Pioneer, Bloomfield Hills Solidify Shared Superiority in Division 1
By
Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com
June 5, 2021
MASON – It is pretty rare for the No. 4 doubles tennis match to draw a large crowd – but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday at Mason High at the close of the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals.
And now the underclassman duo of Kamryn Dumas and Megan Blake of Holland West Ottawa have an entirely new band of “sisters” and fans in the Pioneers of Ann Arbor.
Dumas and Blake battled down to the bitter end and closely defeated the team of Grace Bickersteth/Ellie Alberts of Bloomfield Hills, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, to win their first individual state championship.
More definitively, their win allowed Pioneer to hang on and tie Bloomfield Hills overall, 30-30 in team points to settle the Finals team race with co-champions. Birmingham Seaholm earned 20 points to place third.
“I think it’s so fun that even though we’re on different teams we can still come together and cheer for each other,” Blake said about the Pioneer team swarming the No. 4 doubles court afterwards.
If Bloomfield Hills had won that last match, the Black Hawks would have earned the team championship outright.
“Our attitude was good today,” Blake added. “We just worked together, we came together between points to talk with each other and pull each other up.”
Dumas said representing their school and city – heck, their region too – was important.
“It’s kind of crazy out here,” she said about the fans’ reaction. “I think people don’t respect the west side (of the state) for tennis. The east side is like the dominant for sure, so it was nice to prove ourselves in that way – to have everyone believe in us, and that really strengthened us in the matches.”
Crowning team co-champions certainly seemed like the right ending to a season that wasn’t even certain to happen, after COVID-19 cancelled all 2020 spring sports. Both Pioneer and Bloomfield Hills have top-notch squads that also tied, 4-4, during the regular season in a head-to-head dual.
Pioneer totally dominated the singles flights this weekend, and Bloomfield Hills was powerful in doubles. Pioneer swept the singles championships with significant wins by Reese Miller (No. 1), Elsie Van Wieren (No. 2), Mia Goldstein (No. 3) and Bridgette Kelly (No. 4). All four came in as number one seeds, and all four went undefeated against Division 1 competition the entire season.
“I’ve been coaching for 30 years and I’ve had some of the finest players in the state, boys and girls. And I’ve never had a singles lineup like this, and who went through the season undefeated, and undefeated in such ways that you can’t imagine – so few games lost in the season,” said Pioneer coach Tom Pullen. “Some of them lost fewer than 10 games the entire season. It’s just really astounding.”
Between those four players, during the final matches only Saturday, their game scores totaled 48-8. Those wins gave the Pioneers an advantage of 30 team points to 27 over Bloomfield Hills, which soon after won the Nos. 1-3 doubles matches for the team championship tie.
“We had to battle today, and I couldn’t be happier (with the co-champs result),” said Bloomfield Hills coach Chris Dobson. “This was an epic performance by the girls. I think we were considered No. 2 all through the season, respectfully, to Pioneer. We had a decisive tie with them before (during the regular season) and frankly we felt co-No. 1 all through the season, so we feel this is a more appropriate (final result) and not as surprising as many others might feel.
“A championship is a championship; there’s no asterisk by it. Pioneer has a powerhouse lineup at singles like I’ve never seen. So, for what we had to do and how we had to battle, to share it with a phenomenal team, there certainly is no shame in that whatsoever.”
Hannah Tomina and Noa Goldstein won No. 1 doubles as the second seed at their flight, while Raegan Tomina and Carly Bernard at No. 2, and Eryn Stern and Natalie Raab at No. 3, entered as top seeds on the way to winning those championships. And Bickersteth and Alberts brought the team four points by reaching the No. 4 championship match, just as key with every point contributing to the eventual shared team title.
Mia Goldstein, a junior, is the Pioneers’ captain and looking forward to the future since none of the starting singles players graduate this year.
“I’m super proud of the girls this weekend,” she said as all the doubles matches were still underway. “I know we came in with pretty high expectations, being the No. 1 seeds all the way around. And I know my girls are all fighters, so I knew that even if we were having an off day, we could compete our hearts out.
“I think it’s pretty crazy that we swept singles. I don’t know if it’s ever happened before, but I’m just really proud of everyone and the team spirit we had today.”
Miller, a sophomore, expressed one regret that was out of her control last spring. She didn’t get to play on the team with her older sister, Karina, who graduated in 2020 and now plays tennis at Michigan.
“Having watched my sister play all through high school, I felt pretty confident knowing what to do out here,” she said. “I was pretty confident in everyone coming in, since we’re the No. 1 seeds, we were all undefeated except two losses I had to a really great player (Detroit Country Day’s Julia Fliegner) in another Division (3). That confidence helped all of us, and we all felt that ‘we got this, we know we can do it.’ But I knew we’d still have some tough matches. Everyone (at states) is good.
