Ohio High School Tennis
MONDAY,
Big Week for HS Tennis
This is a really important week in Ohio high school tennis. The Sectional Draw occurs on Sunday at precisely 2pm for all districts in the state. This means that coaches and players will need to determine who will play in the Sectionals and at what positions. Teams with two skilled players may opt for doubles while others may pin their hopes on a singles run to Districts (and maybe even to States).
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OTZ Season-to-Date - Click to enlarge |
Of course, this report is most effective when it is accurate. Missing a key match? Please enter that score via OhioTennisZone's score entry system. Is a score incorrect? Please send OTZ an email. (This is for Coach Members only.) Also note that this needs to be for material errors. When two coaches report scores for the same match, there are commonly minor differences with scores. Also note that in order for this report to work correctly, player names in all of the scores need to be spelled correctly
Why doesn't OTZ accept scores from non-coach members? I made that mistake before and it resulted in a huge amount of work with no (zero, nada, none) additional sign-ups, and in this point of the season, I can barely keep up with the needs of paying customers. (This has always been the weird conundrum of the Internet. Some users simply think that despite the huge amount of effort that it takes to create good content, that content should be free.)
Of course, parents who are OTZ members can email changes to OTZ as well.
To access this report, coaches need to sign-in and click on the Coaches tab in the menu bar.
This report also makes great player mementos at the end of the season.
Today's matches include: Chagrin Falls (H) versus Hawken; Olentangy (H) versus Columbus Academy; University School (A) versus Orange; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Thomas Worthington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SATURDAY,
Massillon Jackson Wins Lexington Invite | Jerome Beats Hudson
The combination of the Easter weekend and a steady rain resulted in a low number of matches played. Massillon Jackson won the Lexington Invite which was held at the Lakewood Tennis Club. Lexington finished second, followed by Centerville, Dublin Coffman, and Perrysburg. There were just two dual matches recorded. They were: Wyoming defeated Oakwood and Dublin Jerome beat Hudson. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lexington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Lexington. Ron Schaub is the head coach and Rob Michels is the assistant coach. They are Team Members. They are led by Benton Drake, Blake Webster, and Brent Webster.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Beats Indian Hill | Lexington Defeats Centerville
There were four results from yesterday, which is four more than what was expected. It was a wet day throughout Ohio. Matches played included: Lexington defeated Centerville; Sycamore beat Indian Hill; and Dublin Coffman defeated Central Crossing. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Ottawa Hills - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Ottawa Hills. They are coached by Matt Gargas. They are led by Mike McGee and James Schwann.
The Lexington Invite is today so OTZ will be traveling north to eat donuts, take photos, and eat donuts. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Olentangy Beats Olentangy Orange | Photo Friday #3
The strong winds in the Central District led to some interesting points, but at least teams were able to play. Conditions will not be as good today, but many schools do not compete on Good Friday.
There were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Centennial defeated Beechcroft; Olentangy beat Olentangy Orange (with three, 3-setters); Dublin Scioto defeated Hilliard Bradley; Buckeye Valley beat River Valley; Anderson defeated Milford; Hawken beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy; and Lakota West beat Fairfield. In another significant, University School defeated Solon. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. The Olentangy versus Olentangy Orange match was a State Team Tournament Match and it is unfortunate that they had to play early in the draw.
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Orange's Alex Heiden - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated Olentangy's Sam Routzahn; University School's Chas Norman beat Solon's Thomas Liu; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Delaware Hayes' Kyle Klumpp; University School's Charlie Joranko beat Solon's Andy Lebowitz; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy’s Farren defeated Hawken’s Neil Tewari; Olentangy's Omar Khayat beat Olentangy Orange's Soham Pradhan; Olentangy Liberty's Vishnu Bodavula defeated Westerville Central's Corey Blankenship; and Pickerington North’s Cole Alcala beat Reynoldsburg’s Boban Mihajlov. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This will be the fourth Friday in a row with photos, but I am beyond overextended. Again.. If you have waited too long to hear from me, please ping me again. As of 2:20pm, the photos are now available. Click to view Most Recently Added Photos.
The #1 Ohio State Men's Tennis Team will have two home matches over the weekend. Ohio State will play Purdue today (Friday) at 6:00pm and Indiana on Easter Sunday at noon. To read more about OSU and the rankings, click on this link from Colette Lewis' Zootennis blog. (The OTZ photo of JJ Wolf was taken during the Columbus Challenger.)
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Lexington; Jonathan Alder (H) versus Kenton Ridge; Massillon Jackson (H) versus Hawken; Milton-Union (A) versus Northmont; and Sycamore (H) versus Indian Hill. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
St. X Beat CCD | OHSAA Girls State Spots
It was another great evening for tennis. For those keeping track, Ohio tennis has played 37% more dual matches than at the same time last year.
There were numerous matches among teams in the OTZ Top Ten. St. Xavier defeated Cincinnati Country Day; Mason beat Indian Hill; and Olentangy defeated Dublin Coffman. Overall, there were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Mariemont defeated Oak Hills; Delaware Hayes beat Pickerington Central (big win for the Delaware program); Greenville defeated Chaminade-Julienne; and Olentangy Orange beat Worthington Kilbourne. In other significant matches, Granville defeated Pickerington North (with three, 3-setters); Centerville beat Loveland; Hawken defeated Orange; and Upper Arlington beat St. Charles. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Worthington Christian - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Worthington Christian. They are coached by Dino Tsibouris. They are Team Members. They are led by Peter Tsibouris and Benjy Homoelle.
The OHSAA released the new States representation numbers for the girls for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The Division I and Division II numbers did not change. This will be a disappointment for the Central Division II girls because they still only have one spot (which means for one singles and two doubles players) for States. The breakdowns by District for Division I are: Central - 4, Northeast - 6, Northwest - 2, and Southwest 4. In Division II, they are: Central - 1, East/Southeast - 2, Northeast - 5, Northwest - 4, and Soutwest - 4. It is simply all about the number of schools participating in Sectionals (with four or more players). Want more spots? Get more teams into the Sectional tournament.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Centerville (H) versus Springboro; University School (H) versus Solon; Olentangy (H) versus Olentangy Orange; and Teays Valley (A) versus Circleville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason Beats Sycamore | New Albany Defeated Wellington
There were several big, heavy-weight matches played yesterday. They included: Mason defeated Sycamore; St. Ignatius beat Hawken; St. Xavier defeated Indian Hill; and New Albany beat Wellington. There were 38 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 21, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. There was just one close, 3-2 match -- Newark defeated Big Walnut. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Marysville Joel Shelley - Click to enlarge |
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Indian Hill; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Solon; Olentangy (H) versus Dublin Coffman; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Wellington; and Centerville (A) versus Loveland. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Wyoming | Upper Arlington Defeats Pickerington North
Chilly weather prevailed yesterday, but today will be warmer. There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 13, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. There were only a small number of close, 3-2 matches. They included: Wilmington defeated Centerville-B and Kenton Ridge beat Jonathan Alder. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
In the team tournament, Centerville defeated Walnut Hills; Upper Arlington beat Pickerington North; and Springboro defeated Bellbrook. Click for updated OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
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Thomas Worthington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Thomas Worthington. They are coached by Andrew Sinclair. They are led by Kai Britz, Wil Newberry, and Stephen Jackman.
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus Sycamore; St. Ignatius (H) versus Hawken; St. Xavier (H) versus Indian Hill; Beechcroft (A) versus Whetstone; Ottawa Hills (A) versus Ada; and Teays Valley (H) versus Logan Elm.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
New Albany and Wellington Still #1 in OTZ Rankings
This is a substantial update today. The OTZ Team Rankings were updated and the Top Players / Watch List were substantially changed.
OTZ uses the exceptionally confusing, Matrix Report, to help determine rankings. This report provides the total game winning percentages of the matches. St. Xavier is the Rosetta Stone team thus far in D1. They have played New Albany (49% winning percentage), University School (63%), Dublin Jerome (63%), Olentangy Orange (66%), and Massillon Jackson (73%) but not all teams have not used their strongest line-ups in each of these matches. Massillon Jackson is also a great "comparison team".
State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams April 15, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. New Albany◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 2. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 3. Mason◄TEAM | Cincinnati Country Day◄TEAM |
| 4. Sycamore | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 5. University◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 6. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 7. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 8. Olentangy◄TEAM | Wyoming◄TEAM |
| 9. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 10. Dublin Coffman◄TEAM | Orange |
| HM: Olentangy Orange | Hawken◄TEAM |
| HM: St. Ignatius◄TEAM | Ottawa Hills |
| HM: Solon◄TEAM | Granville |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
The Top Players / Watch Lists were updated yesterday. While coaches' feedback is always welcome with these lists, "help" from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and non-friends is not. It is also important to point out that if OTZ does not have a player's results, then the player cannot be ranked. Equate it to the USTA system. A player could be extremely good, but if he does not play USTA matches then his results will not be collected and entered into that system and the player will not be ranked by the USTA (or by TennisRecruiting.net or UTR). (A part of the tournament entry fee goes to the maintenance of the USTA ranking system.) It is time consuming and expensive to obtain the scores and to enter them into the OTZ system. Because of that, players (or teams) outside of the Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Springfield areas need to become OTZ members and provide results. OTZ memberships are extremely affordable. If a player can participate in USTA matches, go to clinics, etc., then he can afford OTZ. If a player is a hardship case, exceptions will be made.
This is the first update to the OTZ player ranking lists since the 2018 graduates were removed, and the lists will grow in size. Currently, only 11 players are on the Top Players list and 24 on the Watch List. The Top Players list will increase to approximately 25 players before the end of the season. The Watch List will remain in the 22-27 player range. Note that all players initially start on the Watch List. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are numerous schools in the Southwest District that should be reporting their scores into the Cincinnati Enquirer but they apparently are not. While the print version of the Enquirer is somewhat sporadic in score reporting, the Enquirer is doing a great job of posting scores to their online edition. OTZ pays for subscriptions to both the Cincinnati Enquirer and Columbus Dispatch for scores.
As the team results were reviewed, numerous duplicate results were found. These will get cleaned up.
Now that I am officially on the Blue Jackets' bandwagon, I found how difficult it is to get productive work done during hockey games.. It is fun to watch though.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (A) versus Pickerington North; Upper Arlington (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; St. Ignatius (A) versus Kenston; and Ada (A) versus Elida. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
St. X Beats UA and Academy | Massillon Jackson Defeats Wellington
The perfect, sunny weather yesterday had mothers scrambling for sunscreen for their sons. There were numerous matches involving OTZ Top Ten teams. They included: Massillon Jackson defeated Wellington; St. Xavier beat Upper Arlington and Columbus Academy; Sycamore defeated St. John's Jesuit; and Ursuline beat Canton Central Catholic.To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Charlie Temming defeated Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa and Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram; Wellington's Trevor Ball beat Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; St. Xavier's Preston Stearns defeated Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds and Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat St. Johns Jesuit's Aiden Williams; and Wellington's Milan Gonela defeated Massillon Jackson's Cyprien Voisvenel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The OTZ computer is turn off during thunderstorms, but the plans are to update the Top Ten Teams and the Top Players Lists today.
The OSU women's tennis team play against Indiana today at 11:00.
SATURDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Olentangy Orange | Massillon Jackson Defeats UA
Friday was a busy night with some of the strongest teams in the state competing against each other. There were 26 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Fenwick defeated Lebanon; St. Charles beat Watkins Memorial (with three 3-setters); Ada defeated Marion Harding; Badin beat Monroe; Marysville defeated Westerville North; and Solon beat Mayfield. In matches involving OTZ Top Ten teams, St. Xavier defeated Olentangy Orange; Massillon Jackson beat Upper Arlington (included three 3-setters); and Sycamore defeated Cincinnati Country Day. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Ballinger - Click to enlarge |
Wolf - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated St. Xavier's Charlie Temming; Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes beat Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; St. Xavier's Preston Stearns defeated Olentangy Orange's Soham Pradhan; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat Cincinnati Country Day's Ashutosh Annapantula; Orange's Ilon Goldberg defeated West Geauga's Kevin Wenger; Massillon Jackson's Cyprien Voisvenel beat Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds; and Mayfield’s Yukun Wang defeated Solon's Thomas Liu. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The college tennis season is winding down and the Ohio State Women's team has their last home match on Sunday. Since it is expected to rain on Sunday, I took photos outdoors yesterday at the Purdue match. Photos today are of Andrea Ballinger, who is a senior from Columbus Academy, and Danielle Wolf, who is a RS junior from Cincinnati Country Day. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Additional photos were posted on Twitter (@OhioTennisZone). Note that the OTZ Twitter feed is also listed in the right-side navigation bar on the Team Lookup page.The OTZ Pre-season draws were exemplary, but some teams simply are not paying attention to the ranking and they are winning when they are not allowed to do so.. The draws will be updated soon and so will the OTZ Top Players list.
St. Xavier (A) versus Columbus Academy and Upper Arlington; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Wellington; and Solon (T) versus Hawken. Reynoldsburg also has their doubles tournament. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday #3 | New Albany Beats St. X
Yes, photo fans, this is another OTZ Photo Friday. This is the third (3) week in a row. (Past performance is no guarantee of future results.) Twenty-two photos were added. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos. The OTZ Top Ten'ish photos were updated a few days ago (and do not include any of the most recently added photos). Click to view the OTZ Top Ten Photos, and yes, "Mad Max" Gerber made the list.. (See April 1's blog entry.)
Ohio high school tennis had quality and quantity matches yesterday as New Albany defeated St. Xavier and Solon beat Walsh Jesuit. The New Albany vs. St. X match is the "Who cares about homework? We don't need no education." match of the year thus far by having four 3-setters. How close was the match? The OTZ graph is shown above.
There were 46 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 23, Southwest - 19, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Bellefontaine defeated Jonathan Alder; Shekinah Christian beat Ready; Fenwick defeated Chaminade-Julienne; Buckeye Valley beat Shelby; Northwestern defeated Tecumseh; Covington Catholic beat Indian Hill; and Marysville defeated Central Crossing. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watkins Memorial's Simon Blum - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated New Albany's Robert Cash; New Albany's Nathan Jose beat St. Xavier's Charlie Temming; Ursuline's Greg Morgione defeated Warren John F Kennedy's Armand Nannicola; St. Xavier's Preston Stearns beat New Albany's Devin Boyer; Dublin Jerome's Anish Patel defeated Hilliard Darby's Noah Adams; Loveland's Connor Ruble beat Moeller's Sam Schwartz; Solon's Thomas Liu defeated Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller; Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa beat Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark; Seven Hills' Max Yuan defeated Oakwood's Sam Lahmon; and Gahanna’s Aoi Higuchi beat Pickerington North’s Cole Alcala. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Ohio State Women's team plays two matches at home this weekend. They play against Purdue today (Friday) and against Indiana on Sunday.
