Dramatic Victories on the Courts

SPORTS

Noa Goldstein (left) and Carly Bernard celebrate their state championships.

Drama

on the Courts

Bloomfi eld Hills High School girls tennis players Noa Goldstein and Carly Bernard win state championships.

STEVE STEIN

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Noa Goldstein and her doubles partner defeated the only team that had beaten them all season.

Carly Bernard and her doubles partner recovered nicely from the only set they lost all season.

Those are the stories behind the doubles state championships won by Goldstein and Bernard last month as they helped the Bloomfield Hills High School girls tennis team earn a share of the Division 1 team state title with Ann Arbor Pioneer.

The team state championship was the first ever for the Bloomfield Hills girls tennis team. The high school opened in 2013 following the closing and merger of Bloomfield Hills Andover and Bloomfield Hills Lahser high schools.

Goldstein and Hannah Tomina, seeded No. 2, beat No. 1-seeded Claire and Kate Beardslee from Grosse Pointe South 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 1 doubles state championship match, a few weeks after the Grosse Pointe South team beat Goldstein and Tomina 6-4, 7-5.

“Oh, yes, we had a ton of incentive to beat them in the state championship match. We really wanted to beat them,” Goldstein said. “We had such as amazing season, and we wanted to finish it with a victory.”

It didn’t hurt, Goldstein admitted, that the Grosse Pointe South team had a very tough state semifinal match, beating Troy’s Angela Anderanin and Sabrina Song 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), while Goldstein and Tomina cruised past Pioneer’s Ashley Capelli and Juliana Pullen 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.

Anderanin and Song were the No. 4-seeded team. Capelli and Pullen were the No. 3-seeded team.

Several factors played into their earlier loss to the Grosse Pointe South team, Goldstein said.

“Hannah wasn’t 100% the first time we played them. She had an injured wrist,” Goldstein said. “But the Grosse Pointe South girls were the better team that day. You have to give them credit. And we didn’t bring enough energy to the match.”

Bernard and Reagen Tomina, the No. 1-seeded team, outlasted Troy’s Stephanie Ochoa and Grace Zhu 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-5 in the No. 2 doubles state championship match.

“Super duper close” is how Bernard described the match against the No. 2-seeded Troy girls.

Bernard and Reagen Tomina got off to a great start in the first two sets, sprinting to a 3-0 lead each time. But the Troy team came roaring back.

The loss in the second set was a first for Bernard and Reagen Tomina. It was the first time they dropped a set all season.

They didn’t have time to think about it. Not with the third set of the match looming that would decide the state championship.

Bernard and Reagen Tomina finished the match strong, pulling out the victory after the teams battled to a 4-4 tie.

“We beat that Troy team very early in the season,” Bernard said. “They improved a lot since then, and so did we.”

MICHAEL BERNARD

THRILLED TO BE BACK

After not playing last spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Goldstein and Bernard were thrilled to get back on the court this season.

Winning state championships was icing on the cake for the juniors, whose doubles partners (Hannah Tomina and Reagen Tomina are sisters) were selected by Bloomfield Hills coach Chris Dobson.

“Hannah and I had great chemistry,” Goldstein said. “We really listened to each other. I love her. She was a great doubles partner.”

Goldstein went 2-1 in singles matches when she was a freshman in 2019.

Bernard said she and Reagen Tomina complemented each other on the court because they’re opposites.

For example, “I like playing at the net and Reagen likes playing at the baseline,” Bernard said. “We’re like peanut butter and jelly, I guess. Reagen is a very talented tennis player. I was lucky to have her as a doubles partner.”

This was Bernard’s second trip to the state tournament. As a freshman, she played No. 3 doubles with Emily Ross and lost in the semifinals.

Bernard’s older sister Kaela Bernard was a Bloomfield Hills girls tennis player.

Kaela lost her senior season last year because of the pandemic, and never had an opportunity to win a state championship after losing in the No. 4 doubles state title match as a freshman and No. 2 doubles state title match as a sophomore.

Kaela’s competitive tennis career is over. She’s focusing on academics at Elon University in North Carolina.

“Our team this year felt bad for last year’s seniors,” Carly Bernard said. “We wanted to win the state championship for them because we know they worked so hard.”

DOUBLES CHAMPS

Bloomfield Hills earned its share of the state championship by winning three of the four doubles divisions in the tournament held in the Lansing area. Pioneer swept all four singles division titles.

Each team scored 30 points.

“We knew Pioneer had some amazing singles players, so we had to step it up in doubles,” Goldstein said.

“It’s great that we’re the first Bloomfield Hills girls tennis team to win a state championship,” Bernard said. “It’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”

Dobson, Bloomfield Hills’ coach, didn’t let tying for the team state championship diminish his team’s accomplishment.

“A championship is a championship, there’s no asterisk by it,” he told the Detroit Free Press.

“Pioneer had a powerhouse lineup at singles like I’ve never seen. So, for what we had to do and how we had to battle, to share the (state championship) with a phenomenal team, there certainly is no shame in that whatsoever.”

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