Redemption Reigns for D1 Champions
June 2, 2018
By John Walker
Special for Second Half
MIDLAND — Bloomfield Hills junior Tia Mukherjee got redemption, while the Northville girls tennis team eked out another title Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals at the Greater Midland Tennis Center.
Mukherjee dominated for a 6-0, 6-0 win over Northville senior Shanoli Kumar in the championship match at No. 1 singles. Mukherjee lost 6-0, 6-0 last year in the finals to Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Kari Miller, and said that was motivation.
“It feels great after last year,” Mukherjee said. “That was tough. I didn’t want that to happen again. I was more prepared.
“I improved my fitness and my forehand. I did a lot of off-court conditioning. I didn’t have enough energy going into the finals last year.”
Bloomfield Hills coach Chris Dobson agreed.
“Her fitness level is better,” he said. “Plus another year of maturity, poise and confidence. It makes a difference. She was highly motivated coming in.”
“At the end of the day, Tia was amazing,” Northville coach Linda Jones said.
“I thought she is the best player in the state,” Dobson said, “and she proved it. She played her best match and earned it.”
Northville had to earn its title, too, edging Midland Dow 32-30. Bloomfield Hills was third with 28 points.
The Mustangs shared last year’s title with Dow. Dow won the 2016 title. Northville won in 2015. The two were at it again in 2018.
Northville entered Saturday with 24 points and eight players in the semifinals for the first time in school history. Dow had 23 points with seven players, as did Bloomfield Hills.
Northville won key semifinals matches against Dow at No. 2 and No. 3 singles and advanced six to the finals. Dow advanced five, while Bloomfield Hills advanced three and dropped from contention.
In the finals, Northville and Dow faced off at Nos. 1, 3 and 4 doubles. Dow got the first victory, at No. 3 doubles, and briefly tied the score with a win at No. 2 doubles. But Northville prevailed in the other head-to-head matches, clinching the crown with the win at No. 4 doubles.
“It’s so sweet,” Northville’s Jones said. “This year we lost three important seniors and were seeded No. 2 all season behind Dow. We came in as underdogs. The girls just played over their levels. It’s the most satisfying (title). Three-time state champs is not too bad.”
“Absolutely there’s disappointment,” Dow coach Garrett Turner said, “which is a good thing, I guess. It means we’re doing the right things. We win one of those matches and the nerves are shifted to them. It’s hard to be upset with a second-place finish. We had our chances.”
At No. 2 singles, Ann Arbor Huron junior Miriam Gandam, the No. 1 seed, defeated Northville sophomore Tori Mady, the No. 2 seed, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1. Mady, the 2017 champ at No. 4 singles, got a key semifinals win over Dow’s Zoe Angell, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
At No. 3 singles, Ann Arbor Skyline senior Caroline Cartwright, the No. 2 seed, defeated Northville junior Renee Torres, the No. 4 seed, 6-3, 6-2. Torres, the returning champ at No. 3 singles, upset Dow’s Sarah Ismail, the No. 1 seed and returning champ at No. 2 singles, in a key semifinal match, 6-3, 6-4.
At. No. 4 singles, Jenna Silverman, the No. 1 seed, rallied past Dow senior Hadley Camp, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) in a 2-hour, 57-minute match. Silverman also rallied for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win in the semifinals over Northville’s Maya Mulchanandani. Camp was the Finals runner-up for the third straight year.
At No. 1 doubles, Northville senior Serena Wang and junior Sophie Zhuang, the No. 1 seed, defeated Dow seniors Tatum Matthews and Kelly Livingston, the No. 2 seed, 6-1, 6-4.
At No. 2 doubles, Dow junior Meghan Killmaster and sophomore Victoria Leiti, the No. 3 seed, defeated Bloomfield Hills senior Alandria Bellamy and sophomore Kaela Bernard, the No. 4 seed, 6-2, 6-2.
At No. 3 doubles, Dow seniors Giacomina Fabiano and Christina Vanderkelen, the No. 3 seed, defeated Northville junior Madison DeYoung and freshman Michelle Tong, the No. 4 seed, 6-2, 6-3.
At No. 4 doubles, Northville junior Connie Gao and freshman Sneha Ganan, the No. 2 seed, defeated Dow juniors Amelie Kraef and Reema Patel, the No. 1 seed, 6-4, 7-6 (1). Kraef and Patel came into Saturday without losing a set all season but had to rally for a 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 win in the semifinals.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bloomfield Hills' Tia Mukherjee prepares to return a shot during her No. 1 singles match Saturday. (Middle) Northville poses with its latest MHSAA Finals trophy. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Despite Rival's Return, Forest Hills Northern Completes Repeat Run
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 4, 2022
HOLLAND – Last year was a breeze for the Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern girls tennis team as it won the Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship by 14 points.
