West Iron Erases Memory of Near-Miss
May 30, 2013
By Steve Brownlee
Special to Second Half
ISHPEMING — Something had been gnawing at the West Iron County High School boys tennis team for a full year.
Like an itch that’s hard to reach or a pebble stuck in your shoe while running a race, the Wykons could do little about it.
Until the end of the spring season, that is. That’s when WIC nearly doubled up the rest of the field to easily win the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 boys tennis championship Thursday at Westwood High School in Ishpeming.
The Iron County school lost last year’s D2 title by a single point to Westwood when its top-seeded No. 1 doubles team was upset in its first match. As the only tandem in that flight to receive a first-round bye, the Wykons lost two points with that loss, turning what would’ve been a one-point win in the meet into a loss of the same margin.
This year, however, WIC scored 21 points, nearly twice runner-up Iron Mountain’s 11. Munising, the only Class D school in the U.P. to field a team, was third with nine, followed by Ishpeming with seven, host Westwood four, Gwinn two and Norway one.
The Wykons not only won five of the meet’s eight flights, but had a representative in every championship match.
That gave the Wykons their sixth U.P. title in the past nine years. And they’ve finished worse than second only once during that stretch.
“The guys were determined that they were going to put last year behind them,” said Wykons coach Joe Serbentas, who has guided them to all six of those titles. “Everybody suffered this year (in the offseason).
“But we have a veteran team with a lot of juniors, and for plenty of them this is their third year playing varsity.”
Fully half of their players on Thursday also played for the Wykons during their 2011 championship run, a one-point victory over Iron Mountain.
In a spring that started like winter and stayed that way for far too long, in an odd way it made sense the final tennis match of the season would be played on a sweltering day.
With temperatures heading well past 80 degrees and closer to 90, the Wykons wrapped up their title not long before a typical summer afternoon thunderstorm hit the Ishpeming area.
The meet ended when WIC’s No. 1 doubles tandem of junior Andrew Peterson and senior Sean Gustafson completed a 6-0, 5-7, 7-5 victory over Iron Mountain’s Gerry Pirkola and Max Frorenza.
They were playing at the No. 1 flight, the same one that proved pivotal in the Wykons losing the title a year earlier.
“I think they had to wait awhile before they played us,” Peterson said about his opponents’ slow start. “Then in the second set, I think we started worrying about what we were doing instead of just playing.
“But we both played well in the third (set).”
The tournament wasn’t really the blowout that the final score would indicate, since Iron Mountain made five championship matches.
The problem? The Mountaineers not only lost all five, but lost each to WIC.
“I definitely thought we had a shot (at winning the title),” Iron Mountain coach Greg Stegall said. “We just came up short here and there, and West Iron didn’t.”
The Wykons also collected titles at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles, along with Nos. 3 and 4 singles, again each over a Mountaineers’ opponent in the title match.
The other three flights were claimed by the northern tier of schools at these finals, two by Munising, which has never played a home match due to a lack of playable courts anywhere in Alger County.
That was actually a factor that may have helped Munising, according to Ian McInnis, who joined fellow freshman Trevor Witty in winning the No. 4 doubles title.
“It was just like any other match, since we never play at our own place,” McInnis said about traveling to Westwood.
The biggest upset of the day may have been pulled off by Mustangs sophomore Noah Ackerman, who defeated WIC senior Austin Waara at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Though Ackerman was the top seed, Waara was gunning for his fourth straight U.P. singles title, including his third in a row at No. 1. He won a U.P. title at No. 3 as a freshman.
Ackerman, though, is a rising star in U.P. tennis and didn’t lose a match all spring. Thursday marked the first time the pair had ever squared off in high school. They came close at last year’s U.P. Finals, when as a freshman, Ackerman was knocked out one match short of facing Waara for the No. 1 singles championship.
“He was coming up to the net a whole lot today,” Ackerman said about Waara.
His coach echoed that. “You could see that Waara had a game plan, but Noah was able to figure it out,” Munising coach Rod Gendron said. “Noah was down 2-1 in the third set and then he won the last five games. That was when he really put the pedal to the metal.”
The other champion was Ishpeming sophomore Guillermo Ansede, an exchange student, who won the No. 2 singles title with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) victory over WIC’s Ryan Rogers in the final.
