Preview: Pair of Reigning Boys Tennis Finals Champs Set to Pursue 3-Peat
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 17, 2024
All four of last season’s Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals champions are considered among top contenders again as we head into our season-ending tournaments, and two will be playing for third-consecutive titles – but only three at most will repeat.
Bloomfield Hills in Division 1 and Midland Dow in Division 2 are playing for three-peats and enter this weekend top-ranked in their divisions according to the final state coaches polls. Last season’s Division 3 champion Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood is ranked No. 1 as well, but will have the added challenge of fending off Ann Arbor Greenhills, which is back in Division 3 after winning the Division 4 title a year ago.
The Division 1, 2 and 3 Finals will be played Friday and Saturday at the sites listed below. Division 4 will be played Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Play begins between 8:15-8:30 a.m. Friday at the various sites for opening rounds, and between 8:30-9 a.m. Saturday for anticipated semifinals and championship matches. Visit the Boys Tennis page to find out which flights will be played at each location and to track results as they are received.
LP Division 1 at Byron Center West Sports Complex & Grand Rapids South Christian
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills, 2. Troy, 3. Northville.
Two-time reigning champion Bloomfield Hills has been ranked No. 1 all season. Similarly, Troy has been No. 2, Northville has ranked No. 3 and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice has been listed No. 4 in all five state coaches polls as well. Troy most recently was champion in 2021 and co-runner-up last season, and Northville finished runner-up alone in 2022 and shared second with Troy last fall – the Mustangs’ highest finishes in program history.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks finished nine points ahead of the field in winning last season’s championship, and they are set up to score big again with three top seeds, three second seeds, a third and a fourth seed. Senior Pierce Shaya (20-1) and junior Connor Shaya won Nos. 2 and 3 singles last season and are seeded first at No. 1 and second at No. 2, respectively, for this weekend. Both are seeking third Finals singles flight titles. Sophomore Zev Spiegel is seeded first at No. 3 after making the No. 4 semifinals last season, and sophomore Brady Winston is the second seed at No. 4. Seniors Asher Langwell and Dominic Pascarella lead the doubles lineup as the top-seeded pair at No. 1; Pascarella was at No. 3 and Langwell No. 4 last year as Bloomfield Hills swept doubles flight championships. Juniors Meyer Saperstein and Sajan Doshi earned the top seed at No. 3 for this weekend.
Troy: All eight flights are seeded, and only one player will graduate after this season. A pair of highly-regarded freshman will lead the Colts’ singles lineup, with Dheeraj Yelleti on the top line at No. 4 and Krish Gupta second-seeded at No. 3. Juniors Varun Shetty and Anthony Wu are top-seeded at No. 2 doubles, freshman Sourish Darui and junior Nate Wanstreet are second-seeded at No. 3, and freshman Jackson Kraus and junior Raghav Karur are second-seeded at No. 4. Shetty and Vu were the flight runners-up at No. 3 doubles last season, and sophomore Jesse Hao was part of the runner-up at No. 4 and will team with junior Derrick Kim for the third-seeded No. 1 doubles pair.
Northville: Strong doubles are expected to pace Northville’s team title pursuit, with all four flights seeded third or higher. Seniors Nick Song and Josh Kim are seeded first at No. 1, and juniors Michael Rogala and Rohi Maddali are top-seeded at No. 4. Kim was the runner-up at No. 3 singles last season.
Chad Anderson, Rochester junior: Last season’s runner-up at No. 2 singles is the third seed this time at No. 1, carrying a 24-2 record with his only losses to Shaya a month ago and Stoney Creek’s Andrew Vincler (see below) in three sets at the end of August. He then defeated Vincler in three sets at their Regional last week.
Patrick Cretu, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior: Cretu was the runner-up at No. 2 singles as a sophomore and made the semifinals at No. 1 as the fifth seed last season. He’s 21-3 with losses to Shaya and Vincler, plus a default.
Andrew Vincler, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek senior: He’s 26-1 and seeded second at No. 1 singles, with his only loss last week to Anderson and as the only player to defeat Shaya, which he achieved Sept. 5. He’s made a solid jump after entering as the sixth seed a year ago.
LP Division 2 at Kalamazoo College & Western Michigan University
Top-ranked: 1. Midland Dow, 2. Birmingham Seaholm, 3. Byron Center.
Dow also has been the season-long favorite in this division, with Seaholm and Byron Center pushing into the second and third coaches poll spots, respectively, in mid-September. The Chargers are seeking their third-straight Division 2 championship. Seaholm finished runner-up last year and is seeking its first Finals title, as is Byron Center coming off a seventh place in 2023.
