Michigan high school girls tennis state finals: AA Pioneer, GR Forest Hills Northern repeat
The MHSAA girls tennis state finals was an equal coronation of repeat and new team champions.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern once again won the Division 2 state title with 34 team points on Saturday in Holland. It's the 11th championship for Forest Hills Northern since 2002. Birmingham Seaholm finished second with 30 points.
But unlike last year, Forest Hills Northern came up empty in the individual honors. Mattawan's Lizzie Novak topped FHN's Abby Siminski, last year's champion, 6-1, 6-3, in the No. 1 final. Mattawan's Romika Shokohi beat beat FHN's Nathalie Lanne, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 2 and Portage Central's Anna Dinsmore beat FHN's Andrea Wang, 7-6, 6-0, for the No. 3 title. And at No. 4 singles, Battle Creek Lakeview's Paula Martinez beat FHN's Miriam Ogilvie, 7-6, 0-6, 6-2. Last season, FHN won three of the four flights.
But Forest Hills Northern did win a pair of doubles titles: Sophie Richards and Rhea Marwaha at No. 1 and Isabella Paul and Ryan Morey at No. 2. Seaholm had the other two doubles champs: No. 3 Jane Wineman and Tatum Hirsch and No. 4 Sydney Fong and Jenna Ting.
On Friday, Ann Arbor Pioneer won the Division 1 title in Kalamazoo, edging Bloomfield Hills by one point, 33-32. Last year, Pioneer and Bloomfield Hills shared the state championship. Pioneer swept all four singles crown, including No. 3 Mia Goldstein and No. 4 Bridgette Kelly, beating Bloomfield Hills competitors in the finals. Those two, along with Reese Miller (No. 1) and Elsie Van Wieren (No. 2) all repeated as state titlists.
Bloomfield Hills, meanwhile, swept all four doubles flights. Danielle Herb and Carly Bernard at No. 1, Noa Goldstein and Natalie Raab won No. 2, Eryn Stern and Grace Bickersteth for No. 3 and Colleen Pettengill and Ellie Alberts at No. 4.
In Division 3 in Midland, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood avenged last year's runner-up finish with its 10th state championship and first since reeling off five straight from 2011-15. Cranbrook-Kingswood finished with 37 points, 16 better than Chelsea.
The Cranes swept the four singles flights and won two of the four doubles title. Yenna Park, Charlotte Brown (who won No. 2 last year), Sienna Ilitch and Olivia Zhang are the singles champions. Cranbrook-Kingswood's Ava Clogg and Grace Zhang won the No. 3 doubles and Daryn Krause and Kayli Lala won No. 4. Birmingham Detroit Country Day's Peja Liles and Lana Haddad won No. 1 doubles and East Grand Rapids' Meg Simon and Ella Webb won No. 2.
Ann Arbor hosted the Division 4 finals, won by Greenhills for the first time since 2017 and third time ever, outscoring Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart, 35-26. State titles by No. 2 singles Shangyang Xia, No. 3 singles Sophie Chen, No. 1 doubles Rukmini Nallamothu and Georgie Branch and No. 4 doubles Sabeen Malik and Meera Tewari, buoyed Greenhills.
Sacred Heart's No. 2 doubles Jade Horcoff and Angelina Kakos and No. 3 doubles Lulu George and Maggie Pulte won state crowns, too. The No. 1 singles winner was Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett's Maddy Zampardo and No. 4 singles Hannah Lourido are the other champions in this division.
Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA girls tennis state finals: Ann Arbor Pioneer repeats
