Ohio High School Tennis
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws are now online. There were no matches played in the State Team Tournament last year. Hopefully this year will be different.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to go 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 promptly updated throughout the season. Please click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament Participation- Click to enlarge |
The number of boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year. This year, there is a decrease. In fact, this is the lowest number of teams in the last seven years. Hopefully it bounces back after this COVID-19 year. There are 110 teams participating. The number of boys teams by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; 2019 - 119; 2020 - 128, and 2021 - 110. As shown in the graph, Southwest and Northeast have the most participants and Central has the least. Out of the 386 OHSAA boys tennis teams, 28% of the teams are competing this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams (beta release)
It was far more challenging to identify the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams this year because two new classes will be beginning high school tennis this year -- this year's freshmen and sophomores. 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. "Thank you" to all of the coaches who provided feedback on these rankings.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM | Indian Hill |
| 2. St. Xavier | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 3. New Albany | Orange |
| 4. Sycamore | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 5. University◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 6. Springboro◄TEAM | Cincinnati Country Day◄TEAM |
| 7. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Chagrin Falls |
| 8. Pickerington North | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 9. Solon◄TEAM | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 10. Findlay◄TEAM | Ottawa Hills |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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In D1, Mason, St. Xavier, New Albany, and Sycamore will be the teams to beat.
Division I
#1 The defending 2019 State Team champion, Mason, returns with a strong team that includes: Vignesh Gogineni (Yale - 2022 recruit), Anish Gangavaram, Akshay Joshi, and Sam King.
#2 St. Xavier would have been the favorite to win the State Team Tournament last year and they are a strong contender for this year. They return Charlie Temming (State Doubles Champion and Xavier recruit), Vincent Knott (Northern Kentucky recruit), Alex Brandt, Tucker Berry, and Jimmy Gott. They picked up sophomore, 4-star Drew Evans and 2-star Chase Homan. They lost Ronit Hiryur (Dayton) to graduation and Preston Stearns.
#3 New Albany returns Devin Boyer (2018 State Dubs Champion and Cleveland State recruit) and Ryan Mudre. They picked up 2-star Benjamin Bilenko. They lost Alek Jacoby to graduation.
#4 Sycamore returns to the top ten thanks to several strong incoming freshmen. They return Mark Karev and Kevin Dong. They pick up 4-star Nicholas Meyers and Nicholas Choo, both freshmen. They also picked up the last of the Wittenbaum's, Andrew, who is also a freshman.
#5 University School returns Ben Martin, Spencer Krantz, and Nathan Mu. They also pick up two Kirchick's -- Dean (3-star) and Cole (2-star). They lost Chas Norman and Charlie Joranko to graduation.
#6 Springboro's Sai Dore and Temur Nazarov return to the team. They also get Shreyas Kode (2-star), Joshua Satter (2-star), and Jack Siehl (1-star).
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Mason's 2019 Team - Click to enlarge |
#7 Dublin Jerome returns a solid team, including: Max Fickas, Tanish Pairu, and Kevin Liu. Maxwell Stratford is 1-star sophomore. They lost Anish Patel and Christopher Knight to graduation.
#8 Pickerington North returns Cole Alcala and Ben Starrett. They gain 4-star sophomore, Pavan Uppu.
#9 Solon returns Scott Zhao and Eric Liao. They pick up sophomore Nick Romanoff.
#10 Findlay returns Max Hosey and Carson Dale. They lost Drew Swisher to graduation.
Other teams that are on the radar include: St. Ignatius, Olentangy, Upper Arlington, Massillon Jackson and Centerville.
D2 is always 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. If your soccer, lacrosse, and baseball teams are traveling outside of your outer belt, then tennis can, too.
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Indian Hill's 2018 Team - Click to enlarge |
#1 Indian Hill returns Tejas Pisati, Coleman Warstler, and Jasper Bennett. They lost Anay Gautham to graduation. They pick up several good freshmen including RJ Poffenberger and Jack Pollock (both 3-stars), and Eshaan Gandhi (2-star).
#2 Columbus Academy returns the 2019 State Doubles Finalists, Arie Tuckerman and Jack Madison (Colorado College recruit). They also return Lucas Huang and Ryan Panley. They lost Rhian Seneviratne and Ryan Wahl to graduation.
#3 Orange returns Jake Goldstein, Rohit Kashyap, and Noah Lurie. They gain sophomore Benjamin Pomeranets (5-star), freshman Chika Nwaozuzu (4-star), junior Josh Nwaozuzu (2-star), and freshman Ace Bloom (2-star). They lost Robert Miron to graduation. If these new players come on strong, no one should be surprised to see Orange win it all.
#4 Columbus' Wellington School was the favorite to win in 2020 but they lost key players to graduation including Trevor Ball (Northern Kentucky) and Milan Gonela (Denison). They return Griffin Biernat, Evan Manley, and Brayden Chawla. They also pick up 2-star freshman, Sanjan Shanker.
#5 Seven Hills lost many of their players to graduation including Ajay Gupta, Kevin Wang, and Naail Sajjad, but they always reload. They pick up 3-star Avi Mahajan, 2-star Ethan Blatt, John Corbett, and Colin Yeager.
#6 Cincinnati Country Day returns Sai Nalagatla, Kasey Chopra, Aziz Mahmud and Abhijit Jagtap. They pick up Max Berghausen and Matt Castrucci who are both sophomores. They lost Neil Badlani and Annapantula Ashutosh to graduation.
#7 Chagrin Falls returns 2019 State Singles Champion, Andrew Zimcosky, as well as Jackson Quinn and Ellis Clark.
#8 Lexington returns Tommy Secrist, Ryan Mercurio, Ross Drlik. They lost Benton Drake, Blake Webster, and Brent Webster to graduation.
#9 Ursuline returns Josh Khavari, Gavin Blacksher, and Glenn Christopher. They lost State Finalist Greg Morgione to graduation.
#10 Ottawa Hills returns Matthew McGee, Henry Harders, and Jack Burke. They lost Henry McQueen to graduation.
Other teams on the the radar include Oakwood 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.
Those with additional insights on why a team should be ranked differently or included on one of these lists are welcome to submit a Feedback. Please include specific reasons and player names.
Remember. If your team beats a better team, that's your fault - not mine..
WEDNESDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Other Important Dates
The OHSAA Boys Season Calendar is listed below. Last year's OTZ calendar was posted on February 10, and in the "what a big difference a few days can make" department, there was no mention of COVID-19.. The boys season calendar is normally chaotic because of the weather and due to the timing of spring breaks but it may actually be less chaotic this year since many families will likely stay in Ohio over spring break.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| Feb. 26: Registration Deadline for the State Team Tournament |
| Feb. 26 - Mar. 5-6: Virtual OTCA Coach Clinic |
| Mar. 8: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 13: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 26: HS Season Begins |
| Apr. 1: OhioTennisZone Payment Due |
| Apr. 12: Non-Interscholastic Date |
| Apr. 17: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 25: Waiver Extension Ends |
| May 2: Sectional Tournament Draw |
| May 8: SAT Test Date |
| May 10-15: Sectional Tournament |
| May 17-22: District Tournament |
| May 28-29: State Tournament |
| May 30: State Team Tournament |
| June 5: Season Ends |
The OTZ calendar includes a few additional dates that are important to tennis players, such as 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 tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
There are normally ample opportunities to participate in high level USTA tournaments prior to the season, but that is not the case this year due to COVID-19. When you combine that with the difficulty in finding tournaments on the new USTA web site, it makes it that much tougher. For example, Elysium hosts numerous compass draw tournaments but it is hard to find them because the USTA sorts tournaments based on proximity to the searcher. While that should help Elysium by placing these tournaments at the top of the list for those living in Columbus, it does not because the USTA thinks Elysium is 5,852 miles from our home in Columbus even though it is actually 14 miles away. Maybe the USTA thinks that everyone will take the "long way" to get there?
This will be the third season that the boys can use waivers to play non-HS tennis during the season. The waivers should enable most boys to start the season on time (rather than waiting to play in a key tournament). 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.
Since there was no season last year, OhioTennisZone did not remove the previous year's seniors. That will happen very soon. Coaches, please do not remove graduated players from your roster. This will be done by OTZ.
TUESDAY,
College Tennis Commitments
Ohio high school players are now commiting to colleges to continue with their tennis careers. It has been a very tough year for these players since COVID-19 has made college visits very difficult if not impossible to do. The list below includes the players, their high schools, and their college choices.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - Girls | High School / College |
| Olivia Gidlow | Hathaway Brown / Bates |
| Lilly McCloskey | Oakwood / Case Western |
| Elizabeth Pendergast | St. Ursula Academy / University of Cincinnati |
| Sydni Ratliff | Columbus Academy / Ohio State University |
| Dani Schoenly | Olentangy Liberty / Ohio State University |
| Cassady Shough | Dublin Coffman / Otterbein University |
| Caroline Sproule | Olentangy Orange / Wittenberg University |
| Carolyn Tsung | Columbus Academy / Washington University St. Louis |
| Player - Boys | High School / College |
| Vishnu Bodavula | Olentangy Liberty / Army |
| Jack Madison | Columbus Academy / Colorado College |
| Luke Ritchie | Dublin Coffman / LaFayette |
| Sam Routzahn | Olentangy / Warner |
| Connor Ruble | Loveland / Wittenberg University |
| Charlie Temming | St. Xavier / Xavier University |
| Reece Yakubov | St. Charles / Ohio State University |
This year's group of 25 players will continue to grow and the date at the top of the list will be updated to reflect these changes. Last year's total was 37 college players and the previous year was 35.
The players with OTZ Player Profiles are included in the table on the right. Click on the player names to view their OTZ Player Profiles.
Other players with college commitments who do not have player profiles include: Bella Kirby, Elizabeth Stewart, Semmie Moore, Lillia Walter, and others.
