Zeeland East High School

Zeeland East (9-1-1) defeated St. Joseph (4-2-1) by a 5-4 score on August 27th, leaning on its doubles depth to edge a split across the nine varsity matches. The dual came down to the lower doubles courts after St. Joseph grabbed three singles wins and Zeeland East answered with four victories of its own. At No. 4 singles, Zeeland East’s Oliver Reese delivered one of the cleanest wins of the day, shutting out Ben Kirschenbaum 6-0, 6-0. Zeeland East also picked up important points at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, where Jace Velderman and Payton Ott beat Archie Johansen and Henry Smith 6-4, 7-5, and Lukas Hafeman and Pierson Kolean topped Anderson Schroeder and Gustavo Luckman 6-1, 6-2. The most dramatic match came at No. 1 doubles, where St. Joseph’s Wyatt Milletics (6-1) and Ben Hosbein (6-1) outlasted Zeeland East’s Jacob Guerriero (9-2) and Luke Hathaway (9-2) 6-7 (3), 6-4, 11-9 in a three-set tiebreak. Zeeland East still closed strong, with Ben Slotman (10-1) and Max Lewis (10-1) winning No. 4 doubles 6-2, 6-7 (5), 10-2 to help seal the dual. The win kept Zeeland East’s strong start rolling as it moved deeper into the season at 9-1-1.