The GRC Varsity girls tennis team took on regionals at Portland High school last Thursday and the team finished in 2nd place and qualified for states! The team came up just short to FHE by 1 point for first place, but it is still a finish we are very proud of our team for since we had 10 brand new players to the team this year and it was evident that GRC and FHE were definitely the two best teams at regionals. The team had 4 regional flight champions and 2 runner ups. Very proud of the growth and heart this team has shown all season and on Thursday. I am also proud of the way they stood up to adversity, as after an already long day outdoors, the team had to go indoors after a rain delay to finish 4 matches and it ended up being a 12 hour day. Here are the flight results:

1s Natalie Poortenga loses in the semifinals. This was arguably the match of the day. She played an out of nowhere unseeded Petoskey player who was really good and their match was a 3 setter that exceeded 3 hours. They even had to pause and finish it inside. Natalie played her heart out and lost a close 5-7 last set.

2s Alex Vermeulen finishes in 2nd place. Alex dominated her first two matches against Ionia and EGR and played well against an FHE player in the finals who is undefeated on the year. Alex played some really good matches and got revenge against EGR from a previous last match loss.

3s Kaitlyn Schmitt finishes as a regional champ! Kaitlyn took care of business in her first two matches and proceeded to play a long 3 set match against FHE. Their match had to be moved indoors when it was 5-5 in the 3rd set. Kaitlyn faced this adversity head on and came away with a 7-6 last set victory in epic fashion!

4s Avah Jerke finishes as regional champ! Avah also cruised through her first two matches winning in record times. Her finals match against FHE was a little tougher as she dropped the first set but that didn't phase Avah as she proceeded to make the adjustments needed and make the comeback victory to win in 3 sets. Avah is the only player on the team to be a conference and regional champion on the year!

1D Frankie Volkema/Anna Jacobsen loses in the 2nd round to CC. CC was a seeded and good team and they battled the whole time and lost in a close one. Proud of these girls for how hard they have fought against some really good teams this year. They have grown in every match.

2D Betta Klein/Gwyn Artz finishes in 2nd place. These girls had an epic come behind victory against EGR in the semifinals. They lost the 1st set and proceeded to switch gears and dominate after that. They won the 2nd set and then won the third set 6-0. They lost to FHE in the finals in a match where it was 2-2 in the set and they also had to go indoors to play and they came up just short after that.

3d Rachel Larsen/Lucy VanDrunen are regional champions. These girls may have had the most convincing performance on the day. They won every match in straight sets and proceeded to dominate in the championship against EGR only dropping 3 games in total the whole match.

4d Charline Dahu/Anneka Vermeulen are regional champions. These girls also had a pretty dominating performance. After questionably getting the 2 seed when in my opinion were deserving of the 1 seed. These girls proceeded to prove the haters wrong and beat FHE in straight sets (went to 3 sets in previous match) and then beat EGR in straight sets (lost to them previously in 3 sets) to set the tone that they were clear #1 seed and best 4 dubs team there.

I also want to give a shoutout to Adelyn/Johanna/Anwen/Emily. These 4 girls were everyone's biggest supporters on the day and without these girls pushing our team to be better at every practice, our team would not be as good as they are now. They are true team players and we don't do as well as we did on the day without them. We have the best 5th and 6th doubles teams in the state!

The Eagles will face their last competition of the season at the Division 3 State Finals tournament that will be held 5/31 and 6/1 at Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan. Play will start at 8am Friday and last all day and semifinals and finals will be held on Saturday. Only a short hour drive away. Come out and support the varsity tennis squad in the state championships if you can. Go Eagles!!