The tennis postseason is here - if you can believe it. The season has come and gone so quickly. Now it's time to see if all the hard work has paid off. Regionals are being held today (Thursday) and Friday. I will now give my predictions (below).
To qualify, a team must finish among the top two at its regional, or finish with 18 or more points. At those regions where there are eight teams or fewer, any team with 10 or more points - in addition to the automatic qualifiers - also makes it out.

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DIVISION 1

at Livonia Stevenson - Thursday
(Birmingham Brother Rice, Dearborn, Dearborn-Fordson, Detroit Cass Tech, Livonia Churchill, Livonia Franklin, Livonia Stevenson, Wayne Memorial, Westland John Glenn)
Automatic qualifiers: Birmingham Brother Rice, Livonia Stevenson
Additional qualifiers: None
My thoughts: It's kind of nice that Brother Rice is shipped south - instead of north to Clarkston. Now the state needs to send West Bloomfield south or Rochester Adams east to disperse the immense talent in Oakland County.

at Novi - Friday
(Brighton, Hartland, Howell, Lakeland, Northville, Novi, Novi Detroit Catholic Central, Walled Lake Central, Walled Lake Northern)
Automatic qualifiers: Novi, Northville
Additional qualifier: None
My thoughts: Novi swept the region last year and it's quite possible the Wildcats could do it again. They are the best team in the state. Northville will join them. It's entirely possible Catholic Central could sneak in as well. I think it falls just short.

at Grosse Pointe South - Thursday
(Fraser, Grosse Pointe South, Sterling Heights-Utica Ford II, Sterling Heights Stevenson, Troy, Troy-Athens, Warren Mott, Warren-Cousino, Warren-De La Salle)
Automatic qualifiers: Troy, Grosse Pointe South
Additional qualifier: Troy Athens
My thoughts: Kind of a repeat of last year, the Colts will take the regional title. South will score well. And Athens will get another well-earned trip to Midland.

at Clarkston - Thursday
(Bloomfield Hills, Clarkston, Lake Orion, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Stoney Creek, Waterford Kettering, Waterford Mott, West Bloomfield)
Automatic qualifiers: Rochester Adams, Bloomfield Hills
Additional qualifier: None
My thoughts: Last year Clarkston joined Adams and Bloomfield Hills in advancing on to Midland. I don't see that happening this year. The Wolves, along with Rochester, Lake Orion and West Bloomfield will eat each other alive - and steal valuable points from each other in the process. It's a shame one or two of these teams can't be shipped to another region.

DIVISION 2

at Birmingham Groves - Thursday
(Avondale, Berkley, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Detroit U-D Jesuit, Royal Oak, Southfield, Southfield-Lathrup)
Automatic qualifiers: U-D Jesuit, Birmingham Seaholm
Additional qualifier: Birmingham Groves
My thoughts: Don't have the draws in front of my, but I'm sure they're balanced. If the seeds played out as they are potentially laid out, it's possible four teams could get through. But it's highly unlikely that would happen. Jesuit, Seaholm or Groves could win this regional. My money - or lack thereof - is on Jesuit. But not by much. I don't see any team scoring more than 17 or 18 points.

at Holly - Friday
(Alpena, Bay City-Central, Davison, Fenton, Flint-Kearsley, Flushing, Holly, Ortonville-Brandon, Swartz Creek)  
Automatic qualifiers: Holly, Flushing
Additional qualifier: None
My thoughts: I see a repeat of last year's regional, which the Bronchos won by two points over Flushing. Holly is coming off a Flint Metro League title, where it beat out Flushing.

DIVISION 3

at Cranbrook - Thursday
(Cranbrook, Detroit Country Day, Detroit Mumford, Ferndale, Madison Heights Lamphere, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Redford Union, South Lyon East)
Automatic qualifiers: Country Day, Cranbrook
Additional qualifier: None
My thoughts: I'd like to think Notre Dame Prep would have a chance - as it has in the past - of scoring enough points to advance out. But Country Day and Cranbrook are rock solid this year and I see it being another dual between the two schools in the flight finals. That being said, the Fighting Irish will have to wait another year.


OTHER REGIONS
West Bloomfield Jewish Academy is competing in Ann Arbor. And when nearly a third of the field are teams from that city, it doesn't bode well for the Jaguars. No. 1 ranked Greenhills will win it. Gabriel Richard or Rudolf Steiner will also qualify. And over at Almont, Clawson is part of a small field, but a very capable one, led by Liggett.

