Sturgis tennis finishes fourth at conference meet
PLAINWELL — The Sturgis tennis team secured 14 points and finished fourth overall at the Wolverine Championships this past weekend.
Plainwell was the host site of the event, which was won by Otsego with 18 points. Edwardsburg came in second with 17 and Vicksburg's 16 points put the Bulldogs in third ahead of Sturgis.
The Lady Trojans had one flight champion on the day. It came at third doubles as Nghi Ngo and Katelyn Halling won all three of their matches on the day. The duo beat Plainwell 6-1, 6-0; Vicksburg 6-0, 6-1 and then took out Cierra Swope and Reaghan Higgins of Otsego in the finals with 6-2, 6-2 scores.
Rylee Carver reached the flight finals at first doubles, taking second place. She dropped her match to Aly Aldrich of Otsego 6-0, 6-1 in the finals, but beat Caeltn Hinds of Niles in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 and Grace Breitenbach of Vicksburg 6-1, 6-4 to reach the finals.
Gracie Perry played to fourth place at second singles. She fell to Julia Jones of Edwardsburg in the third-place match 7-6 (5) and 6-3. Perry won her opening round matchup over Aili Shaughnessy of Paw Paw 6-0, 6-0 and then fell to Scarlett Hosner of Vicksburg in the next round.
Katherine Steele finished third overall at third singles. She beat Lydia Griffith 6-2, 6-3 in the third-place match. Steele won her opening match over Claire Pipkorn of Plainwell 6-2, 6-0 but dropped her next to Julia Lewis of Edwardsburg.
Ava Stewart finished third overall at fourth singles as well. She beat Sara McCaw of Otsego in the third-place match 6-1, 6-4. Stewart won her opening match over Mia Abarca of Niles 6-0, 6-1 in the opening round, but fell to Sadie Grossman of Vicksburg in the next round.
In first doubles play, the team of Johanna Rooyakkers and Bella Currier came in fifth. They dropped their opening to Edwardsburg, but came back to win their next two matches.
The second doubles team of Arianna Terwedo and Chloe Clark finished fourth. They won their first match over Lilah Zabonick and Lucy Olson of Three Rivers 6-4, 6-2 but then fell to Otsego and Vicksburg in their next two matches.
Fourth doubles came in third place for the Trojans. The team of Mya Eicher and Hannah Ritchie won their first match by default, then fell in the next round to Otsego. The Sturgis duo would then beat Vicksburg in the third-place matchup.
Sturgis will play in the Portage Central Regional 9 on Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m. Byron Center, Holland, Mattawan, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg, Portage Central, Portage Northern, St. Joseph, Zeeland East and Zeeland West will all be in attendance as well.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Otsego wins Wolverine tennis title
