Brandywine girls tennis sweeps Dowagiac, Bronson

Published 2:47 pm Friday, April 22, 2022

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NILES — The Brandywine girls tennis team made the most of Thursday’s bright, sunny weather.

The Bobcats defeated Dowagiac and Bronson 8-0 at home to improve their record to 4-0 on the season.

“It was just great to get outside and play,” said Brandywine girls tennis coach Joe Marazita. We’re happy with the results and even happier just to be able to get outside and play. We’re lucky we scheduled the doubleheader today.”

Against Dowagiac, Brandywine’s Jessica Williams (6-0,6-0), Hannah Earles (6-1,6-0), Mari Allen (6-1,6-0) and Courtney Bates (6-0,6-0) earned victories in the singles flights, while Abbie Hubbard and Emma Hinsey (6-0 6-0), Tressa Hullinger and Hope Typer (6-1 6-0), Chloe Sidenbender and Dani Holden (6-0,6-0) and Isabelle Sosnoski and Abagail Solloway (6-0,6-0) won the doubles flights.

Dowagiac coach Matthew Nicholls was pleased with his team’s performance considering the circumstances. The Chieftains return just one player from last year’s team.

“These kids are just looking for growth,” he said. “We’re looking for the little wins and so they showed up today, did a lot better than last week, and that’s what we’re looking for. How can we keep making gains and growth and we saw some of that today? Brandywine is a great team, a great program with a good history of being great. So to be able to come out here and have some of the girls at least hang with them, that’s a win for us.”

In the Bronson match, Williams (6-1,6-4), Earles (6-0,6-0), Allen (6-0,6-0) and Bates (6-0,6-0) won in straight sets. Bronson forfeited all four doubles flights.

The schedule gets busy for the Bobcats, who will play six events in eight days, starting with a tournament Saturday.

“I think that’s part of the experience that sports teaches kids,” Marazita said. “It’s not always perfect. You know that when you play a spring sport that the weather is going to be a factor. The other team has to play with it, so we have to learn to roll with it too. Here at Brandywine, we’ve got some kids that are real smart. We’ve got seven kids that are straight-A students, so they kind of know what to expect and we just kind of get through it.”