Highlight Reel: Tennis Regionals No Problem for Birmingham Area Teams

Seaholm and Marian tennis qualify for state finals

Seaholm and Marian battled on Thursday and technically, both teams came out winners.

Both teams qualified for the state finals by getting enough wins in their respective brackets to qualify. The two schools dominated the regional tournament and faced each other in every finals match.

Marian won three of the four singles brackets; Bailey Paradiso, No. 1 singles; Kelly Lunghamer, No. 2 singles and Elaine Apaza, No. 3 singles. But the Mustangs stumbled in doubles and lost all four finals to the Maples. The highlight was Seaholm's Elizabeth Gunckle and Labina Petrovska beating Lunghamer and Catherine Christian in No. 1 doubles.

Both teams have high hopes heading into the Division 2 finals on June 3-4 in Jenison. As a team, Marian is the defending state champion and had three individual state champions last year.

Marian soccer makes history in Catholic League finals

In the Catholic League A-B championship, the Mustangs beat Ladywood 2-1 in overtime Saturday to win their ninth straight league title. That number ties Bishop Foley’s mark for consecutive titles and caps another undefeated season for Marian in the Catholic League. 

Earlier in the season, Ladywood played Marian at home and walked away with a 3-3 tie. The game on Saturday was at Ladywood, but ties weren’t an option. Marian's Elizabeth Tresnak dashed Ladywood’s hope of an upset by scoring the game-winning goal in extra time in less than a minute.

The Mustangs work isn’t over though. They have their sites set on another state championship and their road to the finals starts against Avondale next week.

Country Day tennis also moving on to states

The Yellowjackets were runners-up in the Cranbrook-Kingswood district with 19 points on Friday and will also compete in the state finals. Country Day is in Division 3 and will compete at Kalamazoo College June 3-4.

Cranbrook and Country Day had a similar back-and-forth to Seaholm and Marian, with the two schools closing out the finals in every single bracket. Country Day won three of the four singles finals (with Margaux Hyman, Amabel Karoub and Madelyn Karoub winning their matches) but lost all four doubles finals.

Seaholm soccer sends Ferndale reeling

The Maples beat Ferndale on Tuesday 4-2 to extend its record to 7-4-2. Despite allowing two goals, Seaholm .

Seaholm coach James Tyers likes what he’s seeing from his team and says the girls are starting to peak. His biggest concern is that the girls haven't taken advantage of some easy scoring opportunities this season.

If they're more effective on offense, Tyers said he likes his team's chances at districts. 

“This is probably the best group of girls I’ve had to work with here,” Tyers said. “They work really hard everyday when they come to practice and really try to play a good game of soccer.”