PHOTOS FOR PURCHASE:  Check out our tennis home page and look through our photo galleries. If you like a photo and would like to purchase a copy, you may do so by clicking on the "Purchase Photos via SmugMug" button on the bottom right. Or check out our stories/photo galleries listed below:

OAA Red tournament - with photos
OAA Red tournament photo gallery
OAA White tournament - with photos
OAA White tournament photo gallery
Country Day vs. Brother Rice
Troy vs. Groves
Rochester tennis feature
Royal Oak vs. Lamphere
Novi Quad (Brother Rice, Troy)
Brother Rice vs. Cranbrook
Troy Athens vs. Groves
North Farmington vs. Berkley
Bloomfield Hills vs. Cranbrook
Cranbrook gallery
Country Day gallery

Rochester's boys tennis team.

The drought(s) are over
Unbeknownst to me, the two best teams in the OAA White snapped extensive league championship droughts on Thursday. I don't have a list of OAA league champions (in any of the three divisions) in front of me, but you'd have had a hard time getting me to believe it had been 12 years since Clarkston had last won a league championship - or 32 for Rochester.
Both of those winless streaks ended as the two teams split the OAA White title - Clarkston winning the regular-season portion, while Rochester took home the tourney title yesterday. Two good teams, both deserving of what they earned this season.
Clarkston dominated singles play in both the regular season and the tournament, while Rochester handled its business in doubles. Two key turning points on Thursday were at 1-singles and 2-doubles, where Rochester avenged losses to the Wolves - from their league match. Nicholas Ang proved the third time was the charm, as he finally beat Alex Matisse to win the No. 1 singles championship. Matt Randall and Scott Schlagel - who lost to Clarkston's Brendan Greenlee and Mitch Rogowski a few weeks back - came through in the 2-doubles final Thursday.
I don't necessarily want to get into regional talk, just yet, but these two teams will certainly have their work cut out for themselves at next week's Division 1 regional tournament at Clarkston. Those two, along with Rochester Adams, Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield will all battle it out for a chance to get to the state tournament. I had a talk with a couple coaches Thursday, regarding the stacked draw at Clarkston. It's unfortunate that so many quality teams will have to beat each other up and a few miss out on qualifying for states. Hopefully this is a one-year thing and the MHSAA will wise up and split this region up.

Troy once again tops 'em all in the Red
For the third-straight year, Troy High took home the OAA Red championship. Two years ago the Colts edged out Andover for the title. Last year, Troy beat out Rochester Adams. That was the case again on Tuesday. The Colts won all their first-round matches and had five flights reach the finals. Sachin Ketkar and Vincent Thieu (2-dubs) and Kevin Fietsam and Mark Elinski (4-dubs) came away winners. Congrats to Troy. And a big congrats must go out to Troy Athens' Richard Zhang, who beat Adams' Justin Hyman in three sets to take home the No. 1 singles title. That's a big win in a match between two players who certainly deserve seeds at the state tournament. We'll see if that match plays a part when the seeds are figured out in a few weeks.

Avondale best in the Blue
Auburn Hills Avondale and Farmington Hills Harrison ran away from the field Tuesday, with the Yellow Jackets proving to have just too much talent. Avondale won six of the eight flight championships. Harrison won one flight, as did Southfield-Lathrup. That came from Donovan Luttrell, who won his second-straight league title at No. 1 singles. He joined former Charger, Edwin Peart, as the last two players to win back-to-back titles at the top flight.

Holly still the king of the FML

Holly won another FML title on Tuesday.

Talking about dominance. Try Holly's performance at Tuesday's Flint Metro League on for size. The Bronchos scored 45 out of a possible 48 points, claiming six flight championships while finishing runner-up and third place in the other two.
Jeff Sophiea (first) and Will Moller (fourth) both won singles titles, while the doubles lineup swept.  Craig Richards and Parker Rowse, Parker Cuthbert and Taylor Mills, Dillon Sink and Zac Goodrich and Aaron Vergith and Morgan Baylis all won in straight sets in their finals matches. Sophiea's win was his first in four finals appearances at No. 1 singles. The victory - coupled with older brother and coach Will Sophiea's FML title - made them the first siblings to win league No. 1 singles titles.

Catholic League and KLAA up next
The Catholic League Tournament will be held Saturday - hosted by Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. Avondale High School will be a second site for the tournament. Brother Rice will be the overwhelming favorite to win another league title. The field is loaded, with Detroit U-D Jesuit, Catholic Central, De La Salle and Notre Dame Prep all competing.
The KLAA Association tournaments, both the upper and lower tiers, will also take place Saturday. The upper tier tournament will be held at Novi (Middle School). Novi and Northville will once again be the favorites. The top three teams in each of the four divisions will be at Novi. The Wildcats won the Central Division, while Grand Blanc (West), Plymouth (South) and Walled Lake Western, Walled Lake Northern and Walled Lake Central (all 4-1 in the North) enter the tournament as division champions. Also competing at Novi will be Canton, Livonia Franklin, Northville, Livonia Stevenson, Brighton and Howell.
Waterford Mott, Waterford Kettering, Lakeland, South Lyon, South Lyon East and Milford will be among the Oakland County teams participating in the lower-tiered tournament, being held at Canton.