To see the complete list of Ohio players who are currently competing in college (or have committed to playing at a college next fall), 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.
This information was sourced by TennisRecruiting.net and OhioTennisZone.
THURSDAY,
Top OTZ Photos for 2020
Obviously, it has been a difficult year for almost everyone - and for tennis photos. There were no boys high school photos, no Western & Southern Open photos, and no Kalamazoo photos. The Ohio State Women's team was shutdown on the same weekend in which I had planned to take their photos.
With many events shut down, it was time to improvise.. Top Seed Tennis in Nicholasville, KY offered two pro-level women's events so it was still possible to get photos of Caty McNally, CiCi Bellis, and others. Cracked Racquets offered two tournaments - one in Indianapolis and another at St. Xavier High School which enabled photos to be taken of the stronger junior players and of some adults.
Despite all of this, there was still a Top Photo Video / Slideshow for 2020 created, and my dog thinks that some of these images are pretty good.. This year's video is loosely separated into two sections: the photos of professionals, college players, and adults, and of course, of high school players. Player photos are largely sorted in alphabetical order by last name. Obviously it is a subjective list, but these are the OTZ favorites.
Click for OTZ Top Photos Video - Click for video |
This video also provides an opportunity to thank several OTZ sponsors. Having sponsors is crucial for OTZ. Special OTZ thank-you's go out to The Players Club, the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA), and Midwest Sports for their sponsorships of OhioTennisZone.
The Players Club is a tennis club in Hilliard, which is a suburb in northwest Columbus. They offer all of the services in which junior and adult players need to be successful with and to have fun with tennis. Contact Players to inquire about indoor practice time for your team and for pre-season clinics.
The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) provides an adult summer tennis league and it promotes tennis throughout the year. The GCTA leagues are very popular and teams from private clubs and public courts participate. Players compete on both hard and clay courts. The GCTA was one of the rare organizations that offered a summer tennis program for 2020 and it went extremely well. In a non-COVID times, there are 11 women's leagues consisting of 178 teams and nine men's leagues with 75 teams. The GCTA won the national USTA Community Tennis Association of the Year Award in 2014. OhioTennisZone also provides the web site for the GCTA. Contact the GCTA now to inquire about playing during the 2021 season.
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David and Scott Gerber at the Fair - Click to enlarge |
Midwest Sports is the premier tennis web store in the Midwest and it is located in Cincinnati. This is a very popular place to go for juniors competing in Cincinnati-area tournaments. Midwest Sports provides great discounts to OhioTennisZone users, and OTZ benefits financially from each order you place online via the OTZ links (Code: Gerber).
The video is dedicated to my dad, David B. Gerber. He got me involved with photography many years ago. He passed away on December 15. He was very involved with agriculture and we lived on a small farm outside of Washington CH (the Bloomingburg exit off of I-71). Note my awesome t-shirt in the photo. Click for his obituary.
The high school photos in this video are available for purchase by the parents and/or by the schools. Some schools use OTZ photos in their year books to recognize their tennis teams.
Yes, I know that I still need to process a few photo orders from the girls season.. Most of November and December were pretty chaotic, but I am getting back into the groove now..
Contact OhioTennisZone via Feedback with any questions.
FRIDAY,
Final Team Rankings: Mason and Hathaway Brown Finish #1
Mason completes the season at the #1 spot in the OhioTennisZone Team Rankings for Division I and Hathaway Brown did the same for Division II. Congratulations to both teams and to the other teams on the list.
OhioTennisZone.com State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams Final 2020 Rankings November 6, 2020 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM State Spots 2 Final 4 | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM 4 Final 4 |
| 2. Upper Arlington◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Columbus Academy◄TEAM 1 Final 4 |
| 3. Magnificat◄TEAM 3 Final 4 | Indian Hill 3 Final 4 |
| 4. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM 1 | Eaton 1 |
| 5. St. Joseph Academy◄TEAM 2 | Oakwood◄TEAM 2 |
| 6. Notre Dame Acad. ◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM 1 |
| 7. Centerville 1 | Wellington◄TEAM 1 |
| 8. Ursuline Academy 1 | Seven Hills◄TEAM 0 |
| 9. St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM 1 | Hawken◄TEAM 1 |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM 2 | Cincinnati Hills Christ. Acad. 1 |
| HM: Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM 1 | Ottawa Hills 1 Final 4 |
| HM: Sycamore◄TEAM 0 | Revere◄TEAM 0 |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
The pre-season rankings were released at the end of July for Division I and Division II, and the final rankings compared favorably. Several of the state's top players decided not to play and some players were injured. It was also unknown how many of the touted freshmen would contribute at the level in which they did.
The rankings would have normally been posted last week but things were more complicated this year and more research was necessary. It is also worth noting that Columbus Academy and Hathaway Brown tied in the coaches poll for the #1 spot.
After 91 straight, seven-day-a-week updates, OhioTennisZone goes into "intermittent mode" until March when the Ohio High School Boys Season (hopefully) begins. There will still be updates but on a far less frequent basis.
There are still a few teams and parents who have not yet paid so more effort will now be spent to chase down those payments. OTZ is working off half of the cash flow versus what was received last year so your payments would be greatly appreciated. While many teams never paid for the Boys 2020 season, payments that were received for the boys season were transferred to the Girls 2020 season or to next year's Boys 2021 season. Plus, ya know that records are maintained on who logs in, correct? If you used OTZ, got a tennis lesson, ate a restaurant, got a haircut, and you did not pay, you really should. If you cannot afford to pay this year, please reach out via Feedback.
Coaches are still sending match scores into OhioTennisZone and that is completely fine to do. Parents may do the same as long as the score formatting is close to correct. Please remember that the 2020 results are shown for 2021 so it is best to report these 2020 scores.
After the payment situations mentioned above are resolved, OTZ goes into picture processing mode.
THURSDAY,
Midwest Closed Competition This Weekend
The premier junior tournament held each summer, the Midwest Closed, was delayed until this weekend. The good news is that this important tournament is taking place. The bad news is that it had to be condensed from a 128 player draw to a 64 player draw. In this case, the good outweighs the bad.
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Anthony Wayne's Lilly Black- Click to enlarge |
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St. Charles' Reece Yakubov- Click to enlarge |
This tournament gives us one more look at States-quality competition (actually better) for the girls and a preview of the upcoming boys season.
Links to the tournaments are:
G14 - Cincinnati
G16 - Cincinnati
G18 - Streetsboro, OH
B14 - Indianapolis
B16 - Fort Wayne, IN
B18 - Indianapolis
The higher level seeds that include Ohio high school tennis players are:
G16: Mason's Shyla Aggarwal (4)
G18: Anthony Wayne's Lilly Black (10)
B14: Olentangy Liberty's Dean Atway (6)
B16: Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu (4)
B18: St. Charles' Reece Yakubov (2)
Click the tournament links above for additional information on who else is seeded and to follow the action during the tournaments.
I would have loved to stop by and watch if one of these events were to take place in Columbus. Despite its size and the number of junior players it has, Columbus does not have any of these high level tournaments. Viewing will also likely be restricted because of COVID-19.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ Top Girls Photos for 2020
Now that the photos have been processed for 2020, there was a reassessment of the girls top photos for 2020. Click for the Top Photos. This is subjective list of the OTZ favorites for the season.
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OTZ Top Photos - Click to report |
The attributes that many of these images have in common are: great tennis technique (i.e. coiling), athleticism, sharp focus, flowing hair and outfits, good eye-on-ball, and a non-distracting background.
While a couple of more photos could have been selected from States, I wanted more variety from different locations.
These photos compare favorably with the top photos taken in previous years in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.
The second after I took the top photo of Elizabeth Pendergast, I thought that it might beat the Anna Rogenburk photo taken in 2017, but I do not think it is quite there.
While there have been a couple of OTZ photos selected for cover magazine shots for platform tennis [Oct 2018 and March 2019], there have been no OHSAA awards for OTZ for high school tennis. The Columbus Dispatch photographers pick those award winners, and unlike the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Dispatch does not post many tennis photos. The best chance for OTZ to win an OHSAA award for a tennis player may be to take photos of tennis players competing in a different sport..
A video / slideshow of the Top OTZ photos from 2020 will be created later this year. Click for the videos for 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.
Speaking of platform tennis, can anyone identify this tennis player [photo] taken in 2017 when she was playing platform tennis? Submit a Feedback.
TUESDAY,
OTZ Top Players / Watch Lists
The OTZ Top Players and Watch Lists have been updated to reflect the State Tournament matches. While there is always a recency bias, the State Tournament plays a major role in the final rankings.
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OTZ Top Players List - Click to report |
The lack of play between the districts made it more difficult to compare players this year, but I think this is still a solid list. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Top Players list is ranked and the Watch List players are unranked.
Sign-in first to see the results for the non-OTZ Member players.
Congratulations to the girls who made the lists.
Off to vote..
MONDAY,
More OTZ Photos
There were 38 more photos added to OTZ this weekend. These photos included the matches from the first and second day of States and the State Team Tournament. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos to view the photos.
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Magnificat's Audrey Smitek - Click to enlarge |
For those interested in purchasing a photo, that would be great. That will help cover the cost of a new lens that was just purchased.
Here is how the process works. The best photo of your daughter was posted online. If you are going to purchase that photo but you would still like to see others, a pdf of additional photos will be provided to you. You just need to buy the original photo *or* one in the pdf file. If you do not like the current photo that is posted, then let's wait and see what I get next year. Since this is a time consuming, I do not want to spend additional time putting together photos in a pdf file only to find out that you do not want to purchase any. I know that this sounds a bit weird, but I have learned the hard way that some people just never get around to buying any photos (or they "buy" photos and then they do not pay for them).
