3-Seed Liggett Regains D4 Championship
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
October 16, 2020
PORTAGE — With teammates screaming and cheering on the sidelines, a stunned senior and freshman doubles team clinched the winning point for Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett on Friday.
Senior Tarun Jarial and freshman Tommy Ugval pulled out the two-set win, leading Liggett on its way to an 8-0 team sweep of Hudsonville Unity Christian in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 boys tennis championship match at Portage Central High School.
After falling a point short last year, Liggett was hungry for that team title.
“It never gets old,” said coach Mark Sobieralski, who has three team titles in his seven years as head coach. “It’s another special group of kids.”
Both finalists pulled upsets in the semifinals.
Unity Christian, the fourth seed, ousted top seed Traverse City St. Francis, 5-3, while No. 3 Liggett defeated No. 2 Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep, 6-2.
The second-place finish was a win of sorts for Unity Christian.
“Last year was the second time we ever went to state, and we tied for 11th. So making it to the finals this year is pretty special,” first-year coach Brad Miedema said. “Personal best for the school so far.”
With Liggett leading, 4-0, Jarial and Ugval pulled out a hard-fought 7-6(6), 7-5, win against Jake McNamara and Micah Riddering.
Neither realized their point was the clincher at the time.
“Right after I came (off the court), my team said I was the clincher, me and Tommy,” Jarial said.
“It was just an amazing feeling. I can’t explain it. We’ve been working for this all year, and I’m really excited to hold that trophy up.”
Ugval, a freshman, was literally speechless when he got the news.
He credited his senior partner with keeping him calm during the match.
“(Jarial) taught me a lot about the game and helped motivate me,” Ugval said.
“I was really nervous toward the beginning of the year and especially today since it’s my first state championship.”
Sobieralski said that was one reason he paired the two.
“For a freshman, (Ugval) really handled himself well out there,” he said. “It was nice to have a senior with a freshman because the senior was able to calm him down and give him confidence.”
One Liggett senior still has one more goal to meet.
Will Cooksey, who is headed to University of Michigan next fall, will try to make it a four-year sweep next week at the Division 4 No. 1 singles championships at Portland High School.
“This is my last ride,” said Cooksey, the three-time reigning D-4 champion at No. 1 singles. “I’m going to try to bring home that fourth title.”
Cooksey, who is ranked eighth nationally in the USTA 18-under division, was first off the court, defeating Unity Christian’s Ryan Broek, 6-0, 6-1.
That was just perfect for a guy who is one of the most vocal cheerleaders for his teammates.
“I love cheering on the team,” he said. “It’s exciting to get the guys energetic and going. I just love the team environment.”
Sobieralski said Cooksey is a great team leader.
“He’s a national champion, 18-under, and he plays on our team because he loves the boys,” the coach said. “He’s a leader.
“He comes to practice but doesn’t practice. He takes four or five kids and works with them and then goes (and) practices on his own. He’s a great cheerleader, always up and down, screaming and yelling.”
Sobieralski said his team took a few unexpected hits to start the season.
“We had a freshman who was supposed to come in this year and he moved to Florida,” he said.
“We had a starter from our team from last year who decided to stay in Maine. Those were two people we were counting on, so we didn’t know how we were going to be.”
But a few others stepped up.
“I have to commend Alec Leonard,” he said. “He just came out for the first year. He’s the captain of the baseball and the hockey teams.
“He just wanted to play tennis with his friends and worked his butt off. Fourth doubles (with Rocco Scarfone) were just amazing today. They won both their matches, and it was just shocking how well they did today.”
The duo defeated Will Anama and Jacob Lanning, 6-0, 6-2.
Sobieralski also gave kudos to No. 1 doubles player Jacob Tomlinson.
“He was in quarantine 14 days,” the coach said. “He didn’t have the virus; he was around somebody.
“He had four negative tests, and he was released (Friday). He hasn’t played in two weeks. With all this going on, it’s just amazing we did this. It’s just exciting.”
The Knights also had an angel, a porcelain one, on their side.
“It’s from the 1930s and every coach from Liggett has passed it down, and we bring it every year and the kids all take it and hold it, rub it,” said Sobieralski, who kept the angel in his car during the matches.
“It’s a special thing we have every year, and I freak out because I don’t want it to get broken.”
In upsetting the No. 1 seed in the semis, Miedema said starting fast was a key.
