New Division, Same Old Andover Tennis Team?

A move from Division 2 to Division 3 hasn’t impacted the Andover High School varsity boys tennis team just yet. 

The Barons made it out of regionals like they have every year for over a decade, but head coach Steve Herdoiza expects there might be some differences when his team plays in Kalamazoo at the state finals today and Saturday.

“I’m still getting the feel for it (the new division),” Herdoiza said. “I think the difference will be that there will be more depth in Division 2. Division 3 was sort of top heavy where you had Cranbrook (Kingswood) and Country Day, but here there will be a lot more really good teams in the middle.” 

The added competition might make it difficult for Andover to continue its impressive streak of top five finishes. The last time the Barons didn’t finish the state finals in the top five was back in 2001 when they finished in 8th place.

“It will certainly be challenging, we didn’t get too many favorable draws,” Herdoiza said.

Andover’s top doubles team Jason Law and Jake Levy have a match against Jeffrey Irving and Jason Vismara from Grosse Pointe North in the opening round. If the pair wins, they would face the brackets three-seed team of Luke Rynbrandt and Derek Phelps from Forest Hills Central.

Herdoiza said it would be a difficult road for Law and Levy, but he added that they were playing their best tennis of the year headed into the season’s final weekend.

“I think our No. 1 doubles has really jumped up, whether they’ve won or lost, they’ve been in every match,” Herdoiza said.

He also thought his No. 3 doubles team of Dylan Deitch and Cuthbert Sun should have earned a higher seed in their bracket.

Deitch and Sun earned a six-seed and bye in the first round. They play Devyn Ely and Aaron Villarreal from Allen Park in the second round.

In singles, Herdoiza was optimistic that his two flight champions from regionals - junior Sanjay Reddy (No. 2 singles) and senior Jonah Yousif (No. 4 singles) – have a good chance at making a run. Herdoiza called Reddy’s winning the No. 2 singles at regionals a highlight of the tournament.

A strong finish at the state finals would wrap up a very successful season for Andover. In addition to winning its regional at North Farmington, the Barons also won the Oakland Activities Association Red division league championship.

“Our play picked up as the year went on and at the last two tournaments, the leagues and the regionals, we played very competitive tennis," Herdoiza said. "Whether we won or lost, the whole team was competitive, and that’s really my goal going into states is that competitively we’re our strongest.”