On September 12, the Boys Varsity Soccer team came out with lots of energy looking for their first win on the season against Walled Lake Central High School. Unfortunately, the Lakers allowed 2 goals and were not able to answer them, resulting in a 0-2 loss. After a couple days of practice and rest, the Lakers were back on the field on September 15 versus Seaholm High School. The Lakers had a similar result to their previous game, ending in a 0-3 loss. However, on September 17, the tables finally turned. The Lakers came out hungry, in fact they were starving, for a victory. Joey Murzyn (senior) scored the only goal of the game against Bloomfield High School to secure the Lakers first win of the season. The team was fired up about their first win, and look to continue their success on the field. Their record is now 1-6-1, and with the sweet taste of victory in their mouths, they are looking to win another game against Farmington Harrison High School. The WBHS JV Boys soccer team took to the field with little success this week. The Lakers first matched up against Seaholm High School on Tuesday, September 15 and were absolutely annihilated in every aspect of the match to finish with the extremely high scoring 8-0 loss. On Thursday, the Lakers looked to bounce back, but hope was shattered early in the first half as rival Bloomfield Hills High School took an early offensive command to topple the Lakers, 6-1. The only goal was scored by Pearce Bennet (junior). WBHS’ Freshman team also struggled to find the back of the net in their matches against Rochester High School on Tuesday and Birmingham’s Groves on Friday. Rochester’s set offense was too much for the Lakers’ efforts and finished with a 3 point deficit, 4-1. On the other hand, the Lakers put up a strong fight against Groves, as the match remained tied, 0 a piece, going into the 70th minute. With just minutes remaining, Groves was able to find a crevice in the Lakers’ defense to come out on top with the slim, 1-0 victory.

The West Bloomfield Varsity Tennis team took to the courts on September 16 versus Walled Lake Northern High School. David Filanovsky (senior) won straight singles sets, performing outstandingly as he has all season. Kevin Chen (junior) and Justin Vassallo (junior) had a 3 set doubles win. Sadly, the Lakers could not put together enough wins to reign victorious in the match, taking a 2-6 loss. The following day, September 17, the Lakers took on Berkeley High School. There were 3 singles winners, Karthik Ravi (freshman), Rishabh Parekh (sophomore), and Alec Sandberg (senior). There was also a doubles pair, Kyle Crane (junior) and Tyler Christensen (junior), who were able to outperform their opponents and snatch the win. Overall, the Lakers performed well, tying Berkeley 4-4. On Friday, against Lake Orion High School, the Lakers could not get anything together. As a result of their lack of team chemistry, they took a 1-7 loss. The only match win came from Tyler Christensen and Kyle Crane, the doubles partners. The WBHS JV team suffered a very difficult week with losses across the board on September 16, 17, and 18. The Lakers first took a hefty loss to Walled Lake Northern High School as they finished with a final set shutout score of 7-0. The match results included 7 losses. Josh Carlin (sophomore) and Vaibhav Velagapudi (sophomore) lost 8-5, Jake Cohen (sophomore) and Robert Sylvester (sophomore) lost 8-3, Ra’ed Sewani (junior) and Kenny Tobin (junior) lost 8-2, Alex Weiss (junior) and Ned Patron (freshman) lost 8-6, Anik Kothari (sophomore) and Nolan Beaty (freshman) lost 8-1, Muhammad Wali (sophomore) and Sonjai White (sophomore) lost 8-1, and Ken Kuribayashi (freshman) and Corey Cohn (Sophomore) lost 8-0. Things looked slightly better for the Lakers against Berkley High School, but they Lakers were no match as they finished with a final set score of 2-5. Carlin and Velagapudi lost 8-6, Cohen and Sylvester lost 8-4, Sewani and Weiss lost 8-7, Tobin and Kothari lost 8-2, Beaty and Kuribayashi lost 8-0, while the only two wins were by Wali and White as they won, 8-3, and Cohn and Ali Rashid (sophomore) with a final of 6-2. The struggling Lakers then took on Lake Orion High School and concluded just one win short of a tie, 3-5. Carlin and Velagapudi to0k two 6-1 victories, Weiss and Patron dominated to conclude with a final of 10-8 and 7-5, and Cohn and Rashid took the 8-2 victory. The JV Lakers record fell to 2-5-1 on the season.

