(Travis Nelson/Mining Journal photo) Iron Mountain’s girls tennis team is pictured after winning the MHSAA Division 2 Girls Tennis U.P. Championship Thursday afternoon at Westwood High School in West Ishpeming. Standing, from left: head coach Marcus Celello, Anika Cameron, Kensie St. John, Natalia Brown, Elle Lofholm, Anja Kleiman, Danika Juul, Bella Brown (holding the trophy), Amber Jackolovitz, Emma Golfis, Callie Bianco and Rediet Husing. Kneeling, from left: Mia Vedin, Maddie Supanich, Hailey Greenleaf and Aziza Burgoon.

WEST ISHPEMING — Iron Mountain capped off its season as MHSAA Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis champions after claiming the Division 2 title at Westwood High School on Thursday afternoon.

The Mountaineers won three flights in No. 2 singles and No. 2 and 3 doubles, earning them 17 points in the championships. Defending champion West Iron finished as the runner-up with 14 points, Ironwood and Ishpeming tied with seven, Munising had five, Gwinn totaled four and Norway was blanked.

“First and foremost, I’m just extremely proud of these girls,” Mountaineers head coach Marcus Celello said. “Last year we got second place and we were one match away from winning it, so we knew what it took to be close. But first day of practice, we said that this was the ceiling, that was our potential, that nothing was going to be given to us. My main takeaway is just that I’m really proud of this group of girls.”

The finals were going to come down to a couple of matches between Iron Mountain and West Iron in different flights to determine the overall winner. The Mountaineers and Wykons faced off in three different finals, and Iron Mountain won each one.

“We knew it could very well come down to a situation like this, us and West Iron in a couple of finals, and whoever pulls away in those will come out on top,” Celello said. “Low and behold, that’s essentially what happened today. We were prepared for the possibility and we just didn’t let it affect us mentally, and we just played our game and took care of business.”

For the Mountaineers, Aziza Burgoon had to come back against West Iron’s Aurora Dahl after losing the first set to win No. 2 singles 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in a long match. She was joined by her waiting teammates on the court for a celebration afterwards.

“The first set I was pretty nervous,” Burgoon said. Normally, I’m not a very nervous person, but I guess emotions got to me and I dropped the first set. Then I went over and talked to my coach and he said, ‘leave it all out there and just have fun’, and that’s when I really started playing well. Just having fun, and I won the second set, and the third set I was nervous coming back a little bit.”

Danika Juul and Rediet Husing won No. 2 doubles for Iron Mountain, knocking off the Wykons Lillie Schmutzler and Callista Bortolameolli 6-2, 6-3.

“It feels really, really good,” Juul said. “When we play them WIC), it’s always a really good match, and it feels good that we were able to pull through at the end there.”

The tandem’s motto for the season was “smarter not harder” on their shots, and it led to three points on the year’s biggest stage.

“Point by point too, that was key for us,” Husing said.

Anika Cameron and Kensie St. John captured the No. 3 doubles for Iron Mountain with a 6-3, 6-3 win over West Iron’s Autumn Smith and Seanna Stine.

Elsewhere, West Iron’s Kali Applin had to bounce back after dropping the first set to win No. 1 singles 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Gwinn’s Lily Kerry. After taking home the No. 2 singles title last year, it was an emotional end to Applin’s career with a victory.

“I feel really good, it was a long match but I feel good,” Applin said. “Just knowing that I had another chance to get it back, there’s always a second set, and if I win that, there’s always a third set that I can win. It feels good to win for the school.”

The Wykons also took home No. 3 singles, with Brynlee Nodurft taking down Munising’s Jenna Matson in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

“It was really my mental game,” Nodurft said. “I was down 4-1 in the first set and that was really hard for me, and I’m just glad I came back. It was really difficult and I’ve never played her, so it was really hard because I didn’t know how she played. So I guess I was just learning her game and how to mix with that.”

Ironwood and Ishpeming won the remaining flights, with Ironwood getting victories in No. 1 and No. 4 doubles, and the Hematites getting No. 4 singles. Leilah Anderson and Ella Darrow defeated Iron Mountain’s Bella Brown and Anja Kleiman 6-1, 6-2 in No.1. The Red Devils’ pair of Sarah Lauzon and Yoyo Sin knocked off another Iron Mountain team of Hailey Greenleaf and Mia Vedin 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 to get Ironwood a share of third place.

Ishpeming was able to get No. 4 singles with a 6-1, 6-2 win by Emily DeMarois over Iron Mountain’s Elle Loftholm. DeMarois started the year playing doubles, and it took a tough adjustment to play singles and get the Hematites’ only win.

Iron Mountain didn’t have to face nearly as much adversity as it did prior to the championships, but the days that didn’t go right for them helped make this moment.