Midland Dow: After winning last season’s title by five points and then graduating seven seniors from that lineup, Dow will go for the three-peat with seven seeded flights including two top seeds and two seconds. Senior Austin King (34-0) is seeking to finish his high school career with a second-straight championship at No. 1 singles and is top-seeded at that flight, and senior Nimai Patel (31-0) won No. 4 the last two seasons and is top-seeded this time at No. 3. Junior Siddarth Venkatesan is the second seed at No. 4 singles, and junior Ian Kohl and senior Dominic Griffin are seconds at No. 2 doubles.
Birmingham Seaholm: The Maples also were quite senior-heavy last season, graduating all but three starters from their runner-up lineup. Seven flights are seeded this time, with junior Britton Leo and sophomore Aaryan Senthilvanan second-seeded at No. 3 doubles and seniors Connor Champion and Andrew Wachowicz second-seeded at No. 4. Seniors Leo Kim and Carson Wright are the fourth seeds at No. 1 doubles; Kim was part of the flight winner at No. 4 last season, and Wright was half of the runner-up at No. 2.
Byron Center: The Bulldogs are seeded at six flights and with plenty of anticipated scoring opportunities in both singles and doubles. Sophomore Terrence He is second-seeded at No. 2 singles and junior Cole Krauss is the top seed at No. 4. All four doubles flights are seeded, led by sophomores Brayden Slot and Zeke Sandholm on the top line at No. 3. Terrence He reached the quarterfinals at No. 2 singles last season, and Krauss did the same at No. 4, while Slot and Rylan Vandenberge (now part of the third seed at No. 2 doubles) made the semifinals at No. 3 doubles.
Tanner Cooley, Traverse City Central senior: Cooley is back in the mix this season as the second seed at No. 1 singles. He’s 35-3, with his only losses twice to King and in a default.
Michael Liss, Birmingham Groves senior: As a freshman, Liss at No. 3 singles was Groves’ only flight winner on a team champion, and he’ll close his career as the fourth seed at No. 1 singles with all of his six losses to contenders in either Division 1 or Division 3. He made the quarterfinals while unseeded at No. 1 last season.
Sam Schumacher, Portage Central sophomore: He reached the quarterfinals at No. 1 singles as the seventh seed last season and returns as the third seed. He’s 26-5 also with a pair of losses to King and one to Cooley, plus two defaults.
LP Division 3 at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Detroit Country Day, 3. Ann Arbor Greenhills.
No surprises here; one of these three teams has won the championship every season since 2008, and some combination of these three has finished first or second every season since 2014. Reigning champion Cranbrook took over the top spot in this season’s rankings from Country Day in the Sept. 2 poll and hasn’t given it back.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: All eight flights are seeded third or better, with six first or second seeds. Senior Ryan Michaels, last season’s runner-up at No. 1 singles, is seeded first this time with an 18-3 record and all three losses to contenders in Divisions 1 or 4 – plus a pair of wins over reigning champion Saahith Reddy (see below). Juniors Kenneth Hu and Jace Bernard are seeded second at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, with freshman Eli Rosen the top seed at No. 4 singles. Bernard was the No. 3 champion a year ago and part of the No. 1 doubles champion as a sophomore. Junior Cole Kirschenbaum and sophomore Ryan VanDyke are the second seed at No. 2 doubles, and senior Sanjay Lokum and junior Daniel Ma are second-seeded at No. 3. Kirschenbaum and Hu teamed up to win No. 2 doubles last season, while VanDyke was half of the champion at No. 3.
Detroit Country Day: The Yellowjackets are seeking their first team title since 2014 and finished second and nine points back a year ago. All eight flights also are seeded third or higher, and like Cranbrook again six flights are seeded first or second. Senior Saahith Reddy (11-5) is the second seed at No. 1 singles but last season’s champion at the flight. Senior Dan Marin is the top seed at No. 2 singles after finishing runner-up last season, and freshmen Ricky Jeong and Adam Mahmoud are seeded first at No. 3 and second at No. 4, respectively. Junior Charlie Khaghany and senior Achyut Reddy have teamed up again this season at No. 1 doubles and are the top seed after finishing runner-up at that flight in 2023, and junior Rick Nie and sophomore Preston Blum are second-seeded at No. 4. Seniors Thomas Bresson and John McKany also are teamed up again as the third seed at No. 3 doubles after finishing runner-up at that flight last fall.
