Powers Continue Run with Shared D2 Title
May 31, 2014
By Mark DeHaan
Special to Second Half
HOLLAND – Been there, done that.
For the past 11 years, one of three teams has won the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 girls tennis championship: Birmingham Seaholm, Bloomfield Hills Marian, or Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern. And, on Saturday, those teams again finished 1-2-3.
Actually, it was 1-1-3.
For the second time in those 11 seasons, team co-champions were crowned as Forest Hills Northern and Seaholm tied with 31 points. Marian finished third with 24 points while East Grand Rapids was fourth with 22.
Early in the day, Seaholm led as junior Claire Markley earned the first individual title of the day at No. 3 singles, defeating Catherine Wingrove of Okemos 6-2, 6-2.
It was Markley's third appearance in a Finals title match, and her first win.
“This year I was really excited to make it to the finals and win,” Markley said. “I just played my hardest, and I am really excited to play so well.”
Seaholm won its second flight title at No.4 doubles. Freshmen Sophie Dixon and Lisa Johnson beat Katie Champion and Marta Colisimo from Marian 7-5, 6-0. It was the third time this season that the two teams had met.
“We've played them two other times this season, so playing them again we were familiar with their style of play,” Johnston said. “We just stayed focused to win it.”
In a two-point hole, the Huskies began to rally and get back into the thick of the championship race.
A win at No. 2 doubles for Forest Hills Northern seniors Hailey Jones and Stephanie Nguyen by a score of 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 gave the Huskies their first flight title of the day.
Forest Hills Northern then secured another win at No.2 singles from junior Madeline Bisset, who won an important matchup against Seaholm’s Lauren Frazier 7-5, 6-1.
“I just knew that our team really needed that point, especially again Seaholm,” said Bisset. “I went for every single ball, and just fought through the heat.”
Marian took its lone flight title of the day at No.4 singles as Sophia Belardo won 6-3, 6-1 over Sydney Whitfield of Forest Hills Northern.
Sophomores Emily Mcdermott and Meagen Flynn then won at No.3 doubles for Seaholm. The Maples defeated their opponents from East Grand Rapids 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
“All season long the assistant coaches and I have really been trying to emphasize that there's a pedigree that goes with playing at Seaholm, and we see results in a match-by-match basis that the girls buy into, and do so legitimately,” Seaholm coach Scott Ransome said. “We place plenty of emphasis on playing up to our seeds, but certainly playing up to the expectations that we have; this is Seaholm tennis that we play, and it's quality tennis.”
The Huskies continued to rally late. With only two matches left on the court, Forest Hills Northern remained down a point.
At No. 1 doubles, the third-seeded Pioneers of East Grand Rapids took the first set 6-4. Down 5-2 in set two, the Huskies mounted a comeback. The No. 1 doubles team of senior Victoria Minzlaff and junior Jessie Stevens responded by winning five straight games to take the second set 7-5, then won the third 6-4 to take the match.
“I remember looking at my partner and saying, 'Vic, will you fight with me?', and after that, we just worked so hard to make it to three sets,” Stevens said.
Every year, the Huskies write the word 'FIGHT' on their forearms for the MHSAA tournament as a reminder. Forest Hills Northern did exactly that, and it nearly led them to a sole claim of the championship.
At No. 1 singles, Forest Hills Northern junior Claire Aleck earned a three-set 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 semifinal win to earn a berth in the final against back-to-back No. 2 singles champion Emily Struble of Okemos, who moved up to No.1 singles for her junior season.
In the No. 1 singles final, the last match left on court, Aleck won the second set 6-2 after losing the first 6-1. But the Forest Hills Northern junior ran out of gas, and Struble, who came in seeded fifth in the No. 1 singles flight, completed her third individual title run with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 victory.
“Coming in as the five seed, I knew that I would have to upset higher seeds in order to win. But I knew that the people that were ahead of me, I could at least compete with,” Struble said. “My last match, I knew she would be a little bit worn out from her last match, so I wanted to keep her on the run as much as possible.”
Said Aleck: “Emily's a great opponent and she deserves it. I'm not disappointed with the way I played, I went out there, gave it my all and fought hard.”
“Claire Aleck is probably one of the hardest workers I've ever had,” said Forest Hills Northern coach David Sukup. “She just works hard every day, every minute, all the time. She had a hard three-set match in the semis, and we didn't think she'd have as much energy back. But she fought all the way into the third set.”
Likewise, Okemos coach Lisa Semerly praised her junior for her toughness.
“(Emily) did fantastic. She remained composed throughout her matches, and we knew that the five seed was a little understated,” Semerly said. “She's just a strong competitor.”
The team co-championship marked the ninth MHSAA title for Forest Hills Northern in the last 12 years, while Seaholm has won three championships during that span.
PHOTOS: The Forest Hills Northern No. 1 doubles pair of senior Victoria Minzlaff (left) and junior Jessie Stevens battled back to win their flight championship Saturday. (Middle) Birmingham Seaholm's Caity Buechner sends back a shot during a No. 2 doubles semifinal. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)
Greenhills Girls Clinch 1st Repeat Team Championship in Semifinals
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2023
KALAMAZOO — Ann Arbor Greenhills made school history this weekend and did so with a “secret weapon,” according to coach Mark Randolph.
The Gryphons ran away with the team title at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Girls Tennis Tournament on Saturday at Kalamazoo College’s Stowe Stadium.
Greenhills amassed 36 points to outdistance the field and win back-to-back state titles, a first in school history for the girls team.
Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard finished second with 20 points, followed by Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart with 18 and Traverse City St. Francis with 16.
Two Grand Rapids teams, West Catholic and Catholic Central, tied for fifth with 15 points each.
“I was saying to anyone who would listen, I think we were here five years ago and we had one singles qualifier who lost 6-2, 6-2, in the first round,” Randolph said.
“We’ve sort of been off the stage. Because the boys have been strong, people assume it’s just been the same (with the girls). We’ve had to build.”
The building started in the middle school, where the “secret weapon” comes into play.
Five years ago, the coach’s wife, Becky Randolph, joined the English faculty at the school.
“I asked her to take over the middle school team,” the coach said. “While she doesn’t know anything about tennis, she knows an awful lot about young women and program building.
“She put it in these kids’ heads that if they stayed, they would get a great education but also be the start of a dynasty, she called it. So she sold them on the start of a dynasty.”
Things bode well for the future with the Gryphons losing just one senior, Manassa Gollapalli, to graduation.
The second-seeded senior defeated top-seeded senior Audrey Lee, of St. Francis, 6-3, 6-2, in the No. 4 singles final.
Gollapalli’s 6-1, 6-2, semifinal win over sixth seed Laura Williams, from Father Gabriel Richard, was actually the point that clinched the title for her team.
“It’s my last match of my high school season, so I was just trying to enjoy it,” Gollapalli said. But even if she had lost the flight final, “The team won so I can celebrate with my team no matter what happens.”
Finishing second, Father Gabriel Richard also loses just one senior and has an eye on closing the gap with its in-city rival.
The Irish started the season unranked, but climbed to third in the polls heading into the tournament.
Last year, they finished 13th at the Finals.
“Going from 13th to second is an incredible jump,” coach Jim Sayed said. “I have to acknowledge our senior captain Vivian (Heegan) and our junior captains Deena (Farjo) and Laura (Williams) for all their hard work this year for guiding the young players and showing them the way. We’ve done an incredible job all season long thanks to them.”
The tournament was the third time the Irish and Greenhills faced off this season.
“Congratulations to Greenhills,” Sayed said. “They’re an incredible team. We gave it our best shot against them. We had a lot of good matches, and the girls fought hard.”
Knowing the two teams will be back on the courts against each other next season, Sayed added: “That Greenhills team is very talented, returning a lot of players and we’ll have to put in a lot of hard work in the offseason to catch them. But I think our girls are up for that challenge.”
Greenhills sophomore Maddie Morgan, who lost in the semifinals at No. 1 singles last year as the third seed, lived up to her top billing at No. 1 singles this year with a 6-4, 6-3, win over freshman Jenny Florea, the second seed from Father Gabriel Richard.
This was the fourth time the two have played this season, with the previous three going three sets each.
“It was crazy,” Morgan said. “I won the first two and she won at Regionals. It’s kind of a rivalry.
“I was kind of thinking this one could (go three sets) too, but all the previous matches, I won the first set then lost the second so this time I knew I had to grind in the second set and try to get it out.”
Florea said playing in her first MHSAA Tournament was a “little nerve-wracking as a freshman, but I tried my best. I did what I needed to. It was a tough loss.
“I was hoping I could end it in two, but it didn’t happen. I made more mistakes and she put more balls in play. She had a tough mindset.”
Sophomore Shangyang Xia, the top seed from Greenhills, defeated Heegan, the second seed from Father Gabriel Richard, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 2 singles.
Although she defeated Heegan twice this season, Xia said she did not take anything for granted.
“Everybody improves, and she’s a really well-rounded athlete,” Xia said. “It was definitely hard to play her, but I just tried to be myself and I came through.”
As for winning the team title in the semifinals, “It was a weight lifting off our shoulders when we heard that,” she said.
Heegan said cheerleading in the fall and playing basketball in the winter helps her tennis.
“It almost seems like having a break between each tennis season helps me, weirdly enough,” she said.
Looking back on her four years of varsity tennis, “You don’t really get a setting of high school tennis anywhere else,” she said. “It’s very friendly between teams and you kind of root for teams you know at big tournaments. It’s cool in that way. It’s a fun sport, a social sport.”
A pair of freshmen faced off at No. 3 singles, with Greenhills top seed Danica Rakic-Dennis defeating Father Gabriel Richard’s second seed Kenna Trost, 6-1, 6-1.
Playing in her first MHSAA Tournament, “It’s really fun,” Rakic-Dennis said. “It’s a new experience playing with a team. It’s a great stadium, and I’m happy to be here.”
Two of the closest finals matches were in doubles.
At No. 1, Academy of the Sacred Heart’s third seeds Jade Horcoff and Kayla Nafso defeated Greenhills top seeds Sophie Chen and Lauren Ye 7-5, 7-6(2). At No. 3, Academy of the Sacred Heart’s top seeds Alana Hindo and Presley Krywko defeated second seeds Meera Pandey and Meera Tewari, from Greenhills, 6-2, 7-6(3).
In the other two doubles finals, Academy of the Sacred Heart’s top seeds Maggie Pulte and Lulu George defeated Wixom St. Catherine’s third seeds, Katie Grewe and Julia Ivezaj, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 2, while Greenhills’ second seeds Arya Prabhakar and Aoife Tang defeated Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s fourth seeds, Mary Irwin and Arabella Sassano, 6-2, 6-4, at No. 4.
PHOTOS by High School Sports Scene.