“I just knew that we had to get going right away,” he said. “I knew if we came out with energy right away and ready to play, we could take it to them and hopefully get the upset, which we were able to do.”
He said the finals match was closer than the 8-0 score indicates.
“We started off well and stayed in a lot of matches,” he said. “We had two matches that went three sets and a couple other close matches out there.
“The boys played their hearts out, and I’m not disappointed in anything they did out there.
“It’s been wild. I knew we were good going into the year, so we had pretty high expectations. But this definitely exceeded what we were hoping for.
Other singles winners were Sebastian Courtright, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, over Kaden Dykstra at No. 2, George Anusbigian, 6-3, 6-2, over Chafer Jolman at No. 3 and Gerry Sherer, 6-1, 6-1, over Austin Widner.
Other doubles winners were Vince Maribao and Tomlinson, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, over Brendan Bremer and Jack Christian at No. 1, and Bennett French and Campbell Marchal, 6-2, 7-5, over Nate Lenters and Ben Timmermans.
PHOTOS: (Top) A Liggett player returns a volley during a match Friday at Portage Central. (Middle) Hudsonville Unity Christian advanced to the Final with an upset of top seed Traverse City St. Francis. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Anderson's Sad Ending Last Season Driving This Fall's Championship Pursuit
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 16, 2025
ROCHESTER – Normally, this would seem like an odd photo request – especially for a shot to become the wallpaper picture on one’s cell phone.
But Rochester High School senior Chad Anderson insisted he had a method to his madness after last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Tennis Finals.
Following a loss to Pierce Shaya of Bloomfield Hills in the championship match at No. 1 singles, Anderson had his mother take a picture of him crying.
To this day, it still serves as the wallpaper screen on his cell phone.
“It’s been my motivation since,” Anderson said.
Anderson certainly has performed like a motivated player heading into this weekend’s Division 1 Finals in Midland.
He enters as the top seed at No. 1 singles and hasn’t dropped a set this fall as he pursues what’s been an elusive individual title for himself, his family and his school.
As a sophomore, Anderson lost in the championship match at No. 2 singles. His older brother Clayton advanced to the No. 1 singles championship match in Division 1 three consecutive years from 2021-23, but lost each time to Sachiv Kumar of Northville.
Rochester also has never had a Finals singles champion in boys tennis, so Chad Anderson has that to inspire him as well.
“I’ve seen it happen to me and my brother enough,” Anderson said.
In preparing for what’s been a stellar senior season so far, Anderson went to work on a few components of his game, including making his serve-and-return more precise.
More than anything though, his big emphasis was not on improving technical aspects of the game, but working on his body.
“I put on 20 pounds to be able to hit the ball bigger,” he said. “Last year, I lost in the Finals to a guy who hit the ball stronger than me and bigger than me. I didn’t want that to happen again this year where there was just some guy overpowering me and dominating me.”
Anderson said he started playing tennis when he was 4 years old after his father, a former player himself, introduced the game to he and Clayton – who is now playing in college at Marquette.
Needless to say, there have been countless hitting sessions between the two siblings over the years.
“We can’t play without arguing,” Chad Anderson quipped. “We bicker a lot, but we push each other a lot.”
Rochester head coach Jerry Murphy, who is in his 53rd year as coach, said while Clayton had a devastating backhand and serve, Chad stands out because he has more of an all-around game.
“If he needs to come to the net, he can come to the net and feels comfortable doing that,” Murphy said. “He loves to move the ball around the court, and he wears guys out. He’s focused and does what he has to do. If he needs to out-rally a guy, he can do that. If he needs to outhit him, he can do that. The fact that nobody has taken a set off of him this year is a testament to that, and we’ve played some pretty good players.”
In addition to technical ability, Murphy said Anderson has displayed a fire on the court this year that’s become an inferno.
“He wants to do what his older brother couldn’t do,” Murphy said. “I can see that in his eyes when he plays. He’s motivated. Whether he can seal the deal, we’ll see Friday and Saturday.”
Anderson said he doesn’t feel pressure being the top seed at his flight and actually welcomes the challenge, given it’s a spot he prepared to be in all offseason and throughout this fall.
In addition to himself and his family, providing a Finals champion for the first time to a coach who has been at the helm for more than five decades would be beyond meaningful.
“It would mean so much to win it,” he said. “I’ve wanted it so bad. It would be a good thing for the program.”
If Anderson does win this weekend, he’ll need his Mom to take a new phone wallpaper photo of him celebrating instead of crying.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.