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Rounding into form: Just a week into season, Negaunee’s already in midseason form with sweep at Westwood

Negaunee's Lilly Nelson returns a serve during the No. 1 singles match in a high school tennis meet against Menominee held Thursday at Westwood High School. The meet was the second in a series of three meets held at the Patriots' courts that day. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

ISHPEMING — The Negaunee High School girls tennis team has been in action for a few days now and you can’t say anything less about the Miners than they are off to a great start.

Negaunee competed in a three-team event Thursday afternoon with Westwood and Menominee and emerged with two wins. The Miners topped the Patriots 7-1 and the Maroons 6-2. Westwood went 1-1 at the event, also defeating Menominee 6-2, with all matches played at Westwood High School.

“Probably the best part about today was just to see two teams on the same day,” Negaunee head coach Kyle Saari said. “Late in the year, in the (Upper Peninsula scheduling) situation, you’ve got to play multiple matches and multiple quality matches.

“It was good to have Westwood here, who is strong, and Menominee definitely returns girls in various parts of their lineup, too. It was a good opportunity to come out and compete and kind of see where the bar is.

“That’s the fun challenge of the girls season. Really, you’ve got one month and it’s done. Matches start and it’s almost like practice is over. Any improvement that takes place, it has to take place during the match and on the court day by day. I think, in a number of places, I think we did that today.”

Westwood's Ellie Miller serves during the No. 1 doubles match against Menominee on Thursday at the Patriots' courts. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

Negaunee is also coming off a 2019 season where its long streak of Upper Peninsula titles came to an end at the hands of Marquette. When asked if he thought this year’s team is strong enough to get back on top at the U.P. Division 1 Finals, Saari thought it was a possibility.

“Every season and every team is different, and I think even though our goal doesn’t change for the end of the year; there’s still different team dynamic and different challenges that you have to overcome,” he said. “A big part of it is we have to make sure that we continuously get mentally tough at each flight so when pressure situations come up, we can battle through those. But we like where we’re at right now.”

The Patriots, on the other hand, are taking the season one step at a time. They’ve won four U.P. Division 2 championships in a row with head coach Sarah Massie getting her first title last season.

“I think it’s gone well (Thursday),” Massie said. “Negaunee, we played them last week and we know they’re a good team. They’re strong and deep and have a lot of veteran players. So I think a lot of our flights played well against them, and a lot of our flights, it’s a learning curve. But good matchups help us get better.

“We lost a lot of our veteran players that … had been there a few years, so we’re filling in those spots. But our girls are excited to do that and we have the girls and they’re ready to be in those spots.”

The two Marquette County teams tangled in the first match of the day. The Miners got singles wins from Lilly Nelson (No. 1), Lexi Mason (No. 3) and Annika Tervo (No. 4), while also sweeping the doubles matches. Jillian Koski picked up the Patriots’ lone win at number two singles with a two-set win over Jillian Skewis.

After the Miners defeated Menominee, Westwood and the Maroons closed out the day. Koski won her No. 2 singles match with Natalie Blanck and Mallory Leece also notching wins at Nos. 3 and 4 singles, respectively. Westwood won three of the doubles matches, taking the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 flights.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252.

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