Since high-resolution digital images are sold, they can be used on digital picture frames, shared with grandparents, and posted on TennisRecruiting.net, Facebook, or Instragram, etc. Some of the images will also be included on OhioTennisZone under the player's OTZ Player Profile (i.e. Audrey Smitek) and team page (i.e. Magnificat) for everyone to see.
The price of the first photo is $19.99 and it declines from there for additional photos (i.e. $17.50, $15.00, and $12.50). Photos of sisters can be grouped together for the discount during this girls season. For all of the prices, click on Buy an OTZ Photo.
If you (or the grandparents) have a digital picture frame, this is the image of your daughter that will always be on that frame to enjoy.
Quite a few comments have been provided about the schools of the freshman boys and incoming freshman girls. Thank you for your help.
SUNDAY,
Top Freshman Boys
This list would have normally been created at the end of the Boys 2020 season, but that season did not work out so well.. Hopefully 2021 will be better - a lot better.
Coaches are already requesting information on who the strong teams are and strong freshmen can normally step in and make an impact immediately. This list is created with the help of TennisRecruiting.net and it includes the freshmen who are in the Top 20 in Ohio. Of course, it is also important to know which school these players are attending so your help is needed with this. If you have inside knowledge of which school a player attends, please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | School |
| Dean Atway - 3 | Powell (C) | Olentangy Liberty |
| Ethan Blatt - 2 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Ace Bloom - 2 | Pepper Pike (NE) | |
| Noah Boyce - 2 | Oakwood (SW) | |
| Nicholas Choo - 4 | Montgomery (SW) | Sycamore |
| Chase Homan - 2 | Cincinnati (SW) | St. Xavier |
| Rohit Jain - 2 | Westlake (NE) | |
| Srihan Jairam - 2 | Milford (SW) | |
| Jacob Khvalsky - 2 | New Albany (C) | |
| Cole Kirchick - 2 | Moreland Hills (NE) | University School |
| Dean Kirchick - 3 | Moreland Hills (NE) | University School |
| Jay Kneiss - 2 | Avon (NE) | |
| Avi Mahajan - 3 | Mason (SW) | |
| Nicholas Meyers - 4 | Cincinnati (SW) | Sycamore |
| Chika Nwaozuzu - 4 | Woodmere (NE) | |
| RJ Poffenberger - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Indian Hill |
| Jack Pollock - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Indian Hill |
| Arjun Rajagopala - 2 | Cincinnati (SW) | Sycamore |
| Sanjan Shanker - 2 | Dublin (C) | Wellington |
| Isaac Vens - 2 | Sylvania (NW) | |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending the school.
The Tennis Recruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to Tennis Recruiting.net.
Of the 20 players on the list, the Central District has three, Northeast - six, Northwest - one, and Southwest - ten.
With the USTA schedule still in question, players who may have considered skipping high school tennis will probably reconsider this decision.
OTZ has provided daily updates since August 7th. That is 86 straight days without taking a day off. There will still be an update or two this week, but OTZ will soon be going into "intermittent mode".
SATURDAY,
Top Incoming Freshman Girls
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Using TennisRecruiting.net, OTZ has identified the top 20(ish) eighth graders in Ohio. 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. Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending the school. Any help on this would be appreciated. Please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Audrey Austin - 2 | Perry (NE) | Perry |
| Amy Grace Beebe - 1 | Hudson (NE) | CVCA |
| Caroline Boyle - 3 | Hamilton (SW) | |
| Lauren Burkett - 2 | Dublin (C) | |
| Elena Fleming - 3 | Mentor (NE) | Mentor |
| Sheryl Gerald - 3 | Lewis Center (C) | |
| Reagan Gilbert - 2 | Liberty Township (SW) | |
| Lucy Glassmeyer - 1 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Riya Hegde - 1 | Hudson (NE) | |
| Mallory Hitchcock - 4 | Eaton (SW) | Eaton |
| Brooke Lint - 1 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Ava Mathur - 3 | Wooster (NE) | |
| Brooke McNeal - 4 | Kenston (NE) | |
| Mika Morris - 1 | West Chester (SW) | |
| Lucy Paulin - 2 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Laurel |
| Madeline Peisley - 3 | Toledo (NW) | |
| Maria Poon - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | St. Ursula Academy |
| Haley Slay - 3 | Canton (NE) | |
| Martha Thompson - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Sofia Tomlin - 2 | Waynesville (SW) | |
| Elle Warren - 4 | Canton (NE) | |
The list is sorted alphabetically and the Tennis Recruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to Tennis Recruiting.net.
Normally there are a few players who are listed as Ohioans but it is clear that they are now living elsewhere for training purposes. That does not appear to be the case this year. Of course, COVID-19 may have squashed many of those plans.
While there are some players / parents who believe that participating in high school tennis is not worthwhile, none of the players on this list are in that elite (i.e. Caty McNally) category. Hopefully all of these players will be included on a team.
Of the 21 players on the list, the Central District has two, Northeast - nine, Northwest - one, and Southwest - nine.
Speaking of Tennis Recruiting.net, now is always the time to update player contact information on TennisRecruiting.net. This is the service that many college coaches use to reach out to prospective recruits.
Efforts are still underway with processing photos.
There have been 85 daily OhioTennisZone updates made in a row (since August 7). That run will end this coming week as publishing goes to an "intermittent" update schedule.
FRIDAY,
It's Photo Friday
There have been quite a few parents who have expressed interested in purchasing photos so it was time to spend more effort on processing photos. Today's 23 new photos brings OTZ up the Southwest District (held on October 15). Photos remaining to be processed include Central Districts (seeding round), first and second days of States, and the State Team Tournament. Sign-in first and then click to view the Most Recently Added Photos.
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Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer - Click to enlarge |
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there was no "on-court" access for the Northeast Division II Districts so that event was not included this year for the first time since 2016.
If things actually ever get caught up, there might be a special "pony tail tricks" competition. Today's featured photo of Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer would be included in the competition for getting her pony tail to mimic her racquet swing. There have also been several good anti-gravity pony tail tricks this season, too.
Note that there are a few other photos that could have been included for the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Classic but I do not know all of the girls who are not members of OhioTennisZone.
Several of the photos for the players on the OTZ All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team were updated to include recent action photos.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team
Congratulations to the players selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team for 2020.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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Division II - Singles |
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 Macy Hitchcock Eaton |
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 Bella Kirby Indian Hill |
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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 players who may not have even qualified 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. The normal barometer in measuring the strength of the All-Ohio team is to count the number of Division I college or high-end Division III players on the list. Of course, nothing about this year is normal and the recruiting process is in disarray. That said, four players are known to be playing Division I college tennis. The number of Ohio D1 players on the OTZ All-Ohio team this year is seven for both D1 and D2. In previous years, it has been: 2019 - 8, 2018 - 7, 2017 - 7, and 2016 - 6. The D2 teams have totaled: 2019 - 7, 2018 - 8, 2017 - 6, and 2016 - 6.
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 obtain an OTZ 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 for next fall.
I was pleased to see the kind words by ZooTennis' Colette Lewis in her update today about OhioTennisZone. If you have not checked out ZooTennis, please do so. Colette does an incredible job of covering high-end junior tennis. She is credentialed for the Slams and she is widely followed by everyone on the who's who list of college and professional tennis. Regular readers of her web site may even notice an occasional OTZ photo that she uses for an article (i.e. JJ Wolf, Gabriela Talaba, Shelby Rogers, Cici Bellis, and Daniel Cukierman). In fact, her photo on her web site is an OTZ photo that was taken at the 'Zoo (USTA Boys' National in Kalamazoo) in 2016.
Speaking of photos.. Things are still waay backed up with other projects that needed to be addressed.
WEDNESDAY,
Who Uses What on OhioTennisZone?
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 26.
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Olen. Orange's Ellie Logan - Click to enlarge |
The Hathaway Brown team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top ten (in order) were: Upper Arlington, Columbus Academy, North Canton Hoover, Magnificat, Mason, St. Joseph Academy, Dublin Jerome, Olentangy Orange, and Dublin Coffman. 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).
The top pages accessed on OhioTennisZone (outside of this main page) are listed below and sorted in pageview order. The OTZ Personlized Report is what users see when they first login and it is new this season. The Northeast Team Lookup page jumped past the Southwest Team Lookup this season. The biggest usage day of the season was on the first day of States.
- Central Ohio Team Lookup
- Girls State Draws-2020
- OTZ Personalized Report (page presented at sign-in)
- Northeast Ohio Team Lookup
- Girls State Team Draws
- Southwest Ohio Team Lookup
There was a big change in which Metro Areas use OTZ. The Cleveland-Akron Metro (with 24%) area blew past the Cincinnati Metro (15%) in terms of users as more teams join OTZ from that area of the state. The Columbus Metro remains the highest at 27% but not by much. Other top areas are: Detroit (5%), Dayton (4%), and Toledo (3%). It has always been mind-boggling that the Detroit-area does better than the Toledo Metro area when OTZ does not include Michigan-area content.
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Mason's Aggarwal - Click to enlarge |
SJA's Brahmbhatt |
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Hoover's Bucher |
UA's Hazelbaker - Click to enlarge |
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SUA's Pendergast - Click to enlarge |
CA's Ratliff |
The six players who had the most views of their OTZ Player Profiles during the girls season are (in alphabetical order): Mason's Shyla Aggarwal, St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt, North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher, Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast, and Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff. Click on the player names above to view their OTZ Player Profiles. The parent associated with the Player Profile may view the total number of views since the Player Profile was created. The photos of the players to the right may be clicked to enlarge them.
