As has been tradition over the past couple seasons, I took a stab at predicting the outcome of the Division 1-2-3 state finals. So let's see just how much I do, or do not, know about the great sport of tennis.

READ MY DIVISION 1 FINALS PREVIEW
READ MY DIVISION 2 FINALS PREVIEW
2012 BOYS FINALS PREDICTIONS
2011 BOYS FINALS PREDICTIONS


DIVISION 1
Ann Arbor Huron 30, Birmingham Brother Rice 30, Novi 25, Troy 15, Rochester Adams 13, Ann Arbor Pioneer 13, Bloomfield Hills 12, Novi Detroit Catholic Central 12, Port Huron Northern 9, Troy Athens 8, Clarkston 8, Traverse City Central 8, Grand Blanc 7, Grosse Pointe South 6, Northville 6, Grand Blanc 6, Midland 6, Holland West-Ottawa 5, Rockford 4, Livonia Stevenson 0, Utica Eisenhower 0, Livonia Churchill 0

Flight finalists
1S — Tim Wang (Novi) d. Michael Dube' (Novi Detroit Catholic Central)
2S — Kevin Mei (AA Huron) d. Oliver Li (Rochester Adams)
3S — Koushik Kondapi (Novi) d. Colin Williams (AA Huron)
4S — Jack Winkler (Brother Rice) d. David Gandham (AA Huron)
1D — Aaron Brodkey-Akhiro Ota (AA Huron) d. Connor Parks-George Hamaty (Brother Rice)
2D — Joey Hildebrand-David Weatherford (Brother Rice) d. J. Chen-A. Luker (AA Huron)
3D — Brendan Dillon-Joe Paradiso (Brother Rice) d. M. Bondin-D. Friedman (AA Huron)
4D — Patrick Hamil-Dan Lunghamer (Brother Rice) d. Will Brenner-Orion Sang (AA Huron)

My thoughts
Where to begin? First off, breaking down match-by-match, I came to the conclusion that — on paper — Huron and Brother Rice will tie with 30 points. But honestly that was giving Brother Rice the benefit of the doubt at a few flights. Rice is the 1-seed at 2-3-4 doubles, and I gave them the victories at each of those flights. But just a year ago Huron came in and displayed nearly impeccable tennis. I could easily see them snagging one of those two flights, or even 4-singles. Also, these predictions include what some may say is an upset — quite an upset. The potential for Bloomfield Hills' Josh Mukherjee to upset sixth-seeded Jack Petersen of Huron is there. I picked it, but perhaps I'm giving Mukherjee too much credit here. Petersen is the veteran. He was a semifinalist last year. He should win this match. But it should be a good one. I saw Mukherjee put West Bloomfield's Kevin Rothstein away in a regional semifinal, 6-4, 7-5. He then jumped out to a 5-2 lead on Adams' Justin Hyman in the final, before losing a first-set tiebreaker and the match in two. If that Mukherjee shows up, it'll be delightful for Brother Rice.
I had CC's Michael Dube', Wang, Hyman, Athens' Richard Zhang and Mukherjee all ranked among my Top-10 Oakland County players entering the season. They'll all be in the No. 1 singles draw on Friday. I'm very much looking forward to a potential Zhang-Hyman quarterfinal, followed by a matchup of the winner versus Wang in a semifinal. Dube' and Mukherjee could face off in a quarterfinal. And if all goes to my predicted plan, Wang and Dube', my 1-2 ranked players in Oakland County, may face off in the final.
Last year, Huron took care of its own business while Novi and Brother Rice stole points off each other — leaving them six points behind the River Rats. The same could happen this season, with Novi's obvious strength in singles, while Rice excels in doubles. Though I predicted a tie at the top, on paper, if forced to make a call — I think Huron wins its third-straight title by two three points.

DIVISION 2
Midland Dow 39, Detroit U-D Jesuit 27, Forest Hills Northern 23, Forest Hills Central 20, Birmingham Seaholm 13, Portage Central 11, Okemos 10, Grand Rapids Northview 10, North Farmington 9, Birmingham Groves 8, Berkley 5, Holly 5, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 5, Grosse Pointe North 4, Zeeland East 3

Flight finalists
1S — Davis Crocker (KLN) d. William Kirkman (MD)
2S —Julian Guerra (MD) d. Thomas Sheeren (UDJ)
3S — Varun Shanker (MD) d. Will Christian (FHN)
4S — Michael Szabo (MD) d. Freddy Heegan (UDJ)
1D — Jason Chang-Vikram Shanker (MD) d. Sam Kozulis-Travis Beach (FHC)
2D — Patrick Eschbach-Colin Angell (MD) d. Parneet Gogireddy-Alex Winks (FHN)
3D — Seamus Bartlett-Daniel Mango (MD) d. Carson Schmidt-Andrew Fox (FHC)
4D — Cole Williamson-Spencer Bouck (MD) d. Joey Wilson-Andy Stefani (UDJ)

