Williamston Tennis

The Williamston Hornet girls’ tennis team hosted the Trojans from East Lansing in a battle of top ten ranked teams. East Lansing came into the match ranked 8th in the MHSAA division 2, and the Hornets were ranked 4th in division 4. For the first time in school history a Williamston tennis team defeated East Lansing as the Hornets came away with a 5-3 victory. “It feels great,” said Coach Steve Stanley, “We lived and my son graduated from East Lansing before we moved to Williamston so I understand the tradition East Lansing tennis represents. To have our girls prevail over a very well coached Trojan team is very gratifying,” he concluded. Lisa Semerly, the Trojan varsity coach smiled as she commented, “They lose six players from the year before and find six more just as good. I don’t know how they do it.”

The Hornets had won at three doubles with Aubree Barton and Erin Graham defeating Anna Rittenhouse and Teresa Vasievich 6-1, 6-2; at four doubles with Cara Steinberg and Leah Vargovich defeating Anaite Castanada and Shireen Mahdavi 6-4, 6-4; and at number one doubles with Anya Nikolai and Mattie Nelson defeating Emily Bruening and Natalie Bruening, 6-3, 7-5. In singles Claire Cooper had defeated Carynne Lloyd, 6-2, 6-2. East Lansing had prevailed at three singles with Marissa Messenger defeating Gabby Meijer, 6-1, 6-4; and at four singles with Emma Astley defeating Erica Krantz 6-4, 6-3. East Lansing had also won at two doubles with Taylor Crawford and Riki Petroni defeating Erin Donovan and Audrey Porter 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (ret. inj.).

That left Williamston with 4 flight wins and East Lansing with 3. The focus shifted to number one singles where Tiffany Ash from Williamston was battling Christy Marx. Most of the games had gone to deuce several times as Tiffany won the first set 6-2. Under very windy conditions the two number ones battled for every point. Tiffany pulled ahead 4-3 and then held serve to move the second set to 5-3. After a very long rally filled game, Tiffany sealed the victory with a 6-3 win.

“It was really hard to stay focused today because of the wind,” said Tiffany. “Christy played well but I was really happy to help the team win an important match.”