Preview: Return of Traditional Finals Format Joined by Return of Annual Contenders
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 14, 2021
What’s old is new again at the Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals, but with plenty of what we’re used to expected this weekend as well.
After a format switch to a head-to-head team championship tournament last year due to COVID-19 precautions, the traditional format has returned with team and individual qualifiers at four sites – Division 1 playing on Thursday and Friday and the other three divisions Friday and Saturday.
Many of the usual favorites are expected to push for championships again. Okemos is the top-ranked team in Division 2 after winning Division 1 a year ago, while Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood is top-ranked and the reigning champion in Division 3. A number of other recent champs should be in the mixes again as well.
See below for a look at many of those contenders, and check out the MHSAA Website for brackets and more (Final rounds will be played at sites listed first below):
LP Division 1 at Kalamazoo College & Western Michigan University
Top-ranked: T-1. Bloomfield Hills, T-1. Troy, 3. Novi.
Bloomfield Hills and Troy have been tied for the top spot since the second set of rankings were posted in mid-September, and there are good stories accompanying both being in contention. Bloomfield Hills won outright or tied for the championship three of four seasons from 2015-18, while Troy’s only top-two finish came to the Black Hawks in 2017. Bloomfield Hills, Troy and Novi all won their Regionals, Novi against the toughest field finishing a point ahead of No. 8 Northville and eight points better than No. 9 Detroit Catholic Central. Bloomfield Hills and Troy did face off Sept. 9, with Troy winning 5-4 playing a fifth doubles flight, and Bloomfield Hills was first and Troy second at a quad Oct. 2.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks are seeded at seven flights with the top seeds at all four singles – Noah Roslin at No. 1, Daniel Stojanov at No. 2, Pierce Shaya at No. 3 and Aaron Rose at No. 4. Roslin advanced to the No. 1 semifinals last season and is the lone senior in the starting lineup – he has wins over the second and third seeds at his flight this season. Stojanov is one of only three juniors in the starting lineup, so Bloomfield HIlls could make a run at team championships over at least the next two seasons.
Troy: The Colts have found the same success as the Black Hawks but thanks to different strengths, with seven seniors and a junior anchoring the lineup and the top seeds at all four doubles flights – Andrew Wang and Nikhil Tatineni at No. 1, Srihari Ananthalwan and Aryan Gupta at No. 2, Pranav Bellad and Zach Saad at No. 3 and Dhruv Gupta and Rushil Kagithala at No. 4. Three singles flights also are seeded, including Haresh Anand second at No. 4 singles.
Novi: The Wildcats also have seven seeded flights, led by second seeds Cole Anderson at No. 2 singles and Rohit Saripelle and Nikhil Daniel at No. 4 doubles. Novi had four flight champions at its strong Regional and will be making a run at its first team Finals title since sharing with Bloomfield Hills in 2015.
Dimitri Moriarty, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice: After a solid season at No. 2 singles last fall, Moriarty moved up to No. 1 and is 16-4 and seeded second as a junior.
Anthony Van Oyen, Ann Arbor Skyline: Van Oyen, also a junior, made the No. 1 singles bracket in 2020 as the eighth seed and returns to the Finals this weekend third at No. 1 singles.
LP Division 2 at Hope College and Holland Christian
Top-ranked: 1. Okemos, 2. Mattawan, 3. Detroit U-D Jesuit.
Okemos is back in Division 2 after winning last season’s Division 1 team championship, which combined with Division 2 titles in 2017 and 2018 was the program’s third in four years. Mattawan is seeking its first Finals championship in this sport and was the Division 2 team runner-up a year ago, while Jesuit twice has been runner-up – most recently in 2019 – and also is seeking its first Finals championship. These three in order have been ranked the top three since the Sept. 20 poll.
Okemos: Despite almost an entirely new lineup from last year’s team championship run, Okemos has five flights seeded and all four singles seeded first or second. Ethan Portnoy is seeded second at No. 1 singles after playing No. 2 doubles last season as a freshman, and junior George Fan is the top seed at No. 2 singles and played No. 4 a year ago. Hannah Letzer is the second seed at No. 3, and Suchir Nagisetty is the top seed at No. 4.
