Rising St Francis Eyes 1st MHSAA Title
May 25, 2016
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Paul Bandrowski gave his players a choice.
“Girls,” the St. Francis tennis coach said at the start of spring practice, “do you want to work to win, or do you want to work to have a good time? We can do it either way. It’s up to you.”
The girls didn’t hesitate.
“They all said they wanted to work hard, put in the effort,” Bandrowski said.
The results have been impressive. The Gladiators swept all eight flights in the Lake Michigan Conference championships, the MHSAA Division 4 Regional and enter next weekend’s Lower Peninsula Finals ranked No. 1 in their division in the state coaches’ poll. St. Francis, which finished second in Division 4 last season, did not lose a set in Regional play.
“We’ve been pushing them, and they’ve responded,” Bandrowski said.
Bandrowski is in his first season as the head coach. He previously coached in the middle school program, and later as an assistant to varsity coach Jeff Hughes. Bandrowski is also the head coach of the boys program, which has finished third in Division 4 the last two falls.
“He really has the tennis programs rolling, and he’s doing it the right way – from the middle school on up,” said Tom Hardy, the school’s athletic director.
Statewide, Hardy said, the trend is just the opposite. He said the number of Division 4 schools dropping tennis because of low numbers is “amazing.”
“The ones that are succeeding are because of the coach,” he said.
Hardy said when he coached boys tennis nearly 10 years ago “we were trying to pull kids out of the hallways to have 12 to have a team.”
By comparison, the Gladiators had just under 40 boys participate last fall, “enough to have three full teams,” Hardy said. The girls field two complete teams.
But it runs deeper than the high school level.
“We have around 900 kids in our entire school system,” Bandrowski said, “and 240 are playing tennis at some level. That’s almost 25 percent. That’s pretty exciting. If you catch them early, develop that bug (for tennis), then you can build a long term program.”
St. Francis recently constructed five new courts at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School, and resurfaced the existing four courts. The school hosted its first Regional last week. The event turned into a celebration.
“We had 300 kids from our school there during (parts of) the day watching and cheering,” Bandrowski said. “I’m a huge advocate for making it fun. We had free hot dogs, chips, water. It was like a carnival. Kids notice that kind of environment. They think, ‘Man, this is like football. This is a lot of fun.’ If you can make it interesting, exciting and fun, and let them cheer, all of a sudden it’s an in-thing to do.”
Of course, it helps to put a good team on the courts to keep spectators interested.
“A lot of people told my dad afterwards they were surprised tennis was so intense and fun to watch,” said Amanda Bandrowski, the Gladiators’ No. 1 singles player. “My dad was probably saying to himself, ‘Told you so.’”
Amanda Bandrowski is the reigning Division 4 champion at No. 1 singles. She’s 30-2 this spring.
“Amanda is a real dedicated tennis player,” Paul Bandrowski said. “She loves playing the game, teaching the game. Tennis is her life.”
“I don’t do too much else,” she said with a laugh.
Defending her title will not be easy as the No. 1 singles flight is loaded. The field includes Kalamazoo Hackett’s Kate Ketels, who handed Bandrowski one of her two losses this spring, and last year’s runner-up Jeanne Nash of Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart.
“It’s going to be good, tough competition,” Amanda Bandrowski said.
Tournament-tested Bailey Chouinard (28-4), Anne Bandrowski (31-2) and Rosie Wilson (30-4) team with Amanda Bandrowski to give the Gladiators a potent singles lineup. Chouinard and Anne Bandrowski were Finals runner-ups last spring at No. 2 and No. 4 singles, respectively. Wilson played No. 2 doubles a year ago and reached the semifinals with partner Nicole Ehardt. Anne Bandrowski, who has had 16 shutout matches this season, is the lone underclassmen among the four. Two singles players, Amanda Bandrowski and Chouinard, will play collegiately next season – Bandrowski at Hope College and Chouinard at Aquinas College.
The doubles lineup has provided a nice balance. Carlee McCardel, an all-state skier, and Jenna Tomczak are 31-3 at No. 1 doubles. McCardel reached the career 100-win mark in the Regional, joining teammates Amanda Bandrowski and Wilson in the century club. Bethany Richey-Margaret Sutherland (24-3), Nicole Ehardt-Camille Madion (29-4) and Dee Ehardt-Maddie Muzljakovich (16-9) add to the team’s strength. First-year players Dee Ehardt and Muzljakovich have come on strong, winning their last 11 matches, Paul Bandrowski said. Dee and Nicole Ehardt were on the school’s Class C Semifinal volleyball squad in the fall. Bandrowski has nine volleyball players competing in tennis.