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (A) versus Olentangy Orange; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Upper Arlington; University School (H) versus St. Ignatius; Solon (H) versus Mayfield; and Ada (A) versus Marion Harding. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Dublin Jerome Beats Olentangy | Covington Catholic Defeats Centerville
There were a large number of close matches yesterday. It is disturbing to see a growing number of defaulted courts in varsity matches. It would be interesting to know how often that happens in other high school sports.
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Dublin Jerome - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Mason's Niraj Komatineni defeated Lakota West's Nicholas Athans; Wellington's Trevor Ball beat Thomas Worthington's Stephen Jackman; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Olentangy's Sam Routzahn; Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram beat Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Covington Catholic’s Evan Gardner defeated Centerville’s Grant Smith; Olentangy's Omar Khayat beat Dublin Jerome's Anish Patel; Hawken's Neil Tewari defeated Beachwood's Ryan Muencz; Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie beat Pickerington Central's Brady Phelps; Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark defeated Logan Elm's Avery Clouse; and Worthington Kilbourne’s Owen Alderman beat Watterson's Chris Finissi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Dublin Jerome. They are coached by Ken Berlin. They are Team Members. They are led by Max Fickas, Anish Patel, and Daniel Utkin.
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Fickas' Opponents - Click to profile |
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus New Albany; St. Ignatius (A) versus University School; Ottawa Hills (A) versus Maumee Valley Country Day; Solon (H) versus Walsh Jesuit; Massillon Jackson (H) versus Canton McKinley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Solon Beats Chagrin Falls | Pickerington North Defeats Pickerington Central
Yesterday's windy conditions probably led to some interesting shots. There were 43 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 23, Southwest - 16, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Kettering Fairmont defeated Lebanon; Archbishop Alter beat Badin; Mariemont defeated Fenwick; DeSales beat Centennial; Olentangy Orange defeated Olentangy Liberty; Harrison beat Ross; Urbana defeated Jonathan Alder; Lancaster beat Grove City; and Walsh Jesuit defeated Hawken. In other prominent matches, Solon defeated Chagrin Falls; St. Xavier beat Centerville; and Pickerington North defeated Pickerington Central in their Civil War. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
The State Team Tournament Draws are updated as scores are reported. Click the link to view.
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Solon - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Solon. They are coached by Fredrik Nyborg. They are Team Members. They are led by Thomas Liu and Andy Lebowitz.
Most OTZ Player Profiles have now been setup. Those teams with OTZ Team Membership should check to insure that their players are ready to roll. Note that OTZ is awaiting player names from a few coaches for several OTZ photos.
Today's matches include: Thomas Worthington (A) versus Wellington; Solon (H) versus Strongsville; Loveland (H) versus Talawanda; Buckeye Valley (H) versus Marysville; and Ada (A) versus Bellefontaine. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Upper Arlington Beats Olentangy | St. Ignatius Defeats Walsh Jesuit
It was another ideal night as Ohio tennis continues to crank through its matches. There were 37 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 17, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Wellington defeated Dublin Coffman; Colerain beat Harrison; Greenville defeated St. Marys Memorial; Upper Arlington defeated Olentangy; Bexley beat St. Charles; Loveland defeated St. Xavier-B; Watkins Memorial beat Mount Vernon; Watterson defeated Logan Elm; Cincinnati Country Day beat Turpin; and Sidney defeated Kettering Fairmont. In other prominent matches, St. Ignatius defeated Walsh Jesuit; Hilliard Davidson defeated Hilliard Darby. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy's Omar Khayat - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Charles' Reece Yakubov defeated Bexley's Christian Roddy; Olentangy's Sam Routzahn beat Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; Wellington's Griffin Biernat defeated Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie; St. Ignatius' Nathaniel Day beat Walsh Jesuit's Miller; Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha defeated Turpin's Patrick Wantz; Olentangy's Omar Khayat beat Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds; Reynoldsburg's Boban Mihajlov defeated Dublin Scioto's Santhusht Prasad; and Logan Elm's Avery Clouse beat Watterson's Chris Finissi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Things are really behind in OTZ land. Today will be spent setting up OTZ Player Profiles.
Today's matches include: St. Ignatius (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Solon (H) versus Chagrin Falls; Centerville (H) versus St. Xavier; Hilliard Davidson (A) versus Dublin Coffman; and Mason (A) versus Lakota East. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview with New Albany's Nathan Jose
OhioTennisZone's second interview of the season is with senior Nathan Jose. Jose is the defending Division I State Doubles Champion (with Devin Boyer) and he plays for New Albany.
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Nathan Jose in OHSAA Finals - Click to enlarge |
Jose's whole family plays tennis and he started playing at age four. His parents are Joel and Judy and it is best to get to know them away from their office.. Both are endodontists (root canal specialists). His brother, Jacob, is an eighth grader and he plays both tennis and lacrosse.
Jose received his tennis training from a number of different sources including New Albany Tennis Club (Steve Miller) and the CBUS Club with Ohio State coaches, Ty Tucker and Justin Kronauge. He also works with Balazs Novak as a hitting partner and as a match strategist. Novak helps Jose in creating patterns that will take advantage of his strengths. Jose's main weapons are his serve (as high as 130mph) and forehand.
While Mason was formidable in the team tournament last year, Jose's future college rivalry matches will be at a completely different level as his team takes on a branch of the United States military, and more specifically, the U.S. Navy. The good news for Jose is that he also joined the U.S. military by signing with Army. "I have committed to play tennis and pursue my education at West Point. The opportunities at West Point and in the Army are endless which I believe will set me up for success. I feel like the opportunity to serve my country is a privilege and something I do not take lightly. Throughout the college recruiting process, I was considering Ohio State, Notre Dame, Air Force and Navy." Jose is also looking forward to playing Navy's Jack Dabek [OTZ Player Profile] who is a 2018 St. Charles graduate.
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Nathan Jose @ Kalamazoo - Click to enlarge |
Jose did not play as many USTA matches this past year as he focused more on fitness to prepare him for West Point. He has also concentrated on training that will make him faster and more explosive in his movement.
As for his goals this year, Jose responded, "First and foremost, my team has come very close to winning a team state title every year, so to do that would be a great accomplishment. As far as individual [goals], the competition is tough, but my goal would be to try to win another state title." Jose will consult with New Albany Coach Marc Thomas later in the season before he determines whether to compete in singles or try for a repeat in doubles. Jose has played doubles for the past three years. Click for the state draws for 2018, 2017, and 2016.
As for the OTZ math / science or humanities question, Jose stated, "I would consider myself a humanities student because I enjoy history and English, which I excel in. I enjoy history because I like learning about events that have led up to the present day and I enjoy English because it's a subject that I can be creative with." He has taken two AP classes (English and Psychology) and three College Credit Plus classes (English, Law, and History). Jose plans to major in business management and economics in college.
As for the mandatory "How do you use OhioTennisZone?" question, Jose likes using OTZ for the draws.
In addition to tennis, Jose shared, "I have played the violin and golf since I was four as well. I also enjoy fitness training and playing lacrosse with my brother." One of his favorite violin selections is the classic, Czardas, but he also enjoys playing popular music. He does not yet know OTZ favorite, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", but he should have ample time to learn it before States.
OTZ asked Coach Thomas to say a few words about Jose. He stated, "Nathan has been a huge part of our program over the last three and half years. He has proven to be one of the best players in the state but more importantly, he has shown that he is also one of the best competitors as well. That really showed last year in the DI state doubles tournament when he and then freshman, Devin Boyer, faced a great St. Charles team in the finals who they had lost to just the week before. Down a set and 5-2 in the second, many players would have been overwhelmed by the situation. It would have been easy to let frustration or disappointment take over but Nathan and Devin were able to battle their way back in one of the best comebacks in which I have been a part of. The way Nathan stepped up and managed the pressure throughout the match showed a lot about his character and created one of the biggest moments in New Albany Tennis history."
Outside of tennis, Jose shared, "I am a member of National Honors Society where we do many different service projects. In past years, I have volunteered for Buddy Up Tennis in my area." Buddy Up Tennis has been familiar service project for numerous high school players interviewed by OTZ. Jose does his service hours at Wickertree Tennis. A typical clinic runs for two hours and he works with players that range in age from 10 to 25.
In addition to this interview, Jose spoke with TennisRecruiting.com's Rhiannon Potkey in November. Click to read this excellent interview titled, "Salute to Service: Four Star Jose Pledges to Army".
SUNDAY,
Mason Beats New Albany and Upper Arlington | St. X Defeated Jerome
In early April, Ohio boys tennis is fortunate when Saturday matches can even be played at all. Yesterday's weather had people wondering where their sun block was. There were tournaments and great dual match-ups played.
In tournaments, Ottawa Hills won their invitational, followed by Sylvania Northview. Watkins Memorial won the Reynoldsburg Doubles Tournament and Newark was second.
There were 10 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 4, Northeast - 0, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Jerome defeated University School; Olentangy beat Massillon Jackson; and New Albany defeated Sycamore. In other prominent matches, St. Xavier defeated Dublin Jerome; University School beat Cincinnati Country Day; and Mason defeated New Albany and Upper Arlington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Mason's Niraj Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
OTZ traveled near and far and farther to watch and take photos yesterday. The day started at Reynoldsburg, followed by New Albany, and then Olentangy. And because this is what makes Ohio high school tennis so interesting, the Olentangy versus Massillon Jackson match was decided with a third set tiebreaker on 3rd singles.
The Ohio State Women play against Minnesota today. Dublin Jerome's Caitlyn Merzbacher is expected to play for Minnesota.
SATURDAY,
Mason Defeats Massillon Jackson | St. Xavier Beats University School
It was a busy Friday evening. There were 14 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Grove City defeated Marysville; DeSales beat Whetstone; Loveland defeated Seven Hills; Middletown beat Princeton; and Ada defeated Van Wert. In other prominent matches, Mason defeated Massillon Jackson; St. Xavier beat University School; and Ursuline defeated Lakeview. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jonathan Alder - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Jonathan Alder. They are coached by Ryan Swinehart. They are lead by Riley Woods, Dominic Gantz, and Jacob Zang.
There are USTA Level 3 tournaments taking place today in Wooster (B18) and Toledo (B16). (See OTZ calendar.) That will affect some line-ups.
There is quite a bit of tennis scheduled for today. New Albany, Mason, Sycamore, and Upper Arlington will be playing a quad match at New Albany. It looks like University School, Dublin Jerome, Cincinnati Country Day, and St. Xavier will be playing at St. Xavier. Other matches include: Ada (A) versus Lexington and Massillon Jackson (A) versus Olentangy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | Columbus Academy Beats Upper Arlington
It was another big night for matches despite the rain that was called for earlier in the week. And now, for perhaps the first time ever, there are two OTZ Photo Friday's in a row.
There were 41 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 22, Southwest - 17, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Goshen defeated Northwest; Granville beat Watkins Memorial; Bexley defeated Watterson; Ross beat Finneytown; Columbus Academy defeated Upper Arlington; Grandview beat Whetstone; Pleasant defeated Buckeye Valley; Marion Harding beat Shelby; and Delaware Hayes defeated Dublin Scioto. In other prominent matches, Dublin Jerome defeated Thomas Worthington and Cincinnati Country Day beat Seven Hills. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jerome's Max Fickas - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, New Albany's Nathan Jose defeated Pickerington Central's Brady Phelps; Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha beat Seven Hills' Max Yuan; Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman defeated Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz beat Dublin Jerome's Daniel Utkin; Olentangy's Sam Routzahn defeated Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark; Preble Shawnee’s Elliott beat Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh; Bexley's Christian Roddy defeated Watterson's Chris Finissi; Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram beat Upper Arlington's Emerson Dean; Hawken's Neil Tewari defeated Orange's Rahul Krishnan; and Logan Elm's Avery Clouse beat Bloom-Carroll's Logan Miller.Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
It is OTZ Photo Friday. There were 23 new photos added from matches that took place from Monday through Wednesday of this week. Click to view the Most Recently Added Photos. Now that there are a few more photos from which to choose, the OTZ Top Ten(ish) Photos will be updated soon.
The Ohio State Women's team is #21 in the nation and they will be playing at home this weekend. They have a match against Wisconsin today and against Minnesota on Sunday. Check first for the location before heading to the courts.
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus University School; Centerville (H) versus Miami Valley; Loveland (A) versus Seven Hills; Mason (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and Ursuline (H) versus Lakeview. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
University School Beats Massillon Jackson | Wellington Defeats Olentangy Orange
All of this great weather has gotten to be a bit ridiculous. If we wanted good weather all of the time, then we would move to San Diego. It is time to get back to Ohio weather. There have been almost 3x more matches played this year versus last year. OTZ needs rainy (or snowy) weather to catch-up..
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Hilliard Davidson's Jack Kamnikar - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Wellington's Trevor Ball defeated Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden; St. Charles' Reece Yakubov beat Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz; St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated Springboro's Sainandan Dore; University School's Chas Norman beat Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; Wellington's Griffin Biernat defeated Olentangy Orange's Siham Pradhan; University School's Charlie Joranko beat Massillon Jackson's Sam Yu; Olentangy's Sam Routzahn defeated Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark; and Ottawa Hills' Matthew McGee defeated Sylvania Northview's Anish Karnani. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's matches include: St. Ignatius (A) versus Copley; Thomas Worthington (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Centerville (H) versus Wayne; Milton-Union (A) versus Preble Shawnee; Ada (H) versus Wapakoneta; and Watterson (A) versus Bexley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Dublin Coffman Beats Olentangy Orange
Ok. Now we are firing on all eight cylinders. (At some point in the future, the previous sentence will be changed to "in Tesla's Ludicrous mode".) There were 45 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 22, Southwest - 18, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Coffman defeated OTZ #7 Olentangy Orange; Bloom-Carroll defeated Fisher Catholic; Worthington Christian defeated Grandview; Delaware Hayes defeated Hilliard Darby; Newark defeated Lancaster; and Lakota West defeated Oak Hills. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Worthington Christian's Peter Tsibouris - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, New Albany's Robert Cash defeated Gahanna's Aoi Higuchi; Mason's Niraj Komatineni beat Lakota West's Athans; Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie; Ursuline's Greg Morgione beat Boardman's Olsen; Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha defeated Summit Country Day's Locke; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman; and Reynoldsburg's Boban Mihajlov defeated Westerville South's Anthony Vilardo. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. Many rosters have not yet been updated so it has been difficult to find first names.
I'm now officially in bunker mode as I try to keep up with changes and catch-up on matches that were not entered previously. If you need something from me and it has been a couple of days, please ping me again. (This also applies to the OTZ wife and the OTZ dog but I don't think either reads this web site despite their free OTZ memberships.)
