It was Division 1’s turn to take the courts at Greater Midland Tennis Center in MHSAA Girls Tennis State Finals on Friday and Saturday, and Northville emerged as the winner for the second straight season.
Ranked No. 1 in the state heading into the tournament, Northville used its elite depth to secure 27 points. Utica Eisenhower was second with 23.
Northville swept the field at No. 2 doubles, No. 3 doubles and No. 4 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, top seed Francine Ong and Sravya Doppalapudi took down Emily Backus and Sruthi Karthik of Novi 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 in the championship match. It was the second straight championship for Ong and Doppalapudi, who won at No. 3 doubles last year. Novi finished tied for third with 18 points with Ann Arbor Pioneer.
No. 3 doubles duo Lucia Lachapelle and Aadya Pullalarevu avenged an early season loss to Maryn Etheridge and Ayla Altinsel of Ann Arbor Pioneer to secure the flight championship. Emma Murphy and Michelle Lee added a 7-6, 7-5 championship win over Arya Iyer and Vibha Krishna from Troy to win the No. 4 doubles title for Northville.
The singles lineup for Northville consisted of Sophia Shipway, Talia Nishanian, Grace Xu and Sana Panchal. No. 1 doubles pair Emmi Dober and Makenzie McPhail made the semifinals.
The No. 1 singles flight was won by Clarkston’s Kayla Lemke. Lemke was declared the winner over top seed Emerson Jones of Saline after Jones suffered an injury during the first set of the final. Two seed Gabriella Sadowski of Utica Eisenhower also pulled out due to injury earlier in the tournament. Lemke defeated Troy’s Julia Xiao, six seed Alison Doka of Rochester Hills Stoney Creek and Margie Glynn of Portage Central en route to the title.
Utica Eisenhower was represented in the champions circle. At No. 2 singles, Morgan Emerick won her second straight title at that flight. Emerick beat Isabelle Hult from Okemos in the final. Alexis Gabriel and Kara Lu beat Troy’s Hannah Wandstreet and Nainika Jasti in the No. 1 doubles final.
Aarna Betala from Portage Central beat Sydney Sharer from Holland West Ottawa to win the final at No. 3 singles. Portage Central and Holland West Ottawa tied for fifth with 16 points.
Rochester finished right behind in seventh place. Jilly Knoester won the No. 4 singles championship for Rochester, beating Sofia Gardner from Utica Eisenhower in the championship match.
Troy, Byron Center, Clarkston and Rochester Hills Stoney Creek rounded out the top ten.
Griffin Beers is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Girls Division 1 tennis: Top-ranked Northville defends title
Reporting by Griffin Beers, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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