“You take a girl that’s a great volleyball player and they learn overheads quickly, they learn how to serve quickly,” Bandrowski said. “They have that hand-eye coordination. They know how to bounce, how to move. I’m always looking for that next athlete.”
As a team, St. Francis is 11-0-1 against some of the top Division 4 squads in the state. The Gladiators tied Hackett 4-4 and edged last year’s champion, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart, 5-3. Those three teams will likely battle it out for the crown.
“It will be tough, but we definitely have shot at winning the state championship,” Amanda Bandrowski said.
Paul Bandrowski agreed.
“Hackett has a great team, so does Sacred Heart,” he said. “It’s going to be a battle.
“Our attitude right now is this: We can win if we play our best tennis and put all of our energy into it (leading up to the finals). We’re going there (Kalamazoo College) to try and win. If we don’t, at least we’ll know we left it all on the court.”
It’s been quite a first season for Bandrowski, but he’s quick to praise Hughes, whose last three teams had consecutive top-three finishes at the MHSAA Finals.
“Jeff built a great program,” Bandrowski said. “He’s a great guy with a great personality. He helped these girls enjoy tennis. I definitely go on the back of the people who have come before me – Annie Murphy (previous boys coach) and Jeff. Building a successful program doesn’t happen overnight.”
Hardy said Bandrowski has been the perfect successor to Hughes. And with the feeder programs flourishing, Hardy expects the success to continue. More importantly, though, he appreciates the way it is being achieved.
“We get more compliments (about the tennis program),” he said. “People (that are involved) are enthusiastic about it. It’s a fun, safe environment for kids so they (parents and kids) are going to be drawn to it.”
The tennis team is looking to put an exclamation point on what’s been an incredible sports year at St. Francis, especially for the girls. The cross country and co-op downhill ski teams won MHSAA titles. The basketball team reached the Class C Final, the volleyball team the Semifinals. The track & field team just won its fifth consecutive Regional while softball is 23-9 and co-op soccer 7-6-2.
The boys are doing well, too. The football team went 12-1 and reached the Division 6 Semifinals, the co-op ski team placed second in Division 2, the tennis team took third in Division 4, the basketball team won a District, the track & field team just captured a Regional, and the golf and baseball teams won conference crowns Monday.
The success has been so prevalent that this year’s yearbook theme is “The Year of SF.”
“All of our sports teams have done incredibly well, so much better than anybody would have expected,” Amanda Bandrowski said. “It’s really exciting to be part of it.”
What excites Hardy is that it’s been shared by so many.
“We had a school assembly at the beginning of the year,” he said. “I asked all the fall sports athletes to stand, then I asked the winter sport athletes to join them, and then the spring sport athletes to join as well. I think we had maybe 15 or 20 kids not standing.
“So out of the 340 kids at the high school we have nearly 320 participating in at least one sport. That’s unreal.”
So is the success.
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Traverse City St. Francis girls tennis team huddles before a match. (Middle) Amanda Bandrowski, the reigning No. 1 singles champion in Lower Peninsula Division 4, begins a serve. (Photos courtesy of the St. Francis girls tennis program.)
Preview: Favorites Own Impressive Streaks, but Challengers Await
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 1, 2023
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern is playing for a fourth-straight Lower Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals championship this weekend, with Ann Arbor Pioneer seeking a third straight in Division 1, Ann Arbor Greenhills going for the repeat in Division 4 and Detroit Country Day looking to rebound for a sixth Division 3 title over the last seven seasons.
But full brackets of contenders are seeking to stand in the way – including another reigning champion and No. 2-ranked teams either seeking their first Finals title or first in two decades.
All four divisions again will be played Friday and Saturday over multiple locations, with semifinals and finals to be played at the first sites listed below in each division.
Below is a glance at the highest-ranked teams in each division and additional No. 1 singles players expected to be in contention. Click for full brackets and more from MHSAA.com.
LP Division 1 at Hope College and Holland Christian High School
Top-ranked: 1. Ann Arbor Pioneer, 2. Troy, 3. Bloomfield Hills.
Ann Arbor Pioneer: The Pioneers have won two straight LPD1 championships, claiming last year’s outright after sharing with Bloomfield Hills in 2021. Those two titles came with sweeps of singles flight titles, and that’s a possibility again with junior Elsie Van Wieren seeded second at No. 1 and junior Bridgette Kelly, senior Juliana Pullen and freshman Sophia Liang seeded first at Nos. 2-4, respectively. Van Wieren won No. 2 the last two seasons, and Kelly won No. 4 the last two years. All four doubles pairs are seeded fourth or higher as well, with top seeds at No. 2 with juniors Eleanor Vogel and Casey Roe and No. 3 with sophomores Elita You and Arella He. Vogel was part of the No. 3 runner-up last season.
