Tennis: Midland, Dow split JV meet

by Quinn Kane

The Midland High and Midland Dow junior varsity tennis meet ended in a hard fought tie Wednesday afternoon, with both sides winning four matches apiece at Midland High School.

The Chargers dominated singles play, getting wins from their top three players. Alex Haslam of Dow won over the Chemics’ Dan Howard at No. 1 in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1. At No. 2, Dow’s Nathan Karsten defeated Chris Billovits 6-1, 6-0, while Mark Bailey won at No. 3 over Justin Hauenstien with sets of 6-2 and 6-3. Midland’s Andrew Brown beat Toby Buckley 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4.

Although the Chargers had an early lead, Midland’s doubles play put them right back on top as the Chemics scored victories at Nos. 2, 3, and 4. That set the stage for a classic battle between Sam Tzou/Sam Bekkers of Dow and Mike Bell/Keegan Swihart of Midland High to decide the meet. A victory for Midland meant the Chemics would be victorious while the teams would tie if Dow took the evening’s final match.

The duos found themselves deadlocked after two sets of hard-fought tennis. Bell/Swihart took the first set 6-4, while Tzou/Bekkers took the second 6-3.

“There were some points where I thought we had no chance of winning,” Tzou said after the match. “We just had a lot of high-fives out there, and some perseverance.”

The final set took almost an hour with both teams holding their final serve to send the set to a tie-breaker. But it seemed as though Bell and Swihart weren’t able to execute the way they had been doing all night as they were unable to apply much pressure to the other side. As a result, Tzou/Bekkers took the tiebreaker easily, giving them a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) win and allowing the Chargers to escape with the tie.

“It’s pretty cool,” Tzou said of the win. “Last year the same thing happened, only we won the meet instead of tying. But it’s still really cool.”

The two teams will meet again Sept. 25 at Dow. Until then, the Chemics next scheduled match is Sept. 4 at Saginaw Heritage, while Dow travels to Essexville-Garber Sept. 5.

For more photos from Wednesday’s meet, click on “Photo slideshow” in the top right corner of this article.

Photos by Adam Baudoux