Teri Tune
Sports Scene
It was a season to remember for the Portland boy’s tennis team.
The Raiders finished fourth in the state in Division 4 with a score of 17. They finished behind Greenhills School, Kalamazoo Christian, and Lansing Catholic Central.
In singles action, Portland’s No. 1 player Chance Conley won four matches in two days and earned the Division 4 state championship at No. 1 singles.
It wasn’t an easy road for Conley, as he had to face Williamston’s Michael Sienko twice in less than a week, but he came away the winner both times. Conley defeated Sienko at the state finals in two straight sets 6-4, 6-2.
“It was a great feeling to beat him,” Conley said. “He’s a great player. I lost to him already multiple times in a row, and that plays with your head. I went in thinking, ‘ok he’s beat you before so you might as well go out in a blaze if you are going to go down,’ but I was able to break him right away, and that gave me the confidence to finish him.”
Something everybody was battling throughout the finals was the awful weather, and for Conley it wasn’t any different.
“It definitely affected my serve, and you couldn’t lob the ball without the wind taking it,” Conley said.
“For some of the matches, the wind made a difference, but the guys did a great job of adjusting and playing through it,” Portland coach Jim Niebling said.
The Raiders No. 2 singles player Jared Guy made it to the semifinals before losing to Rob Stevens of Kalamazoo Christian 6-3, 6-3, while at No. 3 singles, Eric Lowery was defeated by Vincent McShane from Grosse Ile 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. No. 4 singles player Ricky Simon made it to the finals before being defeated by Zach Martell from Greenhills School 4-6, 7-6, 7-5.
Portland had a number of doubles teams also turn in strong efforts.
“The No. 4 doubles team of Colin Gensterblum and Zach Platte are both sophomores and this was their first trip to the finals, and they finished as semifinalists and did a great job,” Niebling said. They were defeated in the semifinals by the team of Chase Richmond and Cole Gingras from St. Francis High School 6-3, 6-4. The No. 1 one doubles team of Michael Dole and Julian Bonfiglio were defeated in the second round by the team of Mitch Potapa and Ryan Chilcote from Almont 7-5, 6-4, while the No. 2 doubles team of Calvin Schrauben and Alan Lear was also defeated in the second round by Sean Saint and Matteo Todislo from Greenhills School 6-3, 6-3. The No. 3 doubles team of Cameron Simon and Bryce Palmiter was defeated by Joe McCartney and Jeremy Byington of Grosse Ile 6-2, 7-5.
Every year, the tennis program at Portland seems to be getting stronger and going farther into the post season, and coach Niebling contributes that to great leadership.
“This was a special group of kids with strong leadership,” Niebling said. “Year in and year out we get good captains and they do a terrific job leading the team, and this is no exception. We had more kids qualify for the second day than the program’s ever had,” he said.
“Tennis is a country club sport, and Portland is not a country club place, so I’m very fortunate to have a lot of people doing things to keep pushing this program forward, from a pretty robust summer program to the dedication and great leadership of my captains. It gives us a step up right from the start,” said coach Niebling.
Conley plans to keep playing after high school, but admits it doesn’t play a role in what college he picks.
“I plan to keep on playing after high school, but I believe you pick a college for your future plans, and that’s what I plan on doing,” Conley said. “If they have a tennis team, then hey, that’s a bonus,” he said.
The Raiders will be losing two singles and four doubles players to graduation, so coach Niebling says he will be losing half his team.
“Unfortunately, you don‘t get a lot of freshmen that come onto the varsity team that are able to make a big impact,“ Niebling said. “A lot of our players, they don’t make it to that level of play until they are juniors and seniors, so we only get to see them for a year or so, and then they’re gone, but we have a great jv coach that gets our players ready to go, so we hope it’s more like reload and not rebuild next year.”