Sure, Twitter is largely a waste of time, but it does draw people from Twitter onto the OhioTennisZone web site. It also extends the OhioTennisZone brand. The #1 Top Tweet this season is of Olentangy Orange's Ellie Logan (See photo above). This photo was taken at the Upper Arlington Sectional. The rest of the top 6 OTZ tweets sorted by impressions are: #2 The District Seeding rounds are finished. Click to read the Sunday edition of OhioTennisZone.com at ohiotenniszone.com/#2020-10-18_art. Today's photo is of the 2020 Central District D1 State Qualifiers.. #3 Upper Arlington's Megan Basil is recognized by TennisRecruiting.net.. #4 Ok. I'm really (really) getting tired of entering Sectional results. Next year, instead of keeping score, let's give everyone a ribbon instead.. #5 The order of finish for Central D1 Singles was: Ella Franz, Dani Schoenly, Dasha Chistyakova, Libby Alderman. Dubs: Hazelbaker-Basil, Sproule-Reed, Mizer-Richard, Nickel-Sriram. Video of Berlin’s Ella Franz in today’s match. #6 The Upper Arlington Sectional is off to a smooth start. Parents show their tickets as they enter. Per anonymous sources, the caution tape is electrified with 75K volts so please do what you are supposed to do..
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and it can always use more. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity continues to grow. For more information about advertising, please submit a Feedback.
Spectrum had some problems in our area this morning and the update got off to a late start..
Tomorrow's update presents the OhioTennisZone.com All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team.
TUESDAY,
OHSAA Tournament Championship Points
Videos of all four championship points were captured this season. Normally, there have been zigs when there should have been zags when selecting the next court to zoom to next but that was not the case this season. Unfortunately though, since the goal is to capture the videos, it greatly reduces the amount of time available to take photos. The order of finish was D1 Doubles, D2 Singles, D2 Doubles, and then finally, D1 Singles.
New camera gear provided a much better video image, but the width of the video was less than in the past. It was difficult to get both teams or players into the frame unless they played on a stadium court.
New software was used this year and photos of each of the players were included at the end of the videos.
For best results, use full screen mode and increase the resolution to HD.
There is not much control over the image that is selected for the video. When time permits, this image may be tweaked.
All of the videos include two or three of the final points.
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Division I Singles: St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Mason's Shyla Aggarwal. |
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Division I Doubles: Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Megan Basil beat Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw - Clara Owen. |
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Division II Singles: Eaton's Macy Hitchcock defeated Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff. |
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Division II Doubles: Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Natalie Connelly beat Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi. |
There are always some scoring snafus found by coaches as they begin to print off their end-of-season reports. If results are incorrect, please provide:
- the *incorrect* match information. The error first needs to be located in the database and their are a zillion scores. Please include the date, the name(s) of all of the player(s) and their schools, and the score.
- then provide the correct match information which includes all of the above, but with the correct information
If the commentary is incorrect, please provide *when* the commentary was in error, the erroneous comments, and what it should be. Screen shots are always helpful.
Please keep in mind there are quite a few moving parts. The players could have reported the wrong score, the coach could have recorded it incorrectly, the newspaper may have posted it incorrectly, or maybe, just possibly, OTZ could have made an error.
Tomorrow is the OTZ usage issue which includes the most viewed teams and players.
MONDAY,
Mason and Hathaway Brown ReReReRepeat as State Team Champions
Congratulations to Mason and Hathaway Brown as the D1 and D2 State Champions, respectively. Mason defeated Magnificat and Upper Arlington, and Hathaway Brown beat Indian Hill and Columbus Academy on their way to their respective titles. This is Mason's fourth title in a row and Hathaway Brown's sixth. Click to view the teams that started the current title runs -- Mason's 2017 team and Hathaway's 2015 team. Magnificat defeated Notre Dame Academy and Indian Hill beat Ottawa Hills for the third place awards. To view the graphic results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
The Mason - Upper Arlington match provided an exciting finish as momentum shifted back and forth. After UA won first dubs to tie the match, Mason clinched the championship with a three-setter at second dubs.
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Mason - D1 State Champions - Click to enlarge |
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Hathaway Brown - State D2 Champs - Click to enlarge |
These championship matches stop play as soon as a decision is clinched so many of the top court matches "Did Not Finish". Some of the ones that did finish included: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Hathaway Brown's Alice Lin; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker; Upper Arlington's Megan Basil defeated Mason's Harshita Uppuganti; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung defeated Hathaway Brown's Katie Mills; and Hathaway Brown's Brigette Fuentes beat Indian Hill's Jessica Budde and Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Thanks to Mike Reid for providing the Mason championship photo. It was used rather than the OTZ photo. Have an HB photo that you wish to share? Please forward it to OTZ.
OTZ content will continue for a few more days. The videos of the State Championship points will be posted tomorrow.
SUNDAY,
Congratulations to the State Champions | State Team Tournament Ready to Roll
Congratulations to all of the players yesterday and especially to the State Champions. This was a historic year with COVID-19 and it was great that it ended on a picture perfect day. The tournament finished at 3:30pm on Court 11 with the Division I Singles match. Click for the final results at https://ohiotenniszone.com/draws.
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SUA's Pendergast - Click to enlarge |
UA's Basil - Hazelbaker |
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Eaton's Hitchcock |
Oakwood's Hall - Connelly |
The State champions and the finalists are:
Division I Singles: St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Mason's Shyla Aggarwal.
Division I Doubles: Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Megan Basil beat Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw - Clara Owen.
Division II Singles: Eaton's Macy Hitchcock defeated Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff.
Division II Doubles: Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Natalie Connelly beat Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi.
There was already a backlog in processing photos before States and now things are waaay backed up. After the State Team Tournament this afternoon, the priority switches to getting the Columbus platform tennis schedule completed for our league.. For those who are buying photos, you will get a pdf with numerous photos from which to choose. This is going to take some time so please tell me if you need to get the photos by a certain date. Creating these pdf's takes time (as did taking the photos with expensive equipment) so as long as there are good photos, the expectation is that you are going to purchase at least two photos (and pay for them).
See you at Reynoldsburg (D1) and New Albany (D2). The first round matches are: Mason versus Magnificat and Upper Arlington versus Notre Dame Academy. Division II starts with Columbus Academy versus Ottawa Hills and Indian Hill versus and Hathaway Brown.
SATURDAY,
First Day of States in the Books
For a day that looked quite dire weather-wise early in the week, Saturday turned out great from both the weather and tennis perspectives. There was a weather delay (loud thunderclap) that began about 1:45pm and lasted for a half hour. At that point, there were ten matches that were "on court" that needed to be finished.
There was also great tennis. Unfortunately some of these great matches should have taken place in the semi-final round today. Read on below for results.
We have one more day of States and one more day of State Team Tennis. C'mon, we can do this..
Click the link below to follow all of the action.
https://ohiotenniszone.com/draws
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Hoover's Tess Bucher - Click to enlarge |
Division I
Singles: St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens and Perrysburg's Sydney Onest; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Magnificat's Audrey Smitek and Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie; Anthony Wayne's Lilly Black defeated St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt and Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; and North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher beat Wilmington's Claire Burns and Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz.
Doubles: Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Megan Basil defeated Magnificat's Lexi Ospelt - Kayra Koprulu and Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal - Bridget Estes; Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw - Clara Owen beat Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule - Tyler Reed and Mason's Annie Kruse- Raina Chada; Magnificat's Natalie Smitek - Caroline Moritz beat Bellbrook's Nitika Arora - Maya Bring and Massillon Jackson's Madison Altman - Paige Reese; and Upper Arlington's Noah Mizer - Ava Richard defeated Brecksville's Lakshmy Arakoni - Helen Lee and Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson - Samantha Reese.
Division II
Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Edison's Jayla Medina and Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Orrville's Claudia Adcock and Laurel's Ellie Brotherton; Orange's Alexis Nyborg defeated Indian Hill's Brooke Arington and Toledo Central Catholic's Ellie Hire; and Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman beat Wheelersburg's Maddie Gill and Ottawa Hills' Catherine Rhegness.
Doubles: Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi defeated Indian Hill's Jessica August - Hannah Pollock and Hathaway Brown's Ally Mills - Katie Mills; Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Natalie Connelly beat Hawken's Hayley Garber - Eliana Yang and Hathaway Brown's Brigette Fuentes - Alex Wolf; Toledo Central Catholic's Bella and Lucia Spinazze defeated CHCA's Kennedy and Payton Puryear and Canton South's Destiny Winans - Abigal Franks; and Bath's Ruby and Esther Bolon beat Marlington's Mary and Elizabeth Mason and Indian Hill's Jenny Zhang and Lexi Larsen.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Best of luck to all of today's participants.
FRIDAY,
Today is the Day | Upper Arlington Gets Last Final Four Spot
It is time to listen to this because it will add at least a couple of games to your score.
First, before you leave, enter the following link on the cell phone. Note that the court assignments for the first round of singles were added early yesterday evening.
https://ohiotenniszone.com/draws
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Draws with Court Assignments - Click to draws |
There have been some nice articles and videos about States. Click to read this article by Steve Blackledge in the Columbus Dispatch about Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff. Here's a nice video by BCNSports about Notre Dame Academy's Olivia and Ellie Assenmacher.
In the Central District, Upper Arlington defeated Olentangy Liberty yesterday to book the final Final Four spot, finally.
THURSDAY,
One More Day..
Warm conditions today and Friday will yield to cooler temperatures on Saturday and Sunday as fans and players pack all of their warm and cold weather clothes. It will likely be necessary to bring along some rain gear, too..
All sixteen courts will be available this year at the Lindner Family Tennis Center (LFTC) so hopefully the first round matches can be played before the rain begins. OhioTennisZone will be at the LFTC so this page of OhioTennisZone will not be updated after the early morning update. Watch for updates and announcements tomorrow via Twitter via @OhioTennisZone and via the OHSAA web site.
