Amid Decade of Dominance, Negaunee's Latest Finals Title Stands Out
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
September 29, 2022
KINGSFORD — Negaunee has been the measuring stick in Upper Peninsula girls tennis for the past decade.
The Miners showed why in earning their seventh U.P. Division 1 title in 10 years Wednesday with 19 points. They were followed by Marquette with 14, Escanaba 11, 2021 champion Ishpeming Westwood with eight, Gladstone three, Menominee one and Kingsford.
Negaunee won four flights on a sunny and seasonably cool day in Dickinson County.
“The U.P. Finals always require a gritty effort from all parts of your lineup,” said Negaunee coach Kyle Saari. “Coming into the season we had a lot of uncertainty in our lineup, but the girls answered the bell. This is one of the proudest titles in our program’s history. Our No. 2 and 3 doubles put together an outstanding effort. They went undefeated and didn’t lose a set all season. That’s a remarkable achievement within our program.”
Olivia Lunseth and Sage Juntti defeated Marquette’s Hosanna Brindle and Maija Parkkonen 7-5, 6-1 for the No. 2 title, and sophomores Kallen Schultz and Madelynn Peters took a 6-3, 6-1 decision from Marquette’s Eliina Brazeau and Nistha Gautum in No. 3.
“I think everything went pretty well,” said Schultz, who won at No. 4 doubles a year ago. “We worked pretty well together and talked a lot on the court. It was chilly this morning, but we had good conditions this afternoon. I prefer to play at a fast pace and tried to place the ball more.”
This marked the first championship for Peters, who also enjoyed the milder conditions.
“Working with the weather conditions became a little easier as the day progressed,” she said.
“I was in and out of the varsity lineup last year. This was definitely different. It took a lot of hard work to get to this point. This will be a motivator for next year.”
Miners’ freshman Rheana Nelson topped Marquette’s Cecilia Jacuzzo 6-2, 6-1 for the No. 3 singles championship, and classmate Lilliana Saunders overcame a 5-2 deficit and other adversity late in the second set of a 6-2, 7-5 (7-6) triumph over Westwood’s Samantha Ruby at No. 4.
“This feels really good, but I had real bad cramping in my leg.” said Saunders. “I didn’t really know where we were in the standings. I felt I had to win for our team to win. After she went up 6-5, I just took it one point at a time. It feels great to win as a team.”
Nelson overcame numerous ups and downs by staying focused.
“I kept my focus throughout the season,” she added. “I approached this as just another match, and it kept me a little more calm. This is a good start to my high school career.”
Lyndsey Lake and Lexi Hammerstrom provided Marquette with its lone title in a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Negaunee’s Paityn Brunette and Autumn Ring.
Escanaba junior Sophia Derkos earned her first U.P. Finals title by defeating Marquette’s Maia Miller 6-1, 6-1 in No. 1 singles.
“I knew where to place the ball and had my family here to watch,” said Derkos, who reached the No. 1 semifinals a year ago. “I worked on my game a lot more this year. I also worked on shots I didn’t have last year. It was real cold for the first match, then it warmed up and my muscles worked better this afternoon.”
Escanaba senior Delaney McIntyre and junior Natalie Williams enjoyed their moment in the winner’s circle following a 6-0, 1-6, 6-1 triumph over Negaunee’s Stella Harris and Madison Frustaglio at No. 1 doubles.
A key moment for the Eskymos duo took place in the finale when Williams converted on a groundstroke to make it 4-1.
"That was a big play,” she said. “That was also a momentum builder. They’re good players. They didn’t give up.”
This was the first U.P. championship for McIntyre.
“This is really special,” she said. “I thought our team did well. We’ve gone back and forth with Marquette and Westwood all year.”
Sophomore Tia Schone became Gladstone’s first U.P. Finals champion in four years in a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Negaunee’s Aubrey Johnson at No. 2 singles.
An overhead shot helped Schone gain a 3-1 lead in the second set. Johnson then changed her strategy, electing to lob the ball over the net which at one point helped her come within 4-2.
“An Iron Mountain girl did that in a match (at Gladstone) two weeks ago,” said Schone, who made the semifinals at No. 3 singles last year. “It didn’t catch me off guard. It helped to see that before. I’m definitely a faster-pace player, but I needed that practice. I just had to be patient and kind of wait for her to make a mistake. This is definitely a big step after taking fourth last year. I knew what to expect this time.”
PHOTOS (Top) Negaunee’s Jordan Enright returns a volley during a No. 1 singles semifinal match Wednesday. (Middle) Escanaba’s Sophia Derkos follows through on a shot during the same No. 1 singles semifinal. (Below) Marquette’s Kaia Miller reaches to send back a volley during her No. 1 singles semifinal. (Photos by Dennis Mansfield.)
