MUSKEGON TWP. - The Reeths-Puffer boys tennis team has experienced some tough challenges this season, but the Rockets just don't give up very easily.
A really good example came on Saturday, when the Rockets’ No. 1 doubles team of Cade Paugh and Holden Earnest kept fighting off defeat in their championship match at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association City Tournament at Reeths-Puffer High School.
Paugh and Earnest lost the first set to North Muskegon’s Carter Mielder and Logan Stack 4-6, but battled back by winning the second 6-2. 
Cade Paugh and Holden Earnest, No. 1 doubles champions.
That took the match to a tiebreaker, where the first team to reach 10 points, winning by at least two, would walk away with the title.
It started out badly, with North Muskegon jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Paugh and Earnest responded by calmly rallying again, winning the next six points with a few great shots, including a couple of slams at the net and a little dribbler that rolled between the two Norse players.
North Muskegon counterpunched, winning four straight points to take a 7-6 lead. R-P tied it up 7-7, then the Norse took an 8-7 lead and were just two points away from winning.
Paugh takes a shot during a match.
Paugh and Earnest dug deep one more time, however, and won three straight points to capture the tiebreaker 10-8 and the No. 1 doubles flight championship.
“It’s all about momentum," Paugh said. "That's just one of the things that comes with tennis. It just comes down to who can keep their heads down and stay focused. Sometimes you just have to push through. It was a lot of work."
That was the kind of day it was for the entire Reeths-Puffer squad, which ended up winning titles in four of the eight flights and the overall team championship.
Adam Miller, No. 4 singles champion
Reeths-Puffer finished with 21 points, followed by Whitehall (17), North Muskegon (13), Western Michigan Christian (10), Mona Shores (8) and Fruitport (2)
It was the first city tournament team title in history for the R-P boys. Just a few months ago the R-P girls team also won its first team city championship, so the entire Rocket tennis program is currently sitting at the top of the local high school tennis scene.
The Rockets piled up the points by having finalists in all eight flights. They lost four matches in the championship round, but the players who finished runner-up still won valuable team points that put R-P over the top.
Miller returns a shot during his championship match.
“It was one of the best tennis days that Reeths-Puffer has ever had,” said R-P Coach Ryan Hankinson, who also coaches the girls team in the spring. “It was nice to do something that’s never been done before. We thought it was a real possibility, and I would have been disappointed if it had turned out any other way.”
The remarkable thing about the team championship is that the Rockets pulled it off in the midst of what has been a pretty tough season.
They knew they had a strong lineup this year, but they have played a brutal schedule against a lot of very good teams from around the state.
Adam Schrumpf and Jackson Baldus, No. 3 singles champions.
The Rockets started the season 0-3 with losses to good teams from North Muskegon, Zeeland East and Zeeland West. Over the past two weeks they lost to Jenison, Big Rapids, Maple City Glen Lake, Traverse City Central and Byron Center.
The losses to TC Central and Maple City were by 7-1 scores, and the score against powerful Byron Center was 8-0.
Instead of letting all those losses hurt their confidence, however, the Rockets learned and improved from the experience, Hankinson said.
R-P's Cory Judd in action in the No. 3 singles finals.
“It didn’t hurt us at all or bring us down,” the coach said about the recent defeats. “If anything it brought us up and made us more competitive. We were so happy to have opponents that helped us get better, then we were grateful to have this opportunity to show how good we’ve become locally and how our players have improved.”
Winning flight championships for the Rockets were Paugh and Earnest at No. 1 doubles, Trent VanDam and Leo Kretschmar at No. 2 doubles, Jackson Baldus and Adam Schrumpf at No. 3 doubles and Adam Miller at No. 4 singles.
All posted perfect 3-0 records on the day.
Trent Van Dam and Leo Kretschmar, No. 2 doubles champions.
VanDam and Kretschmar defeated Whitehall’s Myles Welch and Jonathon Hall in the finals in a very tight match, 7-6, 2-6, 10-8. Baldus and Schrumpf beat Whitehall’s Elijah Roberge and Evan Thomas in the finals 7-6, 6-1.
Miller defeated Mona Shores’ Castor Dempsey 6-2, 6-3 to claim his title.
Hankinson was very impressed with how Paugh and Earnest and VanDam and Kretschmar were able to win their title matches in tiebreakers, which have not been a strength for R-P in recent seasons. 
R-P's Quinn Alderink in the No. 2 singles finals.
“Over the past five-plus years, we have just never seemed to come out on top in tiebreakers,” he said. “Then today our one doubles won in a tiebreaker in the final, and our two doubles won a tiebreaker in the finals and one to get to the finals.”
Taking second place in their flights for R-P were Ethan Frang (No. 1 singles), Quinn Alderink (No. 2 singles), Cory Judd (No. 3 singles) and Preston Singleton and Erik Trulsen (No. 4 doubles).
Over the season the Rockets’ strength has been their singles players, so winning three of four titles in the doubles flights was a huge bonus for R-P.
“When three and four doubles won championships for us, it put us in a position to have a cushion and still be able to finish on top, even if some other things went wrong,” Hankinson said. “For me, all day, I was the most relaxed I have ever been at a tournament.”
R-P's Ethan Frang in the No. 1 singles finals.