On September 15, the Girls Varsity Volleyball Girls put up a very tough fight against opponent Oxford High School. On the offensive side, Lindsey DuFresne (senior) racked up 28 assists during the game. Gabi Allread (senior) was also a big part of the Lakers’ effort with 10 kills. Other members of the team also joined in with many kills including Shannon Heald (senior) with 7 kills, Vanessa Vigier (junior) also with 7 kills, and Nyla Greer (junior) and DuFresne both contributed with 5 kills. Greer acquired 5 block kills, demonstrating her strong defensive game. All together the girls served 90.5%, continuing their amazing serving percentage throughout the season. Although they fought hard, they lost 2-3. Two days later, September 17, the girls came out stronger than ever, shutting out Farmington High School. The Lakers’ offense was on point and their defense was lights out, resulting in set scores of 25-16, 25-16, 25-20. After this victory, their record is now 8-2 and still continuing their good path. The WBHS JV Volleyball team took to the road and dominated against Oxford High School on Tuesday and Farmington Hills High School on Thursday, both of which were decided with a 2-1 final score. The first match against Oxford came down to a nailing bitting, action packed final set as the first two were split. WBHS took the early victory in set one with a 25-19 final and lost the second set 25-18. In set number three, WBHS remained strong throughout to exit with the narrow 21-18 victory to take the overall victory. Their next match against Farmington had a similar plot, as the Lakers dominated to win the first set, 25-9, came up short in the second, 26-24, but were able to maintain composure and finish off strong in the third, 21-13. The Freshman team was unable to defeat their Oxford competition and took their first loss of the season with a final set score of 2-1. They then were able to bounce back later in the week with ease against Farmington Hills, as they only allowed Farmington to finish with 24 points in 3 sets to take the 3-0 victory. As a result, the Freshman team is now 3-1 in regular season play, and 1-0 in OAA White division play.

Friday night Varsity Football game, was another successful outing for the Lakers. The opposing Troy Athens High School put up a fight, but the still undefeated Lakers were not intimidated by this puny threat. The Lakers were strong defensively with Theo Majette (senior) collecting and leading the defense with an amazing 4 sacks in the game. The offense was also surging with energy. Running back Davion Johnson (junior) got the ball, ran hard, and found a hole to take it all the way down the field for a 38 yard touchdown. Trishton “Toogie” Jackson (senior) connected with receiver Brandon Williams (senior) for an 11 yard touchdown pass. Toogie also racked up two more touchdown passes, a 15 yard pass to Gervon Winn (senior) and an 18 yard pass to Davion Johnson. Again, the incredible Toogie has led the Lakers to another victory, making their record a perfect 4-0. The JV football team also found great success this week as they were able to hold off Troy Athens High School with a close final score of 21-20. The Lakers were able to get on the board early with two touchdowns and a two point conversion in the first quarter, followed by another touch down in the second. Quarterback, Jevan Swanigan (freshman) dominated with 2 touchdown passes to receiver, Lydell Shepherd (freshman), in addition to a punt return touchdown in the first quarter. The Lakers improved to 3-1 on the season.  

The WBHS Girls Golf team took on the Oakland County Division 2 Girls Golf outing held at Links of Crystal Lake in Pontiac on Tuesday, September 15. Despite a solid performance, the Lakers finished in 18th place amongst Oakland County’s High School golf teams. Taylor Pierce (senior) dominated for the Lakers and finished with a final score of 82, Heather Haely (senior) finished with a 103, Lindsay Arthurs (sophomore) ended with 121,  and Amethyst Hall (sophomore) concluded with 125. WBHS’s score of 433 proved to be just enough to beat OAA Blue opponent Royal Oak who who finished with 467 in 19th place, but could not compare to Clarkston High School’s first place score of 133. Taylor Pierce’s 82 11th place finish in the 83 player field. Up next for the Laker golf team is an away match vs. Berkley High School on Monday Sept. 21. Good Luck Lakers!

The Lakers’ young Varsity field hockey team looked to build off of their first win on the season last week, but struggled in finding the back of the net against their Dearborn and Country Day competition on Wednesday and Friday. The Lakers first squared off against Dearborn High School, but despite their solid defensive play, their offense lacked the ability to convert on set plays and open opportunities. Liza Gold (senior) dominated the Lakers’ defensive play and concluded with many stops in the match. The Lakers then took on Country Day and were demolished by Country Day’s offensive power and fell with the lopsided score of 7-0. Unfortunately, the JV team was unable to accomplish much more. The Lakers put up a tough fight against Dearborn and maintained great offensive possession to finish with a 0-0 draw. Goalie, Tristan Burk (sophomore), was able to make great saves to hold the Pioneers from scoring. The Lakers then made a great effort against Country Day, but could not take command and lost, 3-0.

The WBHS cross country team took to the trail at the Michigan State University Invite competition on Friday, September 18 with schools from across Michigan in attendance. WBHS’s Girls team finished in 24th place with Kyla Christopher-Moody (freshman) finishing in an outstanding 7th place amongst all runners in the contest. Christopher-Moody’s 5k time was an outstanding 19:52. She was followed by Marissa Stone (sophomore) who finished in 86th place with a time of 21:43 and Roopa Gorur (junior) with a time of 22:35. The boys dominated and were led by Justin Christopher-Moody (junior) with a 5k time of 17:50, Jacob Binke (junior) who finished in 18:18, and Brandon Coats (junior) with a solid time of 18:25.