Performance: Munising's Marissa Ackerman
October 6, 2017
Marissa Ackerman
Munising senior – Tennis
Ackerman capped her second straight undefeated season with the Upper Peninsula Division 2 championship at No. 1 singles. She defeated every No. 1 singles player in the Upper Peninsula this season and lost only one set, in her semifinal, during the Sept. 27 Finals to earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
A five-sport athlete, Ackerman also plays libero for the volleyball team during the fall, basketball and then softball and runs track in the spring. She was 13-0 on the tennis court this season, following a 13-0 junior year as a No. 2 singles champion and a 10-1 sophomore campaign where her only loss came in the U.P. Finals also at No. 2. She finished her four-year varsity career 42-7 playing no lower than No. 2, and did so while Munising played all of its matches on the road as it doesn’t have home courts. Her school, in Class D with just more than 200 students, plays tennis in the Great Northern Conference with the U.P.’s biggest schools, and she won the No. 1 singles league title as well. The Mustangs won two U.P. Finals team titles during her career, in 2015 and shared with Ishpeming Westwood in 2016.
Ackerman was followed in the singles lineup by twin sister Kelsea, and they’ve pushed each other to be better both in sports and in the classroom – the pair both have grade-point averages near 3.9. Marissa has an opportunity to play basketball at the college level but isn’t sure if she wants to continue in that sport or tennis. She’s also unsure what she’ll study after high school, although the medical field appears to be calling: her sister wants to be a nurse, her brother is studying physical therapy, her mom is a dietician at the local hospital and her dad is a nurse and director of the intensive care unit at the hospital in Marquette. Ackerman is interning at the hospital currently and considering becoming a physical therapist or athletic trainer.
Coach Rod Gendron said: “Marissa is one of the most competitive players I have coached. She plays to win and is all business on the court. Marissa knows when to play offensively, but understands how to use her extraordinary defense skills. To win a point against Marissa, you will need to hit several great shots, but that ball will keep coming back over and over. She literally wears opponents out mentally and physically. I admire how she can take a player’s strength away during a match. She forces players to over-hit, because they think they have to hit better and harder shots to win each point, which plays into her strategy. Marissa is athletic and agile on the court. She is a dual-sport athlete in the fall playing volleyball too. Plus, she starts on the basketball team, and runs track and plays softball in the spring.”
Performance Point: “During the finals, I knew it was going to be a hard match because last year the number one girl that played for us (Frankie Mattson) beat the girl I played (Iron River West Iron County’s Katarina Serbentas) for the finals, and she was pretty good so I was nervous about that,” Ackerman said. “I had a bye the first round and I had to get over playing against Ishpeming (in the semifinal), and I started off really slow and really nervous. Me losing that (second) set and going into a third set, it really showed me you have to work to get what you need to get done and that anybody can beat you if you’re having an off day. After I beat (Ishpeming) I was telling myself, ‘You need to step up your game and really get focused.’”
5-sport scholar: “You really have to be on your game whether it’s sports or school. On the buses a lot of us would be studying with each other or helping each other with homework. Definitely, homework is first and sports are second. We’d always have school and then practice, and then usually after practice my sister and me go home and study. We have a really busy day, but I really don’t like not doing anything, sitting around, and it keeps me active and always having something to do.”
Sisterly assistance: “We get really competitive. I’m really defensive (in tennis) and she is very offensive, so she has a lot of winner shots on me. But there’s a lot of shots where she thinks she has a winner and somehow I get it back. She’s a great challenge to play with. We started tennis with my grandma (Munising assistant Claudia VanLandschoot) when we were at least 3 or 5, and it just stuck. Having somebody always there with you – and we always want to get better at whatever we’re doing whether it’s basketball, tennis, any sport that we play – we always compete to get better. And by pushing each other, we know we’re going to get better.”
Net gains: “I definitely see myself as very confident in volleyball and tennis, more so in tennis because it’s an individual sport. But for volleyball I play back row libero, so I have a huge part in our team and how we execute our plays. One bad pass could lead to not setting up our executions right. That same focus I have during tennis is always with me during volleyball, during matches.”