Mattawan: The Wildcats are chasing a historic finish with a strong singles lineup featuring three of the team’s four seeded flights. Luke Hodgman at No. 2 and Andrew Williams at No. 4 singles are both third seeded, as is the No. 2 doubles pair of Garrett Cheng and Brady Sullivan.
Detroit U-D Jesuit: Doubles drove the team’s runner-up finish in 2019, and that could be the scenario again this weekend. Five seeded flights total are expected to lead the Cubs into contention, with Sam Owens and Stephen Cibulas the top-seeded pair at No. 4 doubles and Alex Kuplicki and Luke Padilla the second seed at No. 2.
Sammy Yin, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central: The junior singles standout is seeded first at No. 1 after reaching the semifinals last season, and he has wins over the next two seeded players at his flight.
Connor Stafford, Grosse Pointe South: Stafford, also a junior, carries the third seed at No. 1 into this weekend and has played the top flight all three seasons.
LP Division 3 at Midland Tennis Center and Midland High School
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Detroit Country Day, 3. Ann Arbor Greenhills.
These three programs have taken turns winning the Division 3 title going back to 2008, with Greenhills entering the mix in 2019 after dominating Division 4 previously. Cranbrook Kingswood won last season’s Division 3 team title, with Greenhills the runner-up, and Greenhills was the 2019 champion with Cranbrook and Country Day tying for second place.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes moved into the top spot in the rankings this week after winning a Regional that included No. 6 St. Clair. All eight flights are seeded, including one top seed and five second seeds. No. 3 doubles pair Ryan Michaels and Andrew Fink earned that top spot, while Owen DeMuth at No. 1 singles, Patrick Tiwari at No. 3 and Caden Che at No. 4 are all second-seeded as are No. 2 doubles Jacob Coburn and Sebs Taubman and No. 4 Aryan Tiwari and Praneel Pillarisetty. DeMuth was the No. 1 singles runner-up last season.
Detroit Country Day: The Yellowjackets have finished Finals runners-up five of the last six seasons since concluding a four-year championship run in 2014, and they were Regional runners-up to Greenhills by two points last week. All eight flights are seeded as well, with doubles particularly powerful. No. 2 pair Aiden Khaghany and Clay Hartje and No. 4 Ramzi Nassif and Aayush Dagar are top seeds, and No. 1 Alex Pollak and Petros Kalabat and No. 3 Nick Kalkanis and Charlie Holman are second seeds. Hartje and Khaghany won No. 3 doubles in 2019.
Ann Arbor Greenhills: The Gryphons went from No. 1 to No. 3 in the team rankings despite the Regional win mentioned above, but they’ll no doubt remain in this weekend’s mix with seven seeded flights – including the top seeds at all four singles. Senior Mert Oral is the two-time reigning champion at No. 1 singles, with Rishi Verma slotted No. 2, Chakor Rajendra at No. 3 and Kabir Rajendra at No. 4. Verma won at No. 3 and Chakhor Rajendra at No. 4 in 2019.
Simon Volkema, Grand Rapids Christian: The Eagles senior is the third seed at No. 1 singles after making the semifinals at the top flight last season.
Derek Distelrath, St. Clair: Also a senior, Distelrath is the fourth seed at No. 1 after also making the semifinals in 2020. He was the No. 1 singles runner-up in 2019.
Tanner Warners & Dream Kwon, Grand Rapids Christian: The Eagles have three doubles pairs made up of seniors, and Warners and Kwon are the top seed at No. 1. Warners was part of the No. 1 runner-up with a different partner in 2019.
LP Division 4 at University of Michigan & Ann Arbor Pioneer
Top-ranked: 1. Traverse City St. Francis, 2. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 3. Hudsonville Unity Christian.
