No drama here.
Boys tennis roundup: Okemos earns CAAC Blue title
Okemos earned championships in seven of eight flights to win the CAAC Blue tournament Thursday on its own courts while repeating as league champions.
The Chiefs compiled 55 points to top East Lansing and Jackson, which tied for second with 39. Holt and Grand Ledge followed closely with 37 and 30, respectively.
“It was even more than what I hoped for,” Okemos coach Chris S. said. “This is probably the best tennis I’ve seen out of my kids this year so far.”
Jackson’s Jussi T., an exchange student from Finland, kept Okemos from making it a clean sweep when he topped Chiefs senior Elan D. 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 at first flight singles.
“(D.) fought hard against a phenomenal player,” S. said. “That was some of the best tennis I’ve seen from him in a long time.”
Okemos sophomore Jordan J. and senior Mazen O. avenged dual match losses to Jackson junior Michael B. and senior S., respectively, while capturing second and third flight singles titles.
Junior Alex G. filled in for an ill Chiefs teammate and joined senior Denton W. in an upset of No. 1-seeded East Lansing junior Nick R. and freshman Jesse W. at third doubles.
Okemos senior Kevin H. and sophomore Adham O. had to overcome a 4-3 deficit in the third set to avoid an upset and edge East Lansing freshmen Peyton Brogan and Caleb Hoekstra, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, at second doubles.
(really would like to know what the school does with all of these..there must be a big storage room somewhere I guess!)
Okay, so a little drama, since Kevin and his partner can never do anything the easy way. Missed his first match, a 6-1, 6-2 over Jackson, and missed the first and second set of the final (was off with Cpher…more on that later). But I arrived just as the third set was starting up, and while most tennis matches are ‘on-serve’, this set was ‘on-break’, as each team broke the other team’s serve over and over until, as they said above, the boys were down 4-3. Then they broke the other team, finally held, and broke again….and that was it.
Hats off to the EL team…they are both freshman, and I am sure they are going to cause the Okemos team fits for years to come.
(picture stolen from twitter…it had a caption “2013 league champs! love this team. 6 seniors representing the chiefs today”
Season is winding down….an invite on Saturday, regionals in two weeks, and then states one week after that.
