SPORTS Noa Goldstein (left) and Carly Bernard celebrate their state championships.
Drama on the Courts
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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oa 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
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JULY 8 • 2021
MICHAEL BERNARD
Bloomfield Hills High School girls tennis players Noa Goldstein and Carly Bernard win state championships.
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.” 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.
