No Separating Country Day, Greenhills as Division 3 Powers Share Finals Title

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

October 19, 2024

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — The slimmest of margins seem to separate Detroit Country Day, Ann Arbor Greenhills and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood every year at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Boys Tennis Finals.

That was again the case this weekend, with those slimmest of margins turning out to be an unfortunate injury and an incredible comeback.

The end result was Greenhills and Country Day sharing the team title with 32 points, while host Cranbrook was third with 30 and wondering what might have been after a critical injury.

In the third set of a semifinal match at No. 1 singles, Cranbrook senior Ryan Michaels — the top seed going into the tournament — started cramping up while trailing 2-0 against No. 4 seed Teddy Staebler of Ann Arbor Greenhills. 

Michaels eventually couldn’t go on and had to retire from the match. Nobody will know if Michaels would have been able to come back to win, but regardless, Staebler continued his good play and took advantage of his championship opportunity.

Country Day’s Ricky Jeong volleys during his No. 3 singles title match.Staebler went on to defeat Bhavesh Burramukku of St. Joseph in the final, storming back after losing the first set for a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.

“I’ve played him a bunch of times,” Staebler said. “I haven’t had a ton of success, but I’ve seen a couple of things that work with him. In the past I usually win the first set and then struggle in the second set, but I lost the first set this time. I knew I was still in it in the second set. I was really able to play my game.”

The other big thing that skewed the end result was the unreal comeback by Greenhills’ No. 1 doubles team of William Pearce and Kabir Rajendra. 

The second-seeded team in the flight, the tandem met up with top-seeded Charlie Khaghany and Achyut Reddy of Country Day in the final. 

Khaghany and Reddy had downed Pearce and Rajendra at their Regional and held a 5-0 lead in the first set of the final. But Pearce and Rajendra put on a comeback for the ages, staving off a set point and ultimately rallying by winning seven games in a row to earn a 7-5 win.

“In tennis, one little shot or thing can change everything,” Rajendra said. “We started to gain some momentum, and next thing you know we are down 5-4 and we said we had a chance to pull out this set.”

Pearce and Rajendra then won the second set in a tiebreaker, winning the tiebreaker 7-5. In addition to the titles at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles, Greenhills got flight championships out of the team of Ajay Purohit and Charlie Rich at No. 2 doubles, and the team of Richard Wu and Kirtan Palapattu at No. 3 doubles. 

The team championship was Greenhills’ third straight, including last season’s in Division 4.

Greenhills head coach Eric Gajar said it was just a matter of his players giving themselves a chance by continuing to advance.

“You just sort of take care of what you can care of in your matches,” Gajar said. “We won nine of our 12 matches today. Our guys really stepped up against top-level competition.” 

The Gryphons’ Teddy Staebler gets to a backhand during his No. 1 singles final.Country Day snapped an uncharacteristically long title drought by winning its first since 2014. 

“I’ve been speaking about it to them for a long time,” Country Day head coach Nick Fiashchetti said. 

Country Day got titles in three flights, with Ricky Jeong prevailing as the top seed at No. 3 singles, second-seeded Adam Mahmoud winning at No. 4, and the second-seeded tandem of Rick Nie and Preston Blum winning at No. 4 doubles. 

“I felt like we did a good job of competing,” Fiashchetti said. “It seemed like our minds were locked in. That sometimes can lead to emotions spilling out. But that didn’t happen to us.”

Cranbrook’s title came courtesy of Kenneth Hu at No. 2 singles.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Kabir Rajendra, left, and William Pearce talk things over during their comeback to win the No. 1 doubles championship Saturday. (Middle) Country Day’s Ricky Jeong volleys during his No. 3 singles title match. (Below) The Gryphons’ Teddy Staebler gets to a backhand during his No. 1 singles final. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)

Team of the Month: Birmingham Groves Boys Tennis

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

November 23, 2021

Third in 2019. Tied for second in 2018 and 2017. No farther back than sixth since 2014. Only one finish outside the top eight over the last decade.

The Birmingham Groves boys tennis program has fit well among the most consistent in its sport at the statewide level for a number of years. The Falcons, in fact, had finished runner-up five times since 2004, and eighth or higher at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship tournament 10 of the first 11 seasons under coach Dave Farmer.

But this fall, they were able to take the long-awaited final step.

A total team effort made that happen Oct. 15-16, as Groves finished first this time with 27 points – one more than two-time reigning champion Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern – to earn its first MHSAA Finals championship. The Falcons also are the MHSAA/Applebee’s October “Team of the Month.”

Groves had only one flight champion that title-clinching weekend in Holland, but earned 14 points from doubles and 13 from singles.

“Balance was the key factor. In past years, the majority of our points came from our singles,” Farmer said. “My 1-4 doubles were comprised of six seniors and two juniors. (There were) no real lessons learned (from past Finals) – just knowing leadership must come from the juniors and seniors.”

Incredibly, everyone contributed something.

That lone flight championship came at No. 3 singles, actually from the lineup’s lone freshman, Michael Liss. He won every set he played that weekend.

Then came three flight runners-up – junior Nolen Kovan at No. 1 singles, junior Dylan Wolf and senior Alexandras Abarius at No. 2 doubles, and junior Andrew Wietzman and senior Gabe Klein at No. 4.

No. 2 singles senior RJ Carrel made the semifinals, and sophomore Jake Rosenwasser made the quarters at No. 4. Seniors Dylan Brown and Mitchell Greenberger also made the quarterfinals, at No. 1 doubles, and seniors Logan Edelheit and Marc Canellas made the semifinals at No. 3.

Every last point mattered, as one fewer would’ve meant a shared championship and two fewer would’ve pushed Forest Hills Northern back up top and Groves into another “just-missed” finish.