There are some major "heavy-hitter" matches tonight. Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Springboro; Upper Arlington (A) versus Columbus Academy; University School (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Thomas Worthington (A) versus St. Charles; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Dublin Jerome; and Centerville (H) versus Oakwood. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
New Albany Beat Olentangy | St. Ignatius Defeats Westlake
A perfect (but chilly) day allowed Ohio to record 39 matches from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Pickerington North defeated Logan Elm; Anderson beat Turpin; Thomas Worthington defeated Upper Arlington-B; Wilmington beat Lebanon; Talawanda defeated Oak Hills; Kenton Ridge beat Bellefontaine; and Ada defeated St. Marys Memorial. Among the OTZ Top Ten Teams, New Albany defeated Olentangy. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Wellington's Trevor Ball - Click to enlarge |
Hopefully everyone survived the day yesterday. It can be a difficult day for many. In the awkward timing department, the Columbus-area lacrosse team, Ohio Machine, announced that they would not be competing this year. Some thought that it was a poorly done April Fools' joke. Unfortunately, it was not.
Pickleball is absolutely becoming a major force in racquet sports. In an article in Tennis Industry News, it stated how growth in pickleball has increased over 30% over the last three years. The major racquet manufacturers have also taken note -- 132 new pickleball paddles were sent to pickleball's governing body (USAPA) for approval. Of the three racquet sports that I care about, tennis is by far the most difficult to learn, followed by platform tennis, and then pickleball. From a workout perspective, tennis and platform tennis are similar and both offer a much better workout than pickleball. From a social perspective, pickleball and platform tennis are similar and both are better than tennis. From an expense standpoint, pickleball is the most economical, followed by outdoor tennis, platform tennis, and then indoor tennis.
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Oak Hills; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; St. Ignatius (A) versus Avon Lake; Grandview (A) versus Worthington Christian; Centerville (H) versus Northmont. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
High School Tennis to Switch to High School Pickleball
It was going to happen eventually, but did it have to happen this soon? The OSHAA announced this morning that Ohio high school tennis will be switching to Ohio high school pickleball. A OSHAA spokesperson stated, "We tested the concept in the Northern Southern League and almost everyone was ecstatic." He added, "The cost of entry for players is lower thanks to the relatively low cost of a paddle. The paddle, which does not contain strings, will never need to be restrung, and the balls will last the entire season. While the sport will be played outdoors, school gyms can be used during inclement weather. The court itself is smaller so that may encourage some schools with insufficient land to build courts and start teams." The change will not occur until Fall 2019.
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Maxine Regal - Click to enlarge |
How do the players feel about the change. It has been somewhat mixed. On a positive note, Bloomingburg's Noah Storm commented, "My parents are millennials and they struggled to warm up Hot Pockets for us to eat for Thanksgiving dinner. Mad Max (actually Bloomingburg's Maxine Regal) makes real food for us to eat after the matches. We had lasagna, apple salad, and five different types of pie. She made enough food for both teams and the fans. She then helped us learn how to write in cursive."
It's not always positive though. One student, who wanted to remain anonymous, stated, "The older players stick together. I drop-shotted Ethel Graves from Liberty Burton and then I laughed about it. Max found out, and my plans to eat strawberry-rhubarb pie came to an abrupt end when she tossed a few carrots my way and told me to man-up."
Can the older generation play? Apparently yes. Many older players have upgraded their knee replacements to Gen 3 Turbo Knees. This gives them explosive movement to some of the shorter balls. John di Falt commented, "Some show up using walkers just to get in our heads and then they carry them back to their bus when they leave." He added, "Pandora's Mildred Graber sent a laser shot into my right hip. I couldn't get my paddle on it and I couldn't get out of the way. If a younger player did that to one of them, we would not get to eat pie for the rest of the season."
The wide disparity in ages does lead to some laughs though. di Falt shared, "Max suggested that we move team communications from Twitter to something called Facebook because that's what her generation uses. Even the coach joined in the laughter about that." Max still had the last laugh when she took home five uneaten pies.
While the workout level of pickleball is lower than tennis, it is still infinitely more strenuous than a round of golf. While this is likely to change around this time next year, golf is still considered a high school sport in Ohio.
Nearby airports and passing jets have complained about the noise that pickleball matches make, but advances in technology are expected to drop the decibel level to just triple the threshold of pain. Many golf clubs are also now planning to place pickleball courts in the middle of golf courses so that they do not bother those playing sports, such as tennis.
Just to get everyone into the swing of things, OhioTennisZone will be now be renamed to OhioPickleZone.
Will all tennis courts be eliminated and/or switched to pickleball courts? Big Pickle will make that decision soon.
Happy Holiday.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore Beats Massillon Jackson | UA Defeats CCD
Yesterday was a rain-out but there were still a couple of scores reported. Sycamore defeated Massillon Jackson, and in a match actually played on Friday night, Upper Arlington defeated Cincinnati Country Day. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
There will be a big announcement made tomorrow so please make sure that you tune-in..
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Upper Arlington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Upper Arlington. They are coached by Will Thieman. They are Team Members, and they are led by Will Reynolds and Paige Kompa.
In addition to a bunch of basketball today, Roger Federer plays John Isner at the Miami Open; Francesca Di Lorenzo plays Kayla Day in the Volvo Car Open; the OSU Men play Minnesota; and the OSU Women play UM.
SATURDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Massillon Jackson | 7 Hills Defeats MVS
Wet weather, plus a Friday schedule, led to a small number of matches recorded yesterday. There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4 and Southwest - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Walnut Hills defeated Talawanda; Pickerington Central beat Waverly; and Seven Hills defeated Miami Valley School. In other OTZ Top Ten Team competition, Xavier defeated Massillon Jackson. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy Liberty - Click to team page |
Among the top players,St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; Miami Valley School's Niyanth Reddy beat Seven Hills' Max Yuan; Bolles School’s Louis Ballantyne defeated Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman; and Waverly's Branden Nibert beat Pickerington Central's Stang. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Olentangy Liberty. They are coached by Josh Matusky. They are led by Vishnu Bodavula and Marcelo Aguilar.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Miamisburg and Upper Arlington (A) versus Indian Hill.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | Kilbourne Beats Pickerington North
Yesterday was another nice tennis day and today is the first OTZ Photo Friday of the 2019 Boys Tennis Season.
Today may be damper, but yesterday was great (again). For those who like comparisons, Ohio high school tennis has played almost double (93%) the number of matches this year versus last year. Of course, last year was the wettest on record for the Columbus-area so hopefully this comparson only gets better.
There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 10, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lakota East defeated Lakota West in an unholy civil war of a tennis match; Worthington Kilbourne beat Pickerington North; Pickerington Central defeated Watkins Memorial; Badin beat Northwest; and Moeller defeated La Salle. In the State Team Tournament, Chaminade-Julienne defeated Monroe. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Bexley's Leo Schottenstein - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated Elder's Matthew Meade; Bexley's Christian Roddy beat Lancaster's Chris Kirchgessner; Sycamore's Samuel Marcus defeated Colerain's Kadin Rioux; St. Xavier's Charlie Temming beat Elder's Andrew Meade; Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh defeated Kettering Fairmont's Dotsenko; and Milton-Union's Nick Brumbaugh beat Kettering Fairmont's Fantaci. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is the first photo Friday of the boys season. You can count on seeing the latest and greatest OTZ photos every single Friday taken during the week. [Seriously? Really? This is what's promised every single season and then it rarely happens.] So you can set your watch [but don't hold your breath] that OTZ will deliver these photos for your viewing pleasure every Friday.. Sign-in and click on Most Recently Added Photos.
Stay tuned for a big [Ok. This actually is big.] announcement on Monday.
The #1 D1 Men's tennis team in the nation, Ohio State, will have two home matches this weekend. OSU plays Wisconsin today (Friday) at 6pm and on Sunday at noon against Minnesota. Both matches are scheduled to take place outdoors, but double check before you go to a match. Admission is free.
Several teams in the OTZ Top Ten will be competing today. Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Upper Arlington (A) versus Cincinnati Country Day; Ada (A) versus Ottawa-Glandorf; and Milton-Union (A) versus Kenton Ridge. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Upper Arlington Beats Bexley
It was another perfect weather night (and this sentence will never get old).. There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Anderson defeated Lakota East; Fairborn beat Middletown; Watkins Memorial defeated Centennial; Tecumseh beat Greenville; Lehman Catholic defeated Lima Central Catholic; and Upper Arlington beat Bexley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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UA's Paige Kompa - Click to enlarge |
Even though I am not a fan of the Upper Arlington sign-age*, this time the sign-age saved me time. I did not have to type Paige's name on today's photo.. (Paige and her sister, Olivia, won the State Girls D1 Doubles championship in 2015.)
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Elder; Milton-Union (H) versus Kettering Fairmont; Centerville (H) versus Troy; and Ursuline (H) versus Cardinal Mooney. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
*It is a very distracting background, plus my camera's auto-focus occasionally locks onto the lettering, which makes the lettering clear and the players blurry.
WEDNESDAY,
Worthington Kilbourne Beats Olentangy Liberty
The season is revving up quickly now. There were 23 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Fenwick defeated Carroll; Worthington Kilbourne beat Olentangy Liberty; Wapakoneta defeated Lehman Catholic; River Valley beat Buckeye Valley; and Ada defeated Shawnee. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Liberty's Vishnu Bodavula - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated La Salle's Nolan Blessing and Ursuline's Greg Morgione beat Salem's Matheus Andrades. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
News articles are starting to come online. Here's an article from the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jon Richardson about the top teams in Cincinnati.
Today's matches include: Upper Arlington (H) versus Bexley; Ursuline (A) versus Warren G Harding; Beechcroft (A) versus Mifflin; Bloom-Carroll (A) versus Pickerington Central; Grandview (H) versus Hamilton Township; Newark (A) versus Teays Valley; and Teays Valley (H) versus Newark. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Wet Day to Start the Week
Wet weather in much of Ohio limited the number of matches played yesterday. The Central District was completely rained out and the Cincinnati Enquirer posted no scores. Of the three matches recorded, Lehman Catholic defeated Kenton Ridge; Poland Seminary beat Warren Harding; and Greenville defeated Wapakoneta. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Upcoming Matches - Click to report |
Things are s_l_o_w_l_y getting started in high school tennis. The combination of wet weather and spring breaks means that the amount of new information is lacking. With the weather clearing, hopefully things will pick up today.
OTZ Member Coaches are encouraged to include their schedules online on OTZ so that fans know when matches are to take place. These matches will be presented via List of Upcoming Matches in the "Tennis Statistics / Info" drop-down menu.
Today's matches include: Milton-Union (A) versus Beavercreek; Ada (A) versus Shawnee (Lima); Beechcroft (A) versus London; Buckeye Valley (A) versus River Valley (Caledonia); Newark (A) versus Zanesville; and Teays Valley (A) versus Logan.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone's Twitter Feed | Massillon Jackson Beats St. John's Jesuit
While the OhioTennisZone web site is where most of the emphasis is placed during the tennis season, the @OhioTennisZone Twitter account is another major source of information and photos. This is especially the case during this time of the year when there is interesting information to share (i.e. college matches) but no place on OTZ for it to reside. (For example, there is not a good place on OTZ to include University of Iowa's player photos.)
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OTZ Twitter Posts - Click to report |
As with any form of social media, Twitter can be very time consuming. Normally, adults (other than me) can manage this, but it may consume too much of a teenager's time. To enable tennis fans to view OTZ posts without joining Twitter, OTZ is experimenting with sharing a feed of its postings in the right-hand navigation bar of the Team Lookup Page. Click to view.
If your team has an OTZ Team Membership, OTZ is also experimenting with including the team's Twitter feed on its team page. For example, click to view Mason's Twitter feed in its right-hand navigation bar. Contact OTZ via Feedback or email if your team is interested in including its Twitter feed.
There was one high school match played yesterday. Massillon Jackson defeated St. John's Jesuit, 4-1. In that match, St. Johns Jesuit's Aiden Williams defeated Massillon Jackson's Arjun Shanmugam and Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes beat St. John's Jesuit's Drew Allen.
Just two matches are scheduled for today. St. Xavier (A) will play LaSalle and Teays Valley (H) plays Whetstone.
SUNDAY,
Centerville-B Defeats Ada
While the box scores in the newspapers were full of baseball and softball results, there was just one tennis score from yesterday. That was too bad, too, because it was a perfect day for tennis. (Well, at least for a March day, it was perfect.) There was just one match recorded - Centerville-B defeated Ada. To view the results in graphical form, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OSU Softball - Click to enlarge |
In that match, Ada's Cade Mullins defeated Centerville-B's Kunal Panwar and Ada's Isaac Spar beat Centerville-B's Mir Ali.
With no local tennis matches to attend, OTZ shifted to OSU Softball where OSU beat Indiana 5-3. It was a fun game and kids were everywhere. While there was certainly intensity, it was a much different vibe [photo] than with college tennis.
The OSU Women's tennis team faces Iowa today at home at noon. It is expected to be played outside, but please double check before you leave for the match.
SATURDAY,
Off to a Slow Start
The good news is that the Ohio high school tennis season is underway. The bad news is that cold, windy, wet weather (or spring in Ohio) resulted in just four matches being recorded. All of the matches were played in the Southwest District. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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MSU's Nicholas Williams - Click to enlarge |
The Top Players and those on the Watch List remain the same as they ended last spring. The lists look really sparse because 22 players graduated in 2018. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The first State Team Tennis match was played yesterday. The State Team Tournament Draws will be at the top of this page throughout the season. To save fans with lookup time, any time the draws are updated, the date and time of the change will be included at the top of the page (i.e. March 23, 2019 9:30am). Yesterday, Turpin beat Wilmington.As mentioned yesterday, OTZ looks awful as the season begins. There are a large number of changes that take place as the data from the 2017-2018 season is shifted into the background. Things will quickly look better as more matches are played.
Seven Hills' and Michigan State's Nicholas Williams was in Columbus yesterday as the Buckeyes took on the Spartans. Nick was the D2 State Singles Champion in 2017. (Click for draw.) While normally in the line-up, Williams could not compete against Ohio State yesterday because of a muscle strain. Because Williams was in town, yesterday was "Who's from Cincinnati?" Day. Cincinnati's and OSU's JJ Wolf [photo] and John McNally [photo] competed on courts 1 and 2, respectively. OSU won the match 7-0. The OSU Men travel to play the University of Michigan on Sunday.
The Ohio State Women's team takes on Iowa at home on Sunday (March 24) at noon. If you have a young daughter interested in tennis (or you are interested in having her start tennis), take her to the match tomorrow. It is free and you can come and go when you wish. It will either be at the indoor courts on Henderson Road or at the outdoor courts on Olentangy River Road. While their concession stand is inferior to Mason's, they do offer food. Did you notice the word, free?