Troy: The Colts are seeking their first team championship since 2003 and finished third a year ago with three doubles pairs earning runner-up finishes. This weekend senior Grace Zhu and junior Nika Tanako are seeded first at No. 1, and junior Marin Fox and freshman Nainika Jasti are seeded first at No. 4, with the Nos. 2 and 3 pairs also earning top-three seeds. Zhu was part of last season’s No. 1 runner-up, and Tanako was part of the No. 2 runner-up pair, while 2022 No. 4 runners-up Vienna Thieu and Michelle Baik are playing this time at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, with other partners. Two singles flights also are seeded, with senior Stephanie Ochoa fourth at No. 3 after playing doubles last season with Zhu.
Bloomfield Hills: After tying with Pioneer in 2021, Bloomfield Hills missed doing the same last season by one point. Three singles flights and one doubles pair are seeded this weekend, led by second-seeded junior Julia Yousif at No. 3 singles after she was runner-up at No. 4 last spring. Seniors Natalie Raab and Colleen Pettengill are seeded third at No. 1 doubles after Raab was part of the No. 2 champion and Pettengill part of the No. 4 winner a year ago. Freshman Prisha Lingam will debut as the fourth seed at No. 1 singles.
Sari Woo, Ann Arbor Skyline junior: She’s 15-1 this spring, with more than half of her wins by 6-0, 6-0 scores and the only loss a default. Woo finished No. 1 runner-up as a sixth-seeded freshman in 2021.
Nicole Fu, Rochester Adams sophomore: She’s the third seed at No. 1 singles for the second-straight season and after finishing runner-up a year ago.
LP Division 2 at Midland Tennis Center and Midland High School
Top-ranked: 1. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 2. Birmingham Seaholm, 3. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern: The Huskies’ championship streak reached three last spring as they edged Seaholm by four points, and they enter this weekend with all eight flights seeded third or higher. Freshman Harriet Ogilvie will play her first Finals as the top seed at No. 4 singles, while juniors Ryan Morey and Paige McKenzie earned the top seed at No. 1 doubles and senior Maria Jacobs and sophomore Morgan McKenzie are top-seeded at No. 3. The team’s other three singles flights all are seeded third after moving up one flight coming off runner-up finishes in 2022 – junior Nathalie Lanne now at No. 1, sophomore Andrea Wang now at No. 2 and senior Miriam Ogilvie now at No. 3 after finishing second at No. 4 a year ago. Morey was part of last year’s No. 2 doubles champion and Paige McKenzie part of the runner-up at No. 4 with Ava Hamilton, who is part of this weekend’s third-seeded pair at No. 2.
Birmingham Seaholm: The runner-up last season and in 2019 is seeking its first title since 2018 with seven seeded flights including top-seeded juniors Katie Slazinski and Jenna Ting at No. 2 doubles and top-seeded junior Stella North and freshman Lucy Jen at No. 4. Slazinski was part of last season’s No. 2 doubles runner-up and Ting was part of the No. 4 champion. Seniors Tatum Hirsch and Ellie Wyzykowski are teaming up for the third seed at No. 1 doubles after Hirsch was part of last year’s No. 3 champion and Wyzykowski partnered with Slazinski at No. 2, and senior Sydney Fong is part of the third seed at No. 3 after teaming with Ting for that No. 4 title in 2022. Senior Madeleine Leo has moved to No. 1 singles after finishing as part of the No. 1 doubles runner-up last season.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central: The Rangers are expected to jump after finishing seventh last season, and all eight flights are seeded fifth or higher. Leading are junior Lily Ohlman with a second seed at No. 1 singles, sophomore Maggie Moog and freshman Clare Knoester with the second seed at No. 4 doubles, and freshman Chloe Cox as the third seed at No. 4 singles. Ohlman made the No. 2 singles quarterfinals last season.
Helaina Pietrowsky, Grosse Pointe North senior: She’s the top seed at No. 1 singles in her third season playing that flight, and she’s 14-3 with two losses to Division 1 players and the third by default. She made the quarterfinals last season as a sixth seed.
Allison Wootton, Portage Northern senior: She’s also in her third season at the top flight and the No. 4 seed this time, entering this weekend 24-2.
LP Division 3 at University of Michigan and Dexter High School
Top-ranked: 1. Detroit Country Day, 2. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 3. Grand Rapids Christian.