“My finals opponent (Zoe Angell, Midland Dow) is really good, and our matches this season have been much closer than the final scores indicated. But I was excited. I’ve never played in states before because of last year getting canceled.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Bloomfield Hills celebrates one of its flight championships Saturday at Mason High School. (Middle) Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Reese Miller returns a volley during her No. 1 singles championship win. (Below) Bloomfield Hills’ Hannah Tomina returns a volley during her and Noa Goldstein’s No. 1 doubles title-deciding match. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
Senior-Dominated Iron Mountain Soars to UPD2 Finals Repeat
By
Steve Brownlee
Special for MHSAA.com
September 30, 2022
ISHPEMING — There was both a single reason and a singles reason why Iron Mountain won the championship at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 Girls Tennis Finals played at Westwood High School on Thursday.
The difference is subtle — just a single letter “s” — but rings true both ways.
It was easy to see what the Mountaineers’ secret was — sweep the titles at every singles flight while adding one more in doubles just to be on the safe side.
IM finished with 19 points, while Ishpeming outdueled West Iron County in several late finals to eke out second place by one point, 14 to 13.
Gwinn posted five points to take fourth, while Munising had four, Norway one and Ironwood did not score.
Mountaineers coach Marcus Celello credited senior leadership for the team’s repeat championship.
“We have eight seniors on our team, including all four of our regular singles players and both our No. 1 doubles players, along with one each on Nos. 3 and 4 doubles,” the IM coach said.
He noted that all those singles flights were winners with the team’s championship in doubles also coming with the pair of seniors at No. 1.
“We won this last year and returned our core, so I knew we would at least be very competitive this year,” Celello said. “We won or tied every dual meet this season.”
He said that included a 4-4 tie against eventual U.P. Division 1 champion Negaunee to give the Miners the only blemish on their dual-meet record this fall.
“But sometimes when you haven’t faced adversity, it can be scary,” the coach continued. “You don’t always know how you’re going to react.”
No. 2 singles player Aziza Burgoon — of course, a senior — completed an undefeated season by winning a marathon final over WIC’s Seanna Stine, 7-5, 7-5.
IM also got singles titles from No. 3 Natalia Brown and No. 4 Rediet Husing, along with a doubles championship from No. 1 Elle Lofholm and Anja Kleiman.
But the biggest cheers and shrieks came after IM finished its singles sweep when No. 1 Callie Bianco pulled off a 6-4, 6-4 win over Gwinn’s Miaha Schiefel.
Schiefel led 4-2 in the second set looking to force a deciding third before Bianco won the final four games.
“I just was trying to stay focused, work the ball and follow through,” Bianco said. “And maybe the most important thing was to be patient, not panic.
“I’m known for being an impatient player. When I’m on, I like to be aggressive, but I know that when I’m not on, I have to focus on being patient.”
Asked if she was “on” Thursday, she was emphatic with her “Yes I was!”
One coach trying to be patient but excited for next season is Ishpeming’s Kaitlin Rich, who watched her junior-laden team set the groundwork for a big season next fall.
“We’ve already made a big improvement from last year,” she said. “I’m proud of how hard our girls have worked to make that improvement.
“Half of our players are dual-sport athletes, which means they’re playing another sport this fall, too, so they really have to balance their workload.”
The Hematites carted off one championship, one of the last finishing finals matches at No. 3 doubles when Kaitlyn VanDeuren and Paige Palomaki had to win a third-set tiebreaker to defeat WIC’s Bailey Hoffart and Aubrey Richardson 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1).
That result decided the runner-up position team-wise as a Wykons’ win would’ve reversed their point totals and places in the standings.
“We had five finalists, at Nos. 3 and 4 singles and Nos. 1, 2 and 3 doubles,” Rich said. “We return nine of our juniors next year, so I’m really looking forward to next year. I think we should be ready to make a run at the U.P.’s (title) next year.
“Kaitlyn and Paige, those two by far are the most improved players from last year,” the Ishpeming coach added.
WIC veteran coach Joe Serbentas was philosophical after his players won a pair of doubles titles, at No. 2 with sisters Autumn Smith and Kaitlyn Smith and at No. 4 with Destiny Lemery and Olivia Lamay.
“We’ve played well at the U.P.’s the last five or six years, but we also seemed to come up that point short,” he said. “Iron Mountain is so senior-loaded, you just knew that they were the big favorites today.
“We had a 5-7-1 record in dual meets, but we play a lot of the best teams in the U.P., so I still think that’s pretty good.”
Gwinn made a run at a U.P. flight championship for the first time in a number of years with Schiefel at No. 1 singles, much to her coach’s delight.
“She has such a passion for the sport, and she’s such an avid athlete,” Modeltowners coach Darcia Mattson said. “She runs track and is a phenomenal basketball player. She trains at AdvantEdge (athletic training facility in Marquette).
“She used to play tennis against her brother, Jared Rolland.
“And she’s not a big girl at all, but her heart is twice as big as she is.”
PHOTOS (Top) The Iron Mountain and Ishpeming No. 2 doubles pairs face off during a semifinal. (Middle) Anja Kleiman gets a racket on the ball during her and partner Elle Lofholm’s match at No. 1 doubles. (Below) Gwinn’s Miaha Schiefel returns a volley at No. 1 singles. (Photos by Steve Brownlee.)