TCC tennis tops Bucs, Lakers

Thu, May 8, 2008    to del.icio.us

Grand Haven's scheduled four-team tennis tournament was rained out Wednesday.

Instead, the Buccaneers went indoors at Norton Pines and took on Traverse City Central, a team ranked No. 3 in the state, and lost 6-2.

"I was very impressed with our level of play across the board today," said coach Kevin Polston. "Our players played aggressively against one of the top teams in the state. We have played very tough competition and stood up to it time and again, I hope the girls now see that they can play with any team in the state."

Winning for the Bucs were Audrey Schultz at No. 2 singles and Gina Kukulski at No. 4.

Schultz, a senior, beat TCC senior Sarah Malone, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. Kukulski, a freshman, knocked off Trojans' sophomore Adela Fedore, 6-4, 6-0.

"Audrey Schultz is on another level right now," Polston said. "She keeps digging deeper within and the results have been tremendous.

"Gina Kukulski has been a rock for us all year. She is an efficient player that can capitalize on her opponents' weaknesses in a hurry. She has had numerous 6-0 sets and continued with another today."

The Buccaneers lost all four doubles flights, despite a pair of very tight three-set matches. Mallory Smith and Josie Birkett came up just short at No. 2 doubles, falling to Emily Lelandais and Jillian Bergsma, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

At fourth doubles, the Bucs' Haley Birkett and Megan Birkett lost to Kayla Casciano and Jenna Boullion, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Spring Lake, another team scheduled to play Wednesday's event, followed up the Bucs' match with a shortened pro-set match against the Trojans and lost 8-0.

Lindsey Garnder came the closest to pulling out a win, falling to Malone at No. 2 singles, 8-4. Michelle Meyer lost to Fedore at No. 4 singles, 8-3.

Both Grand Haven and Spring Lake look to wrap up conference championships Saturday. The Bucs are at Jenison for the O-K Red Conference meet while the Lakers are at Fruitport for the Lakes Eight Conference meet. Both the Bucs and the Lakers were unbeaten during regular-season league meets.

WMC TAKES 5TH

Western Michigan Christian took fifth out of 13 teams in the rain-delayed Greater Muskegon Athletic Association city tournament, with the Warriors' No. 1 doubles team taking first place.

Mona Shores won the tourney with 61 points while WMC finished fifth with 46 points.

The Warriors' No. 1 doubles team of Katie Wilkie and Lorrain Downer beat Mona Shores' of Sofia Thesander and Jordy Bergeron, 6-1, 7-5 to claim the title.

WMC's No. 2 and No. 3 singles, Katie Meloche and Christine Busscher, each received second-place medals. It was Busscher's first loss of the season.

Chelsea Feddema took fourth place at No. 4 singles for WMC.

Coach Ron Maycroft said he was very pleased with the play of his team against much larger schools.