These three have been the top three in the rankings all season, and in this order since the second poll was posted. University Liggett is the reigning team champion and has claimed three of the last five Division 4 titles with victories as well in 2016 and 2017. St. Francis is a frequent contender and seeking its first championship, having come in runner-up for the first time in 2018. Unity Christian was the team runner-up a year ago, also its highest Finals finish.
Traverse City St. Francis: A singles lineup full of underclassmen and a doubles lineup packed with seven seniors or juniors will attempt to take the Gladiators the final step for the first time. All eight flights are seeded and six are top seeds: Tristan Bonanni at No. 2 singles, Owen Jackson at No. 3 and Chris Bobrowski at No. 4; and Cody Richards and Ben Schmude at No. 1 doubles, Charlie King and Derek Berta at No. 3 and Tommy Puetz and Eli Schmude at No. 4. Richards was the No. 3 singles champion in 2019, and Schmude was part of the champion No. 1 doubles that fall with a different partner.
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett: The Knights graduated a four-time No. 1 singles champion, but still have plenty of contenders among eight seeded flights. Sebastian Courtright at No. 2 singles and Gerry Sherer at No. 4 carry second seeds into the weekend; Sherer was the No. 4 runner-up in 2019.
Hudsonville Unity Christian: Five of the team’s six seeded flights are fourth-seeded or higher. Ben Timmermans at No. 4 singles leads the way with a second seed, and Ryan Broek is the fourth seed at No. 1 singles after entering as the fifth seed a year ago.
Andrew Solarewicz, Grand Rapids West Catholic: A senior and individual qualifier, Solarewicz is the top-flight favorite carrying the top seed after finishing runner-up at No. 1 a year ago.
Alberto Gonzalez-Perez, Grand Rapids South Christian: Gonzalez-Perez, a junior, is the top player for No. 7 South Christian and earned the fourth seed at No. 1 singles after claiming a Regional title without losing a set.
PHOTO Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Mert Oral steps into a backhand during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Team Final. Click for more from High School Sports Scene.
Greenhills Extends Title Streak to 7
October 18, 2014
By Butch Harmon
Special to Second Half
HOLLAND – The Ann Arbor Greenhills boys tennis team made it seven MHSAA Finals titles in a row Saturday at Hope College when it captured the Lower Peninsula Division 4 state championship
And for Greenhills coach Eric Gajar, title number seven was just as exciting as the previous six.
“It’s a different group of guys and a different feeling every year,” Gajar said. “We’ve had a lot of pressure on us all year, and we take everybody’s best shot. We may have taken some of the drama out of it by clinching the title on Friday, but it was still exciting to win the state title.
“This never gets old. It’s always fun to win it.”
Greenhills clinched Friday as it saw all four of its doubles pairs qualify for Saturday’s play and three singles flights earn trips to the semifinals. The Gryphons then captured three doubles championships along with a pair of singles titles to finish with 33 points. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett placed second with 22, while Traverse City St. Francis rounded out the top three with 21 points.
“Some of the guys struggled earlier this season, but they kept working and persevered,” Gajar said. “It just took a while for everything to sort itself out.”
Setting the table for Greenhills was its doubles teams.
At No. 1 doubles, junior Brandon Johnson and sophomore Sam Talsma captured a title with a 6-2, 6-1 win against David Niewoonder and Dean VanElderen of Kalamazoo Christian. Johnson and Talsma were on winning doubles teams last season as Talsma also played No. 1 and Johnson was at No. 4.
“It’s the same feeling you have of winning but at a different level,” Johnson said. “It feels real good to win it at one doubles this year.”
Repeating at No. 1 was particularly special for the senior Talsma.
“It’s pretty nice to go out with another title,” Talsma said. “I had a new partner this year in Brandon. It was a nice season getting to know him, and winning the state title again feels great.”
A pair of sophomores hooked up for Greenhills to win No. 2 doubles. Andy Xie and Isak Akervall captured a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Alex Dow and Dave Sekhon of University Liggett.
“We’re real happy with the outcome,” Akervall said. “We had a pretty tough match in the semifinals yesterday. We had some nerves early, but then we settled down.”
