Marian Caps Run by Rattling Off Winners
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 4, 2016
HOLLY – The first four championship matches Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Girls Tennis Finals ended with a Bloomfield Hills Marian victory – and all within about 5 minutes of one another.
“It was just like, you didn’t know what to do,” said McKenna Landis, who joined teammate Regan Patterson to win the No. 1 doubles title for the Mustangs. “They’re smiling, you’re smiling, you’re crying, everyone’s happy, so let’s just hug. It was just crazy.”
The four flight champions had more than their individual triumphs to celebrate, as they had also put an exclamation point on Marian’s first team MHSAA title since 2013. The Mustangs finished with 32 points, nine ahead of East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, who tied for second with 23. Birmingham Seaholm was fourth with 22, and Okemos rounded out the top five with 21.
“It’s a great feeling,” Marian coach Lincoln Wirgau said. “These girls, they work so hard, and the season is so short from March to right now. They put in so much time and effort into a sport that’s not covered enough. They’re out here in 90-degree heat right now, playing two out of three sets, two matches, three matches a day; it’s wonderful to see their work pay off.”
Marian had the team title clinched before the finals started, but none of the players knew that. They certainly played as though there was a lot more still at stake, as four of the team’s five finalists walked away victorious.
Landis and Patterson were joined by the No. 2 doubles team of Melanie Roma and Shannon Flynn, the No. 4 doubles team of Christina Serra and Sophie Groves, and No. 4 singles player Sophie Balardo as champions in their flights.
“That’s a great rush,” Wirgau said. “A lot of them are seniors, and a lot of them have been working for this since their freshman year, so it’s great for those girls. For those seniors to go off winning their last match, and to do it next, next, next, next – that was something special right there.
“They play for each other. They just play for each other. I don’t have any five-star, blue chip USTA players. They come and they work for each other, and it’s a team game, and they know that’s the first overall goal is that team one.”
Landis and Patterson were first, finishing off a 6-4, 6-4 win against rivals Caity Buechner and Meaghan Flynn of Seaholm.
“We still wanted to fight for the individual state championship,” Patterson said. “We didn’t want to just think, ‘OK, the team has it, we can just do whatever.’ We wanted it for ourselves, too. And the team did, too.”
Before they could finish their congratulatory hugs, Balardo had finished off her 6-1, 6-2 win against Claire Costa of East Grand Rapids. Balardo hadn’t stepped off the court before Serra and Groves finished their 6-1, 6-3 win against East Grand Rapids’ team of Audrey Devries and Kate Mackeigen. That happened at essentially the same time Roma and Flynn finished their 6-3, 6-1 win against Seaholm’s team of Sam Lareau and Emily McDermott.
“Over half of our team is seniors,” Balardo said. “So we all wanted to go out with a lot of will power and do this.”
While Marian wrapped up its title early, the No. 1 singles final went the distance, just as the first two matches between Okemos’ Alisa Sabotic and Mason’s Olivia Hanover have this season. And just like the first matches did, this one ended with Sabotic coming out victorious.
Sabotic, a sophomore, rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory, capping her first year of high school tennis with an MHSAA title.
“I knew I just had to be prepared for anything,” Sabotic said. “In the last two matches, I had won the first set, but in this one, she won the first set, so that kind of threw me off a little bit. But you just have to be prepared, have to hydrate and eat a lot, because I knew that I was going to need a lot of energy.”
Sabotic responded well to the first-set loss, dominating the second set and jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the third. But Hanover didn’t relent, tying the match at 3-3, and earning a break of Sabotic’s serve after falling behind 5-3. Sabotic was able to finish the match off, however, with a break of her own.
“I was like hyperventilating for a second,” Sabotic said with a laugh. “I kind of told myself, ‘It’s all or nothing. Just play your game, go for the ball, and whatever happens, it’s meant to be.’”
Sabotic’s teammate, Monika Francsics, gave Okemos a sweep of the top two flights, as she defeated Marian’s Breann Lunghamer 6-3, 6-2 for the No. 2 singles title.
Felicia Zhang of Forest Hills Northern rallied to win the No. 3 singles title 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Okemos’ Sema Colak.