There was just one match on the schedule today. Ada (A) will play against Centerville-B. OTZ Coach Members are encouraged to enter their schedules online.
FRIDAY,
OHSAA Match Play Begins Today
OHSAA match play begins today in Ohio. Unlike the girls season when all of the teams begin at the same time, the boys season is a bit chaotic due to the timing of the spring breaks and the inclement weather. So far this season, the weather has been cooperative (for Ohio) and many teams have been able to play outdoors.
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Watterson's Chris Finissi - Click to enlarge |
OhioTennisZone.com will be in ugly duckling mode for a few days as last year's results roll off and this year's information is slowly added. If you encounter anything that looks crazy bad, please submit a Feedback.
The photo of Watterson's Chris Finissi was taken during Watterson's practice earlier this week.
Today's matches include: Solon (H) versus Green and Teays Valley (H) versus Whetstone.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ Interview with Mason's Niraj Komatineni
At the beginning of each boys season OhioTennisZone interviews Ohio's top senior players. The first interview this year is with Mason's Niraj Komatineni.
Komatineni has excelled in the Southwest District for the last three years and this year should be no exception. When asked about his team goals, he stated, "The goals for this season are sky high. As defending team state champions, I am hoping we can make it out of the southwest, back to the final four, and become back to back state champions. Before that however, we want to win the coaches classic and then the GMC. Our team is young, but I think we have the leadership and the talent to give us a shot at it."
For his personal goals, "My goals are to push everyone on my team to keep improving and hopefully help the underclassmen grow as people and tennis players. I also hope to win the Coaches Classic and the GMC tournament at first singles, as well as making it back to the OHSAA Singles State Tournament. There are a lot of great players in the state, especially Robert Cash from New Albany, but my goal is still to win the state tournament."
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Mason's Niraj Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
Komatineni has been a fixture at States. As a freshman (2016), he teamed up with Sean Reid to place fourth in doubles. He reached the second round in singles in 2017, and he was a finalist in singles last year (2018). Each run at States has been thwarted by that same player mentioned above. Click on the above years for the draws.
Tennis is a family thing for the Komatineni's. "I've been playing tennis since I was really young. My dad, brother, and I would go to our neighborhood court or a nearby park and hit a few balls. However, I didn't start actually practicing till I was 8 or 9 when I started taking private lessons with Lynn Nabors McNally. My dad plays tennis about twice a week and he loves to watch the game. My brother played two years of high school tennis and retired as captain of the JV team." His father, Venkat Komatineni, is with GE Power and his mother is Mona Bhatia. She works with Cintas. His brother, Suraj, is a freshman at Ohio State, pursuing a degree in biomedical science. Komatineni trains at Harper's Point and he regularly hits with Lynn's daughter, Caty McNally, when she is in Cincinnati.He considered a number of schools prior to selecting Brown University. "I chose to play tennis there because when I visited I really loved the coaches and the team. They were really accommodating, and they were people I could see myself being around and being happy with for the next four years. I was looking for a competitive academic school where I could get both a world class education as well as continuing to play tennis at a high level. I looked at other schools in the Ivy league like University of Pennsylvania and Columbia as well as some Big Ten schools like Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan State, and Indiana. Part of my college selection process was realizing that I probably only have four years of tennis left and I wanted to go somewhere I could make an impact in the lineup almost right away." His plans to play early-on in Brown's line-up certainly look achievable. Komatineni is ranked 46th in the nation on TennisRecruiting.net and he currently has a UTR of 12.45. Just three players on the current Brown roster, sport higher UTR's. Click for the current Brown roster and their UTR's.
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Komatineni @Zoo '17- Click to enlarge |
As for the OTZ question "Are you a math/science or humanities guy?" Komatineni answered the question correctly. "I am definitely more of a math and sciences guy. At Brown I plan on doing Applied Math - Economics. It's one major that is towards mathematical finance. In high school I have enjoyed the math and sciences classes a lot more. I have taken 12 AP Courses throughout high school with five of them being math/science. My favorite AP's were AP Chem, AP Calculus and AP Micro and Macroeconomics. To me, math and sciences have just come more natural to me and I like looking at numbers and stats when it comes to sports and maybe that's rubbed off on me a little."
While using OhioTennisZone, he said, "I like to see the top players results you put on OTZ after every match day. I think its neat that you rank all the players and if I'm being honest I looked at the rankings every week my freshman year to see if I moved up or not."
As for tennis shots that we are likely to see from Komatineni this year, he's been working on attacking more with his forehand and following it into the net. When asked about his weapons, he replied "I would say my biggest weapons are my speed and my serve. I also feel like my composure on court has helped me a lot over the years. Rather than getting mad after missing a few balls I like to think that I can regroup and make adjustments." His serve speed clocks in at approximately 100-110mph.
For service-related activities, "I volunteer regularly with Buddy Up Tennis, an organization that assists people with down syndrome in physical fitness and learning tennis. I've been volunteering with them for three years now and its been a life changing experience. I have been able to watch the kids grow and develop their coordination and fitness." He does this volunteer work at Harper's Point.
Mason coach, Mike Reid, offered this about Komatineni. "Great kid. Hard worker. Always striving to improve. Makes everyone around him better. He really gets high school tennis."
Following their spring break, the Mason team starts their season on April 2 against Oak Hills.
TUESDAY,
Outside!
It was only a matter of time, but the weather is finally starting to improve and teams have officially "gone outside". Most teams will be able to practice outdoors from now until the first matches take place on March 22.
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Click for Sale |
The "15% off clearance items sale" ended on March 15, but the 10% off clearance sale continues on OhioTennisZone.com. (Midwest Sports is the official source of OTZ's eclectic tennis shoe collection.) Make sure that you use the code GERBER when making the order. OTZ benefits from each sale.
The 2018 graduates have been removed from the team rosters. Fans like to see which players have graduated from their teams, especially as past records are reviewed, but it is time for moving on.. Over 500 players were removed from the rosters. If a player has graduated but they are still displayed in the roster, please contact OTZ via Feedback. Last year's results will continue to be included until immediately before 2019 matches begin.
MONDAY,
And Away We Go Wait...
It is no big surprise but the weather will be cold for the first week of the high school boys tennis season. Most teams will have to wait it out until conditions improve. Others will do conditioning drills in the gym. A few teams with ample budgets will go indoors (if they can find an indoor facility that has available courts).
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UA Courts on 3/3/2019 - Click to enlarge |
The high temperatures for the next five days in Columbus are: Monday - 25, Tuesday - 22, Wednesday - 24, Thursday - 30, Friday - 36. Temperatures are expected to increase into the 40's beginning on Saturday and into next week.
This photo was taken yesterday afternoon at the Upper Arlington courts.
WEDNESDAY,
Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The State Team Draws were determined on Sunday at the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Meeting. The top four teams in each district were seeded by the coaches.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to to draws |
The draws are available at the top of this page and they will remain there throughout the season. As with everything else on OTZ, the goal is to enable high school tennis fans to quickly obtain the information they need rather than to maximize OTZ clicks and page views. As indicated in the four features that are circled: 1) the most recent update date is included; 2) the navigation links allow users to quickly jump throughout the draw; 3) the Team designation means that a Team Membership was purchased and that all of the individual player information is available via their OTZ Player Profiles; and 4) the team links are "click-able" to enable fans to do more research. For the best experience, sign-in to OTZ first. The goal is to keep the draws rigorously updated throughout the season. Click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament - Click to enlarge |
The number of boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year but there has been a steady decline over the last five years. This season, there were 119 teams. The number of boys teams participating by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; and 2019 - 119. As is shown in the graph, the Northwest District has had the most stable number of participants, and the Northeast has the most teams competing. There are approximately 411 OHSAA boys tennis teams which means that 29% of the teams are competing in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
TUESDAY,
USTA Midwest Level 2 at Wickertree
It was a rare occurrence but Columbus juniors finally got to play a "home" match in a USTA Midwest Level 2 tournament. Columbus-area players normally go hither and yon to Wisconsin, Chicago, Cincinnati, Michigan, and everywhere other than Columbus to compete in these high-level tournaments. These tournaments are already expensive ($123 entry fee), but Columbus-area players must also incur additional hotel, travel, restaurant, and "time" expenses whenever they want to compete, unlike players who live in other areas of the Midwest. Overall, USTA Midwest holds about 150 of these high level tournaments. Columbus needs at least four or five each year. The Toledo-area fields ten of them. The Cincinnati-area offers 13. Columbus has one (1). That's right. One.
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St. Xavier's Preston Stearns- Click to enlarge |
Columbus-area clubs that have active and lucrative adult and junior tennis programs are not eager to offer these tournaments because they make less money on these junior tournaments and because it can irritate their normal clientele. But other clubs in the Midwest have obviously found a way to deal with this. Clubs that provide these tournaments in Cincinnati include Five Seasons (2 tournaments), Queen City (3), Western Tennis & Fitness (6), and Riverside (2). Toledo-area clubs include: The Twos (4), Shadow Valley (3), and Perrysburg (3). Sometimes clubs will split the load by having portions of the draws at more than one club. Just as tennis fans travel to the Western & Southern Open and to the Ohio State University matches to watch great tennis, I saw older folks (who were probably some of the regular Wickertree clientele) enjoying high-level junior tennis at Wickertree yesterday.
The USTA also needs to recognize how Columbus juniors (and their parents) are at a significant disadvantage to other areas of the Midwest and they need to work with the clubs to find a solution. Perhaps clubs in other areas of the Midwest that are less active can be used for tournaments in the winter, and clubs with thriving, active memberships can be used in the spring and summer when there is less demand for indoor courts? If Columbus-area clubs are being penalized for some reason by the USTA, then the USTA needs to understand that they are actually penalizing the parents and players. And while it may take a while, parents and juniors in Columbus will eventually gravitate to other sports and activities as they slowly realize that they are being slighted.
There were seven Columbus-area players competing versus four last year when this tournament was held in Cincinnati. There were a total of 17 Ohio players included in the draw this year versus 14 last year. The locations, number of participants, and costs for 2019 and previous years for this B16 event are included in the table. There was no similar tournament held in 2014.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Year | Location | # Ohio Players (Total) | # of Columbus-Area Players | Cost | Link |
| 2019 | Columbus (Wickertree) | 17 |
7 |
$123.05 |
Tournament |
| 2018 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 14 |
4 |
$106.93 |
Tournament |
| 2017 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 13 |
2 |
$90.80 |
Tournament |
| 2016 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 16 |
4 |
$90.80 |
Tournament |
| 2015 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 24 |
9 |
$90.80 |
Tournament |
Players from Ohio who competed in the Wickertree Tournament include: Devin Boyer (Columbus-area), Sainandan Dore, Max Fickas (Columbus-area), Anish Gangavaram, Akshay Joshi, Mark Karev, Vincent Knott, Benjamin Martin, Chad Miller (photo), Ryan Mudre (Columbus-area), Soham Pradhan, Sam Routzahn (Columbus-area), Preston Stearns (champion), Charlie Temming (finalist) (photo), Pavan Uppu (Columbus-area), Reece Yakubov (Columbus-area) (photo), and Andrew Zimcosky. Stearns is a freshman and Temming is a sophomore at St. Xavier. (Look below for the team rankings.) For players with OTZ player profiles, click on their links. Click on photo links to view an action photos from the Wickertree tournament.
There are two more major (Level 3) tournaments coming up prior to the OHSAA Non-Interscholastic Date. The next B16 is being held on March 9-10 in Grandville, MI (Northern Michigan) and another one on April 6-7 in Toledo. (See OTZ calendar.)
Tennis is already an expensive sport, both in terms of money and time, and there are more and more alternatives and activities from which kids and parents can choose. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. Columbus-area parents and players need a solution for this.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams (beta release)
It is time for another edition of the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams lists. As is often the case, there are several top level teams that are clearly in contention for State Team Champion. The rankings and the rational behind the rankings are listed below. They are all subject to tweaking if players decide not to play (or to play) Ohio high school tennis this spring. The OTCA meetings which are being held on Sunday and Monday (February 24-25) normally reveal some surprises.
OhioTennisZone.com Pre-Season State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams February 22, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. New Albany◄TEAM | Wellington School◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Col. Academy◄TEAM |
| 3. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Cin. Country Day◄TEAM |
| 4. Sycamore◄TEAM | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 5. University School◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 6. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 7. Olentangy Orange | Wyoming◄TEAM |
| 8. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Lexington |
| 9. Olentangy◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Miami Valley School |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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In D1, New Albany, Mason, St. Xavier, and Sycamore will be the four toughest teams to beat. Other teams will need to rely on their depth or freshman to win.
Division I
#1 New Albany starts at the #1 position. They will have a super strong 1-2-3-4 as they return State Singles Champion, Robert Cash, and State Doubles Champions, Joel Jose - Devin Boyer. They also have Ryan Mudre returning who was a state singles qualifier.
#2 The defending State Team champion, Mason, is shnuless this year, losing Vishnu Srinath to graduation (as well as Shashank Reddy and Diego Cepeda), but all is not lost.. They do return State Singles Finalist, Niraj Komatineni as well as Pranav Viswanathan, Aneesh Zutshi, and Sam King. Mason also picks up three highly ranked freshman, Vignesh Gogineni, Anish Gangavaram, and Akshay Joshi. Mason is expected to re-re-infinity-peat as the top tennis concession stand provider in Ohio.
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New Albany's Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#3 Could this be St. Xavier's year to win the Southwest District? They return Ronit Hiryur, Max DeCurtins, Charlie Temming, and Nicholas Aronoff. They pick up 4-star freshman Preston Stearns and 2-star Tucker Berry. They lost Joe Beischel to graduation. Who would win the Peyton versus Preston Stearns tennis battle? It might be inappropriate for OTZ to ask via a Feedback message..
#4 Sycamore lost Nathan Zhang and Nikhil Sekar to graduation. Returning players include Samuel Marcus, Alex Karev, and Jacob Wittenbaum. They pick up two highly touted 4-star freshman Chad Miller and 3-star Mark Karev.
#5 University School returns its top three players. Chas Norman, Charlie Joranko, and Max Borsch. They pick up 2-star Nathan Mu. University lost just one player to graduation.
#6 Dublin Jerome returns a solid team, including their top three players: Anish Patel, Daniel Utkin, and Andrew Dvorkin. They pick up 3-star Max Fickas and 2-star Tanish Pairu.
#7 Olentangy Orange returns Alex Heiden and Zach Shaver. They gain 3-star Soham Pradhan and 2-star Parth Patel. They lost Jordan Phelps to graduation.
#8 Upper Arlington lost Josh Cole to graduation. Returning players include: Paige Kompa, Will Reynolds, Lance Li, and Nathan Yu.