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OTZ Enhanced Draws - Click to enlarge |
There is a substantial amount of effort happening in the background to insure that the State Team Tournament is played. This is a bit like juggling cats as officials deal with varying site rules and health board regulations. Coaches know the details and they should be the first point of contact. Attendance will be severely limited and recorded to insure that contact tracing can be done if someone has or gets COVID-19. In a nutshell, if you do not already have a known ticket, then don't go. Some of the restrictions include: no sitting on bleachers (bring your own chairs), no tents, and no warmth sharing (maintain social distancing). The weather forecast is improving for Sunday, but if it cannot be played due to rain the team tournament will be delayed to the following weekend. Division I is at Reynoldsburg and Division II is at New Albany. We are going to have to roll with the punches with this -- just as we have done all season..
The court assignments should be included on the OTZ online draws soon so that players know where they will start the day tomorrow. The draws will be "put through their paces" this morning to insure that everything is aok. Please do not be alarmed if your player gets beat in the first round or happy that your player won the tournament..
As of now, there are photos included for all of the players in the Division I Singles and Doubles draws and Division II Singles. Hopefully more will be received today.
Everything is going to be dicey with photos, especially if play goes indoors. Send me an email or submit a Feedback if you want me to take a photo of your player and if you will be purchasing at least one.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Upper Arlington versus Olentangy Liberty match was rained out once again yesterday. They will play early this afternoon and then beeline it to the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Video of Its Top Picks for the State Championships
It is time for something new. OhioTennisZone is releasing its first video that identifies the players who are favored in winning the State Championships. The video uses a combination of OTZ action photos and videos that were taken over the last two years. Hope you find it to be interesting and informative.
Most avid OhioTennisZone fans know that a "hype" video is normally created for States. Why the change? There are several reasons. #1 It is fun to use popular and professional produced music. When this music was used, the artists benefited from the ads that were included in the video. The three most recent girls hype videos in 2019, 2018, and 2017 included music from Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'N Roll", Fifth Harmony's "Worth it", and the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back", respectively. While the YouTube playlist was already restricted, Youtube now no longer offers any popular music to be used. Other YouTube's own music is available but it really is not satisfactory. #2 COVID-19 restrictions by teams meant that fewer teams traveled to Columbus or gathered for tournaments (i.e. Lexington Invite) so there were less photos this year of the top players. #3 It was a huge undertaking. 109 videos or photos were used in last year's video. Not only did these photos / videos have to be taken, but they also had to be prepared for use in the video. It was also time consuming to insure that photos were grabbed for each player. #4 The timeframes were too tight. While much of the work could begin after the State qualifiers were determined, there was always a Final Four spot or two that was not decided until the week of the State tournament. For example, the Central District still has not determined their Division I representative and it is Wednesday. #6 It was time to try something new and really challenging. It was. I have rarely been on camera, and the computer software, the camera, and the computer hardware are recent purchases.
The names are always challenging for me to pronounce. Rather than say that the OTZ pronunciations are incorrect, families affected are kindly requested to use the pronunciations used in the video from this point forward..
There are a few items that I knew but misspoke on the video. Ananya Aggarwal was a State Singles Finalist last year. Midwest Sports is a tennis facility that is one of the biggest tennis retailers in the U.S. That is where we purchased most of our kids' tennis gear and where I get my snazzy tennis shoes and my stylish and intimidating tennis clothes. Use GERBER as the checkout code. Latest add.. Sydni Ratliff is a TennisRecruiting.net Blue Chip rather than a 5-star. "Blue Chip" is TRN's highest rating.
The last State Team Tournament finally takes place today. Really. Upper Arlington travels to Olentangy Liberty for the Central District finals. Finally.
TUESDAY,
One Day Closer..
Things are slowly coming together, but it is complicated.. The OHSAA released its state draws yesterday. There was one mistake and it was cleaned up quickly. The OHSAA will reportedly restrict attendance to the State Tournament but no details have been provided. The State Team Tournament will be restricted to family members and school coaches as they abide by school site and health board restrictions.
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Central D2 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
The weather could present another set of problems. Afternoon showers on Friday and morning showers on Saturday are expected in Mason. Morning showers are expected in Columbus on Sunday. Private clubs used as back-ups will likely have their own set of attendance restrictions. If showers rain-out the State Team Tournament, it is expected to be delayed until the following weekend.
Everyone has had to be flexible this season and this flexibility will need to continue..
The State draws are problematic for some of the top teams and players. The draws overloaded with talent are Q4 of D1 Singles, Q2 and Q4 of D1 Doubles, and Q1 and Q3 of D2 Doubles. More on this tomorrow..
The OhioTennisZone Enhanced State Draws are coming along nicely. There are now only 13 players (out of 96) who need photos. Please send a Feedback on how to include your players' photos. It would be nice to wrap this up by Thursday morning.
More players were added to the OTZ Top Players and Watchlists. These lists will continue to be tweaked. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The last State Team Tournament finally takes place today. Upper Arlington travels to Olentangy Liberty for the Central District finals.
MONDAY,
Awaiting the State Draws | State Team Tournament Information
The State draws are expected to be released today. The enhanced OhioTennisZone.com draws will be available via the link, OhioTennisZone.com/draws. Include it on your cellphone now to follow the action at States.
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Southwest D1 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
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Southwest D2 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
The State Team Tournament will be held at Reynoldsburg (map) for Division I and New Albany (map) for Division II. Per the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association 's Mike Teets (Sycamore's coach), the tournament will begin at 10am and there will be a one hour break between the first and second round team matches. They play until one team clinches the victory. The cost will be $10/person. There will be limits on who can attend. Enter the Reynoldsburg facility via the northernmost entrance. Enter New Albany's tennis facility via Kardules Fields Way off of 605 (or New Albany Condit Rd). (Refer to the maps.) For those wanting to watch tennis at both sites, it takes about 23 minutes of travel time using back roads. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws. [Note that more information about audience restrictions is forthcoming.]
The OTZ Top Players and Watchlist reports will be modified today. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
All of the State Qualifiers are listed below in the entry for Friday, October 16. They are listed in seed order by District.
Thanks to Mason coach, Mike Reid, for the Southwest District photos. Contact OTZ if your district has State Qualifier photos that contain players from multiple teams. Sorry, I am not interested in same team group photos.All of the State Team Tournament Final Four teams have been decided except for Central D1. Upper Arlington is scheduled to play Olentangy Liberty tomorrow.
SUNDAY,
Ready for States
The District seeding rounds were completed yesterday. Was it chilly yesterday? Yes. Would high school tennis be thrilled to have the same weather conditions next weekend? Yes.
The biggest issue is that everyone needs to stay safe from COVID-19 this week. For schools that offer a hybrid option, this may be a great week to stay at home.
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Central D1 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Singles players with the #1 seeds earned them by winning the following matches. Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Wilmington's Claire Burns and Mason's Shyla Aggarwal; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie defeated Magnificat's Audrey Smitek and North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz beat Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova and Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; Anthony Wayne's Lilly Black defeated Toledo St. Ursula Academy's Marissa Patino and Perrysburg's Sydney Onest; Orange's Alexis Nyborg beat Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu and Laurel's Ellie Brotherton; and Eaton's Macy Hitchcock defeated Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman and Oakwood's Lily McCloskey. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The finals in doubles were: Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Megan Basil defeated Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule - Tyler Reed; Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi beat Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung - Lauren Motta; Magnificat's Caroline Moritz - Natalie Smitek defeated Brecksville's Lakshmy Arakoni - Helen Lee; Hathaway Brown's Ally Mills - Katie Mills beat Hathaway Brown's Brigette Fuentes - Alex Wolf; Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada defeated Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal - Bridget Estes; and Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Natalie Connelly beat CHCA's Kennedy and Payton Puryear.
The Northwest and Southeast/East District draws have yet to be posted.
Upper Arlington is scheduled to play Olentangy Liberty in the district finals of the State Team Tournament.
There is a change for the State Team Tournament. Division I will remain at Reynoldsburg and Division II will play at New Albany High School. [Note: This is reversed from what was posted in the earlier edition.] This reduces the number of people at each site as a COVID-19 precaution. The good news is that the tournament will finish quickly but there will only be half of the excitement (and crowds). Ask your coaches for the details.
SATURDAY,
Ready for Seeding Round
The district seeding rounds will be delayed this morning in many areas of the state to allow temperatures to rise. As of now (7am), it is 31 degrees in Columbus, 35 in Mason, 34 in Akron, 38 in Port Clinton (NW Districts), and 29 in Portsmouth (SE/E Districts).
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Wilmington's Claire Burns - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Oakwood's Lily McCloskey defeated Indian Hill's Bella Kirby; Wilmington's Claire Burns beat Mason's Rashi Loni; Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu defeated Chagrin Falls' Adelaide Doman and Orrville's Claudia Adcock; Hathaway Brown's Olivia Gidlow beat Ursuline's Anna Morgione and Perry's Lily Walker; Orange's Alexis Nyborg defeated Archbishop Hoban's Kate Wenzlik and Revere's Morgan Dobos; and Laurel's Ellie Brotherton beat St. John's Julianne Sheldon and St. Vincent-St. Mary's Andie McKnight. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Look below for the October 16th update to see all of the State Qualifiers.
OTZ will be at Reynoldsburg today for the Central District Division 1 seeding round.
While many players are thrilled to be state qualifiers, others are vying for the #1 seeds to improve their chances of being state champions and state finalists. Good luck to everyone today.
FRIDAY,
Most of the State Qualifiers Determined
Most of the state identified their State Qualifiers, but not all. The Southwest District got rained out and the Northeast and Northwest need to play additional rounds.
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Wyoming's Sydney Evans - Click to enlarge |
The Northeast District D2 Qualifier takes place today. Normally OTZ would be on the way to this qualifier but not this year. The court area was restricted to officials and players. This would have been the seventh year of attending this tournament.
The photos taken at the Southwest District were not very good. The cloud cover was way too dense.
Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Columbus School for Girls' Sophia Vershinin and Columbus Academy's Grace Philip; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Northmont's Aubrey Ferrell and Mason's Anna Tonkal; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie defeated Rocky River's Samantha Robertson and Canfield's Anna Kan; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Springboro's Amaya Hulbert and St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated Dublin Coffman's Cassi Shough and Watterson's Sara Goodlive; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Hudson's Sunny Fan and Highland's Jo Oberhaus; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Hudson's Laura Nijhuis and St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz beat New Albany's Madison Spiess and Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman defeated Greenville's Marchal and Wyoming's Sydney Evans; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Mariemont's P.Wilhelm and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova defeated Upper Arlington's Ellis Mizer and New Albany's Paige Cornelius; Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman beat Marion Harding's Nicole Flock and Olentangy Liberty's Kylie Wilson; Walnut Hills' Alexis Covington defeated Centerville's Arabelle MacPherson and Princeton's Brooklyn Bowen; and St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens beat Medina's Elizabeth Stuart and Solon's Niya Fried. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This list of State Qualifers will be updated over the next two days. After the seeding round takes place, the players will be listed in seed order.
State Qualifiers:
Central D1 Singles: Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz, Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly, Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova, and Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman.
Central D1 Doubles: Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Megan Basil, Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule - Tyler Reed, Upper Arlington's Noah Mizer - Ava Richard, and Olentangy's Sydney Nickel - Archita Sriram.
Central District D2 Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff.
Central District D2 Doubles: Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi.
Northeast D1 Singles: Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie, North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher, Magnificat's Audrey Smitek, St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens, St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt, and Canfield's Anna Kan.
Northeast D1 Doubles: Magnificat's Caroline Moritz - Natalie Smitek, Brecksville's Lakshmy Arakoni - Helen Lee, Massillon Jackson's Madison Altman - Paige Reese, Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson - Samantha Reese, Highland's Sarah Sgambati-Madison Pawlak, and Magnificat's Lexi Ospelt - Kayra Koprulu.
Northeast D2 Singles: Orange's Alexis Nyborg, Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu, Laurel's Ellie Brotherton, Hathaway Brown's Olivia Gidlow, and Orrville's Claudia Adcock.
Northeast D2 Doubles: Hathaway Brown's Ally Mills - Katie Mills, Hathaway Brown's Brigette Fuentes - Alex Wolf, Hawken's Hayley Garber - Hawken's Eliana Yang, Canton South's Destiny Winans - Abigail Franks, and Marlington's Mary and Elizabeth Mason.
Northwest D1 Singles: Anthony Wayne's Lilly Black and Perrysburg's Sydney Onest.
Northwest D1 Doubles: Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher - Ellie Assenmacher and Notre Dame Academy's Gretchen Gmitter - Erin Sturgeon.
Northwest D2 Singles: Ottawa Hills' Catherine Rhegness, Lexington's Sydney Pfieffer, Toledo Central Catholic's Ellie Hire, and Edison's Jayla Medina.
Northwest D2 Doubles: Bath's Ruby and Esther Bolon, Toledo Central Catholic's Bella and Lucia Spinazze, Shawnee's Aria and Alora Patel, and Bryan's Emilee Bassett - Reese Grothaus..
Southeast D2 Singles: South Point's Meredith Riley and Wheelersburg's Maddie Gill.
Southeast D2 Doubles: East Liverpool's Sydney Cooper - Gianna Davie and Circleville's Emma Shaw - Kara Hinton.
Southwest D1 Singles: St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal, Walnut Hills' Alexis Covington, and Wilmington's Claire Burns.
Southwest D1 Doubles: Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada, Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal - Bridget Estes, Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw - Clara Owen, and Bellbrook's Nitika Arora - Maya Brink.
Southwest D2 Singles: Eaton's Macy Hitchcock, Oakwood's Lily McCloskey, Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman, and Indian Hills' Brooke Arington.
Southwest D2 Doubles: Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Natalie Connelly, CHCA's Kennedy and Payton Puryear, Indian Hills' Jenny Zhang - Lexi Larsen, and Indian Hills' Jessica August - Hannah Pollock.
THURSDAY,
Ready for Districts
Districts start in much of the state today. While States is the goal for most players, it is important to keep in mind that reaching Districts is a great accomplishment, too. Everyone is under pressure, so let's relax a bit and make this tournament fun and memorable. So here we go..
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Southwest District D2 2018 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
OTZ likes to recognize the players from each District who qualify for States by using group photos. Please get those cameras (or high-level, new cellphones) ready for Saturday. Note that group photos of players from multiple schools is what is needed -- not the state qualifiers from each school. Please put the singles players together in front, and team up the doubles players in back. Click State Qualifier Photos to view photos from previous years.
In the Southwest D1 2018 State Qualifier photo, there are five players who may make a return trip to States. They are Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada; Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes - Nina Dhaliwal; and Indian Hills' Bella Kirby.
One free action photo* goes to the first person who identifies the first names of the two adorable OTZ youngsters (via Feedback). (*The action photo has to already be in the OTZ inventory of photos.)
I will be leaving shortly to attend the Southwest Districts at the ATP site. Both Division I and Division II will be playing so it is an ideal place to watch players and to take photos. A really big deal with photos is having a pleasing or non-distracting background. It is not possible to have better background than what a professional tournament site provides.Just in case the only reason why you are coming to Southwest Districts today is because of the McNasty Food Truck, it will not be there. It will be at States.
Dual match scores are still coming in from earlier in the season. As long as coaches are using the OTZ score reporting system, the scores will be included online.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason, Notre Dame Academy, and Hathaway Brown Secure Final 4 Spots
Three more State Team Final Four berths have been decided. Mason defeated St. Ursula Academy and Notre Dame Academy beat Toledo St. Ursula Academy. In an earlier contest, Hathaway Brown defeated Laurel for their NE D2 spot. Only Central D1 and Northwest D2 have yet to be decided. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
In another dual match, Centerville defeated Oakwood using their State line-ups. 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, Maddie Kavenagh, and Nina Lazbin.
OTZ plans are to go to the Southwest Districts on Thursday, Northeast D2 Districts on Friday, and the Central District finals on Saturday. The Southwest District is played at the Lindner Family Tennis Center and their 16 courts accommodate both the Division I and Division II teams. If rainy weather bumps the Southwest District matches to Friday, that is where you will find me.
Platform tennis leagues throughout the state are preparing for their seasons. Interested in playing this invigorating outdoors racquet sport? I've got you covered in Central Ohio. Just submit a Feedback. I can probably also connect you with someone if you live elsewhere in the state. When is it too cold to play? At our club, it is 10 degrees or lower (with chill factor). Before playing, it is absolutely mandatory that participants first be tested -- and receive a positive result -- for hardiness and/or insanity..
TUESDAY,
Two More Teams to the Final Four: Magnificat Beats Hoover | Indian Hills Defeats Eaton
Two more teams get to book their trips to Reynoldsburg. Magnificat defeated North Canton Hooverand Indian Hill beat Eaton. Upper Arlington defeated Pickerington Central for an opportunity to play against Olentangy Liberty in the Central District D1 final. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Olentangy Liberty - Click to team page |
In other matches yesterday, Walsh Jesuit defeated St. Joseph Academy and Delaware Hayes defeated Buckeye Valley. To view the graphs from yesterday's matches, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Pickerington Central's Semmie Moore; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher beat Magnificat's Audrey Smitek; Magnificat's Natalie Smitek defeated North Canton Hoover's Lilly Altman; Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy beat St. Joseph Academy's Tyler Schuerlein; and Upper Arlington's Megan Basil defeated Pickerington Central's Khandice Thomas. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Olentangy Liberty. They are coached by Will Thieman. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Dani Schoenly and Kylie Wilson.
St. Ursula Academy (A) plays Mason in the Southwest District final today.
MONDAY,
District Draws Posted
The District draws are now available statewide. This is the earliest that these draws have been available so great job by all of the District tournament managers. All of the draws are accessible via the links above. (Watch for the Southwest District's draw soon.) The managers also included the full names of the players, their grades, and their schools. This is extremely important to college coaches, so again, good job.
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Oakwood's Lily McCloskey - Click to enlarge |
There will be some interesting match-ups to determine state qualifiers. Note that when the word "interesting" is used, that means it will be great viewing for fans but absolutely agonizing for the players, parents, and coaches.. The Southwest normally has some quarters that are not as strong as others and unfortunately that is the case again this year. There are some really strong players from the Mason, ATP, and Centerville Sectionals which means that strong, 1-2 seeds will have to meet before they qualify. States-worthy players that could meet in the second round include: St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast versus Mason's Anna Tonkal; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey versus Indian Hills' Bella Kirby; and Eaton's Macy Hitchcock versus CHCA's Lynn Kader. All but one of the above players have competed at States in the past.
The Northeast has numerous strong match-ups but since they get six spots for Division I and five spots for Division II, that makes it a bit easier for the top players to qualify. They must still reach the second round though and some strong first round matches include Solon's Niya Fried versus St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens.
The Central District has numerous good match-ups, but there are no quarters that contain the top players as is the case in the Southwest. Central gets four states spots for Division I but just one spot for Division II.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are two big State Team Tournament matches scheduled for today. North Canton Hoover (A) plays Magnificat in the Northeast finals and it is Upper Arlington (A) versus Pickerington Central in the Central D1 semi's. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
SUNDAY,
Day 2 of Sectionals Completed
It is really nice to be able to type, "So far. So good". Hopefully that will continue..
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Orange's Caroline Sproule - Click to enlarge |
I was pleasantly surprised when I did not get eye strain on Friday after entering all of the Sectional results. Well, that feeling of happiness did not last long on Saturday. Many of the results got entered but I had to shut down things early on Saturday evening. All of the results for the Central and Northeast Districts and a portion of the Southwest are online.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Mason's Anna Tonkal; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie beat Solon's Niya Fried; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat Olentangy Liberty's Kylie Wilson; Laurel's Ellie Brotherton defeated Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu; Indian Hill's Bella Kirby beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader; and Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz defeated Watterson's Sara Goodlive. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
More results will be entered after I return from my 8am platform tennis match.
