By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
The Allegan girls tennis team won a pair of flight championships and finished runner-up in five other flights at the Allegan Duals on Saturday, April 23.
The Tigers placed second in the team standings with 16 points. Hudsonville won the event with 21 points, while Elk Rapids was third with seven points and Portage Northern was fourth with four points.
“This team is trending in the right direction,” Allegan coach Damien Arthur said. “Our confidence and level of play are changing for the better.”
For the second weekend in a row, No. 1 singles Regan Fales and No. 4 singles Bristyn Neldon captured flight titles for the Tigers.
Fales lost just three total games in securing her three wins, while Neldon cruised to a win against her opponents from Portage Northern (6-1, 6-0) and Elk Rapids (6-0, 6-0) and survived for a 7-5, 6-3 win over Hudsonville.
Emma Kuelber went 2-1 at No. 3 singles, including a 3-6, 6-3, 10-4 marathon victory over Elk Rapids.
Lilly Dame, filling in at No. 2 singles, went 0-3 to place fourth.
“Singles put together yet another great Saturday with taking two titles on the day,” Arthur said. “We are strong there, and are only improving day by day.
And our doubles teams put themselves in position to take home gold medals as well.”
That they did, as all four doubles teams posted wins over Portage Northern and Elk Rapids. That included a 6-2, 5-7, 10-4 win by McKenna Morrie and Grace Davis at No. 2.
But all four Allegan teams came up short against Hudsonville to fill runner-up.
The No. 3 team of Ragan Meeter and Kenna Baker gave Hudsonville the best battle, falling 6-3, 7-5. The No. 1 team of Hailey Fuller and Grace Clearwater fell 7-5, 6-0.
“We battled Hudsonville for the last matches of the day, but we came up short in very close matches,” Arthur said. “Overall, though, we played well against a tough D1 Hudsonville team, a state-ranked D4 team in Elk Rapids and a solid D2 team in Portage Northern.
“We were close with Hudsonville in terms of team score heading into the last round, which was against Hudsonville. I’m proud of how these ladies put us in a position to win the tournament and I look forward to another great week of tennis and to our team’s continued improvement.”
Allegan dropped a 5-3 decision to non-league foe Battle Creek Lakeview on Thursday, April 21, and posted a 8-0 win over Wolverine Conference rival Vicksburg on Wednesday, April 20.
Allegan’s wins against Lakeview came from Fales at No. 1 singles (6-1, 6-0), Fuller/Clearwater at No. 1 doubles (7-5, 2-6, 6-2) and Ally Brown/Luna Ruiz at No. 4 doubles (7-5, 6-3).
In the Vicksburg match, Allegan dropped three or less games in seven of the eight flights. No. 2 doubles was the most closely contested match, as Allegan’s team of Morrie and Davis won 7-5, 6-1.