Negaunee Takes Mid Pen Conference Tennis Title
WEST ISHPEMING---The Negaunee High School girls tennis team picked up another Mid Peninsula Conference championship on Thursday, edging the Westwood Patriots for the MPC title, heading into next week's MHSAA Division One championships in Escanaba.
Escanaba outlasted Kingsford for the Great Northern Conference title on Wednesday, setting up an interesting U.P. Finals next Wednesday.
On the MPC team scoreboard, Negaunee with 42 points. Westwood was runner-up with 38 points. Ishpeming finished third (18 points), Gwinn was fourth (14 points), Norway finished fifth (12 points), and Iron Mountain was sixth (nine points).
For the Miners, they won five of the eight flights, and were runners-up in the other three. In singles, Aubrey Johnson (#1), Lili Saunders (#2), and Rheana Nelson (#3) were all champions. They all won their final matches in straight sets, although Johnson was pushed to a tiebreaker in the first set of her match by Westwood's Lexi Olson. Olson, by the way, had to fight through a three-set marathon in her semifinal win for the Patriots.
At fourth singles, Addie Chapman was runner-up, losing to Morgan Schneider of Westwood, 6-1, 6-0.
In doubles, the Miners had champions at #2 doubles and at #4 doubles, as the duo of Autumn Ring and Alyssa Borlace won over Westwood's Kaylin Doney and Eliisa Doney in the #2 doubles final, 6-2, 6-4. In the fourth doubles final, Emma Wills and Halle Palomaki defeated Westwood's McKenna Olson and Kaya Etelemaki, 6-3, 6-3.
The Patriots won the other two doubles flights. At third doubles, Emersyn Nelson and Niila Nurmi winning in three sets over Negaunee's Paityn Brunette and Nicole Kerkela. And at first doubles, Westwood's Izzie Marta and Nolia Dawson won over Negaunee's Maija Rourje and Kallen Schultz in straight sets.
