PLAINWELL – George Ebert won a Wolverine Conference singles title Wednesday afternoon.
Ebert, who will continue his tennis career at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Ind., next year, won the first flight in singles for the Trojans at the Wolverine Championships hosted by Plainwell. He was the only steal winner for the Trojans, a team that finished fourth overall.
For the day, Sturgis finished with 10 points. Vicksburg won the championship with 16 points and Paw Paw came in second overall with 14. Otsego finished third with 12 points.
Ebert won all three of his matches that day. In the final, he lost the first set 6-0 to Vicksburg’s Maddox Rosalin, but somehow held on to win the final two sets 6-0, 6-0 to secure the championship. Before that, Ebert beat Elias Babler of Niles 6-1, 6-0 and Steven Linton of Edwardsburg 6-0, 6-0.
Sturgis earned third place at second and third place, respectively, in singles.
Carter Oswald defeated Logan Summy of Edwardsburg 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the third-place match. Oswald won his opening match against Brayden Williams of Three Rivers 6-4, 6-4, but then fell to Spencer Shearer of Otsego in the next match at 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Brody Currier also secured third place by defeating Otsego’s Phoenix Orona 6-3, 6-0 in the third place match. Currier’s opening match saw him defeat Niles’ Hunter Kater 6-0, 6-2 before falling to Paw Paw’s Anderson Farnquist 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals.
Logan White finished seventh overall at fourth singles for the Trojans.
The Barkby brothers – Easton and Cooper – finished fourth at second doubles. They won their opening match against Stephen Applewhite and Matthew Richards of Niles 6-3, 6-2, but lost their next match against Thomas Christiansen and Grant VanWoert of Vicksburg 7-6 (1), 6-1.
At first doubles, the Sturgis team of Alex Cypher and Andrew Scheske finished seventh. They beat Edwardsburg in that match 4-0, 1-4, and 10-4. At second doubles, the team of Brayden Bibb and Dominic Brown finished fifth. They beat Niles 1-4, 4-2, 10-6 and Plainwell 5-4 (4), 4-2.
Nixon Orpilla and Johnathan Bickle finished seventh at fourth doubles. They beat Three Rivers 5-4 (5), 1-4 and 12-10.
Justin McDonald played fifth for Three Rivers in the first singles. The first doubles team of Jay and Alex Nowak played for third place overall, defeating Vicksburg’s Gio Gangloff and West Post 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in this third-place match.
Contact sports editor Brandon Watson at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article was originally published in the Sturgis Journal: Sturgis takes fourth place in conference tournament, title for Ebert
