GAYLORD ― The Alpine Regional Tennis Association (ARTA) is committed to expanding tennis in Gaylord and around Northern Michigan.

One of the ways they do that is by hosting tournaments, like the second annual Women’s Doubles “Moxie” Tennis Tournament that took place on Saturday, July 29 at the Otsego County Sportsplex with nine teams of two players from throughout Northern Michigan competing for the ARTA Champions Cup.

After a rain-delayed start and competitive opening rounds, the tournament’s championship featured the top two seeds and last two unbeaten teams, the top seeds Constanza Tapia and Jenn Boike up against the second-seeded Dana Hall and Eve Elden. And, despite dropping the first two games of the match, Tapia and Boike showed a balanced attack and court presence to dominate the finals (4-2, 4-0) and claim the tournament championship.

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Some of the most exciting matches of the day took place in the consolation round, including that bracket’s finale that featured Laura Hansmann and Sue Young versus Sheila Simpson and Tamara Mankiewicz. After a solid 4-1 win in the first set, Hansmann and Young had to battle to pull out the second set, doing so in a 4-3 tiebreak to earn third place.

This followed their successful annual ‘Roper’ men’s tournament a few weeks prior, an event to honor Gaylord local and former ARTA board member Mike Roper.

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When putting on tournaments like these, ARTA’s overall goal is to build enough interest in the younger members of Gaylord and surrounding areas to finally bring a high school program back to Gaylord High, something the school hasn’t had since the 1980s. ARTA offers tournaments, tennis classes, clinics, leagues, kid’s programs and drop-in play throughout the summer season.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: ‘Moxie’ women’s doubles tournament crowns winners from Northern Michigan