West Ottawa holds off Holland in stellar return of tennis rivalry
The Holland-West Ottawa boys tennis rivalry used to be full of close, thrilling matches year in and year out.
The past few seasons, West Ottawa has fielded a team so powerful that the matches were not reminicent of that rivalry.
That changed Monday as close matches in nearly every flight led to the closest rivalry match in several years with West Ottawa holding off Holland 6-3 at Holland High School.
"Holland has improved significantly since last season. They battled up and down the line-up, but we were able to come out on top 6-3. There were a number of close matches. Coach (Kyle) Kreps has done a really good job preparing and training his team to compete at every flight. I always enjoy playing against Holland because I know that no matter what the score is, his players will play until the very last point."
That was especially true at No. 2 singles as Holland's Andrew Lubbers was able to hold off West Ottawa's Traiden Bethke in three sets. Both of the first sets were split tiebreakers, leading to the third-set pro-style tiebreaker to 10. Lubbers won 6-7(6), 7-6(6), 10-7.
The teams split singles matches.
West Ottawa's Elliot Dozeman defeated Aiden Sin 6-0, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. Trevyn Bethke defeated Graham VanFaasen, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3.
For Holland, James Baer defeated Drew Rothstein 6-3, 6-2 at No. 4 singles.
West Ottawa was able to rely on its depth in doubles to claim four of the five matches and seal the victory.
At No. 1, Liam Herweyer-Jack O'Brien defeated Sam Payne-Elloit Wehrmeyer 3-6, 6-1, 11-9 in three sets.
West Ottawa's Brody Ruby-Brayden Goodwin defeated Holland's Emmett Book-Oscar Miller 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2.
At No. 4, West Ottawa's Max McCormick-Landon Meyer defeated Owen Baer-Harper Prutch 6-3, 6-0, while at No. 5, Hugh Ervine-Teddy Mauger defeated Royce Cano-Will Lubbers 6-3, 6-1.
Holland's Willem Evenson-Connor Huizinga topped Jake Bloomers-Cody Schurman 0-6, 7-6(3), 10-7 in a three-set comeback at No. 3 doubles for the Dutch.
"I'm very pleased with the way we competed today," Holland coach Kyle Kreps said. "While West Ottawa graduated a lot of players from their team a year ago, we knew they would still be tough. Coach Metz does a terrific job, evident by the fact that they are a perennial state qualifying team. While the team result isn't what we were striving for, we know a 3-6 decision with a team like West Ottawa means we can compete with the top teams around."
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Ottawa holds off Holland in stellar return of tennis rivalry
