This Week's Tennis Results

Ahh, so NOW we get into the meat of what this blog was made for: putting stuff here that won't fit in the paper.

Well, thanks to a spate of scheduled events as well as rescheduled make-up dates occurring this week, we simply didn't have room to put this week's tennis events into the paper. So I am putting them here, for the readers intrepid enough to find it. Enjoy!!

Rockets roll past Fruitport

FRUITPORT — Reeths-Puffer was impressive Thursday in dispatching nonconference foe Fruitport, 7-1.

Reeths-Puffer took wins in every flight except for first singles at the dual.

Collecting those wins for the Rockets in the singles flights were Anika Sasinski at second singles, who defeated Liz Taylor 6-4, 6-4; Erin Crummel at third singles, who dominated Ashleigh Visscher 6-1, 6-0; and Gwen Swanson at fourth singles, who routed Bailey Umstead 6-1, 6-0.

R-P also took wins in the four doubles flights. At first doubles, Rachel DeMuro and Jessy Dick defeated Claire McWilliams and MacKenzie Portenga, 6-1, 7-5. Second doubles saw Sierra Boyd and Audrey Fox defeat Kayla Kowitz and Amanda Thornton 6-0, 6-0. Lindsey Meyers and Courtney Primm won at third singles over Julia Newmyer and Meghan Newmyer, 6-1, 6-2. And at fourth singles, Kelsey Crampton and Brooke Vanderstelt beat Madison Hurtubise and Brooke Wilde 6-1, 6-0.

Reeths-Puffer improved to 2-1 this season with the win.

Whitehall shuts out Grant

WHITEHALL — Whitehall posted a dominant performance Wednesday against Grant, winning five matches in straight sets en route to an 8-0 win over the Tigers.

Julia Rogers had the most overwhelming performance, blanking Grant’s Alicia Jaimes at third singles, 6-0, 6-0. Hannah Potter domianted Gabby Honisberger at first singles with a 6-0, 6-2 performance, and Katelyn Jelinek defeated Salena Ledezma at second singles, 6-1, 6-3.

In the doubles flights, Carlie Bishop and Jamie Westrate rolled to a first doubles victory, 6-2, 6-2 over McKinlay Lawyer and Hannah DeWindt, and Elise Shaffer and Taylor Boyd won 6-0, 6-1 at second doubles over Makayla Duflo and Tiffany Riveria.

The Vikings dropped the first set at fourth singles and third and fourth doubles but rebounded to win the final two sets of all three of those matches.

Whitehall moved to 2-2 on the season with the win. The Vikings competed at the Hamilton Invitational Saturday after the Beacon went to press.

R-P loses to Zeeland East

ZEELAND — Reeths-Puffer’s girls tennis team dropped a 6-2 decision on the road Wednesday at Zeeland East.

The Rockets dropped to 1-1 this season with the loss.

Vikes fall at Spring Lake

SPRING LAKE — Whitehall dropped a 7-1 decision Monday against Spring Lake, with all eight matches ending in straight sets.

Several Vikings made their matches close but were unable to make a dent against the powerful Lakers’ squad. Katelyn Jelinek, though, came up with a win at second singles, topping Roxanne Stroebel 6-3, 6-1.

The best Whitehall performance in defeat came from the fourth doubles team of Emily Christensen and Ashley Dore, who fell 7-6, 6-3 to Rachel Briegel and Megan Oostindie.

All four Vikings’ doubles teams put forth solid efforts, including Taylor Boyd and Elise Shaffer at second doubles, who went down 7-5, 6-2 to Jori Henderson and Stephanie Sabo. Whitehall took five games each in two-set losses at first and third doubles as well.

Rockets blank Muskegon Catholic in opener

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer finally opened its tennis season Monday with a dominant showing against Muskegon Catholic, blanking the visiting Crusaders, 8-0.

Seven of the Rockets’ eight wins came in straight sets as they controlled all aspects of the match.

The Rockets’ singles players all earned two-set victories. Angela Clarke rolled by Maddie Sessleman at first singles, 6-1, 6-4; Anika Sasinski defeated McKenzie Doriot at second singles, 6-1, 6-1; Erin Crummel dominated Rose Maniates at third singles, 6-0, 6-1; and Gwen Swanson beat Hannah O’Toole at fourth singles, 6-1, 6-1.

The duo of Jessy Dick and Rachel DeMuro had the toughest time of any Rockets’ players at first doubles, as they were forced to battle away a spirited challenge from Stephanie DeVoursney and Rosie Jacobson. The Rockets’ pair managed to pull it off, though, winning the match 7-6, 6-7, 6-2.

Audrey Fox and Sierra Boyd defeated Anna Garzelloni and Kaley Knop at second doubles, 6-0, 6-3, and Brooke Vanderstelt and Kelsey Crampton routed Jessica Serene and Haley Wiewiora at fourth doubles, 6-0, 6-1. The Rockets’ third doubles team of Lindsey Meyers and Renee Hosler won by forfeit.