#9 Olentangy lost Stu Brdicka to graduation. Sam Routzahn and Ayush Sunkad return. They gain 2-star Omar Khayat.
#10 Massillon Jackson lost Danny Thomas to graduation. They return Arjun Shanmugam, Bobby Thomas, Alex Drewes, and Sam Yu.
Teams that were decimated by graduation include: St. John's Jesuit, Solon, St. Charles, and Canfield.
D2 is tough to determine because many of the teams do not travel outside of their district. Please consider scheduling more out-of-town matches. Columbus remains the perfect place to meet to hold dual matches among Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest District teams. Many of the top players are accustomed to going out-of-state for matches once or twice a month so traveling is not an issue for them.
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Wellington Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#2 Columbus Academy returns Arie Tuckerman, Jack Madison, Drew Haffer, Rhian Seneviratne, and Suriya Sundaram. The only graduate last year was Sam Vogel.
#3 Cincinnati Country Day returns its line-up from last year and they will be very solid. Players returning include: Sai Nalagatla, Manav Midha, Herschel Albert, Neil Badlani, and Ashutosh Annapantula.
#4 Ursuline returns a deep squad. They include: Austin Arfaras, State qualifier Greg Morgione, Luke Tsudis, and Gavin Blacksher.
#5 Seven Hills returns Max Yuan, Kevin Wang, and Ajay Gupta. They lost Curtis Sun and John Stewart. to graduation.
#6 Indian Hill lost D2 Singles champion, Andrew Pregel, and Maanas Pisati. Returning are Anay Gautham, Mack Ellis, Jasper Bennett, and Coleman Warstler. They gain freshman 2-star Tejas Pisati.
#7 Wyoming returns Joseph Kelly, Jonathan Klein , and David Keller. They lost George Arenas and Kyle Demers to graduation.
#8 Blake and Brent Webster return for Lexington and so does Benton Drake. They lost Luke Webster to graduation.
#9 Bexley lost Max Meyer to graduation but they return an experienced group of seniors. They include: Leo Schottenstein, Christian Roddy, and Jordan Koppes.
#10 It is not clear who is still playing for Miami Valley School but they are normally in the mix. Reece Quigley and Niyanth Reddy are seniors. They lost Colton Morehart and Makul Sharma to graduation.
Other well-followed teams that were hurt by graduation include Ottawa Hills and Hawken.
Note that there is additional detail for players with high-lighted links. Teams with the green "team" designation will include information (or they soon will have) about all of their players.
As is always the case, the OTZ rankings are correct. Lesser ranked teams should not defy the rankings by attempting to beat higher ranked teams. At the end of the season, OTZ would simply like to replace, "Pre-Season" with "Final Season" rankings. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.. Anyone with strong, misguided feelings are welcome to submit a Feedback. Specific reasons on why teams should be ranked higher are required.
MONDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Miscellaneous
The OHSAA Boys Season Calendar is listed below. The boys season calendar is normally chaotic because of the weather and because of the timing of Spring Breaks. Normally, the Catholic schools have their spring breaks after Easter. Thankfully, that is not the case this year for many of the Catholic schools because Easter is much later than normal.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Feb. 23-25: USTA MW Lev 2's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Feb. 24-25: OTCA Coach Clin. |
| Mar. 4: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 9-10: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 9: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 22: HS Season Begins |
| Mar. 24-30: Easter Bowl |
| Apr. 4-7: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Apr. 8: Non-Interscholas. Date |
| Apr. 13: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 21: Easter |
| Apr. 21: Waiver Ext. Ends |
| Apr. 28: Sectional Tourn. Draw |
| May 4: SAT Test Date |
| May 6-11: Sectional Tourn. |
| May 13-18: District Tourn. |
| May 24-25: State Tournament |
| May 26: State Team Tourn. |
| June 1: Season Ends |
When traveling to matches to take photos, especially at the beginning of the season, I find that several key players are not competing because of date conflicts. To increase awareness of some of these conflicts, the OTZ calendar includes a few additional dates that are important to tennis players, such as the dates of several major USTA tournaments and the ACT / SAT test dates. While these dates are believed to be correct, always check with other sources before planning the rest of your future. The rest of the tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
While the girls benefited from the OHSAA Waivers last season, this will be the first season for the boys to use the waivers. The waivers should enable most boys to start the season on time. The process worked extremely well for the girls. For more information, click OHSAA Waivers. Always (always, always) work with your coach, athletic director, and the OHSAA to insure that this waiver is completed way in advance and is done absolutely correctly.
The Ohio Girls Season 2019 Calendar is also included in the right-side navigation bar. Again these dates are believed to be correct, but please, do not make this your next (or first) tattoo.
The links are click-able.
Several USTA tournaments that are taking place this past weekend were not included on the calendar, but links to these tournaments are as follows. Clicking on the draws to see how players did will help you get into the high school tennis mood.
- USTA B14 Midwest Level 3 in Streetsboro, OH
- USTA B16 Midwest Level 3 in Okemos, MI
- USTA B18 Midwest Level 3 in Cincinnati, OH
OhioTennisZone will be removing last year's graduates from the rosters. This will happen near the beginning of the season. Coaches, please do not remove graduated players from your roster. This will be done by OTZ.
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With tie - Click to enlarge |
At Case - Click to enlarge |
OTZ will now kick into another gear as the season nears.
This week will include the publication of the Pre-Season OTZ Top Ten Boys Teams for Division I and Division II.
SATURDAY,
More OTZ Recognition for Coaches
The team look-up lists are some of the most popular reports on OhioTennisZone. These reports have now been enhanced to further recognize the Ohio high school tennis coaches. Those coaches with OTZ coach membership now have their photos listed and these photos link to their OTZ Coach Profiles. Click to view these changes to the OTZ Team Lookup Report.
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Team Lookup - Click to report |
In addition to this change, the OTZ Coach Directory has been updated to include recent coaching changes. Click to view the OTZ Coach Directory. Sign-in first (with coaching privileges) to see email addresses for all of the coaches.
Are there other coaching changes that have not been included? Click on Feedback to share these changes with OhioTennisZone.Interested in having your coaching background information or LinkedIn profile included on your Coach Profile? Please send an email to Scott Gerber of OhioTennisZone.com. For examples, click on Marysville's Brian Ash, Hoover's Ryan Shaffer, and ZZZ Test School's Scott Gerber.
TUESDAY,
Improvements to Player Profile Report
OTZ is always looking for new ways to recognize players, and changes were made to the OTZ Player Profile report recently to help with this.
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Player Profile Report - Click to go to Player Profile |
Fans who are more visually-oriented may find it to be faster to digest the information by quickly scanning the photos rather than by reading the names.
To obtain more information about each of Komatineni's opponents, click on the player links.
Players who do not yet have a Player Profile are simply listed by their last names.
SATURDAY, JANUARY
Top OTZ Photos of 2018
The OTZ camera shutter clicked around 2,500 times last year at professional, college, USTA, and high school tennis events as well as a few platform tennis matches. The Central Ohio area (and perhaps other areas of the state) broke all-time precipitation records last year so that reduced the opportunities to get photos at many high school tennis matches but I still found a few good photos to include. The video slide-show below provides fans with my top 80 photos (or top 3%) of the year.
For best results, please use High Definition (Auto 1080P) and use full screen modes. Names are included on almost all of the photos but you will need a quick hand-eye reaction time to stop the video in order to see them. It is advisable that fans watch the entire video first and then rewatch the video to stop it to view the names.
It might be counterintuitive, but the easiest place to get great photos is at a professional tennis match (i.e. Western & Southern Open), followed by college, USTA, and high school (in that order). The Western & Southern Open provides: the best vantage points because I can sit beside the courts; the pros hit a zillion balls for each point; the pros almost always have perfect footwork and eye-on-ball expressions; and the backgrounds are great. College tennis shares many of the same aspects as the professionals. High school tennis is by far the hardest place to get great photos until the players reach the State tournament.It becomes increasingly challenging to find music that is permitted to be used by the artists. In fact, I had planned to use the same music as was used in 2016, but that artist (Moby) now prevents it. This year, I selected Boston's "More than a Feeling". OTZ does not benefit from ads on the video but the artist and Google do.
The platform tennis image at the end of the video is not an advertisement, but my first cover page photo. It was used for the American Platform Tennis Magazine.
This video also includes the happiest baby photo since babies were invented.
Click to view the Top Photos for 2017 and 2016. Click to view the Girls States Preview for 2018 and the Boys State Preview for 2017.
Not all of these images are for sale but the high school and some of the college photos are. Please contact OTZ via Feedback with any questions.
THURSDAY,
New Career Highs for Many Ohio Players
The major professional tournaments are starting to crank up for 2019 after their brief holiday break while many of the lower level tournaments have continued. These lower level tournaments and changes in the point systems have led to rather dramatic changes in the rankings for some players who have Ohio ties.
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Ohio Pros - Click to College Page |
Players with new high rankings include: JJ Wolf, Caty McNally, Kennedy Shaffer, DJ Thomas, John McNally, Peyton Stearns, and Jacob Dunbar.
This list is updated more frequently on the College Page where it is on the right-side navigational bar. The player links are also active on that page. Those links take fans to each player's profile on ITFTennis.com. Click the image to go to the College Page.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER
Ohio Players in the Pros
There are numerous players with Ohio ties who have professional ranking points. Many of these players are "full-time" in the professional ranks while others are still juggling classes with tennis.
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Ohio Pros - Click to College Page |
This list is updated more frequently on the College Page where it is on the right-side navigational bar. The player links are also active on that page. Those links take fans to each player's profile on ITFTennis.com. Click the image to go to the College Page.
TUESDAY,
College Tennis Commitments
The number of Ohio high school tennis players who have committed to colleges is starting to grow. The list below will continue to be updated to reflect this.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player | High School / College |
| Madison Arquette | Clay / Findlay |
| Abby Kushner Benson | Our Lady of the Elms / College of Wooster |
| Robert Cash | New Albany / Ohio State |
| Sydney Cianciola | Canfield / Denison |
| Kristyn Conrad | Mt. Vernon / Ashland |
| Isabella Daverio | Hath. Brown / George Mason |
| Max DeCurtins | St. Xavier / University of Dayton |
| Caitlin Fisher | Turpin / Villanova |
| Hannah Fugate | Milton-Union / Mt. Vernon Naz. |
| Kayley Gimbel | Galion / Findlay |
| Sylvia Goldsmith | Lexington / Belmont Abbey |
| Kyleigh Henthorn | Perrysburg / Walsh University |
| Alex Heiden | Olen. Orange / St. Louis Univ. |
| Sarah Hinshaw | Miami Valley / Goshen |
| Demi Jhaveri | Westlake / Valparaiso |
| Nathan Jose | New Albany / Army |
| Niraj Komatineni | Mason / Brown |
| Paige Kompa | Upper Arlington / Dayton |
| Maddie Lynch | Hath. Brown / Wake Forest |
| Kaytlin Marlatt | Warren JFK / Notre Dame (OH) |
| Paige Meyers | Strongsville / Wittenberg |
| Boban Mihajlov | Reynoldsburg / Otterbein |
| Kelli Niehaus | Mt. Notre Dame / Univ. Cincinnati |
| Emma Peeler | Westlake / Ball State |
| Jack Rardon | Upper Arlington / Wittenberg |
| Sarah Robertson | Rocky River / Denison |
| Anna Roggenburk | Magnificat / Xavier |
| Stephanie Shulman | Hawken / Emory |
| Rachel Terbovich | Pickerington Central / Heidelberg |
| Faith Triplett | Watkins Memorial / Cedarville |
| Hayliegh Tucker | Lexington / Notre Dame (OH) |
| Zoey Weil | Centennial / Univ. Washington |
| Jacob Wittenbaum | Sycamore / Marian (IN) |
| Rebecca Wolf | Hath. Brown / Colgate |
Last year, there were at least 31 players who committed. So far this year, there are 34.
To see the complete list of Ohio players competing in college, click on College Players from Ohio or by using the drop-down above.
Please send a Feedback or email if you are aware of changes to this list.
Click on the player names (when applicable) to view their OTZ Player Profiles.
This information was sourced by TennisRecruiting.net and OhioTennisZone.
FRIDAY,
End-of-Season Report | Former Canfield Coach Larry Davis Passes
There are just a couple more days of coverage until OhioTennisZone goes into hibernation mode (or more accurately, switches into platform tennis mode full-time). There will be no updates over the weekend. Twitter comments will continue via the handle, @OhioTennisZone.
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Revere End-of-Season Report - Click to enlarge |
There is some sad news in the tennis community. Long-time and former Canfield coach, Larry Davis, died on October 13. Prior to retiring, Coach Davis led the Canfield boys team for 37 years, accumulating 595 wins and 27 league championships. He was inducted into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame in 2017. Click to read an article about Coach Davis from the Youngstown Vindicator and his obituary.
OTZ is in the process of gathering photos of players so that they can be reviewed by parents prior to purchase. This process should be finished by the end of the weekend.
THURSDAY,
Incoming Freshman Boys
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Just as was done for the incoming freshman girls, below is the list of the top freshman boys who will be playing in the spring and the schools in which they are attending. This list of 25 boys was identified using TennisRecruiting.net. Identifying the player schools should be rather easy because these players are already in the school.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City | Incoming School |
| Tucker Berry - 2 | Cincinnati | St. Xavier |
| Mason Deal - 2 | Perrysburg | Perrysburg |
| Sainandan Dore - 4 | Springboro | Springboro |
| Maxwell Fickas - 3 | Powell | Dublin Jerome |
| Anish Gangavaram - 4 | Mason | Mason |
| Vignesh Gogineni - 5 | Mason | Mason |
| Akshay Joshi - 4 | Mason | Mason |
| Mark Karev - 3 | Cincinnati | Sycamore |
| Omar Khayat - 2 | Powell | Olentangy |
| Jack Martuccio - 4 | Warren | |
| Chad Miller - 4 | Cincinnati | Sycamore |
| Nathan Mu - 2 | Solon | University School |
| Joshua Nwaozuzu - 3 | Woodmere | Orange |
| Tanish Pairu - 2 | Columbus | Dublin Jerome |
| Parth Patel - 2 | Lewis Center | Olen. Orange |
| Anthony Payiavlas - 3 | Warren | Warren G Harding |
| Tejas Pisati - 2 | Cincinnati | Indian Hill |
| Soham Pradhan - 3 | Lewis Center | Olen. Orange |
| Vamshidhar Singidi - 2 | Cincinnati | |
| Preston Stearns - 4 | Mason | St. Xavier |
| Peter Tracy - 2 | Toledo | St. John`s Jesuit |
| Alan Xie - 2 | Beavercreek | |
| Andrew Zimcosky - 4 | Chagrin Falls | Chagrin Falls |
The TRN star ratings are included beside all of the players. The player links takes readers to their TRN player profiles
If you have inside knowledge of which school a player attends, please submit a Feedback.