Good and bad of good-bye: “It’s really heart-breaking to see all the years of tennis just go by. It’s crazy how fast the whole season goes, and I’m really happy about the outcome and my team. But (having only volleyball left this fall) makes it easier on my body. I was super tired and exhausted and sore, and now I’m just sore in my legs from volleyball. … I’m happy I have more recovery time in my body, but at the same time I’m super sad tennis is over.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2017-18 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2017-18 honorees:
September 28: Minh Le, Portage Central soccer - Read
September 21: Olivia Theis, Lansing Catholic cross country - Read
September 14: Maddy Chinn, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Munising's Marissa Ackerman returns a volley during a match against Gwinn this season. (Middle) Ackerman connects during her run to the No. 1 singles title at the Great Northern Conference tournament. (Photos by the Marquette Mining Journal.)
Sadowski Motivated for More After Singles Title, Eisenhower's Best Finals Finish
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
May 15, 2025
UTICA — Gabby Sadowski could have followed a trend after winning last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals championship at No. 1 singles.
Over the years, winning an individual Finals title as an underclassmen – of simply having great success – has been a jumping off point for top players to move on from high school tennis and focus on the junior circuit. An example: Three members of last year’s Clarkston lineup that won the Lower Peninsula Division 1 team title — including two Finals flight champions — decided to skip this high school season to play juniors.
Since Sadowski won the individual title at No. 1 singles last spring as a sophomore for Utica Eisenhower, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see her do the same.
But perhaps in an even more surprising development, Sadowski is instead again holding down the Eagles’ top singles spot.
“All of my life, I’ve been playing USTA tennis individually,” Sadowski said. “Being able to play high school on a team is something I’ve really enjoyed over the years.”
This spring, so far, is probably the most enjoyable Eisenhower girls tennis has ever had.
Not only is Sadowski back and dominating, but the Eagles for the first time are ranked No. 1 in Division 1 and primed to follow up their first-ever Finals runner-up finish last year with a march to a championship in two weeks.
Leading the way is Sadowski, who is simply a generational talent for the program.
“It’s said in tennis that it takes 10,000 hours to earn proficiency,” said Eisenhower co-coach Kevin Donahue. “Gabby is one of those few people at 20 hours a week and 10 hours of tennis, it would put her at 10,000 hours. Strength training, stretching, speed work and the hitting sessions. She’s dedicated as an athlete.”
The bug for tennis bit Sadowski early. She said she started playing at age 3 and competing in USTA junior events when she was 8.
As was the case with many young tennis players, Sadowski said she idolized Serena Williams.
“I think my game is similar to hers,” Sadowski said. “I think the way we both are really aggressive and looking to attack the ball.”
There are many good traits Sadowski has on the court, but Eisenhower co-coach Mike Pierson points to a few in particular.
“I’d say her ability to take a swing and volley separates her from other players, to be able to put it away” he said. “Just her mental toughness also.
“As far as coaching her, half the time we are talking about forehand cross battles, bringing your targets with the wind, or maybe telling her a joke to calm her down a little bit.”
Sadowski already has her college future planned out, as she has committed to Purdue. In addition to the tennis program, Sadowski — an animal over, particularly of cats — was drawn to West Lafayette, Ind., for its microbiology and veterinary medicine programs.
For the rest of this season, the goal for Sadowski and Eisenhower is to capitalize on what might be a once-in-a-lifetime team title opportunity.
Sadowski is certainly not all Eisenhower will rely on in that pursuit.
Freshman No. 2 singles player Morgan Emerick entered Regional play today 30-1 on the season, while the doubles teams of senior Alayna Aamodt and junior Alexis Gabriel, and sophomores Kara Lu and Maria Khami, are both undefeated.
Eisenhower likely will enter the Division 1 Finals in Byron Center as the favorite.
And if they are successful, it will surely further validate Sadowski’s decision to return to her high school team for another year.
“It would just mean a lot to all of us,” Sadowski said, “with all the work we’ve put in.”
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.
PHOTOS (Top) Utica Eisenhower’s Gabby Sadowski lines up a backhand during last season’s Division 1 No. 1 singles championship match against Rochester Adams’ Nicole Fu. (Middle) Sadowski, right, and Fu approach the net after the match is complete. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)