Rivalry Swings Back to Westwood as Patriots Earn 1st Finals Title Since 2021
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
October 1, 2026
NEGAUNEE — Ishpeming Westwood and Negaunee are 10 minutes apart, so they play plenty of tennis against each other whether it’s routine dual meets or the bigger ones with conference and Upper Peninsula championships on the line.
The Miners have been the one winning those meaningful meets lately with the last four U.P. Division 1 titles to their name.
This, however, was Westwood’s year.
The Patriots won the U.P. Finals on Tuesday for the first time since 2021, the last championship before Negaunee’s streak started, with wins in five of the day’s eight flights.
Their mentality was the key to their success this year, coach Sarah Zindler said, and it showed in the way they went up against the Miners.
“They weren’t scared to play Negaunee; they were excited to play Negaunee,” she said. “They were up for the challenge, they wanted to compete. When they were down in a match, they had that mentality of, ‘I can still win this,’ not the defeated (attitude) after you lose a point. That can sometimes be hard, especially for seniors on a U.P. Finals day where they know it’s their last matches.”
Eliisa Doney is one of those seniors. She talked about seeing Negaunee lifting up trophies in front of them in recent years. So, yeah, this one felt pretty good.
But regardless of the rivalry, she won at No. 2 singles after playing doubles the majority of her career. Her last memories of high school tennis at Westwood are pretty good.
“I’ve never been (a U.P. champion) individually or as a team before, so it’s an incredible feeling that I’ve never felt before,” she said.
Doney played doubles as an underclassmen, missed her junior year with an injury and then filled a spot as Westwood battled other injuries this season. She beat Negaunee’s Addie Chapman 6-2, 7-5 in their flight final Wednesday.
“She just took on the challenge and her first couple matches were a little rocky, but she had that competitive attitude of, ‘I’m gonna figure it out,’” Zindler said. “And now she’s a U.P. champ.”
So are many of her teammates.
Westwood’s Emmi Carlson won No. 3 singles and finished the season with just one loss. Despite that, she trailed Negaunee’s Lucy Rogers 5-2 in the first set of the final.
“And she told us, ‘I got this, I’m gonna win this set 7-5,’” Zindler said. “And she won the set 7-5. And that’s how she’s been all season. If she loses three or four games, she’s like, ‘It’s fine, no big deal, I got this.’”
Carlson won 7-5, 6-2.
Westwood’s Isabel Belpedio beat Negaunee’s Katie Carlson in their final to become the No. 4 singles champion. Belpedio went undefeated in her first year on varsity.
“I played a calm, consistent game,” she said. “I just played my best, and I gave what I had. It feels pretty great … like all the hard work I put in definitely (paid) off.”
“She has also just been steady and confident and knows how to play her game, doesn’t try to do too much and doesn’t let the other girls get in her head,” Zindler added.
The No. 3 doubles team of Emerson Williams and Samiah LaFreniere came out on top over Negaunee’s Bree Helppi and Audrey Hahn in their final despite entering as the third seed. They had lost to Negaunee just last week.
Williams was a part of the winning No. 4 doubles team last year. Since then, she suffered an injury and had to play this entire season left-handed, which is her non-dominant hand.
“They played a great semifinal match, and then in finals just looked like they were confident. They played the net well, they played smart from the back,” Zindler said. “They weren’t the unexpected victory but the wild card that we really needed today for our team.”
The winning No. 4 doubles team was Westwood’s freshmen Jenna Marana and Brie Mahaffey, who just picked up a racket during the summer.
“From the start of the season until now, they have just continually grown and improved,” Zindler said. “I just kept saying, ‘You guys are going to be there, you just got to keep working on it.’ And today, they're the best four doubles team.”
Kingsford junior Aubrie Moore repeated as a U.P. champion with a dominating 6-0, 6-0 win over Escanaba’s Anna Martin at No. 1 singles.
“I’m feeling good, I’m really happy and I’m glad,” Moore said. “It’s my second year, so I’m just really proud of myself. I think I really improved on my serving, and my forehand has gotten a lot better.”
Moore and the entire team played with “We play for her,” shirts with the initials GM in honor of her mom Ginger, who died after battling cancer earlier this year.
“Obviously my mom was by my side the whole time and helped me get through this and win,” Moore said.
Negaunee’s No. 1 doubles team of Paige O’Donnell and Olivia Richards won as juniors.
O’Donnell said Marquette has been tough for them and she was focused on doing well in their match to help out their entire team.
“We played Marquette a couple times, it’s always been super competitive, always super back and forth, usually going to some tiebreakers,” Richards said. “We were kind of expecting that going into it, but we saw their weaknesses in the first set and we knew we had to capitalize on those while also working together.”
Negaunee’s Maia Brunette and Aubrey Harper defeated Escanaba’s Isabella Noblet and Lily Benetti for the No. 2 doubles title.
PHOTOS (Top) Ishpeming Westwood’s Eliisa Doney sends a forehand during a match Wednesday at No. 2 singles. (Middle) Kingsford’s Aubrie Moore returns a volley at No. 1 singles. (Below) Marquette’s Charlotte Thomsen reaches out to return a shot. (Photos by Jason Juno.)
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Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 8, 2025
The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.
The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football.
Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.
There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.
To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.
Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.
The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.
Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.
A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.
A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.
- In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net.
- In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them.
- Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
- In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.
The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1
Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Semifinals – Nov. 15
Finals – Nov. 22
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Boys Soccer
Districts – Oct. 8-18
Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Semifinals – Oct. 29
Finals – Nov. 1
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3)
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 3-8
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21
Finals – Nov. 22
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.