On May 19 the Seaholm varsity girls’ tennis team won their Division two regional final at Marian High School, avenging a regular season duel match loss to Marian earlier in the season.
Their region included Seaholm, Marian, Groves, Berkley, Southfield, Garden City, Detroit-Cody, Detroit-Henry Ford, Detroit- Renaissance, Redford-Union, and Redford-Thurston.All of the other schools were eliminated going into the final round, with Seaholm and Marian as the only two schools remaining. It was a straight head-to-head matchup featuring two of the state’s top teams.
Earlier this month, Seaholm and Marian squared off in a regular season duel match, resulting in a Marian win. Marian took five out of the eight matches, giving them a 5-3 win over the Maples.
In the earlier match, the Mustangs won all three out of the four singles sets, with sophomore Nancy Benda having the only individual win at her #1 singles position for the Maples. The other two wins came from the #2 and #3 doubles positions for the Maples.
This time around the Maples took advantage of their doubles matches, with all four positions coming on top.
No. 1 doubles senior Elizabeth Gunckle and freshman Libina Petrovska for Seaholm defeated Marian’s Kristin Lunghamer andCatherine Christian (7-6)(6-3). No. 2 doubles junior Meghan Dooley and junior Katie Root for Seaholm defeated Marian’s Megan Callaghan and Macy Hudson (6-4) (4-6) (7-5).
No. 3 doubles senior Sammy Miller and junior Annie Grier for Seaholm defeated Marian’s Olivia Underwood and Mallory Hudson (6-3) (4-6) (6-2).
No. 4 doubles senior Katy Shook and junior Isabella Lleyva for Seaholm defeated Marian’s Maddie Hramiec and Bridget O’hara (7-6) (6-2).
After sweeping the doubles matches, all the Maples needed was at least one of the singles players to win, to give Seaholm the win for the entire match- as well as giving them the regional title.
After Benda lost an extremely close individual match against Marian’s Bailey Paradiso, Seaholm was still in need of one more victory. Freshman Lauren Frazier would give them just that.
Frazier defeated Lauren Dietz of Marian at the No. 4 singles matchup which handed Seaholm the regional championship as they move on to the state championship which begins next Friday, June 3.
“It was really exciting,” Benda said. “Beating Marian after losing to them earlier in the season was a big confidence booster going into states.”
The Michigan girls’ tennis state finals for Division 2 are held at Jenison on June 3-4, where Seaholm will look to bring home a state championship for the first time since 2004.