My thoughts
I spoke with one area coach on Wednesday and said it's really no fun — waiting to see who's going to win Division 2. That answer is easy. However, the race for 2-3-4 could be exciting. U-D Jesuit has certainly proven it can play with the best teams. The Cubs were seeded at all eight flights and should score well enough to finish a solid second overall. I believe Birmingham Seaholm — once again — should be the top-finishing Oakland County team. The Maples are looking to finish where they were last year (fifth overall) or better. I've got them locked in at No. 5. The draws look favorable in doubles, where I see Seaholm scoring eight of their 13 team points.
Birmingham Groves and North Farmington — ranked among the top-10 teams in the state — could make a push for a top-10 finish this weekend. I've got them at ninth and 10th come Saturday afternoon.
In the end, Midland Dow will most likely clinch its fifth-straight state title in impressive fashion Saturday. 

DIVISION 3
Birmingham Detroit Country Day 38, East Grand Rapids 28, St. Joseph 26, Cranbrook-Kingswood 23, Holland Christian 17, Spring Lake 16, Sturgis 12, Coldwater 12, St. Clair 7, Allegan 6

Flight finalists
1S — Garrett Goldman (EGR) d. Rishi Patel (DCD)
2S — Noah Karoub (DCD) d. Grant Bailey (EGR)
3S — Kenny Garstecki (SJ) d. Jakob Gahn (DCD)
4S — Davis Wong (DCD) d. Ahmeir Kyle (SJ)
1D  — Blake Burstein-Damian Runkle (DCD) d. Taylor Ghesquiere-Stephane Teste (CK)
2D — Rishabh Nayak-Adam Junn (DCD) d. Nolan Trepeck-Chase Ghesquiere (CK)
3D — Matt Stebbins-D.J. Bailey (DCD) d. Thomas Bailey-Will Rea (EGR)
4D — Brendan Childress-Andrew Joslyn (DCD) d. Fangbo Yuan-Alex Lubeck (SJ)

My thoughts
Like Division 2, this division belongs to one team — Country Day. Despite losing their two best players from last year, the Yellowjackets are right back at the top. And I'm projecting six flight champions for DCD, one less than a year ago, when the team scored 39 out of a possible 40 points. Its once again the deepest team in the field, and a sweep by the doubles lineup will prove just that. Cranbrook will have a say, however, as the Cranes are seeded No. 2 at three doubles flights.

P.S. Make sure to watch our Tout video widget (below) as I'll be Touting from the Division 1 finals in Midland on Friday and Saturday.

Brother Rice's Connor Parks, George Hamaty
Blake Hildebrand and Sean Aberlarde relax
at the D-1 regional at Woodhaven.

How sweep it is

I've seen Oakland County teams do a lot in the few years I've covered the boys and girls tennis beats. But I can't recall a time where t hree teams swept their regional. That happened this past weekend. 

Country Day and Cranbrook held their annual regional dual, with the Yellowjackets cruising to a sweep of the eight flights. Well, actually they did not cruise at every flight. Marc Sable gave Rishi Patel all he could handle (in three sets) at 1-singles. Same for 4-dubs, where Andrew Joslyn and Brendan Childress needed three sets to beat Cranbrook's Alex Hubers and Steven Meng.

I was up at Clarkston on Thursday and the talk was about how tough the regional was. Five quality teams, all of which could have made it out to states had they been placed in other regions, battled each other for the right to move on. In the end, Rochester Adams and Bloomfield Hills picked up the automatic spots (top two), while Clarkston made it out with 19 team points, deservedly-so.

One team that was missing from the regional was Brother Rice. The Warriors were busy cleaning up down in Woodhaven. All eight flights won titles for Rice, which faced far inferior competition Downriver. It's one of those situations where I wish a second quality Oakland County team would have went down there with them - Bloomfield Hills perhaps? That would have opened up a potential spot for a team like West Bloomfield or Rochester.

Regardless, Rice took advantage of the competition and did not drop a set in the finals. In fact, the Warriors lost just 10 games in those eight flight finals - 10! Blake Hildebrand, Chase Peery, John Ciraci and Jack Winkler swept singles, while George Hamaty-Connor Parks, Joey Hildebrand-David Weatherford, Joe Paradiso-Brendan Dillon and Dan Lunghamer-Patrick Hamil dropped a combined three games in doubles.

