Five straight for Spring Lake

Fri, Oct 10, 2008    to del.icio.us

SPRING LAKE — It's hard to imagine Spring Lake being any more dominant than it was at last season's Division 3 tennis regional.

But the Lakers' core group of players are a year older and, as evidence by Thursday's results, a year better.

The Lakers won six flight championships and a total of 30 matches at Spring Lake High School to easily capture the regional crown. The victory is Spring Lake's fifth straight regional championship — the longest regional win streak in coach Charlie Bassett's 40-year tenure.

"We had 29 wins a year ago, so I'm happy we were able to top that," Bassett said. "They all did what I expected. We had a couple flights where we started strong and then we kind of let up. Fortunately, we were able to overcome that."

Cadillac was the runner-up to Spring Lake with 18 points, and also clinches a trip to the state finals, which will be held Oct. 17-18 at Novi High School. Fruitport finished in fifth place with eight total points.

Spring Lake swept the singles flights, as the play of David Cook (No. 1), Tyler Fedewa (No. 2), Alek Kihnke (No. 3) and Ian Kihnke (No. 4) kept the Lakers on top.

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There was no No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in the top singles flight, as Fruitport's Jon Erny, the flight's No. 2 seed, was upset in the semifinals by Cadillac's PJ O'Hagan. Erny and Cook played in a memorable regional final a year ago, one that was decided inside at Norton Pines due to bad weather.

O'Hagan alsmost pulled off two upsets in a single evening, as he had Cook on the ropes. Cook was caught off guard, losing the first set, 6-2, but evened the match with a 6-1 win in the second set. He then simply survived in the do-or-die third set, fighting off two match points under the lights before finally prevailing, 7-5.

"He had to dig down deep for that one," Bassett said.

It was much easier going for Fedewa, who won, 6-0, 6-1 over Fruitport's Noah Armstrong.

"My forehand was working pretty well and my volleys were solid," Fedewa said.

Alec Kihnke rolled to a 6-0 win in the first set at No. 3, but his hitting errors started to pile up, and had to sweat out a 7-5 second set to earn the victory.

"I let up," Kihnke admitted to Bassett afterward.

Kihnke's brother, Ian, scored a 6-2, 7-5 victory at No. 4 over Petoskey's Adam Blachut.

A group of opposing players watching Nate Lee and Ben Esh-Nauta at No. 1 doubles called the duo "the Bash Brothers." The nickname seems to fit the Lakers' pair well.

"I haven't heard that one before," Lee said after he and Esh-Nauta won over Ludington's Joe Lester and Reid Sanders, 7-5, 6-2. "I guess we are a couple of the bigger guys out here. Now that tennis is in the same season as football, you don't see a lot of bigger guys."

"We like turning to our power game," added Esh-Nauta. "Teams can only dink it back to us for so long."

The victory for Lee was his fourth regional championship to go along with four flight victories at conference championship meets.

"It's a load off my chest," Lee said. "I'm glad to have it done so now we can focus on state."

Kurt Hendricks and Christian Yoshonis tasted victory at No. 3 doubles, but Cadillac prevailed at both No. 2 and No. 4. Bassett was pleased with the effort of Grant Evans and Josh Peel at No. 4.

"They lost (6-2, 6-2), but they really fought tooth and nail," Bassett said. "The kids from Cadillac were just a little better, but our kids played their hearts out. That's all you can ask for."

Bassett's crew will have to play their hearts out at the state finals if they want to reach their goal of a top five finish.

"We have the potential to do very well," he said. "I'm not saying we're going to win it because we played Detroit Country Day (earlier this season) and they beat us 8-0."

Bassett labels East Grand Rapids, Country Day and Birmingham Cranbrook as the cream of the crop in Division 3. He hopes the Lakers can be in the hunt for a spot somwhere between fourth through eighth place.

"We've been there before, so we'll know what to expect. And we'll be here next year, too," Bassett said.