West Ottawa tennis finishes second at regionals, qualifies for state
HUDSONVILLE - The West Ottawa boys tennis team is returning to the Division 1 state tournament.
The Panthers finished second at the Division 1 regional Thursday and Friday in Hudsonville to qualify for the third year in a row.
"We are excited for our season to continue," West Ottawa coach Brian Metz said. "This is the third year in a row we've qualified for the state finals. Our program is in a great spot and we've got a lot of guys working incredibly hard year-round to allow us to keep competing for conference and regional titles every year. We play in one of the toughest regions in the state and a second-place finish against a really good Hudsonville team is a great result."
West Ottawa scored 21 points to finish second behind Hudsonville (28) and just ahead of Grand Haven (19) in the 10-team field.
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At No. 2 doubles, Cody Schurman-Jake Bloemers earned the flight title with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Hudsonville.
The other doubles flights made the finals and finished runner-up - Liam Herweyer-Jack O'Brien at No. 1, Brody Ruby-Brayden Goodwin at No. 3 and Max McCormick-Landon Meyer at No. 4.
All four singles players - Elliot Dozeman, Traiden Bethke, Trevyn Bethke and Drew Rothstein - reached the regional semifinals and lost to Grand Haven.
With Holland Christian, Holland, Zeeland West and Hamilton qualifying in Division 3 as teams, and Zeeland East's Brady Schanski qualifying as an individual at No. 1 singles, it is the first time in history that all six Holland-area teams will be represented at the state tournament in the same season.
For the Panthers, the hometown feel is extra special with the Division 1 state tournament taking place in Holland.
"It's awesome that the Holland area is hosting the Division 1 state finals this year," Metz said. "When we saw that the finals were going to be in our hometown, we made it a goal as a team that we were going to qualify. Super proud of our squad this year and can't wait to see us compete one last time this year at the state finals."
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Ottawa tennis finishes second at regionals, qualifies for state