At No. 3 doubles, Forest Hills Northern’s team of Salonee Marwaha and Claire Tatman fought off a tough opponent and the home crowd with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win against Holly’s Megan Lesperance and Nicole Johnson.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bloomfield Hills Marian's Regan Patterson (right) and McKenna Landis celebrate their doubles championship during Saturday's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals. (Middle) Okemos' Alisa Sabotic returns a shot on the way to winning the No. 1 singles title. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Country Day Bounces Back from Regional Disappointment to Repeat as Finals Champ
June 1, 2025
ANN ARBOR – Advantage Detroit Country Day – at least for now.
That’s the kind of rivalry the Yellowjackets have formed with Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood as they’ve combined to win the last 15 Lower Peninsula Division 3 girls tennis championships.
Just this season, the pair of powerhouses tied in a dual match April 16 before Cranbrook won the Regional by two points two weeks ago – and Country Day took back the lead in the never-ending race by clinching the latest LPD3 Finals title by two points Saturday at University of Michigan.
The Yellowjackets finished the weekend tournament with 34 points to Cranbrook’s 32, losing all four head-to-head flight championship matchups to the Cranes but banking enough points elsewhere to emerge with their second-straight Finals title.
Freshman Karishma Vakhariya’s flight clincher at No. 3 singles and junior Helen Benjamin’s at No. 4 put the finishing touches on the latest triumph.
“It’s always close between us and Cranbrook,” said Benjamin, who repeated as a flight winner after taking the title at No. 3 a year ago. “The cheering gets a little competitive, the matches get competitive. I mean, it’s been a rivalry forever.”
Benjamin was top-seeded at No. 4 and clinched her flight with a 6-3, 6-2, win over Holland Christian sophomore Iyla Holmes.
Vakhariya worked through more of a challenge in her No. 3 decider, defeating Bloomfield Hills Marian senior Anya Nix 6-3 in the first set before falling 6-1 in the second and coming back to win the third set 6-0.
“I just tried to not get upset, at least on the outside, because I know that definitely when your opponent can see that you’re mad it can affect the entire match and make you lose yourself,” Vakhariya said. “(It was matter of) doing what I did in the first set and not the second one, and whatever her weaknesses trying to hit to that instead of just getting upset and hitting wherever.”
Country Day’s other flight championship came at No. 4 doubles, where senior Katherine Chen and freshman Grace Kalkanis pulled out some of the most important points of the weekend. Entering as the fourth seed, they won their championship match 6-1, 6-1, over second-seeded juniors Sage Gabriel-Menegay and Brooklyn Angel of Chelsea. But perhaps more significant was Chen and Kalkanis’ semifinal win over the top-seeded Cranbrook duo of senior Katelyn Dubrowsky and sophomore Brianna Giudici.
“What happened after Regionals, I’d say was a little bit of fuel for us,” Country Day coach Nicholas Fiaschetti said. “The past couple of weeks, we’ve just been on it every single day at our practices. We came out here and handled our nerves, and from there everybody was amazing.”
Cranbrook won four flight championships, let by top-seeded senior Chloe Qin’s 6-0, 6-0, win at No. 1 singles over second-seeded Country Day senior Sophia Grzesiak, last season’s No. 1 champion. Qin hadn’t played high school tennis the last two seasons and had finished as part of a flight runner-up at No. 1 doubles as a freshman.
“I think I played really solid, moving all over, doing my best and figuring things out,” Qin said. “Even though there was a little bit of adversity throughout, I felt like we played a fair match and played super solid, and I think as a senior it was a really good win for me and I’m really glad I could close it out. … It’s feels like a full-circle moment. I’m just proud of myself and happy with how I stuck to my gameplan and got it done as efficiently as possible.”
Cranes freshman Caroline Liu carried her top seed at No. 2 singles through to the championship, with seniors Ava Clogg and Chiara Martella at No. 1 doubles and seniors Sophia Kouza and Madeline Day at No. 2 doubles achieving the same.
Bloomfield Hills Marian sophomores Stella Glorio and Lexa Hindo also carried their top seed to the title at No. 3 doubles.
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Country Day’s Helen Benjamin returns a volleyball during her No. 4 singles match Saturday. (Middle) Cranbrook’s Caroline Liu follows through on a forehand during her No. 2 singles finale. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)