SATURDAY,
Day 1 of Sectionals Now Online
After entering 600 matches, the Sectional results for day 1 are now online*. Congratulations to all of the players who reached Districts.
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Franklin Heights' Liliana Soy - Click to enlarge |
*The exception being the Northwest District, but watch for those later today. Since there are not many OTZ members in Northwest Ohio, that district is the quickest to do.
Since there are so many OTZ customers in the Central District, all of those matches are included. There are also a few Southwest and Northeast Sectionals with the majority of their matches included.
While reaching Districts is a big accomplishment, the top teams in the state want more. They want a #1 or #2 seed to better position themselves to get to States.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Good luck to all of the players today, especially those with short, easy to type names..
FRIDAY,
Day One of Sectionals is Finished | Mason Beats Ursuline Academy
The weather was even better than perfect yesterday as the District qualifiers in all areas of the state were determined. In fact, some Sectionals have even played their seeding rounds. How much longer until States begin? This lady knows the answer.
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Laurel - Click to team page |
In the State Team Tournament, Mason defeated Ursuline Academy. In that match, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal and Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes beat Mason's Anna Tonkal. Mason will play St. Ursula Academy in the Southwest District Finals. Click for the State Team Tournament Draws.
OTZ fingers were crossed, hoping that the results would be posted in the Columbus Dispatch and the Cincinnati Enquirer, but that was not the case. OTZ will be retrieving the data from the draws to include the information on OTZ. This will take most of the day. There is little doubt that input will be interrupted numerous times as OTZ's only full-time employee persistently requests outdoor play time and an opportunity to go to the bathroom outdoors..
Today's featured team is Laurel. They are coached by Betsy O'Neill. They are Team Members. They are led by Ellie Brotherton and Julia Bowman.
There are no dual matches listed in the OTZ schedule for today.
THURSDAY,
Sectionals Breezing Along
So far so good.. Even though it has been windy, the weather has been ideal thus far. Getting through the first day of Sectionals is critical because of the number of players involved. There are just no good indoor alternatives for this many teams, and that was before the COVID-19 concerns.. While Sectionals started on Monday, today is the huge day for the Central District as it starts five of its Sectionals.
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Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly - Click to enlarge |
Many of the matches in the first day are rather one-sided, especially for the seeded players. The seeding rounds on Saturday are always interesting.
Both the Cincinnati Enquirer and Columbus Dispatch are doing great with the results so far in their respective areas. Again, all of those results will be posted online - regardless if players are OTZ members.
The OTZ focus today will be on entering results but I plan to stop by the Upper Arlington location to watch and to get a few photos.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are no dual matches scheduled.
WEDNESDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Dublin Coffman | Notre Dame Academy Defeats Sylvania Northview
Except for the wind, it was a perfect evening. Last year, Sectional week had boiling temperatures. Among the state's top teams, Columbus Academy defeated Dublin Coffman and Notre Dame Academy beat Sylvania Northview in the State Team Tournament. There were seven matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6 and and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hamilton Township defeated Franklin Heights; Dublin Jerome beat Olentangy Orange; and Delaware Hayes defeated Hartley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova beat Columbus Academy's Lauren Motta; Upper Arlington's Megan Basil defeated New Albany's Kary Hollenbaugh; Olentangy Orange's Karol Korotkin beat Dublin Jerome's Audrey Cook; and Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher defeated Sylvania Northview's Fiona McDaniel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Sectionals may be a new process for many. Because of the extremely large number of matches, here is how the results are included on OTZ. If results are included in the newspapers (Columbus Dispatch or Cincinnati Enquirer), then those results will be included on OhioTennisZone. For the results not in those huge score aggregators, OTZ retrieves the Sectional results for players if the Coach or Team has an OTZ membership or if the Parent/Player has an OTZ membership. Results will largely be gathered after a Sectional is completed to reduce the number of duplicate postings on OTZ. Some Sectionals delay the posting of the results, and obviously that is a problem. The Columbus Dispatch has done an incredible job with Sectional results in previous years, but this year has been challenging for them. We will see what happens..
OhioTennisZone will recognize the players who reach States by including their photos on the OTZ online draw. Click to view the State Draws for 2019. This is extremely time consuming process and alert readers know that OTZ did this with Ohio High School State draws before the Grand Slams did it for professional tennis. (Pause and think about that for a second..) To my knowledge, no other state recognizes their high school players to this extent. Since OTZ needs the photos of State Qualifiers, *think* about getting your qualifier's photo to OTZ immediately after they qualify for States. Don't do it yet though.. That would be a kid jinxing mistake..
There were no matches included in the schedule today as teams either play in or prepare for Sectionals.
TUESDAY,
Columbus Academy Gets 1st State Team Tournament Final Four Spot
Columbus Academy now has something to do on October 25th. CA defeated Wellington, 3-1, to get the first Final Four spot in the State Team Tournament. To advance to the District Finals in their respective draws, Olentangy Liberty defeated Olentangy Orange and St. Ursula Academy beat Sycamore. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
There were 17 dual matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 2, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: DeSales defeated Worthington Christian; Lancaster beat Granville; Pickerington Central defeated Watkins Memorial; and Laurel beat Beachwood. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Columbus Academy - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Columbus Academy. They are coached by Marc Wurtzman. They are Team Members. They are led by Sydni Ratliff, Carolyn Tsung, and Lauren Motta.
Sectionals began yesterday in the Northeast and Southwest Districts. To prevent duplicates from being entered, OTZ will wait until the Sectionals are completed before posting the results.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Dublin Coffman; Upper Arlington (A) versus New Albany; and Centerville (H) versus Miamisburg. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OTZ College Report | Sectionals Begin Today
The OhioTennisZone College Report for the 2020-2021 season is now available. It includes information on 156 Ohio high school players who are competing in D1, D2, and D3 college tennis programs. High school tennis players tend to do well after high school, and this report is a way to recognize them by making it easy for fans to see where they are attending college and what their college majors are. (Perhaps you will even want to hire one of these players when they graduate from college and include them on your company's tennis team..) It is also fun to see how much the players have changed physically since their high school years.
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OTZ College Report - Click to enlarge |
This report includes easy access to each player's OTZ Player Profile, the player's high school profile photo, his/her college tennis web site, and one click access to a player's OTZ action photos.
Because this report is very time consuming to create, note that this it is not exhaustive. OTZ primarily focuses on players who had OTZ Player Profiles (or in other words were team or individual OTZ members).
Players who did not have OTZ Player Profiles are often still listed, especially if the college coach is an OTZ member.
Several colleges have terminated their tennis programs and their players are still listed. This includes Wright State (Jillian Milano, Anna Reynolds, and Madison Riley) and Notre Dame of Ohio (Hayleigh Tucker).
This report will be tweaked over time because many colleges have not yet updated their rosters for this year.
This report includes an occasional update on how Ohio's professional players are doing on the tour. This information was updated this morning and it is in the right-side navigation bar.
This is Sectional week as the march toward Districts and States begins. Sectionals begin today in the Northeast District's Solon and Canton locations.
Today's matches include: St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Sycamore; Upper Arlington (H) versus Watterson; Westerville North (H) versus Hilliard Bradley; and Mayfield (A) versus Walsh Jesuit. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Mason Wins GMC | North Canton Hoover Beats St. Joseph Academy
There were tournaments and one key State Team Tournament match yesterday. Mason won the Greater Miami Conference. They won all of the flights. In the State Team Tournament, North Canton Hoover defeated St. Joseph Academy. Hoover faces Magnificat in the Northeast Finals. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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SJA's Amara Brahmbhatt - Click to enlarge |
Click to view the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer; St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt beat North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher; Mason's Anna Tonkal defeated Sycamore's Marilene VandenBerg; and St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens beat North Canton Hoover's Lilly Altman. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today would be a great day for teams to enter older results. Older results can be submitted at any time.
SATURDAY,
Solon Defeats Laurel
There were just three matches recorded from yesterday: Solon defeated Laurel; Avon beat Kenston; and Pickerington Central defeated Watterson. To view the graphs from yesterday's matches, click on Previous Day's Match Results. For the State Tournament results, click on OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws
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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 Niya Fried, Phoebe Shi, and Ariel Hsieh.
The headliner match today is the State Team Tournament match between OTZ #4 North Canton Hoover and #5 St. Joseph Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Ursuline Academy Beats St. Ursula Academy | Upper Arlington Defeats Reynoldsburg
Rain arrived into Central Ohio at just the wrong time yesterday and many matches were affected. Among the top teams, Ursuline Academy defeated St. Ursula Academy and Upper Arlington beat Reynoldsburg. There were just four matches recorded. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Eaton's Sophia Murphy - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher beat Highland's Jo Oberhaus; Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy defeated Hudson's Laura Nijhuis; St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein beat Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes; and North Canton Hoover's Addy Utterback defeated Highland's Sammy Kuczynski. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are 12 cheers posted thus far for the OTZ Cheer Contest. Some of these were entered while others were captured by OTZ. Cheers need to be submitted by the end of Sectionals which is on October 10. The plan as of now (which is subject to change within five minutes) is to total the number of Twitter Likes and Retweets that each cheer generates. The cheers with the highest totals will be included in a Twitter poll. The top five cheers so far (sorted in totals order) are: Laurel (32), Notre Dame Academy (27), Westerville North (25), Columbus Academy (22), and Wilmington (21). The others (in alphabetical order) are: Big Walnut, Bishop Hartley, Centerville, Dublin Jerome, Olentangy (Excellent), Watkins Memorial, and Worthington Kilbourne.This is not a Photo Friday. OTZ traveled to Cincinnati last Saturday for the Coaches Classic but those were the only photos taken this week due to weather issues. More from that tournament will be posted after several names are confirmed.
