Hackney-led Mona Shores wins GMAA city tennis title for fifth straight year

Mona Shores senior Drew Hackney can now say he is the city’s best, four straight years. 

 

That’s right, Hackney completed the “four-peat” for the Sailors on Saturday. The 6-1 right hander topped North Muskegon’s Luke Hall 6-0, 6-0 to complete the daunting four-year task of claiming the city’s top tennis player. 

 

The win by Hackney, which took quite a bit of focus despite what the score showed, led the Sailors to their fifth straight city title.

 

Mona Shores completed the victory by sweeping the board in all four singles flights and adding No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. 

 

“It’s really awesome, it shows that we have been consistent throughout the years,” said Hackney of his team. “That’s the fun part of high school tennis. You have that team environment, you’re all in it together, especially because we were playing at the same time. That was cool.”

 

While Hackney was competing at No. 1 singles, his teammates Victor Powell, Liam Gosset and Josiah Bement also were competing for titles at the same time on neighboring courts. 

The four Mona Shores players could be heard throughout their matches chirping each other up with little yells of encouragement between points.

It was kind of a family atmosphere for the Sailors, afterall, both of Hackney’s parents coach the Sailors squad. His mother Tracy Hackney is the head coach while his father, Charlie Hackney, is the assistant. 

 

Powell captured No. 2 singles with a 6-0, 6-2 win over North Muskegon’s Carter Mieler. Gossett topped Reeths-Puffer’s Cory Judd 1-6, 6-2, 10-0 for the No. 3 singles title. Bement took down Reeths-Puffer’s Cade Paugh 6-3, 6-2 for the No. 4 singles title.


The Sailors were also led at No. 1 doubles by Nathan Opfermann and Ben Warren. The duo topped Reeths-Puffer’s Holden Earnest and Ethan Frang in a 7-6(5), 5-2 (default) win. Andrew Neilsen and Amilia Pena took home the title at No. 3 doubles with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Whitehall’s Myles Welch and Adam Sikkenga. 

While the Sailors nearly swept the whole day, Hackney did not have an entirely easy time with North Muskegon’s Hall in the No. 1 single finals. 

 

Hackney started out down 40-0 in the first game of the match. But somehow Hackney battled back and won the game. The second game, Hackney again found himself down. This time, it was 40-30. He battled back to deuce and rattled Hall in the process. The third game, Hackney cleaned the board and settled into his game. 

 

“He just shoots it down the line, over and over,” said North Muskegon’s Hall about battling against Hackney. “It’s an experience (playing Hackney), it’s fun and I’m fine with the loss because there’s nothing I can do against that.” 

 

Hall has a familiarity playing against the city champ as the two met in the finals last year when Hackney won, 6-0, 6-0. 

 

“I just couldn’t capitalize on my leads and got nervous, but then I realize he’s a state semifinalist every year and I’m not,” joked Hall who is in his junior season for the Norse.

 

The team scores finished with the Sailors in first with 45 points followed by runner-up Reeths-Puffer with 31 points. Whitehall (30 points) took third, Western Michigan Christian (26 points) took fourth while North Muskegon (25 points) took fifth and Fruitport (11 points) finished in the final spot. 

 

Photos by Jason Goorman