Performance: Munising's Marissa Ackerman
October 6, 2017
Marissa Ackerman
Munising senior – Tennis
Ackerman capped her second straight undefeated season with the Upper Peninsula Division 2 championship at No. 1 singles. She defeated every No. 1 singles player in the Upper Peninsula this season and lost only one set, in her semifinal, during the Sept. 27 Finals to earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
A five-sport athlete, Ackerman also plays libero for the volleyball team during the fall, basketball and then softball and runs track in the spring. She was 13-0 on the tennis court this season, following a 13-0 junior year as a No. 2 singles champion and a 10-1 sophomore campaign where her only loss came in the U.P. Finals also at No. 2. She finished her four-year varsity career 42-7 playing no lower than No. 2, and did so while Munising played all of its matches on the road as it doesn’t have home courts. Her school, in Class D with just more than 200 students, plays tennis in the Great Northern Conference with the U.P.’s biggest schools, and she won the No. 1 singles league title as well. The Mustangs won two U.P. Finals team titles during her career, in 2015 and shared with Ishpeming Westwood in 2016.
Ackerman was followed in the singles lineup by twin sister Kelsea, and they’ve pushed each other to be better both in sports and in the classroom – the pair both have grade-point averages near 3.9. Marissa has an opportunity to play basketball at the college level but isn’t sure if she wants to continue in that sport or tennis. She’s also unsure what she’ll study after high school, although the medical field appears to be calling: her sister wants to be a nurse, her brother is studying physical therapy, her mom is a dietician at the local hospital and her dad is a nurse and director of the intensive care unit at the hospital in Marquette. Ackerman is interning at the hospital currently and considering becoming a physical therapist or athletic trainer.
Coach Rod Gendron said: “Marissa is one of the most competitive players I have coached. She plays to win and is all business on the court. Marissa knows when to play offensively, but understands how to use her extraordinary defense skills. To win a point against Marissa, you will need to hit several great shots, but that ball will keep coming back over and over. She literally wears opponents out mentally and physically. I admire how she can take a player’s strength away during a match. She forces players to over-hit, because they think they have to hit better and harder shots to win each point, which plays into her strategy. Marissa is athletic and agile on the court. She is a dual-sport athlete in the fall playing volleyball too. Plus, she starts on the basketball team, and runs track and plays softball in the spring.”
Performance Point: “During the finals, I knew it was going to be a hard match because last year the number one girl that played for us (Frankie Mattson) beat the girl I played (Iron River West Iron County’s Katarina Serbentas) for the finals, and she was pretty good so I was nervous about that,” Ackerman said. “I had a bye the first round and I had to get over playing against Ishpeming (in the semifinal), and I started off really slow and really nervous. Me losing that (second) set and going into a third set, it really showed me you have to work to get what you need to get done and that anybody can beat you if you’re having an off day. After I beat (Ishpeming) I was telling myself, ‘You need to step up your game and really get focused.’”
5-sport scholar: “You really have to be on your game whether it’s sports or school. On the buses a lot of us would be studying with each other or helping each other with homework. Definitely, homework is first and sports are second. We’d always have school and then practice, and then usually after practice my sister and me go home and study. We have a really busy day, but I really don’t like not doing anything, sitting around, and it keeps me active and always having something to do.”
Sisterly assistance: “We get really competitive. I’m really defensive (in tennis) and she is very offensive, so she has a lot of winner shots on me. But there’s a lot of shots where she thinks she has a winner and somehow I get it back. She’s a great challenge to play with. We started tennis with my grandma (Munising assistant Claudia VanLandschoot) when we were at least 3 or 5, and it just stuck. Having somebody always there with you – and we always want to get better at whatever we’re doing whether it’s basketball, tennis, any sport that we play – we always compete to get better. And by pushing each other, we know we’re going to get better.”
Net gains: “I definitely see myself as very confident in volleyball and tennis, more so in tennis because it’s an individual sport. But for volleyball I play back row libero, so I have a huge part in our team and how we execute our plays. One bad pass could lead to not setting up our executions right. That same focus I have during tennis is always with me during volleyball, during matches.”
Good and bad of good-bye: “It’s really heart-breaking to see all the years of tennis just go by. It’s crazy how fast the whole season goes, and I’m really happy about the outcome and my team. But (having only volleyball left this fall) makes it easier on my body. I was super tired and exhausted and sore, and now I’m just sore in my legs from volleyball. … I’m happy I have more recovery time in my body, but at the same time I’m super sad tennis is over.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2017-18 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2017-18 honorees:
September 28: Minh Le, Portage Central soccer - Read
September 21: Olivia Theis, Lansing Catholic cross country - Read
September 14: Maddy Chinn, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Munising's Marissa Ackerman returns a volley during a match against Gwinn this season. (Middle) Ackerman connects during her run to the No. 1 singles title at the Great Northern Conference tournament. (Photos by the Marquette Mining Journal.)