Oakland County Girls Tennis Teams Qualify For State Finals

Division 1 - Grosse Pointe South Regional

Troy had to settle for second best at the Grosse Pointe South girls tennis regional tournament, happening this weekend around Metro Detroit.

The Blue Devils were a buzzsaw at the meet, picking up eight regional championships, seven of them at the expense of the Colts.

Amanda Guo (No. 1 singles), Lillian Liang (No. 2 singles) and Brittany Friesen (No. 4 singles) were runner-ups in their respective flights. In No. 3 singles, Abbey Rice was the only Troy player who failed to reach the flight championship match.

In doubles, Kalie Collins and Tonya Malyarenko (No. 1 doubles), Shruthi Chandra and Morgan Zander (No. 2 doubles), Anna Chung and Katie Forche (No. 3 doubles) and Tiffany Chen and Courtney Fietsam (No. 4 doubles) finished in second place.

Scoring seven runner-up finishes was good enough to get Troy back to the state finals. Last year, the Colts finished tied with Rochester for ninth place.

Division 2 - North Farmington Regional

Both Bloomfield Hills high schools qualified for the state finals on Friday at the North Farmington Regional.

Andover won six of the eight flights while city-rival Lahser’s Mollie Fox won No. 1 singles and her teammates picked up four second-place finishes.

In singles competition, the Barons won three of the four regional championships. Amber Cox failed to reach the finals in the No. 1 flight, but her teammates Kristen Law (No. 2 singles), Erin Weingarten (No. 3 singles) and Stephanie Podolsky (No. 4 singles) all went home with hardware.

The results were similar in doubles action.

Andover’s top team of Sonia Trigui and Brittany Silverman didn’t reach the finals, but all three other doubles pairings won regional titles. Paige Atkinson and Hailey Brownstein won No. 2 doubles, Alana Gutman and Jenna Yousif won No. 3 doubles and Sydney Aronovitz and Madison Lorenz won No. 4 doubles.

Both schools qualified for the state finals last year. Andover finished in third place with 22 points and Lahser finished tied for seventh with 10 points. The Barons had three runner-up finishes at the state meet a year ago.

Division 2 – Seaholm Regional

A pair of Birmingham-area schools didn’t leave much room for any other qualifiers in the regional at Seaholm High School.

Marian High School and Birmingham's faced each other in the finals of all eight flights. The Mustangs walked away with a slight edge, winning five of the eight matches.

The schools split the regional championship in four singles flights down the middle.

Marian’s Bailey Paradiso won No. 1 singles and Lauren Dietz won No. 4 singles. Seaholm’s Labina Petrovska won No. 2 singles and Lauren Frazier won No. 3 singles.  

In doubles action, the Mustangs won three of the four regional championships.  

Both schools qualified for the finals last year and finished in the top five. The Maples finished in second place with 26 points, seven points back of first place finisher Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern. Marian finished in third with 23 points.

A pair of players will be looking to win their second straight individual championship.

The Mustangs’ Elaine Apaza, who was runner-up in No. 2 singles at regionals, won a championship in No. 3 singles last year. After winning a title in No. 4 singles a year ago, Seaholm’s Lauren Frazier will try to win No. 3 singles.

Paradiso didn’t win an individual championship last year, but she is a two-time state champion. She’ll look her third title this year for Marian.

Kelly Lunghamer won a No. 3 singles title as a sophomore, but she’ll have a chance to win a second championship in No. 1 doubles with her partner Olivia Underwood.