The squad also felt some nerves en route to keeping the team title streak alive.
“You don’t want to be the team that breaks the streak,” Xie said. “The streak is like the elephant in the room.”
Rounding out the doubles titles for Greenhills was the No. 4 team of freshman Zach Wu and senior David Groden, who faced a familiar foe in the final. Wu and Groden had split a pair of matches with Jackson Richmond and Ryan Navin of Traverse City St. Francis earlier this season.
Wu and Groden won the season series and the flight as they claimed a 6-3, 6-1 victory this time.
“Our whole season we have been working to this point,” Wu said. “We were really focused today and playing the way we were supposed to.”
The lone doubles title not won by the Gryphons featured a thrilling match at No. 3 that went three sets and featured the surprise squad of the tournament.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s No. 3 pair of junior Josh Sullivan and sophomore John Jakubowski came into the tournament seeded fifth. On Friday, Sullivan and Jakubowski defeated the No. 1 seed from University Liggett in the semifinal. They followed that up Saturday with a gritty 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win against Matt Chatas and Nick Wu of Greenhills, who entered the tournament seeded second.
“Tennis is such an up-and-down sport,” Jakubowski said. “There are so many highs and lows, I’m just so glad we ended it on a high.”
“We were just hoping to play our best and maybe make it to the semifinals,” Sullivan added. “This is just a great feeling. This is crazy.”
In singles action, the feature match came at No. 1, where a pair of seniors met in a rematch of last year’s title match.
Lansing Catholic’s Matt Heeder defeated Grand Rapids West Catholic’s Nick Solarewicz in last year’s No. 1 singles final. This year the two seniors again put on a dazzling display of tennis with Solarewicz coming out with a 6-4, 6-3 win.
“It was the same exact final as last year,” Solarewicz said. “We are both seniors, and it both meant a lot to us. The first set I started slow and I had some nerves, but then they wore off and I played my game and played my best.”
The title was the first for Solarewicz, who reached the semifinals as a sophomore and the final as a junior.
“To do it in my senior year is special,” Solarewicz said. “I know Matt real well. We played together in juniors, and it was a real great match.”
At No. 2 singles Kalamazoo Hackett sophomore Henry Hedeman made it two MHSAA titles in two years. Hedeman, who won at No. 3 singles last season, captured the No. 2 title this time with a 6-2, 6-1 win against Sam Holmes of Traverse City St. Francis.
“The competition was definitely stiffer at No. 2 singles,” Hedeman said. “I felt I played great the whole tournament.”
The win put Hedeman halfway to his goal of four state titles.
“That has been my main goal since last year,” Hedeman said. “After I won it last year I made it a goal to win it all four years."
Ann Arbor Greenhills made its presence felt in singles action by winning at Nos. 3 and 4.
At No. 3 singles, junior Gage Feldeisen turned back Ian Worthington of Grand Rapids Catholic Central 6-2, 6-1. As a captain this year, the win was special for Feldeisen.
“There was a little extra pressure,” Feldeisen said. “As a captain you have to perform and show what it means to be a Greenhills tennis player. Being a Greenhills tennis player means playing your best and being respectful.”
At No. 4 singles, Greenhills freshman Sonaal Verma showed why he is ready to carry on the Greenhills winning tradition as he defeated Noah Katt of Kalamazoo Hackett 6-2, 6-0.
“It’s pretty special to come in as a freshman and win state,” Verma said.
With number seven in the books, the question for the Gryphons is: Can they make it eight straight next year?
“We will have 10 of our 14 starters back next year and also our two alternates,” Gajar said. “We also have some players coming up from a strong junior varsity team. I know that University Liggett has a lot of players coming back next year also, so it should be fun.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Greenhills coach Eric Gajar (left), congratulates his No. 3 doubles pair of Andy Xie (center) and Isak Akervall (right) at Hope College. (Middle) Grand Rapids West Catholic's Nick Solarewicz returns a shot during his No. 1 singles match. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).