Detroit Country Day: The Yellowjackets moved up to the top spot in the rankings this week after tying Cranbrook for the Regional title. They finished fifth at the Final a year ago coming off five straight LPD3 championships, and will be back in the hunt with all four singles flights second-seeded and three top seeds and a third seed at doubles. Juniors Peja Liles and Marin Norlander are the top seed at No. 1 doubles – Liles was part of the champion at that flight last year and Norlander part of the runner-up at No. 2 – while senior Alyssa Rahmani and freshman Noor Mahmoud are the top seed at No. 3 and senior Josie Pachla and freshman Jiya Gill are the top seed at No. 4. Norlander’s partner last year, senior Aryasai Radhakrishnan, is part of the third seed at No. 2 and she and Norlander won No. 2 in 2021, while Rahmani was part of the champion at No. 3 in 2021. Sophomore Sophia Grzesiak is the second seed at No. 1 singles after also playing that flight as a freshman.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: The reigning champion won last season with 37 points – 16 more than the field – and will try to withstand challenges this time with eight seeded flights including three tops seeds and two flights seeded second. Junior Sienna Ilitch is the top seed at No. 3 singles after winning that flight last season and finishing runner-up as a freshman, and junior Olivia Zhang is the top seed at No. 4 also as the reigning champion and runner-up in 2021. Junior Grace Zhang and sophomore Sophia Kouza are top-seeded at No. 2 doubles, Zhang coming off last season’s championship at No. 3 with sophomore Ava Clogg, the fifth seed this time at No. 1 singles. Juniors Daryn Krause and Kayli Lala – who teamed for the No. 4 doubles title last year – are seeded second this time at No. 1
Grand Rapids Christian: The Eagles are seeking their first championship and also looking to break back into the top two for the first time since a third-straight runner-up finish in 2017. They’ve been bolstered substantially by freshman Brynn Uchman, who enters as the top seed at No. 1 singles and 26-0 without reaching a third set this spring. Junior Natalie Poortenga is the top seed at No. 2 for the second-straight season and reached the semifinals a year ago. Five other flights are seeded as well.
Julia Gurne, Portland Notre Dame Prep junior: The third seed at No. 1 singles made the quarterfinals as the third seed last season and was the No. 1 runner-up as a freshman.
Aly Aldrich, Otsego junior: She’s up to the fourth seed at No. 1 singles this weekend after finishing runner-up a year ago as the sixth seed.
LP Division 4 at Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan
Top-ranked: 1. Ann Arbor Greenhills, 2. Traverse City St. Francis, 3. Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard.
Ann Arbor Greenhills: The Gryphons were champions for the first time since 2017 last season, distancing themselves from the field by nine points, and are in position to repeat with all eight flights seeded first or second and most experienced at the Finals level. Sophomore Maddie Morgan made the semifinals at No. 1 singles last season as a third seed and moves to the top line this weekend, while sophomore Shangyang Xia is the top seed at No. 2 after winning that flight a year ago. Freshman Danica Rakic-Dennis is the top seed at No. 3, and senior Manassa Golapalli is the second seed at No. 4 after finishing runner-up at that flight in 2022. Reigning No. 3 singles champion Sophie Chen has moved to No. 1 doubles as a sophomore and is paired with freshman Lauren Ye as the top seed. Sophomore Sophia Kleer and junior Parini Rao are second-seeded at No. 2 doubles after both were part of runner-up pairs a year ago at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Second-seeded No. 3 pair Meera Tewari and Meera Pandey, both sophomores, are a combo of a reigning No. 4 doubles champ and Rio’s partner at No. 3 last season, respectively, and freshmen Arya Prabhakar and Aoife Tang are debuting at the Finals as the second seed at No. 4.
Traverse City St. Francis: The Gladiators tied for 11th last season but have finished runner-up four times over the last eight years. They’ll make their run this time with four seeded flights including senior Audrey Lee on the top line at No. 4 singles. Only three of 12 starters are seniors, so St. Francis should remain in the hunt moving forward as well.
Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard: The Irish went from unranked to No. 3 in the final poll, and should jump after tying for 13th last season. FGR has only one senior among its starters, but all four singles players are seeded including three in second slots – freshman Jenny Florea at No. 1, senior Vivian Heegan at No. 2 and freshman Kenna Trost at No. 3. Heegan made the quarterfinals last season at No. 1 while unseeded.
Maggie Page, Jackson Lumen Christi senior: She’s returning as the third seed at No. 1 singles after winning a match at that flight last season while unseeded and going 21-1 this season with her only loss to Florea.
Ayva Johnstone, Elk Rapids junior: She’s also back at the top singles flight, this time as the fourth seed after entering as the fifth seed a year ago.
Jadyn Koenes, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian senior: She’s the fifth seed at No. 1 singles after reaching the quarterfinals last season as a sixth seed.
PHOTO Otsego’s Aly Aldrich returns a volley during a match day this spring. (Photo by Gary Shook.)