The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Bulldogs serve at SEC match
By Don Richter, Sports Editor
PUBLISHED: May 29, 2008
Chelsea's girls' tennis team finished as runner-up in the Southeastern Conference White Division match May 20.
Advertisement
Winning the title was Adrian.
Leading the host Bulldogs were their doubles teams. Chelsea captured first place in three of the four doubles flights. In the other doubles flight, the Bulldogs finished second.
At No. 1 doubles, the Chelsea twosome of Bailie Simpson and Robin Olinyk placed second. Winning the flight was the Adrian duo of Shelly Chesher and Alexis Ringman.
At No. 2 doubles, the Bulldog combo of Hannah Boshoven and Diana Bach finished first. Adrian's Jessica McNeil and Allison Meyer ended up second.
Chelsea's Alex Broekhuizen and Willa Booth captured a league title at No. 3 doubles. Adrian's Sarah Agnew and Nicole Beorden placed second.
At No. 4 doubles, Bulldogs Ellie Howe and Kara Cremer finished first. Adrian's Lexie Frank and Kristin Batchart were league runner-up.
"Our doubles teams really dominated play today with three of them going 3-0," said Chelsea coach Matt Pedlow. "Hannah Boshoven and Diana Bach continue to improve as a doubles team and both Howe and Cremer and Booth and Broekhuizen played their final matches together today as Cremer and Booth are graduating.
"It was good to see all of the seniors today walk off the court winning their final match of their careers."
In singles play, Chelsea's Amanda Snyder placed second in the SEC White at the No. 1 flight. Adrian's Kristin Vallada finished first.
At No. 2 singles, Bulldog Carolyn Olsen ended up as league champion. Adrian's Caiti Bolick was runner-up.
"In the best match of the day, Carolyn Olsen came back after losing the first set 6-1 to defeat Caiti Bolick 1-6, 6-3, 6-3," Pedlow said. "Olsen never gave up in the match and started covering the court well against Bolick's powerful ground strokes and serve. She refused to lose. I was thrilled to see her play her best match of the year at our last match. I look forward to watching Carolyn improve over the next year for us."
At No. 3 singles, Chelsea's Alison Gines placed second. Adrian's Lindy Coon was first.
At No. 4 singles, Adrian's Melissa Foor was league champion. Dexter's Lindsey Franson was runner-up.
Earning the SEC Sportsmanship Award for Chelsea was Gines.
"Alsion is such a quiet opponent," Pedlow said. "She never gets upset over calls or beats herself up after bad points. I couldn't think of a better player to represent Chelsea tennis than Alison. She is truly a class act who embodies the idea of sportsmanship."
On May 16, the Bulldogs hosted a Division 3 regional. Chelsea finished third overall with 14 points.
Winning the regional was Grosse Ile with 27 points. Placing second was Dearborn Divine Child with 15 points.
Only the top two teams in the regional move on to the Division 3 state match Friday and Saturday at Kalamazoo College.
"We lost going to state by one point," Pedlow said. "It's a tough loss to say the least."
Leading the Bulldogs was the No. 3 doubles duo of Booth and Broekhuizen. The twosome finished 2-1 on the day, losing in the regional final.
"They played a great first two matches on the day," Pedlow said. "Both Alex and Willa should be proud of the way they played, but Grosse Ile (regional final opponent) didn't lose one doubles match all day, so it was definitely a tough match in the finals."
Also reaching the regional finals for Chelsea was Gines at No. 3 singles. She lost in the championship match 6-2, 6-1.
"Alison played her best tennis of the season on the most important day for us," Pedlow said. "She moved her opponents all over the court and made them hit a number of unforced errors. To be unseeded and make it into the regional finals doesn't happen very often. The team was thrilled for Alison."
Despite ending the season so close to the state match, Pedlow said overall it was a good year.
"We had a number of close matches that came down to one point," he said. "We lost our home quad by one point and didn't make states by one point, but I am proud of the way the girls played after losing eight out of 12 players from last year's team.
"Our JV numbers were huge this year, with 35 players, so both myself and Coach (Tom) Osbeck are optimistic as we look ahead to next year."
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