PHOTOS: (Top) West Iron County's Andrew Peterson returns a shot during a No. 1 doubles match; he and Sean Gustafson won the flight. (Middle) Iron Mountain's Danny Willman reaches for a shot during a No. 2 doubles match. (Photos by Steve Brownlee.)
This Time, Westwood Earns Finals Edge
May 29, 2019
By Ryan Stieg
Special for Second Half
ISHPEMING – The Westwood and West Iron County boys tennis teams have had some good battles the past few years at the Upper Peninsula Division 2 Finals, with the two squads finishing as the last two standing for the last three years.
That was the case again Wednesday afternoon with the championship coming down to the last remaining flight, the No. 4 singles match – and it was a good one.
After Westwood’s Matt Paavo lost the first set, he won the next two to take the match (2-6, 6-4, 6-3) and clinch for the Patriots their third title in four years as they edged the Wykons by one point.
“We know we’ve had a really good run against West Iron for a while, not only with boys, but girls too,” Patriots head coach Chris Jackson said. “The last couple of years, it’s come down to one point. Last year, it was the same exact scenario. I’m not sure what doubles flight it was, but it came down to that last one and whoever won that was going to win. Today it came down to four singles. I’m really happy for the kids.”
The pressure may have been on Paavo, but the junior shook it off, even after dropping the first set.
“There was a decent amount of pressure,” Paavo said. “My coach told me before I went into the final set that it was down to me, but my teammates were there and that really helped to have that support.”
Jackson praised Paavo’s performance and said Paavo might’ve learned something after falling to West Iron’s No. 4 earlier this season.
“(Paavo) lost to this kid a week or two ago in two close sets,” Jackson said. “I think after that, he felt like if he played well, he’d have an opportunity. After losing that first set, I’m not sure if it kicked him into gear. But it was kind of like, if we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down the way we want to, and play your game. Matt’s a very good four singles player.”
It was a rough way to end the day for the Wykons, who were looking to stay on top after winning the Finals last season for the first time since 2013. Despite the hard defeat, WIC head coach Joe Serbentas was feeling positive about how his team performed.
“We got three championships, and Westwood is a really solid team,” he said. “They’re a senior-loaded team and they were probably the slight favorite going in just because of all those seniors and that experience, but we have 10 sophomores in our lineup and I’m looking forward to the next couple of years.
“I thought it was a pretty good season and winning a Great Northern (Conference) championship, that was special too. That was back-to-back years for us. We feel pretty happy with the year. We would’ve liked to have won a championship, but we’ll take the conference championship and know that we’re young.”
WIC and Westwood split the singles matches with Holden Ross (No. 1) and James Swanson (No. 2) earning wins for the Wykons and Chad Pohlman (No. 3) getting a victory for the Patriots.
In doubles action, Munising played the spoiler role and kept the Patriots and Wykons from being the final two teams in each flight. The Mustangs ended up winning the No. 1 doubles title as Landon Peters and Eli Werner emerged with a two-set win, while teammates Russ Holloway and Guillermo Sese made it to the No. 2 final before falling to Westwood’s Hudson Uren and Connor Traver.
“(Peters and Werner) played lights-out today,” Mustangs head coach Rod Gendron said. “They had an excellent season, and they went out on top. They played a really good match at the right time today.
“We knew right away that we weren’t probably going to be legit in the mix for one or two, but we knew three was realistic and that’s where we ended up at. We’re happy with our performance today as a team. I was lucky to have a bunch of freshmen come out, and I had six seniors and it’s been a good crew.”
Werner said a simple strategy helped Peters and him emerge as U.P. champions and added that it helps that they’ve had some experience playing together.
“Just consistency,” Werner said. “Getting all our shots in, and our serving. Getting them in to get points started. We’re friends off and friends on. Last year was our first year together, so we’ve had two full years to work together.”
The Patriots and Wykons split the other two doubles flights. Westwood’s Nathan Ostlund and Jack Mattias took the No. 3 match, while WIC’s Cole Alexa and Lucas Shovald finished on top in the No. 4 match.
PHOTOS: (Top) Westwood's Jacob Adriano, left, returns a volley during doubles play at the Upper Peninsula Division 2 Finals. (Middle) Ishpeming's Drake Sundberg serves during his doubles match. (Photos by Corey Kelly.)