Plymouth tennis splits Saturday matchups

CULVER — After changing plans several times Saturday morning, the Plymouth Girls Tennis Team cancelled their Home 8-Team Varsity Tourney and travelled to Culver Academies to play two dual matches.
The Pilgrims won some tight matches to take a 5-0 victory over Andrean, and then played competitively against District-Ranked Fairfield before falling by a 4-1 score.
In Match 1, Plymouth 2S player Mia Hartley and the 1D Team of Marisa Langfeldt and Lydia Wray shot out to quick leads and took convincing wins to give the Pilgrims a 2-0 advantage. In the process, Mia took her first individual win of the young season.
After that, things were much more competitive. The Pilgrim 2D Team of Hanley Feldman and Elly Kruyer dropped their first set before rallying to take the second set and super tiebreaker to secure the third Pilgrim point, and the first Plymouth team win of 2026. It was also the first career Varsity win for both Hanley and Elly.
Plymouth 1S player Sophia Cantero shook off a sluggish start, battling to take a close first set in a tiebreaker, and then settled in to take the second set going away. The win marked Sophia’s first career win at #1 singles.
In the final match to finish, Pilgrim 3S Allison Grobe took a straight set win. After winning the first set and leading much of the second set, Allison faced a 6-5 deficit in set number two. Allison regained her composure, taking the next game and playing a quality tiebreaker to take the win and seal the 5-0 triumph for the Pilgrims. The win marked the first career Varsity win for Allison.
As a team overall, the Pilgrims finished 3-0 in tiebreakers against Andrean.
The Pilgrims faced a tougher test in Match 2. Fairfield boasts a talented singles lineup and a lot of Varsity experience.
The doubles matches were the first to finish, with the Plymouth 2D team of Hanley Feldman and Elly Kruyer falling in straight sets, while the Plymouth 1D team of Marisa Langfeldt and Lydia Wray won a tight first set and then kept the momentum going to a convincing straight set win.
All three Pilgrim singles players, 1S Sophia Cantero, 2S Mia Hartley, 3S Allison Grobe, played quality matches but fell in straight sets. All three matches featured long rallies, quality shotmaking, and high level tennis. Just a handful of points made the difference in every singles set.
“With as many rainouts and postponements as we’ve had so far this season, I’m certainly glad we were able to work this out and get these two matches completed,” said Plymouth coach Brad Haeck. “Thanks to Culver Academy for allowing us to play there. It was two good matches for our girls to experience.”
“Against Andrean, we saw a lot of pressure situations. We were able to work through those, overcome some adversity (while maybe not playing our best tennis), and come out on top on all five courts. Just for some of our girls to get a win and gain some confidence was big for them.”
“We have a lot of positives to take away from the Fairfield match as well,” said Haeck. “They are a high-quality team that will have a great season. To be competitive with them across most courts is a positive for us, and certainly a step in the right direction. The experience of playing both of these matches is valuable; we improved as a team today.”
Plymouth Varsity/JV will travel to Warsaw for their first NLC match on Tuesday, 4/21/26, 5:30 PM start.