This is an updated list from what was released in June. Several players have had improvements in their TRN Star Rating.
Of the 25 players on the list, the Central District has five, Northeast - two, Northwest - 6, and Southwest - 12.
The skill-level of the Ohio boys is not as deep as for the girls. This list includes the Top 800 boys in the nation (with 25 listed) while the girls list (with 23 players) included the Top 600.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ's Top Ten'ish Girls Photos for the 2018 Season
The OhioTennisZone.com's Top Ten Photos have been selected and are available for everyone to view by clicking on Top Ten Girls Photos for 2018. The photos within this grouping are not ranked.
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Centerville's Sydney Khosla - Click to enlarge |
Great photos almost always require great competition between the players. For this reason, it is relatively simple to get great photos of the professional players at the Western & Southern Open and of college players when the matches are held outside.
Great photos also tend to be taken in groups when the sun is optimal. Conditions were close to ideal at the State Team Tournament and at Mason in August.
Getting great photos from doubles is always challenging and only one of these photos were taken during doubles matches.
It is obviously a subjective process to select these photos, but the criteria include:
- Movement - As reflected by stretching for a ball, athleticism, flowing hair, moving clothing, and "coiling" before striking the ball.
- Lighting - Sun lit face with gradual, non-severe shadows. Note: It is really hard to get great photos with players wearing hats or visors unless the sun is low in the sky.
- Sharpness - Photo is highly focused and clear.
- Background - The background needs to be pleasing or interesting. Recognizable venues, such as States, are a plus. Having cars in the background is a big minus and so is the sign-age at Upper Arlington. Unfortunately at UA, shooting from one side means sign-age and shooting from the other side places a parking lot in the background.
- Great form - Player is the correct distance from the ball (i.e. arms are not tied up like pretzels).
- Eye-on-ball - Includes concentration. Those who blink during ball contact need not apply...
- Portrait-like - The photo looks like it was taken at a studio using studio lighting.
- Emotion or jubilation - I am taking a few more of these types of photos.
- Clothing - This is where the professionals almost always have the advantage because the colors are so vibrant. Click to view the photos of Sloane Stephens, Petra Kvitova, and Ana Bogdan from this year's Western & Southern. Black outfits and white outfits are the worst. This year, Magnificat had the nicest uniforms for photos.
Click to view the Top Girls Photos in 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014. Click to view Top Photos for the Boys for the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014 seasons.
Interested in getting more tennis gear and clothes? Midwest Sports is a valued advertiser on and sponsor of OhioTennisZone.com. Each item that you purchase using this link benefits OhioTennisZone.com. There is also an added benefit to you. For those items on clearance, you'll get an additional 10% off. That's what I do to get all of the weird colored tennis shoes.
TUESDAY,
Top Incoming Freshman Girls
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Using TennisRecruiting.net, OTZ identifies the current eighth graders who are in the Top 600 in the nation. This information should be especially helpful to the coaches who want to schedule strong opponents. Of course, it is also important to know which school these players are attending. I will need your help with this. If you have inside knowledge of which school a player plans to attend, please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City | Incoming School |
| Shyla Aggarwal - 4 | Mason | Mason |
| Ananya Annapantula - 5 | Mason | CHCA |
| Ellie Assenmacher - 2 | Sylvania | |
| Angela Britton - 4 | Cincinnati | |
| Ellie Brotherton - 3 | Chagrin Falls | Laurel |
| Dasha Chistyakova - 2 | Dublin | |
| Polina Chvalyuk - 2 | W. Chester | |
| Sarah Clark - 2 | Cincinnati | |
| Tia Clemens - 2 | Cleveland | St. Jos. Acad. |
| Niya Fried - 3 | Peninsula | |
| Nishi Gandra - Blue Chip | Mason | |
| Caroline Hinshaw - 2 | Dayton | |
| Macy Hitchcock - 4 | Eaton | |
| Catherina Iltchev - 3 | Brecksville | |
| Alexis Nyborg - 4 | Solon | Orange |
| Clara Owen - 2 | Dayton | |
| Payton Puryear - 2 | W. Chester | CHCA |
| Samantha Robertson - 2 | Rocky River | Rocky River |
| Blake Rothchild - 4 | Beachwood | |
| Anh Thi Thai - 2 | Columbus | Hilliard Bradley |
| Harshita Uppuganti - 3 | Mason | |
| Grace Vaughn - 2 | Gates Mills | |
| Eleana Yu - Blue Chip | Mason | CHCA |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending the school.
The TennisRecruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to TennisRecruiting.net.
Based on where some of these players are competing in tournaments, some are likely no longer living in Ohio.
Of the 23 players on the list, the Central District has two, Northeast - one, Northwest - eight, and Southwest - 12.
Speaking of TennisRecruiting.net, now is the perfect time for upper classmen to insure that their player contact information is up-to-date on TRN. This is a common way for college coaches to reach out to prospective recruits.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team
Congratulations to the girls selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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 Kelli Niehaus Mount Notre Dame |
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Division II - Singles |
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 Rylie Hanford West Geauga |
 Blessing Nwaozuzu Orange |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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The OTZ list is a bit different than the OHSAA All-Ohio team. While a player's performance at States is the best way to get on the team, OTZ also looks at a player's entire season and includes worthy players who did not qualify for States because of unfortunate District draws. OTZ also believes that the OHSAA team is too mechanical in its approach by granting honors only based on the round in which the player reached at States.
The number of players on the OTZ All-Ohio Team can vary from year to year based on the skill levels of the players. As per TennisRecruiting.net's analysis, this year's group of players is exceptionally talented, especially those from the Northeast District. This is also the first year in which the number of Division II players exceeds those from Division I. Last year's singles list had seven in Division I and six in Division II. The 2016 teams had six in each divisions.
Note that players with the yellow PP tennis balls next to their names have Player Profiles and that more information is available for them by clicking on their names. Click to sign-up to get your own Player Profile.
The OTZ Top Players Lists will be updated later today. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. To see all of the players on one page, click on All Districts.
OTZ will soon list next year's top upcoming freshmen. The purpose of this list is to not only recognize the players but to also help coaches understand which teams should be included in their schedules next fall.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday
The final group of photos were added. About 140 new photos are included. They are sorted by date beginning with the most recent matches (State Team Tournament). This group of photos were taken at 20 tournaments and/or dual matches. Sign-in first and click on Most Recently Added Photos to view them.
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Mag's Hannah Klubnik - Click to enlarge |
All of these photos are for sale and there may be others that you may like, but you need to purchase at least one online photo first. Obviously it takes time and money to travel to these events; take these photos; process them; and then get them online. It also takes a considerable amount of time to gather the additional photos and present them to you. I am not going to go through all of this additional effort unless I receive some money first. Think of it as a photo sitting fee (where I am traveling to your location). Photos in the States Preview video are also for sale.
Photos that are purchased will also appear in the player's OTZ Player Profile.
Prices start at $19.99 (plus sales tax, or $21.49) and the prices per photo decline as more are purchased.
The Top 10 Girls Photos have also been updated, but these will likely change as I review them a few more times.
There will not be any updates over the weekend. I need to catch up with things associated with the Columbus, Ohio platform tennis league first. There will be another update on Monday morning. The All-Ohio OTZ team is still being review.
THURSDAY,
Videos of Championship Points
It is time for the OHSAA championship point videos. Since several of the match start times varied substantially, it did not appear that there would be any problem getting videos for all four championship points this season. That did not turn out to be the case. OTZ captured just two of the videos (D2 singles and doubles) and Olentangy Liberty's Assistant Coach Geoff Bibo provided the video for D1 doubles and Magnificat's AD Paul Barlow provided the D1 singles video.
Note that YouTube.com provides a choice of three different screenshots as the "intro photo" for the video. If the choices are really bad, OTZ can create a custom "intro" view. This year, the "intro's" were great for D2 singles and doubles.
OTZ has used a video camera for the last few years and it may be time to switch to an iPhone. I preferred the wider screen video view that Geoff Bibo provided. It is better to include all of the players in the video.
For best results, please use HD (High Definition) and expand to full screen mode.
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Division I Singles: Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk |
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Division 1 Doubles:
Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly defeated Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu. [Click image to play.] |
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Division II Singles: Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff. [Click image to play.] |
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Division II Doubles: Hathaway Brown's Isabella Daverio - Rebecca Wolf defeated teammates Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang. [Click image to play.] |
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WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com Usage Edition
What is accessed on OhioTennisZone and who accesses it? It is time for the seasonal usage edition. Read on to learn what areas of the nation access OTZ the most. Which players get the most views on their OTZ Player Profiles; and what team pages generate the most views. The usage covered is for the time period of August 1 to October 22.
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OTZ Team Pages - Click to enlarge |
The Dublin Jerome team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top five were: Olentangy Orange; Hathaway Brown; Magnificat; and Mason. Note that bars on the chart are percentages based on that team's pageviews divided by Dublin Jerome's usage. So for example, Indian Hill had approximately one-half (51%) of the usage that Dublin Jerome's page generated. All of the teams in the Top Ten are OTZ Team Members. While it is unknown who specifically accesses each OTZ page, note that middle school players and parents are certainly big users. Teams need to think of these OTZ Team pages as advertisements for potential future customers (and/or team players / students).
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Usage by Metro Area - Click to enlarge |
The top Metro Areas that access OTZ may surprise a few people. While Ohio's metro areas dominate, Detroit, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, and Boston make up a significant percentage of the pageviews. All of the numbers were divided by Columbus' usage. For example, Cincinnati and Cleveland-Akron had approximately half of Columbus' usage while Dayton had 11% and Toledo had 10%. For Detroit to have more accesses than Toledo is still mind-boggling. OTZ only has information on Ohio high school players. For the Detroit area to have more than twice the interest in Ohio high school tennis than Toledo, should be a big concern to Toledo tennis (or maybe we need to invite the Detroit area to play Ohio high school tennis?).
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Pick North's Alcala - Click to enlarge |
Liberty's Atway |
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HB's Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
HB's Godsick |
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CA's Ratliff - Click to enlarge |
Mag's Roggenburk |
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and it can always use more. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity remains solid. The number of OTZ users increased 11.2% versus last year and the number of pageviews increased 14.9%.
TUESDAY,
Final 2018 OTZ State Team Rankings - Mason and Hathaway Brown #1
The final 2018 OTZ State Top 10 Team Rankings are listed below. Congratulations to all of the teams that made the list.
State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams Final 2018 Rankings October 23, 2018 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM St Sp 3 Final 4 | Hath. Brown◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 2 Final 4 |
| 3. Perrysburg 2 Final 4 | Tol. Central Catholic 3 Final 4 |
| 4. Ol. Orange◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Oakwood 1 Final 4 |
| 5. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 3 | Indian Hill◄TEAM 3 |
| 6. Olen. Liberty◄TEAM 2 | Laurel◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. Pick. North◄TEAM 1 | Summit Country Day◄TEAM 2 |
| 8. Ursuline Acad. ◄TEAM 1 | Cin. Hills Chr. Acad. ◄TEAM 1 |
| 9. N Canton Hoover◄TEAM 2 | Lexington◄TEAM 1 |
| 10. Solon◄TEAM 1 | Hawken◄TEAM 1 |
| Hon. Men.: Mayfield◄TEAM 1 Upper Arlington◄TEAM 1 | Seven Hills◄TEAM Archbishop Alter◄TEAM Wellington◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
The State Team Tournament yielded some surprises. In Division I, Perrysburg had been in the top ten prior to the tournament, but not high enough. Their team, consisting of eight seniors, surprised many with their 3-2 win over Olentangy Orange. Both of Perrysburg's doubles teams also performed well at States. Perrysburg moved all of the way up from ninth to third. When the close match between Olentangy Orange and Magnificat is considered, it is apparent that these four teams belong at the top of the rankings.
In Division II, the four Final Four teams were in the top six in the OTZ pre-season rankings. The order was shuffled a bit during the season, but these teams did well all season.
This is the first time where the Team State Final Four teams were in the top four positions in the OTZ Top Ten Rankings.
Now is a good time for teams to start making scheduling connections for next season. OTZ would be happy to help OTZ coach members make introductions. Several of the Division I teams do a great job of having weekend quad matches in Columbus where teams from the other Districts meet in Columbus to play two dual matches. It would be great to see Division II teams do more of that.
For some odd reason, many of the top Division II teams do not travel well. Tennis budgets should not be an issue because parents are almost always happy to drive, making a bus unnecessary. Plus, everything can start and finish on a Saturday. Quad dual matches typically start at 10am and the next match begins at 1:30pm(ish). Throw in a visit to an ice cream shop or a pizza parlor (or both) on the way home and teams get a great early-season bonding experience.
Note that the Western & Southern Open will take place from August 10-18 and that is a perfect opportunity for teams to play matches in the Cincinnati-area and then go on to the tournament.
Note that upcoming ACT tests dates are April 13, 2018 and September 14, 2019. There will also be a major USTA tournament which the best teams may want to avoid. This year, the USTA Midwest Level 3 took place over Labor Day so there were no team conflicts.
Still to come this week on OTZ are: videos of championship points (only got two this year - D2 singles and D2 doubles); the usage issue which includes the areas of the state that use OTZ the most; the OTZ All-Ohio Team; and the Top Ten(ish) action photos of the year.
MONDAY,
Mason | Hathaway Brown Are State Team Champs
The 2018 tennis season came to a close on what turned out to be a great fall day. The championships were delayed by an hour to allow temperatures to warm but the temperatures still hovered at 37 degrees at the beginning of the day.
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Mason - D1 Champs - Click to enlarge |
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Hathaway Brown - D2 Champs - Click to enlarge |
Mason repeated for their second consecutive championship. Mason played Perrysburg in the semis and Magnificat in the finals. Mason won 3-0 in both of their matches. The Mason versus Magnificat match was much tighter than the score indicated. Mason clinched the win on second singles. [Click for Mason's 2017 championship photo.]
While the anticipated final match was always expected to be Mason and Magnificat, Olentangy Orange almost ruined that match-up in the semifinals. Magnificat narrowly won that match, 3-2, by clinching the win on second dubs with the score 6-7, 6-2, 7-5. In the final match of the day, Perrysburg eked out a win over Olentangy Orange for third place. That match ended at 6:40pm. Perrysburg won 50 games to Orange's 51.
To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Conditions for taking photos progressed throughout the day. At one point, the sun was perfect. It will take several days to process the best photos. There were 422 photos taken. Just in case you are interested, when the camera rapid fires five team photos, the camera is using a slightly different exposure level for each of those photos. Using this approach also provides more latitude with blinkers.