This year, with rival Birmingham Seaholm back from playing in Division 1, the Huskies knew they were in for another battle – which is why all of them took out a black Sharpie and wrote one word of motivation on their left forearm.
“We write FIGHT on our arms for a reason, because we never give up,” explained FHN senior Rhea Marwaha, who teamed with fellow senior Sophie Richards to knock off both of the top seeds to win the No. 1 doubles title.
“We knew this was our last hurrah, so we just decided to keep fighting and keep smiling.”
There were certainly plenty of smiling Huskies on Saturday at Hope College, after they outlasted Seaholm for their 11th Finals championship over the past 20 years.
Forest Hills Northern won with 34 points, with Seaholm right behind with 30 points – a full 12 ahead of the rest of the field, giving the end of the two-day tournament the feel of a dual match.
FHN and Seaholm squared off in all four of the doubles finals, with the Huskies winning first and second doubles and the Maples taking third and fourth. Ironically, neither school won a singles flight, but Northern was runner-up in all four, while Seaholm had no singles players reach the finals.
Mattawan placed third with 18 points as seniors Lizzie Novak and Romika Shokohi won the top two singles flights. Portage Central and Birmingham Groves tied for fourth with 17 points.
Seaholm, which was tied at the top with FHN after the first day with 24 points, needed to sweep the four doubles finals to have a chance. But Forest Hills Northern had other ideas.
Marwaha and Richards, seeded third at No. 1 doubles but the reigning champions at that flight, rode the momentum after downing second-seeded Portage Central in the semifinals to win an intense three-set match over top-seeded Madeleine Leo and Nina Graham of Seaholm in the final, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
“We lost to Seaholm earlier this year, but we knew exactly what we did wrong and we fixed it up,” explained Richards. “We wanted to win today for the team, and we really wanted to beat Seaholm.”
FHN also won No. 2 doubles with the duo of senior Isabella Paul and sophomore Ryan Morey.
While Marwaha and Richards were the “giant killers” for the Huskies in doubles, it was junior Miriam Ogilvie who played that role in singles.
Ogilvie, a junior who was seeded fifth at No. 4, made it all the way to the finals – stunning the top seed in three sets in the semifinals before losing in another three-setter in the final to second-seeded freshman Paula Martinez of Battle Creek Lakeview in the last match of the day.
“I had some really tough battles, and I proved to myself that I could stay intense the whole time,” said Ogilvie. “It feels great to know that I came through for my team.”
Ogilvie was one of four singles runners-up for FHN, and it was those extra points which proved to be the difference against Seaholm. Also placing second for the Huskies were seniors Abby Siminski (No. 1 singles), sophomore Nathalie Lanne (No. 2) and junior Anna Dinsmore (No. 3).
The Huskies reached the finals in all eight of the flights, an incredible showing of depth, which put a smile on the face of veteran coach David Sukup.
“It doesn’t get old, because the kids keep me young,” said Sukup, who has led the Huskies to three second-place Finals finishes over the past 20 years, to go along with the 11 titles. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be doing this, but at this point, I’m on a one-year contract every year.”
Seaholm, which now has four Finals titles and four second-places over the past 10 years, pulled out a couple of big upsets in doubles over FHN to keep its title hopes alive.
Jane Wineman and Tatum Hirsch upset top-seeded FHN at No. 3 doubles, while the duo of Sydney Fong and Jenna Ting went three sets to do the same at No. 4 doubles – but, ultimately, the lack of presence in the singles finals proved costly for the Maples.
The top two singles flights belonged to the Mattawan, as Novak dispatched Siminski (6-1, 6-3) and Shokohi defeated Lanne (6-1, 6-0). Novak will play college tennis next year at the University of Richmond (Virg.), joining her older sister Kate (Bucknell) in the college ranks.
“Oh, we aren’t competitive at all,” Novak said with a laugh, when asked about playing against her sister. “We have good matches, but I think I can beat her.”
Portage Central junior Anna Dinsmore, the third seed at No. 3 singles, upset second-seeded Courtney Marcum of Seaholm in the semifinals, then knocked off top-seeded Andrea Wang of FHN in the final.
At No. 4 singles, Battle Creek Lakeview freshman Paula Martinez became a Finals flight champion by downing Ogilvie in the day’s final match, 7-6, 0-6, 6-2.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern doubles teammates show their "FIGHT" during a match Saturday. (Middle) Mattawan's Lizzie Novak returns a volley during her No. 1 singles title match. (Below) FHN serves during another doubles match. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)