After months of hard work paying off, the Berkley Bears Varsity Tennis team made it to states for the first time since 2020 and placed 16th out of 21st. This season’s team had 4 singles players, who play matches by themselves, and 5 doubles teams who compete in their matches with a partner.
At season’s end, Berkeley participated in district regionals at Grosse Pointe South, and states at Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The Berkley varsity team finished with a total of 18 points. To get points, you need to win your match and move onto the next round. These points are significant as you need 18 points to advance to states, and their 18 points put them right over the cut! Their 18 points secured third place in their regional tournament group. The highest-ranked player, freshman Evan Weber, won the number one singles flight. He competed against all the other number one players from the schools Berkley competed against in their regionals. In the final round he won with a 6-2, 6-2 upset victory over senior William Cahill from Detroit U-D Jesuit. Every doubles team or singles player made it to their flight semifinals in regionals. In the state tournament, you need 18 points in your regionals to qualify, and the Bears team accomplished that.
After regionals, the Bears’ headed to states, where they finished with 4 points. Number one singles Freshman Evan Weber, number two singles senior Ethan Frank, number four singles sSenior Ari Sklar, and the number one doubles team of Freshman Asa Somers and Senior Matthew Rucinski all won their first match to grab the Bears points in the state tournament.
Despite having several new players, Ari Sklar, a senior and first-year captain, was one of the returning players. After last year’s varsity team graduated five seniors, the combination of 3 new freshmen and 5 new sophomores to the team added to the team bonding aspect. The seven seniors saw the new team bonding take place, and Sklar added that “On our senior night, every senior said a word that described this year’s team as family, and that couldn’t be more true. The family factor was big in helping us achieve states.”
“I think there were a lot of things that helped us get to states, but a key factor was how close we were as a team. This team has been the closest team I’ve played on, and I think that closeness made us fight as hard as we could in every single match because we didn’t want to let our teammates down.” Sklar commented.
One of the new varsity players, sophomore Wesley MacDonald, commented on how fun states were. He said his favorite moment was, “The day of states and the night before were great bonding moments.”.
Echoing MacDonald’s sentiments, Sklar also emphasized the enjoyable nature of the state tournament experience. He commented on how, “The team got to hang out together for hours, which was really fun. However, being a senior, it was my last time ever playing high school tennis, and after my loss, I was really emotional and sad as I realized I’d just played my final high school tennis match.”
Another factor in the Bears’ success was a change in their practice habits. The team practiced every day, and they knew if they worked hard in practice, it would translate into matches. Sklar states, “We knew that we had a really good chance of making states this year. Knowing this made all of us more determined to win, both during the season and at regionals. To accomplish this we all practiced harder at practice and in the offseason.”
First-year varsity player Sophomore Jake Ingber also commented on how the practices made him a much better player, saying, “Varsity practice was very fun and difficult at times. We would do drills, practice matches, and even run a bit, all with your doubles partner. But the difficulty difficultness made me a much better player!”
The Varsity Tennis team aims to capitalize on their success by maintaining rigorous practice routines throughout the year. The team will graduate six seniors, but the standard set by this year’s team will hope to be accomplished in years to come. This season’s success will hopefully change the perception for the better on how people view the Berkley Varsity Tennis team!
