West Ottawa girls tennis finishes fifth at D1 state, freshman reaches finals

The West Ottawa girls tennis team had a stellar state finals, finishing fifth at the Division 1 tournament.

>The Panthers scored 16 points to tie Portage Central for fifth place on Saturday, May 30, at the Midland Tennis Center.

>Northville won the title with 27 points, followed by Utica Eisenhower (23), Novi (18) and Ann Arbor Pioneer (18).

>West Ottawa freshman Sydney Shafer put together a breakthrough performance in her first state tournament, reaching the finals at No. 3 singles.

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>Shafer beat Ann Arbor Skyline's Eden lee 6-0, 6-1, then Stoney Creek's Addison Michalak 6-2, 7-5 and Northville's Grace Xu 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals. In the finals, she lost 7-5, 6-3 to Portage Central's Aama Betala.

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>West Ottawa freshman Izzy Gitler reached the state semifinals at No. 2 singles. She beat Novi's Rebecca Liu 6-2, 6-0 then Bloomfield Hills' Sophia Tomina 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she lost to second-seeded Isabelle Hult of Okemos in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

>The Panthers reached the state semifinals at No. 3 doubles Audrey Anderson and Olivia Smith had a bye, beat Troy Athens 6-0, 6-3, and beat Utica Eisenhower 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals before falling 6-3, 6-1 to Northville in the semis.

>At No. 4 singles, senior Maggie Rothstein reached the quarterfinals. After a bye, she beat Rochester Adams' Ava Velilla 6-2, 6-1 before falling to Northville's Sana Panchal, 6-2, 6-3.

>Kallyn Gaul and Lovelle Kim reached the quarterfinals at No. 1 doubles, beating Rochester Adams 6-3, 6-1, then Bloomfield Hills 6-4, 7-6(2) before falling to Utica Eisenhower 7-5, 6-3.

>At No. 4 doubles, Mallory Paff and Hope Sikorski beat Okemos 6-1, 6-0 in the first round before losing to third-seeded Ann Arbor Pioneer 6-2, 6-2 in the second round.

>At No. 1 singles, Evie Price beat Ann Arbor Skyline 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, then lost a three-setter 7-5, 1-6, 10-3 to Stoney Creek's Alison Doka in the second round.

>At No. 2 doubles, Hope Hughes and Haylee Geerlings lost 6-1, 6-4 to Utica Eisenhower in the first round.

>Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as  Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.

>This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Ottawa girls tennis finishes fifth at Division 1 state finals