OTZ updates will continue for a few more days until the OTZ wife (Kathy) figures out that I am just prolonging the tennis season to avoid stuff that she has wanted me to do for the last three months..
SUNDAY,
States - Day Two Results
Damp chilly conditions finally gave way to windy chilly conditions yesterday, but the matches were great the entire day at States.
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Mag's Roggenburk - Click to enlarge |
Liberty's Schoenly|Atway |
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HB's Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
HB's Daverio|Wolf |
Interestingly, three of the champions (Roggenburk, Gillinov, and Atway-Schoenly) were rererepeats from last year, and the Division II championship match was very close to a repeat.
After having ten players in the semi-finals, the Northeast District earned three of the State championships.
After daily tennis coverage for 72 straight days, OTZ takes a breather from tennis after next week. Instead, I will be blasting into the PlatformTennisZone.com and bnbBlight.com web sites.
OTZ will continue to tweet during the off-season via @OhioTennisZone. You may find it to be worthwhile to follow me. Note that Twitter is not for everyone and it can be a time drain. If you are an adult and you are already caught up on those pesky household chores or if you are a student and you already have straight-A's, then you might be allowed to join. Kids must always ask their most lenient parent first before they sign-up. I also get a slice of CheeseCake Factory cheesecake every time I get another 100 followers and I am just 15 followers away from 800 followers so there's also that. (I will only continue this practice up to 1 million followers..)
Today is the State Team Tournament at Reynoldsburg Summit Station and I will be leaving in a few minutes for that. This tournament will provide quite a few photos for next year's OTZ State Preview Video / Slideshow as the whole process begins again.. If you see me and if would like me to take an action photo of your daughter, please let me know.
SATURDAY,
States - First Day Results
Players and fans started the day with chilly but perfect weather. The temperature was 37 degrees as the players were called onto the courts. There was little to no wind.
It did not take long to see competitive matches. First round matches included: North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala (3-sets); Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu beat Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier; and Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated Mason's Emma Kruse (3-sets).
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West Geauga's Rylie Hanford - Click to enlarge |
Among the top singles players, Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk defeated Beavercreek's Julia Bays and Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang; Westlake's Emma Peeler beat Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor and Turpin's Caitlin Fisher; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated Mason's Emma Kruse and North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback; Mount Notre Dame’s Kelli Niehaus beat Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy and Riverside Painesville's Angelica Ross; Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Ottawa Hills' Priya Bhatt and Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; West Geauga’s Rylie Hanford beat Oakwood’s Lily McCloskey and Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Nugent (by default) and Napoleon's Aliza Lankenau; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu beat Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier and Hawken's Stephanie Shulman.
To see all of the results, click:The State semi-finalists in each draw are as follows:
Division I Singles:Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk; Westlake's Emma Peeler; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini; and Mount Notre Dame's Kelli Niehaus.
Division I Doubles:
Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu; Mason's Ananya Aggarwal - Sanjana Reddy; and Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada.
Division II Singles:
Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov; West Geauga's Rylie Hanford; and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu.
Division II Doubles:
Hathaway Brown's Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang; Hathaway Brown's Isabella Daverio - Rebecca Wolf; Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin - Maverick Delp; and Revere's Amy Lazbin - Morgan Dobos.
From a bragging rights perspective, the number of players / teams playing tomorrow from each District are: Northeast - just 10; Southwest - 3; Central - 2; and Northwest - 1.
It was great to see and to talk with Jerry Snodgrass at States today. Mr. Snodgrass is the new Executive Director of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. He replaced Dr. Daniel Ross this summer.
The day got off to a great start when Maddie Taphorn of Kettering Fairmont's tennis team did a terrific job of singing the Star Spangled Banner. After that, the day plunged into a dark abyss of despair as news circulated that the McNasty's Food Truck had broken down on the way to States. But then it happened.. An angel in a tow truck promptly delivered the McNasty's Food Truck to the hungry masses before lunch. States was saved. Hopefully today will have less drama - at least in the food court area.
FRIDAY,
It Is Time for States
It is time to zoom off to States so today's update will be brief.
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Click for Draws - Click to enlarge |
A number of newspapers are reviewed to see if they contain articles that highlight players who will be competing at States. Click to read this article from Steve Blackledge of the Columbus Dispatch. It is titled, "High school tennis | Success motivates Pickerington's Cassie Alcala, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff". Steve Junga of the Toledo Blade also wrote an article. It is titled, "Delp family caps remarkable run of state tennis tournaments".
I will be updating the draws online throughout the day. The draws will largely not change for the first hour of the tournament, after that, the scores and court locations will be updated. Note that there is a time stamp at the top left side of the page so that it is clear when it was last updated. I normally watch matches and take photos and then I swoop over and update everything at one time.
Remember to click on player names to see their OTZ Player Profiles. It contains their detailed results from throughout the season. Note that these Player Profiles will not be updated with today's results until tomorrow morning.
Click on image to the right to access the draws or simply enter:
As mentioned yesterday, the State Team Rankings were updated. The new rankings are in the right-side navigation bar.
Hope to see you at States.
THURSDAY,
States Preview Video | Updated Team Rankings (soon)
There are 24 hours to go.. Today will be a travel day for many schools as they motor down I-71 and I-75 to States.
The OTZ video / slide-show was released last night. The video recognizes the players who are competing at States and at the State Team Tournament in Reynoldsburg on Sunday. There are 113 photos included this year and 100 were action photos. All of the action photos include player names, but viewers either have to be quick to stop the video or have good eyes to view them. Using "high-definition" and full-screen modes are recommended. I finally warmed up to the music once it was in-sync with the photos, but many (many) songs were reviewed. Songs that pass the "beat", lyric (can't freak out the parents too much), and popularity hurdles are often restricted by YouTube because the artists do not wish to make them available for YouTube videos. For compensation, the artists and YouTube benefit from the advertisements in the video - OTZ does not. All of the action photos are available for sale.
This is also a great time to recognize OhioTennisZone.com sponsors and advertisers. Special thanks to Elysium Tennis, The Players Club, Olympic Indoor, Greater Columbus Tennis Association, and Midwest Sports for their support. If you enjoy high school tennis, please frequent these great supporters of the sport.It is best to put a link to the draw sheet on your smart phone now using:
The OTZ Team rankings will be updated this morning. As long as everyone cooperates on Sunday, this might also be the final rankings. All teams are encouraged to do their part.. Note that the team rankings will include the number of State Spots that each team has (again, not players - but spots) . The State Final Four Teams will also be identified.
Please say "hi" if you see me running around tomorrow. I will likely start out the day watching D2 singles matches. There are some brutal first round matches. They include Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov versus Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Abby Nugent and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu versus Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier.
WEDNESDAY,
Final Four Teams Sets | Mag Beat Hoover | Orange Defeated Jerome
There are 48 hours to go.. The final Final Four spots for the State Team Tournament were finally secured by Magnificat and Olentangy Orange last night. Mag beat North Canton Hoover and Orange defeated Dublin Jerome. Both teams won by 3-0 scores. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the State Team Tournament Draw.
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OTZ State Draws - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk defeated North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat North Canton Hoover's Lilly Altman; and Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule defeated Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The OTZ State Draws are now "open" so that all of the photos can be viewed. For extra, super-duper player recognition, player photos are now included for all 96 players. While all player photos were eventually obtained for the boys last spring, this is the first time that it has occurred prior to States. Also note how the draws have several features that add to the States experience by providing additional information about OTZ member players, navigational links to rapidly move throughout the draws, update times so that users know when the draw was last updated, and an enlargeable site map for people who should be wearing bifocals.
States are a complete mad-house for taking photos because of updating the draws and traveling from court to court. If you want a picture of your daughter (or granddaughter or niece), let me know asap via email. I also need your absolute commitment that you will purchase at least one photo and possibly numerous photos. Click for the price of photos. At some point, I will need to start charging the same hourly rate as what a plumber, lawyer, electrician, or surgeon charges..
Work on the slide show / video begins now.
TUESDAY,
Mason Beat Ursuline Academy | TCC Defeated Lex | State Draws Available
Two more State Tournament Final Four spots were determined last night. The Southwest District D1 Final Four spot was claimed by Mason. Mason beat Ursuline Academy 3-0. Toledo Central Catholic defeated Lexington, 3-2, to earn their Northwest D2 spot. The Central and Northeast D1 Final Four spots will be determined tonight.
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Southwest District Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
The Top Players and Watch Lists were reconfigured yesterday to reflect the District results. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Northwest District results were evidently updated at some point late yesterday. Those results will be added to OTZ during tomorrow morning's update.
Today's Southwest District Qualifier group photos was courtesy of Mason coach, Mike Reid. No group photos were received from the Northeast and Northwest Districts this year.
The last two remaining final Final Four State Team spots will finally be determined tonight. Today's matches include Magnificat versus North Canton Hoover and Dublin Jerome and Olentangy Orange.
MONDAY,
Central District State Qualifiers
It is now official "draw watch" time. OTZ will post the State draws when they become available. [Now available via the link above.] The OTZ State Draws will include photos of many of the competitors and links to player information. OTZ will also tweet the draws when they become available.
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Central District Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Speaking of photos, please get your player photos into OTZ asap to be included in the OTZ State Draws. Photos of all of last year's boys were included, but several had to be taken at States. The plan is to get all of the girls' photos online by Tuesday. OTZ already has all of the girls' photos for the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts.
The Top Players and Watch Lists will be reviewed again today based on last week's results. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Group photos of the Southwest District Qualifiers will be posted tomorrow. Kudos to Mason coach, Mike Reid, for taking their photos.
More Final Four State Team spots will be determined tonight. They include Mason versus Ursuline Academy and Magnificat versus North Canton Hoover. Dublin Jerome and Olentangy Orange will play tomorrow night.
As soon as the OTCA Final Four teams are determined, work on the OTZ State / Team Tournament Video / Slideshow can begin. Google / YouTube has arrangements with many artists to allow their music to be used in videos, but it appears that many groups are now prohibiting this. The music is a really important part of these videos so when quality music can no longer be obtained, then the video will not be created. YouTube does have "free" music available but it simply is not usable.
SUNDAY,
Players Set for States
With 42 degree temperatures at the Central District Tournament yesterday, at least parents, players, fans, and OTZ photographers now know what they need to bring to States to stay warm. The weather was brisk, but at least it was not windy.
The State draws are expected to be released tomorrow morning. The OTZ State Draws will be posted above when they are available.
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Jerome's Nagireddy - Click to enlarge |
Full results are now included for the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts. The Northwest and Southeast results are not yet posted.
Matches among the top players include: Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk defeated Riverside Painesville's Angelica Ross and Westlake's Emma Peeler; Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff beat Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang and Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy; Turpin's Caitlin Fisher beat Mount Notre Dame's Kelli Niehaus and Mason's Emma Kruse; West Geauga's Rylie Hanford defeated Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Abby Nugent beat Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier and Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu defeated Hathaway Brown's Maddie Lynch; Hawken's Stephanie Shulman beat Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Canfield's Anna Kan; and Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier beat Oakwood's Lily McCloskey. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
SATURDAY,
District Seeding Day (plus a few more qualifying spots TBD)
For many players, "qualifying for States" is the major goal. While there will still be several more qualifying spots determined today, "Districts Saturday" is all about the most skilled players positioning themselves to OHSAA state finals. While any player can be the state champion, having four tough matches in two days can be difficult for any player. There are many instances where the best player in the state is not the state champion because of difficult draws. This is especially the case for the boys when 85 degree days also play a role.
Speaking of 85 degree days, that was not the case at the Division 2 Northeast District qualifier tournament yesterday. With a few more spots to be determined, the NE D1 and D2 qualifiers are listed below.
Division I (6 spots):
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Hawken's Stephanie Shulman - Click to enlarge |
Doubles: Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu; Solon's Maggie Yang - Alexis Ratner; Westlake's Demi Jhaveri - Ashley Michelich; and Highland's Emily Hadler - Rachel Fannin. Two more spots will be determined today.
Division II (5 spots):
Singles: Hawken's Stephanie Shulman; Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu; and West Geauga's Rylie Hanford. One more spot will be determined today.
Doubles: Hathaway Brown's Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang; Hathaway Brown's Rebecca Wolf - Isabella Daverio; Laurel's Priya Khadilkar - Ria Desai; and Revere's Morgan Dobos - Amy Lazbin. One more spot will be determined today.
The depth in Northeast Ohio is ridiculously good this year and several states-worthy players will not be competing in Mason this coming Friday.
These match results will not be entered into OTZ until the Districts are finished. Hopefully all of the District Draws will be updated on the various OHSAA District sites today.
OTZ will be posting group State Qualifier photos again this year. Take your camera (or high quality) cell phone to the seeding round and take the photo prior to the girls taking the courts. Group the doubles teams by school and ask the singles players to kneel. No hats. No visors. No sunglasses. No frowns. Have the players face toward the sun (even if there is no sun). Leave space at the top and bottom for titles and names. Email the photo in its highest quality mode to OTZ following the matches today.
FRIDAY,
State Qualifiers from Central / Southwest
Blankets became part of the official team uniforms as players adjusted to the 30 degree drop in temperatures. After a chilly, windy morning at Lindner Family Tennis Center, the weather improved in the afternoon.
The Columbus Dispatch included their results online but not the Cincinnati Enquirer. The results from the Central District are now online on OTZ. While I might normally all of the Southwest results, I cannot this morning because I need to zoom off to the D2 Northeast District Tournament in Akron.
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Wyoming's Sydney Evans - Click to enlarge |
The doubles qualifiers for Central were: Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly; Olentangy Liberty's Lexie Brengartner - Ellie MacDowell; Olentangy Orange's Erin Storrer - Kortney Reed; and Upper Arlington's Evelyn Holman - Wendy Shi.
The State Qualifers in the Southwest District were:
Division 1
Singles: Mount Notre Dame's Kelli Niehaus; Turpin's Caitlin Fisher; Mason's Emma Kruse; and Beavercreek's Julia Bays.
Doubles: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal - Sanjana Reddy; Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal - Bridget Estes; Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada; and St. Ursula Academy's Bella Kirby - Gabby Gockerman.
Division 2
Singles: Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Abby Nugent; Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier; and Oakwood's Lily McCloskey.
Doubles: Summit Country Day's Amy Poffenberger - Sadie Joseph; Indian Hill's Jessica August - Jessica Budde; Wyoming's Peyton Osha - Emily Mayer; and Indian Hill's Samantha Pregel - Nina Price.
This is what was going through everyone's mind yesterday at the Southwest Districts... "McNasty's is not here? Wait. What?" Many tennis fans were likely thinking "What's the point of even having Districts if the McNasty Food Truck isn't here? Like why do we even bother?" The substitute food truck (Pa's Pork Food Truck) was good, but it just didn't replace McNasty's. Hopefully McNasty's will be at States so that everything will once again become right and just in the world.
