George Ebert wins first singles conference title for Sturgis

PLAINWELL — George Ebert won a Wolverine Conference singles title on Wednesday afternoon.

Ebert, who will be continuing his tennis career with the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Ind., next year, won the top singles flight for the Trojans at the Wolverine Championships hosted by Plainwell. He was the only flight winner for the Trojans, a team which 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 at 14. Finishing third was Otsego with 12 points.

Ebert won all three of his matches on the day. In the finals, he lost the opening set 6-0 to Maddox Rosalin of Vicksburg but somehow battled back to win the final two sets at 6-0, 6-0 to secure the championship. Prior to that, Ebert won over Elias Babler of Niles 6-1, 6-0 and Steven Linton of Edwardsburg 6-0, 6-0.

Sturgis earned third-place finishes at second and third singles, respectively.

Carter Oswald beat Logan Summy of Edwardsburg 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the third-place match. Oswald won his opening match over 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 and 6-2.

Brody Currier also secured third place, beating Phoenix Orona of Otsego 6-3, 6-0 in the third-place match. Currier's opening match saw him defeat Hunter Kater of Niles 6-0, 6-2 before he fell to Anderson Farnquist of Paw Paw 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals.

Logan White was seventh overall at fourth singles for the Trojans.

Finishing fourth were the Barkby brothers — Easton and Cooper — at second doubles. They won their opening match over Stephen Applewhite and Matthew Richards of Niles 6-3, 6-2 but dropped their next match to 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 won over 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 won over 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 won over Three Rivers 5-4 (5), 1-4 and 12-10.

Justin McDonald played to fifth place for Three Rivers at first singles. The first doubles team of Jay and Alex Nowak played to third place overall, beating Gio Gangloff and West Post of Vicksburg 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in that third-place match.

Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com . Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: George Ebert wins first singles conference title for Sturgis