close.
“It came down to who would play well, and I’m so proud to be able to send these guys out on top.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Huron players and coaches pose with three fingers raised signifying their three straight MHSAA titles. (Middle) Huron's Colin Williams launches a serve during a No. 3 singles match Saturday. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)
Liggett Ends Greenhills' 8-Year Reign
October 15, 2016
By Tim Robinson
Special for Second Half
HOLLY – Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett went into Saturday’s Finals as the winningest program in Division 4 tennis history despite not having won an MHSAA title in 14 years.
That changed Saturday, as the Knights both ended their long drought and also snapped Ann Arbor Greenhills’ eight-year championship streak by edging the Gryphons at Holly High School.
“Liggett was a good team,” Greenhills coach Eric Gajar said. “They beat us head-to-head, they beat us in (Liggett’s) tournament and they beat us in this tournament. They were the better team this year.”
Liggett finished with 32 points to Greenhills’ 30. Traverse City St. Francis and Whitehall tied for third with 22 points.
It was the 35th title overall for Liggett.
Knights coach Mark Sobieralski has a talented core of seven juniors who have been preparing three years for Saturday’s Final.
“These guys came in as freshman two years ago,” he said. “They were good, but they didn’t know how to close out (matches). Last year, we got closer, got more of a taste. We finally beat Greenhills in a dual, and that gave us a lot of confidence.”
The Knights have just two seniors, and got an especially gutty performance from the one at the top of the lineup.
T.J. Dulac, playing at No. 1 singles, competed despite a fractured hamate bone in his right hand. He injured it in the Regional, having to withdraw after a fall while leading 5-0 in his match.
He was cleared to play earlier this week and took the court Friday with his right wrist bandaged.
“It hurt, but it’s all for the team,” said Dulac, who played last year with a broken bone in his left foot. “I worked my backhand more than I’m used to. It worked (Friday) and it almost worked today, so I was happy with how it worked out.”
Dulac got to the semifinals, getting three crucial points for the Knights.
“That really was an incredible, gutsy performance,” Sobieralski said. “It was three points, and it was huge, huge, huge for him to get to the semis when he was hurt. I give him a lot of credit for that.”
Another stellar performance came at No. 1 doubles, where the Greenhills team of Mitchell Gajar and Jack Harris won the title after being seeded fifth.
It was the second Finals title in a row for both, and their first as a team after competing with different partners last year.
For Eric Gajar, watching his son, Mitchell, win another title was special.
“Tough to describe,” Eric Gajar said. “That was a special moment, (but) I think he would trade that title to keep the team title for his teammates.”
“Our coach told us that if seeds determined how the tournament would go, there would be no need to play,” Harris said. “We worked on the match we were playing in and didn’t look too far ahead.”
Williamston’s Oliver Weaver won the No. 1 singles title in straight sets, beating Austin Koenes of Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian 6-4, 6-1.
“Last year, I lost in three sets,” the junior said. “It was a tough match and I was really upset about that. I was really motivated to win it this year, and I’m really happy with how I played today.”
Saturday marked the fifth time in the last seven years a player from the Capital Area Activities Conference’s White division had won the No. 1 singles crown.
For Dulac, the fall season isn’t over. He will compete for the Liggett cross country team during the final three weeks of the season, something he has done the last couple of autumns after the end of the tennis season.
Only one player on the Liggett roster plays only tennis, and Sobieralski says his players’ multi-sport participation served them well Saturday.
“It makes you tough, mentally tough and strong,” he said. “And they’re competitive. That’s important. I think tennis, a lot of times, is 80 percent mental and 20 percent ability. You win a lot of matches with guts and just hanging in there. I always say a good player can win even when they’re not playing their best, because they’ll try something different and they keep fighting. That’s the team I’ve got. I’m really proud of their fight.”
“My hat’s off to Liggett,” Gajar said. “They’re good players, and they’re going to have most of them back next year, unfortunately for the rest of the state.”
PHOTO: (Top) University Liggett poses with its championship trophy Saturday after ending Greenhills’ title run. (Middle) Williamston’s Oliver Weaver returns a shot during Friday’s play. (Top photo courtesy of University Liggett school.)