THURSDAY,
District Tournament
This is a big, District tournament day. Most of the state will be qualifying for the State tournament and all Districts will finish the seeding round on Saturday. Click for mood music.
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Worthington Christian - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Worthington Christian. They are coached by Stefanie Mayotte. They are led by Amanda Mayotte and Abby Mayotte.
Despite the hurricane, the weather looks clear in Cincinnati so I will be leaving soon to attend their District tournament. If you see me, please say, "Hi Scott, would you like a McNasty's sandwich?"..
WEDNESDAY,
Team Final Four Spots to Columbus Academy, Oakwood, and Perrysburg
Yesterday was a big day for clinching State Team Tournament Final Four spots. Columbus Academy was the first to book its bus to Reynoldsburg by defeating Wellington. Oakwood grabbed the Southwest District spot by beating Summit Country Day. Perrysburg defeated Notre Dame Academy to get the Northwest D1 spot. In the semifinals, Olentangy Orange defeated Upper Arlington and they will face Dublin Jerome in the finals. In another notable match, Ursuline Academy beat Seven Hills. Click to view the graphical results via Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Wellington's Isabella Vegas; Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier beat Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Olentangy Orange's Nikitha Bhimireddy; Perrysburg's Emma Carter beat Notre Dame Academy's Ciera Patton; Ursuline Academy's Brigid Lynch defeated Seven Hills' Neda Tehrani; and Columbus Academy's Himaja Reddy beat Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
OTZ will be on the road tomorrow to the Southwest District and to the Northeast Districts on Friday to take photos for the OTZ State Tournament video / slideshow. Last year's video is posted today. Just as a reminder, Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk was the D1 State Singles Champion and Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov was the D2 State Singles Champion. The D1 and D2 doubles champions were Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly and Hathaway Brown's Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang, respectively. Mason was the Team Tournament Champion for D1 and Hathaway Brown was the D2 Champion.
OTZ will also post the group photos of the State Qualifiers. I plan to take the group photo of the Central District qualifiers. Photo-taker volunteers are needed from the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, and East/Southeast Districts to recognize those players. Please ask the girls not to wear visors or hats for the photo. Please also email a photo to OTZ at its highest resolution on the same day. Please leave room at the top and bottom of the photos for titles and names. Group the doubles teams together and ask the singles players to kneel. Click Central and Southwest for example photos from last year.
TUESDAY,
Magnificat Beat Canfield | Hoover Defeated Solon
The season is starting to wrap up quickly. In State Team Tournament play, Magnificat defeated Canfield (no boxscores reported) and North Canton Hoover beat Solon. In other matches, St. Joseph Academy defeated Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the OTCA State Team Tournament draws.
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Ursuline Academy - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Ursuline Academy. They are coached by Joe Hartkemeyer. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Nina Dhaliwal, Gracie and Bridget Estes, and Brigid Lynch.
Today's matches include Ottawa Hills versus Lexington; Olentangy Orange versus Upper Arlington; and Perrysburg versus Notre Dame Academy.
MONDAY,
District Draws Released
The all-important District draws were released last night at about 10pm. The draws for Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts are available via the links above. Nice job to the site managers for getting these out early to the players, parents, and fans..
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Whetstone - Click to team page |
Just to add to the angst and anxiety of those in the Central District, someone created a D1 doubles draw that was circulating on Sunday evening. That draw and the official draw did not match. Ten points have been deducted from Slytherin's total for messing with people. (Of course, if I were still in high school, this is exactly what I would be doing..)
Today's featured team is Whetstone. They are coached by Bucky Walters. They are this year's Columbus City League champs. They are led by Stella Thompson and Alysia Swinehart.
Barring rain, OTZ plans are to attend: the Southwest District tournament on Thursday; the Northeast D2 District Tournament on Friday; and the Central District Seeding round on Saturday. The Southwest District tournament is really nice because it is held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center which is large enough to accommodate the D1 and D2 tournaments. I could also come up with other fake reasons why I like the Southwest District tournament such as the wonderful parents, delightful children, insightful coaches, etc. but let's face it, the real reason to go to the Southwest District tournament is because of McNasty's Food Truck.
The goal is to have all of the player photos for the online State draw so get that camera ready <jinx alert>, but not too ready.
SUNDAY,
Sectionals Are Completed
On a day with temperatures that were reminiscent of June, July, August, and September, the Sectionals wrapped up throughout the state. Many results are online for the Central and Southwest Districts. Nothing has been entered for the Northeast and Northwest until their online draws are completed. Hopefully that will happen today. (The Central Draws are complete except for the third/fourth place finishers.)
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UA's Noah Mizer - Click to enlarge |
Match-ups among the top players included: Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk defeated Westlake's Peeler and teammate, Olivia Rondini; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov beat Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy and Jerome's Reagan Resor; Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky beat Hathaway Brown's Maddie Lynch; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Abby Nugent defeated Indian Hill's Haley Hirsch and teammate, Lynn Kader; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini beat Rocky River's Sarah Robertson; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Canfield's Anna Kan and Canfield's Kate Ross; Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch beat Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier; Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader; Westlake's Emma Peeler beat Rocky River's Sarah Robertson; Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Lancaster's Hope Rooker; and Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy beat Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
I stayed at UA rather than travel outside of 270 to the other Central District Sectionals. Unfortunately, that is also the worst venue in the state for taking photos <not even close to an exaggeration alert>. With cars and people on one side and signage on the other, the photos of the players can be good, but viewers are too distracted to focus on them. Adding to the visual clutter of Upper Arlington, there was a nearby jackhammer to add to the distractions. The good news is that the UA courts will be ripped up and replaced when the new high school is built. When that happens, the jackhammers will sound like beautiful music.. [Ok. Just in case it is not totally clear, I really do not like taking photos at Upper Arlington..]
SATURDAY,
Central Sectional Results Online
The rains finally subsided and Central was able to play their Sectionals yesterday. Special kudos to the Columbus Dispatch for getting all of these results into the newspaper this morning, especially when considering that it was another football Friday night.
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Lancaster's Mallory Thomas - Click to enlarge |
After entering just 269 matches, the Central Sectional results are now online on OhioTennisZone. Look for these results under the OTZ Player Profiles and under the various team pages (after logging-in).
The Northeast Sectionals have been doing a great job of updating their draws and that information will be added for the OTZ coach members upon completion of their Sectionals.
Among the top players, Lancaster Hope Rooker defeated Dublin Coffman’s Hannah Qin; Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor beat Pickerington North's Rhyan Cook; and Madi Burris (Watkins Memorial) defeated Dublin Coffman’s Clair Feit. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This is a short update today because of the massive amount of data that had to be entered and because I want to see the seeding round at Upper Arlington. That began a half hour ago.
FRIDAY,
Ursuline Academy Beat Turpin
Hopefully the weather will hold so that the state can finish its non-seeding Sectional rounds today.
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DeSales - Click to team page |
In dual match play, Ursuline Academy defeated Turpin in State Team Tournament play. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Turpin's Caitlin Fisher defeated Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal andUrsuline Academy's Bridget Estes beat Turpin's Savannah Allen. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is DeSales. They are coached by Tom Snyder. They are led by Megan Husslein, Izzy Arbona, and Cate Leithauser.
Tomorrow's update will be delayed. It takes a significant amount of time and effort to get the Central District Sectional results online.
THURSDAY,
Central District Sectionals Postponed to Friday | CA Beat New Albany
The rain continues. The critical, first round of Sectionals are postponed to tomorrow (Friday) for the Central District.
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Mount Vernon - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; Columbus Academy's Carmen Merkel beat New Albany's Kary Hollenbaugh; Upper Arlington's Evelyn Holman defeated Watterson's Liza Drought; and Columbus Academy's Himaja Reddy beat New Albany's Madison Spiess. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Mount Vernon. They are coached by Steve Tier. They are led by Kristyn Conrad and Hannah Baldwin.
WEDNESDAY,
Laurel Beats Hawken
Thunderstorms led to more cancellations yesterday. Teams are even having trouble getting all of their league matches played. There were only 11 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 4, and Northeast - 2. Match results included: Rocky River defeated St. Joseph Academy; Laurel beat Hawken; and Sycamore defeated Springboro. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Summit Country Day - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky defeated Hawken's Stephanie Shulman and Rocky River's Sarah Robertson beat St. Joseph Academy's Melissa Martin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Summit Country Day. They are coached by Michelle Hellman. They are OTZ Team Members, and they are led by Elizabeth Fahrmeier and Amy Poffenberger.
Dual match activity will be minimal tonight as teams prepare for a big day of Sectionals tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow.
TUESDAY,
Oakwood Beats Indian Hill | Jerome Defeats Liberty | SCD Beats 7Hills
It was a big night for State Team Tournament matches. Oakwood was expected to be very good this year and this is turning out to be the case. Oakwood defeated Indian Hill 3, 2. In other OTCA matches, Dublin Jerome defeated Olentangy Liberty and Summit Country Day beat Seven Hills. Click for the updated State Team Tournament Draws.
There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Worthington Kilbourne defeated Grandview; Pickerington North beat New Albany; Mount Vernon defeated Big Walnut; Wyoming beat Mason-B; Archbishop Alter defeated Carlisle; and Hilliard Darby beat Marysville. In other notable matches, Upper Arlington defeated Pickerington Central and Massillon Jackson beat Revere. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Revere - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Revere. They are coached by Kathy Shisler. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Morgan Dobos, Amy Lazbin, and Nina Lazbin.
Today's matches include: St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Rocky River; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Walnut Hills; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Bexley; and Hilliard Davidson (A) versus Pickerington Central. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OTZ Identifies State Qualifier Contenders | Sectional Start Today in NE
Sectionals start today in Northeast Ohio. There are many worthy players competing this year for States. OTZ identifies the top State Qualifier contenders for each of the four major districts listed below. The number of State spots are included in parenthesize. Click on the player names for more information about each player (where applicable).
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Pick North's Cassie Alcala - Click to enlarge |
Division I (4 spots):
Singles: Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala; Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy; Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang; Olentangy Orange's Nikitha Bhimireddy; Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor; Pickerington North's Rhyan Cook.
Doubles: Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly; New Albany's Valentina Di Lorenzo - Alexandra Vitellas; Olentangy Liberty's Lexie Brengartner - Ellie MacDowell; Olentangy Orange's Erin Storrer - Kortney Reed; Upper Arlington's Evelyn Holman - Wendy Shi; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Noah Mizer.
Division II (1 spot):
Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz.
Doubles: Columbus Academy's Carmen Merkel - Lauren Motta; Columbus Academy's Himaja Reddy - Alex Graham; Wellington's Akua Antwi-Woods - Alexis Burkhalter; Wellington's Isabella Vegas - Olivia Vegas.
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Solon's Maggie Yang - Click to enlarge |
Division I (6 spots):
Singles: Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk; Westlake's Emma Peeler; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback; Rocky River's Sarah Robertson; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini; Riverside's Angelica Ross; Canfield's Anna Kan; Brecksville's Mia Zivkovic.
Doubles: Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek - Alexis Ospelt; Solon's Maggie Yang - Alexis Ratner; Westlake's Demi Jhaveri - Ashley Michelich; North Canton Hoover's Katie Harcourt - Hallie Hunt; Canfield's Sydney Cianciola - Cece Economus; Magnificat's Hannah Leszcz - Kayra Koprulu; Mayfield's Shannon McGill - Katerina Ng; Solon's Ani Atluri - Amanda Weiskind; Highland's Emily Hadler - Rachel Fannin; Walsh Jesuit's Lily Joyce - Emma Kealy.
Division II (5 spots):
Singles: Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov; West Geauga's Rylie Hanford; Hathaway Brown's Maddie Lynch; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu; Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky; Hawken's Stephanie Shulman.
Doubles: Hathaway Brown's Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang; Hathaway Brown's Rebecca Wolf - Isabella Daverio; Laurel's Priya Khadilkar - Ria Desai; Revere's Morgan Dobos - Amy Lazbin; Hawken's Dylan Goldberg - Natalie Cohen; Ursuline's Vy Hoang - Lexie Tsudis;
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Perryburg's Gemma Smith - Click to enlarge |
Division I (2 spots):
Singles: Clay's Madison Arquette; Toledo St. Ursula Academy's Libby Barrow; Shawnee's Aria Patel; Anthony Wayne's Kailyn Szmania.
Doubles: Perrysburg's Gemma Smith - Kyleigh Henthorn; Perrysburg's Emma Carter - Sydney Onest; Notre Dame Academy's Ciera Patton - Olivia Assenmacher; Notre Dame Academy's Gracie Bennett - Julia Loeb.
Division II (4 spots)
Singles: Galion's Kayley Gimbel; St. Mary Memorial's Clare Caywood; Lexington's Hayliegh Tucker; Lexington's Katherine Volz; Lima Central Catholic's Olivia Kesner; Perkin's Emma Lynch.
Doubles: Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin - Maverick Delp; Lexington's Sylvia Goldsmith - Gracie Pfieffer; Toledo Central Catholic's Bella Spinazze - Rachel Gorman; Perkin's Maria Schoder - Diana Schoder; Bath's Esther Bolon - Ruby Bolon; Edison's Mariah Medina - Jayla Medina.
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Turpin's Caitlin Fisher - Click to enlarge |
Division I (4 spots)
Singles: Mount Notre Dame's Kelli Niehaus; Turpin's Caitlin Fisher; Mason's Emma Kruse; Bellbrook's Andrea Szep; Walnut Hills' Makensie Long; Turpin's Savanah Allen.
Doubles: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal - Sanjana Reddy; Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal - Bridget Estes; Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada; Centerville's Sydney Khosla - Ariel Alappatt; St. Ursula Academy's Bella Kirby - Gabby Gockerman; Sycamore's Helen Sotropa - Sarah Wittenbaum; Lakota East's Megan Hoke - Grace Silverberg.
Division II (4 spots)
Singles: Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Abby Nugent; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman; Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey.
Doubles: Summit Country Day's Amy Poffenberger - Sadie Joseph; Indian Hill's Jessica August - Jessica Budde; Oakwood's Sophia Russell - Natalie Connelly; Archbishop Alter's Rachel Hawley - Emily Pojman; Wyoming's Osha - Mayer; Seven Hill's Avital Isakov - Anika Parameswaran; Cincinnati Hill Chrisian Academy's Kennedy Puryear - Leanne Yuan; Indian Hill's Samantha Pregel - Nina Price.
Were any players overlooked? Contact OTZ via Feedback.
Today's matches include: St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Indian Hill; DeSales (A) versus Thomas Worthington; Ursuline Academy (A) versus Springboro; and St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Aurora. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