Whitehall falls to Calvin Christian

NORTON SHORES — Whitehall’s home tournament was canceled last Saturday, but on short notice the Vikings arranged a dual meet at Norton Pines Athletic Club against Calvin Christian.

Whitehall dropped a tight match to the Lady Squires, 5-3.

Rainouts Causing Headaches in Oceana Co. Sports

It’s a virtually unprecedented spring in Oceana County sports. Baseball and softball fields sit unused due to lousy weather. Long-jump pits are full of water. It’s mid-April, and with the exceptions of Pentwater and Hart, no county team has played a baseball or softball game, and no county team has had a track meet. The Oceana County baseball and softball tournament, scheduled for Saturday, was the most recent victim, with rain keeping the Hesperia fields from being suitable to host the event.

“It’s definitely been an unusual spring,” Shelby athletic director Chuck Persenaire said. “I’ve been coaching at Shelby for 25 years. I haven’t seen a spring like this. We went from last year, where basically we got on the fields right away, to this year, we’re taking fly balls in the parking lot. Track hasn’t been outside, really at all.”

Even the events schools have been able to get in have been affected by weather. Pentwater’s season-opening soccer game was played on brown grass that had only recently gotten out from under snow, and the baseball doubleheader against Hart on the same day saw piles of snow sitting just beyond each baseline fence.

Shelby managed to play a soccer game Thursday afternoon against Newaygo, a 2-1 loss, but “it was miserable,” Persenaire said. “Rain was coming down sideways. Anytime the ball was going in the air it was going sideways and carrying out of bounds. It was not well-attended. We had a faithful fan show up and put up a pop-up deer blind and watched the game.”

While soccer games have somewhat been spared from the spate of weather-induced cancellations this month — several of them have been washed out, but at least a few have been played — the other spring sports have seen their schedules get shredded. Not only have baseball and softball games and track meets been canceled or postponed, for the most part the teams haven’t even been able to practice outside. Hurdlers have had to train in a hallway with makeshift starting blocks while baseball players have to settle for taking indoor batting practice.

Even when the weather clears up and allows games to be played, Persenaire expects the inability to practice in the usual way to affect the level of play when the seasons get rolling, saying times will likely be higher in the running events and the jumping events will produce lower-than-usual results.

“If you can’t get outside to do that, there’s no way you will be in the correct form,” Persenaire said. “That’s all stuff you work on at practice. You can’t simulate what’s going to happen on a track in a hallway. Until you have someone on a mound throwing at you, you can’t simulate that in a gym with a roof.”

Golf is also an issue, Persenaire added, as the school teams have to work around the available schedule of their home courses. Persenaire said that Shelby’s home course, Oceana Golf Club, has been very good to the Tigers, but some courses may not permit golfers to play due to poor conditions.

While the athletes struggle to get into game shape practicing indoors, area athletic directors are running into trouble rescheduling all the canceled contests.

While nonconference games are not a huge problem to lose, several conference events have fallen by the wayside, and it’s vital to the leagues to get those games in so a conference champion can be crowned and all-league teams can be determined.

“The one track meet we had to reschedule, we have a date in our calendar for a rain date for that, but do you use it on the first conference meet of the year?” Persenaire said. “It worked out where Whitehall, Mason Co. and I had a date later in the season (Apr. 24) where we were all open.”

In sports like baseball, softball and soccer, where make-up dates are less readily available and can be more complicated to schedule, more drastic steps may be necessary to get all the necessary conference games on the slate.

“There is a possibility we can play on some Saturdays, those kind of things,” Persenaire said. “Some non-conference stuff will have to get canceled and league stuff put into those spots if this keeps happening. (Hesperia A.D.) Mike (Fosburg) was having this same discussion.

“Everyone’s going to look at every open date they have. With baseball you have to take arms into consideration, because pitchers can only throw so many innings in a week.”

Another factor that affects some schools is that some athletes in the county play multiple sports in the spring. While Shelby’s athletic policy doesn’t allow for dual-sport same-season athletes and neither Hart nor Hesperia have any such students, Pentwater and Walkerville have several athletes that play multiple spring sports, which creates further complications. Falcons’ athletic director Dan Nugent said that with just 13 soccer players on his team roster, with several of those also playing softball or running track, any make-up date needs to line up with the other sports in order for the Falcons to have a full roster.

So much of the spring sports schedule has been wiped out that quiet talk has begun among fans on whether state playoff events might be pushed back to allow for those events to be made up. However, since the rainouts haven’t affected everyone in the state, such a move seems unlikely.

“Whether the MHSAA moves stuff back, I doubt it,” Persenaire said. “It’s hard for them to move it because of the places that are hosting these events. For the state meets, for golf and track, are already scheduled. It would be difficult from that standpoint for them to move.”

Even as bad as it’s been weather-wise in terms of sporting events in Oceana County, things could be worse.

“I’m glad I’m not up north talking to people in the Petoskey area,” Persenaire said. “They got three to four inches of snow (last week) on top of the foot they still had on the ground. If we get some wind and dry that (rain) up, we’re good to go.”