Ann Arbor Greenhills: The 2022 team champion moved into Division 4 for last season and won that Finals title as well before returning to Division 3 this fall. Doubles are where the Gryphons are expected to dominate with three tops seeds and a second seed. Sophomore William Pearce and senior Kabir Rajendra are that second seed, at No. 1, with Rajendra last season’s Division 4 runner-up at No. 1 singles and Pearce part of last year’s No. 3 doubles winner in that division. Juniors Ajay Purohit and Charlie Rich are top-seeded this weekend at No. 2 doubles, junior Richard Wu and sophomore Kirtan Palapattu are top-seeded at No. 3, and sophomores Lander Whelan and Deven Pimputkar are top-seeded at No. 4. Wu teamed with Pearce on last year’s Division 4 No. 3 winning pair, and Rich was the No. 3 singles champion. No. 1 singles senior Teddy Staebler, seeded fourth, was the No. 2 champion in Division 4 last year.
Bhavesh Burramukku, St. Joseph senior: He’s seeded third at No. 1 singles and advanced to the semifinals at that flight and that seed last season as well before losing in a three-set match to Michaels. He’s also played several of the highly-seeded players from all divisions this season in going 19-7.
LP Division 4 at Midland Tennis Center
Top-ranked: 1. Holland Christian, 2. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 3. Maple City Glen Lake.
As reigning champion Greenhills moved back into Division 3 this season, Holland Christian moved into Division 4 after finishing fourth in Division 3 a year ago. The Maroons are seeking their first Finals championship in this sport since 1965, and first top-two finish since 1998. Liggett is a familiar contender in this bracket, most recently winning it in 2022 and 2020 and finishing runner-up last season and in 2021. Glen Lake could be on the verge of history as it seeks its first top-two Finals finish. The Lakers moved back up to No. 3 in the rankings after edging No. 4 Traverse City St. Francis by three points at their Regional.
Holland Christian: The Maroons have the top seeds at every doubles flight plus No. 4 singles, and the second seeds at Nos. 2 and 3 singles. Senior Henry Langejans and junior Lucas VanWieren are the top seed at No. 1 doubles after Langejans made the semifinals at No. 1 in Division 3 last fall. Seniors Tyler Hemmeke and Gavin Swiftney are the top seed at No. 2; Hemmeke was part of a semifinalist at No. 2 in Division 3 last season, and Swiftney reached the quarterfinals at No. 4. Sophomores Michael Gorno and Graham Tanis are the top seed at No. 3 after teaming up to reach the Division 3 semifinals at No. 3 last year, and senior Levi King and junior Jack DeYoung earned the top seed at No. 4 doubles. Also earning a top seed for this weekend was freshman Nico Grosso at No. 4 singles, and juniors Dylan Becksvoort and Evan Disselkoen are the second seeds at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, respectively. Both made quarterfinals playing those flights, but in Division 3, last season.
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett: The Knights edged St. Francis by three points to finish second to Greenhills a year ago and have six seeded flights this weekend, all fourth or higher. Juniors Griffin Marchal and Niko Cooksey are the second seeds at No. 2 doubles, and sophomore Davis Ford and freshman Lucas Ferguson are seeded second at No. 4. Cooksey and junior Landen Maltby – part of the third-seeded No. 1 doubles this weekend – finished runner-up at No. 2 last year, and Marchal was part of the No. 3 champion in 2022.
Maple City Glen Lake: The Lakers finished two points out of third place and five out of second a year ago. All four singles and three doubles flights are seeded, with senior Michael Houtteman the top seed at No. 3 singles after making the No. 2 quarterfinals as a sixth seed a year ago. Sophomore Hawthorn Sutherland is the fourth seed at No. 2 this weekend after finishing runner-up at No. 3 in 2023.
Oliver Caldwell, Grand Rapids West Catholic freshman: Caldwell enters his first Finals as the top seed at No. 1 singles with a 29-1 record after falling to Traverse City St. Francis’ Owen Jackson in August but winning the rematch a month later.
Stephen Gollapalli, Lansing Christian sophomore: He’s 23-0 and the third seed at No. 1 singles after reaching the quarterfinals as a sixth seed a year ago.
Owen Jackson, Traverse City St. Francis senior: The second seed at No. 1 singles will cap a career that included the No. 3 championship as a freshman, No. 2 title as a sophomore and a run to the No. 1 semifinals last season. He’s 31-5 this fall.
PHOTO Byron Center’s Terrence He prepares to send a forehand back to his opponent during a match at last season’s LPD2 Finals. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
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.)