By By STEVE MORRISON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – In an nearly sweeping assault, the Bridgman Bees men's tennis team dominated the Niles Invitational Tennis Tournament Saturday morning held on two sites, Niles High School and Plym Park tennis courts.
If not for the fact that Bridgman fielded only six pairs in the seven-tiered, round robin doubles competition, they might have flown away with all of the first place honors.
The competition was divided into three rounds, with each of the participating schools; Bridgman, Brandywine, Edwardsburg, and host Niles playing the others. The first flight featured the number one and two singles netters paired against the top two singles players of their respective opponents. Second flight participants saw pairings of third and fourth seeded competitors from each squad. Then the rest of the flights were determined by first, second, third, fourth, and fifth seeded doubles partners from each team.
Spurred on by Coach Aaron Badger the Bees accumulated three points (the maximum) in each of the top six doubles events. Edwardsburg captured No. 7 doubles with a 3-0 effort, by partners Ryker Huffman and Cameron Breisch.
First flight brothers partners of Bridgman, Eric and Robby Clark, were dominant with bullet serves and relentless defense throughout the day losing only six games while winning 34.
Bridgman's second combo of Andrew D'Augistino and David Hauch were nearly as effective, winning 36 games while losing only 11.
Niles had two pairings to boast about, both with second place finishes.
Third seeds Kyle Lee and Dustin Jankoviak bested Edwadsburg's duo of Zac Kau and Matt McCracken in the first round 6-2, 7-6, winning the tiebreaker 10-8. In the second round they went on to defeat Justin Palmer and Tyler Weeks 6-4, in a tough match, and ran away with the second, 6-1. The Bees narrowly took the finale 6-4, 6-5 behind David Englund's and Charlie Pawlick's unyielding defense, both in the back-court and up front.
In level seven competition Niles' Colin Leonard and Travis Lemanski, both from Junior varsity made their coaches, Jill Weber and Greg Gunder, proud.
After losing their first round 3-6 2-6 to Ryker Huffman and Cameron Breisch, Leonard and Lemanski defeated Brandywine's Cam Ondresky and Colten Ditto, winning the tie-beaker 7-5, after a 5-7, 6-4 split in the first two sets to secure another second place finish for Niles.
Niles Invitational
Team Scoring
Bridgman 18, Edwardsburg 13, Niles 8, Brandywine 3
Champions
1. Eric Clark/Robby Clark (BRID) 3-0
2. Andrew D'Augistino/David Hauch (BRID) 3-0
3. David Englund/Charlie Pawlick (BRID) 3-0
4. Tyler Allen/Aaron Klug (BRID) 3-0
5. Josiah Badger/Ethan Schaller (BRID) 3-0
6. Brandon Smith/Matt Klutts (BRID) 3-0
7. Ryker Huffman/Cameron Breisch (E) 3-0