And over in Novi, the host Wildcats swept their Division 1 regional, one that included both Northville and Catholic Central - both of whom also advanced to Midland this weekend. Tim Wang, Andre Liu, Koushik Kondapi and Maxx Anderson all won singles regional titles. Michael Chang-Andrew Ying, Shashank Chitta-Kevin Xu, Tim Lu-Daniel Yu and David Mehl-Raymond Wen swept doubles. Like Brother Rice, the Wildcats did not drop a set in the final round.

Country Day is the big favorite to win the Division 3 title. Both Rice and Novi are top-3 teams looking to knock off two-time defending state champion Ann Arbor Huron. I'll be in Midland Saturday to see how that one plays out.

They're not alone

Though DCD, Rice and Novi swept their regions in qualifying for the state finals, a few other teams also won regional championships on Thursday and Friday. Rochester Adams - as I mentioned above - won the tough Clarkston regional. Justin Hyman, Oliver Li and Charles Xu led the Highlanders with regional titles at 1-2-3 singles. Ashish Tripathi-Silvester Jang and David Wang-Kritin Arya gave Adams five regional champions with their wins at No. 2 and 4 doubles.

Once again, Troy traveled over to Grosse Pointe South and flexed its muscles against both the hosts and cross-town rival, Athens. The Colts reached the finals in seven different flights, winning five of them. Vinai Reddy (#2) and Sal Kagithala (#4) won in singles, while the 2-3-4 doubles teams of Vince Thieu-Sachin Ketkar, Andre Ingram-Pramod Mulabagula and Kevin Fietsam-Mark Elinski. 

Richard Zhang won at No. 1 singles, helping Athens once again qualify for the state finals. He'll be looking to do some damage this weekend, as the #4 seed in the Division 1 draw.

North Farmington took advantage of the Bloomfield Hills schools merge (with no more Andover and Lahser in their draw), rolling to a Division 2 regional title on its home courts. All eight flights made the final round, with Griffin Mertz (#1 singles), David Kagan (#4 singles), Colin Halow-Danny O'Neill (#1 dubs), Noah Garber-Rob Chapekis (#2 dubs), Rakesh Rajakumar-Brody Clarke (#3 dubs), Aadithya Pramod-Sudhu Srinivasan (#4 dubs) winning regional titles. No one challenged the Raiders. Dearborn Divine Child also took advantage of the unification of Lahser and Andover, qualifying for the D-2 Finals by finishing runner-up.

I found myself once again mistaken when predicting D-2 regional over at Birmingham Groves. No, I said Seaholm would win the regional - which it did. But I said it was a two-team race (yes, which it was). But what I didn't see was Berkley sneaking in with enough points to join the Maples and Falcons at states. So congrats to the Bears.

Seaholm stepped it up, winning five of the eight flight championships. Zaven Dadian and Rocko Gibout won their flights at 2-3 singles. Kenji Johnston and Griffin Neel, Francisco Lleyva and Andrew Latessa, and Chris Breeden and Alex Cross won doubles titles at 1-2-3 doubles. I'm not even sure coach Scott Ransome saw his team performing that well on Friday. Or maybe he did. I just don't know!

Holly coach Will Sophiea (left) and younger
brother Jeff (#1 singles) pose with their mother
Elise after Jeff won a regional title last week.

One coach who did know how well his team would play was Will Sophiea up in Holly. The Bronchos used their depth to edge out Flushing for a D-2 regional title. Senior Jeff Sophiea finally got his regional title, topping the field at No. 1 singles. He was not alone. Parker Cuthbert-Taylor Mills (#2), Zac Goodrich-Dillon Sink (#3) and Morgan Baylis-Aaron Vergith (#4) all won regional doubles championships to put their team over the top. Holly will need that depth to perform well at states if it wants a shot at a top-10 finish. With Lahser and Andover out, the door is open for a few of those "Top-15" teams to take the next step. But their doubles will have to score. Holly was 15th last year (with four points).
Back to the Sophieas. It was cool to see Jeff win his first regional title. Big brother (and coach) Will waited until his senior season to win his first regional championship as well. Proud day for mom, for sure.

A big thank you to all

By the way, I want to thank all of you tennis followers. We've created Tout (video) widgets for each of our seven fall sports. You can watch tennis videos there (it's on our tennis home page on MIPrepZone and at the bottom of this blog post) or on my home page (LOCATED HERE). My point is that tennis ranks No. 2 of those seven sports - trailing only football. And it's not even close. My tennis videos have been watched more than 3,200 times. So thank you.

More on the way

Stay tuned as I will be writing up blog about the seeds for the state tournament, which were released today. And later on Wednesday/early Thursday, I'll be offering up my predictions for the finals. Watch my tennis videos below. And remember, you can shoot Tout videos yourself. Just download the app, shoot some tennis-related videos and use the hashtag #miprepzonetennis and they'll appear in our widget. Try it. I can't be everywhere this weekend, so I'd love to see some people helping me out!