Last season, as an inexperienced sophomore playing at the top of the Reeths-Puffer tennis team's singles lineup, Quinn Alderink took his lumps.
But the knowledge and skill he gained has started to produce results this year.
Alderink, playing No. 1 singles on Friday against three tough opponents at Ludington High School, posted a pretty impressive 2-1 record.
He defeated Traverse City West’s Jonah Abrukle 6-1, 6-3 and rallied to beat Cadillac’s Brady Koenig 6-7, 6-1, 7-6.
Alderink lost his last match to Ludington’s Robby Killips, but his improved play has caught his coach’s attention.
Quinn Alderink
“Quinn Alderink medaled and has shown great progress since last year preparing to represent the Rockets at the top of the lineup at one singles,” said R-P Coach Ryan Hankinson. “He is 5-4 overall during our super challenging first third of the season.”
Overall the Rockets struggled on the day, competing against Ludington, Traverse City West and Cadillac.
Ludington won the tournament-style event with 21 points, followed by Cadillac with 12, TC West with 10 and R-P with 5.
Winning one match for the Rockets were Adam Miller (No. 2 singles), Cory Judd and Ethan Frang (No. 1 doubles) and Holden Earnest and Trent VanDam (No. 2 doubles).
“We are still trying to land with the right partners (in doubles) and the placement of players in different flights during these early-season matches,” Hankinson said. “Friday’s experiments were unsuccessful in that cause, but individual efforts by multiple players were highlights during the day.”