Today's matches include: Avon (H) versus Kenston; Laurel (H) versus Solon; and Seven Hills (A) versus St. Ursula Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Ursuline Academy Beats Cincinnati Hills | Massillon Jackson Defeats Solon
It was a windy evening. Ursuline Academy defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy and Massillon Jackson beat Solon. There were 22 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 9, and Northeast - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Granville defeated Worthington Kilbourne; Watkins Memorial beat Reynoldsburg; Chaminade-Julienne defeated Northwestern; Grandview beat Canal Winchester; Big Walnut defeated Worthington Christian; and Newark beat Westerville North. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy Orange - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Olentangy's Pranjal Agochiya; Solon's Niya Fried beat Massillon Jackson's Paige Reese; Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai defeated Dublin Jerome's Ella Oleson; Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman beat Granville's Eckels; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader defeated Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes; Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri beat Dublin Scioto's Srivastava; Reynoldsburg's Kareen Meoko defeated Watkins Memorial's Breaunna Doucette; and Olentangy Orange's Karol Korotkin beat Westerville Central's Sidney Choo. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
All of the Sectional Draws have now been posted. These draws are available via the links at the top of this page. They will remain there until the District Draws are posted.
Today's featured team is Olentangy Orange. They are coached by Susan Storrer. They are Team Members. They are led by Caroline Sproule, Karol Korotkin, and Tyler Reed.
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (H) versus Highland; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Ursuline Academy; Columbus School For Girls (H) versus Olentangy Berlin; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Reynoldsburg. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Magnificat Beats Highland and Upper Arlington Defeats Wellington
Tennis was back in full force yesterday with regular and State Team Tournament matches. In the State Team Tournament, Magnificat defeated Highland and Pickerington Central beat Hilliard Bradley. In an OTZ Top Ten match, Upper Arlington defeated Wellington; There were 18 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 4, and Northeast - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Scioto defeated Hilliard Darby; Olentangy beat Upper Arlington-B; Dublin Jerome defeated Gahanna; Oak Hills beat Sycamore-B; and Hartley defeated Whetstone. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. For the State Tournament results, click on OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Centerville - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Centerville. They are coached by Scott Long. They are led by Caroline Hinshaw, Clara Owen, and Arabelle MacPherson.
Today's matches include: Hathaway Brown (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Massillon Jackson (H) versus Solon; Notre Dame Academy (H) versus Sylvania Northview; and Dublin Coffman (A) versus Dublin Scioto. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Rain. Finally.
It may not have been a complete rain-out, but it was close enough. There were just two matches reported, Louisville defeated Manchester and Lancaster beat Athens. It had been two weeks since Central Ohio had received rain. To view the graphs from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Orange - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Orange. They are coached by Rich Bole. They are Team Members. They are led by Alexis Nyborg and Natalie Borsch.
The Central and Southwest Districts have posted all of their draws. While the Mason location was posted, it does not include the player names which means that it is not very helpful. For example, it uses "Sycamore #3", rather than the name of the player. The Northwest has posted most of their locations. The Northeast has not posted any of their draws.
There are plans to catch up on the big backlog of email messages today.
Today's matches include: Magnificat (A) versus Highland; St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Wyoming; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Wellington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Sectional Draw Edition
Yesterday was the Sectional Draw day throughout Ohio. The draws will be posted (or linked to) as they become available.
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Mason's Shyla Aggarwal - Click to enlarge |
The first draws posted were for Central District Division I. There were no major surprises on who are playing singles and doubles. Players of note: Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker and Megan Basil and Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule and Tyler Reed are playing doubles. The Central District normally allows teams to pick their Sectional location, but not this year. The teams returned to the same location as last year. The draws were conducted via Microsoft Teams and the process appeared to go very smoothly. I was a typist for the Upper Arlington Sectional and we finished at 2:50pm. Central D1 gets four spots for States.
Click for the Central District Division 2 Draws. Central only gets one spot for States which obviously makes it tough for the other players when a Division II State Singles Champion (Sydni Ratliff) is in your district.
The Southwest Draws are here. All of the draws are posted except for the Mason Site. Some of the stronger players were expected to team up for doubles in Division II, but many did not.
When the Northeast District makes their Sectional draws available, they will be here.
When the Northwest District makes their Sectional draws available, they will be here. The Northwest Districts' draws are normally the last to be posted. The Northwest has also not made any updates to their State Team Tournament Draws. C'mon Northwest, listen to Arnold. The parents and players like to know what's going on.
As other draws become available, they will be posted on or linked to from OhioTennisZone. Aware of draws that are posted but not linked to from OhioTennisZone? Please submit a Feedback.
Today's matches include: Mayfield (A) versus Solon and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (A) versus Ursuline Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Mason Wins Flight A of GCTCAC, Ursuline Academy Wins Flight B
There were several tournaments held yesterday. The highly successful Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Classic was completed. Mason won Flight A and St. Ursula Academy finished second. The winner of Flight B was Ursuline Academy and Seven Hills was second. Highland won the Surburban League-American Division Tournament. Revere was the runner-up.
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SUA's Elizabeth Pendergast - Click to enlarge |
There were also several big dual matches. Upper Arlington defeated Oakwood and Magnificat beat Rocky River. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Mason's Shyla Aggarwal and Indian Hills' Brooke Arington; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Indian Hill's Brooke Arington; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Rocky River's Samantha Robertson; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker beat Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; and Revere's Morgan Dobos defeated Highland's Madison Pawlak. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
As it is probably clear from the above photo, OTZ traveled to the Classic's Flight A round-robin tournament. It was great to meet a few new parents and to see the strong competition. The common theme was "how can we keep our kids out of quarantine?". The State tournament that is four weeks from now could get blown up quickly if kids cannot compete in Sectionals.
Today is the day for the big Sectional Draw. Let's hope that it goes smoothly. Hopefully the Sectionals that are doing in-person draws will not have anyone exposed to COVID-19. For those doing the draws remotely, we will keep our fingers crossed that there will not technical issues.
SATURDAY,
St. Joseph Academy Beats Shaker Heights
There were just two matches recorded from state-wide play. St. Joseph Academy defeated Shaker Heights and Kettering Fairmont beat Springfield. To view the bar charts of yesterday's results, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Worthington Kilbourne - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Worthington Kilbourne. They are coached by Stephen Metzmaier. They are Team Members. They are led by Libby Alderman and Lilly Hershey.
The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Classic has had a variety of start times because of COVID-19. See you at the Flight A group in Mason at 8:15. (Yes, ouch, because OTZ is in Columbus..)
Things are really backed up, especially with photos. If you need the photo that you ordered quickly, please send a Feedback.
FRIDAY,
St. Ursula Academy Beats 7Hills | Centerville Defeats Springboro | Foto Friday
Yesterday provided more of the same perfect, boring weather. Boys tennis would be thankful for two of these great weather days in a row.. Among the top teams, OTZ #9 St. Ursula Academy defeated OTZ #7 (D2) Seven Hills and OTZ #7 Centerville beat Springboro. There were 20 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 7, and Northeast - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Reynoldsburg defeated DeSales and Dublin Scioto beat Canal Winchester. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Springboro's Amaya Hulbert - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Seven Hills' Shriya Sekar; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman beat Chaminade-Julienne's Patty Estrada-Sanchez; Centerville's Clara Owen defeated Springboro's Amaya Hulbert; Solon's Niya Fried beat Avon's Denver Johnson; and Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Bexley's Sydney Elliott. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is yet another Foto Friday. There were 21 photos added. Matches included Dublin Jerome versus Olentangy Liberty, Upper Arlington versus Columbus Academy, and Centerville versus Springboro. The Centerville match provided some challenges because many of the girls wore the OTZ-Never-Approved visors. Visors basically block out a player's eyes as they cast a shadow from the sun. So the race was on.. Could the sun drop faster than the length of the match? The longer a match lasted, the lower the sun dropped in the sky, and the better the photos. The lower sun allowed the sun to go beneath a visor's bill plus the lower sun also helped enrich the colors as is clear from this photo of Springboro's Alissa Pajari. Sure, visors may help players win a few extra games and they may even help a team win a championship, but isn't a better photo worth it?.. Sign-in first and then click for the Most Recently Added Photos. (Remember to click "Next" at the bottom of each page.)
Today's matches include: St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Shaker Heights. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Eaton Beats Oakwood | Mason Defeats Seven Hills
It was another night for big matches. OTZ #5 (D2) Eaton defeated OTZ #2 Oakwood in the State Team Tournament; OTZ #1 Mason beat OTZ #8 (D2) Seven Hills; and OTZ #4 North Canton Hoover defeated Solon. There were 21 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 9, and Northeast - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Franklin Heights defeated Groveport; Lakota West beat Seton; Hartley defeated Grove City; Walsh Jesuit beat Revere; Hilliard Davidson defeated Marysville; Bloom-Carroll beat Teays Valley; Mercy McAuley defeated Harrison; Greeneview beat Washington CH; and Reynoldsburg defeated OTZ alma mater, Miami Trace. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Dublin Jerome - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Dublin Jerome. They are coached by Ken Berlin. They are Team Members. They are led by Ella Oleson, Lydia Foster, and Sudi Pelluru.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus Springboro; Avon (A) versus Solon; and St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Seven Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
St. Ursula Academy Beats Eaton | Magnificat Defeats Brecksville
This has been one of the nicest stretches of good weather that we have had and it will continue for a few more days. In matches involving the state's best teams, St. Ursula Academy defeated Eaton and Magnificat beat Brecksville. There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 13, and Northeast - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Bexley defeated Columbus School for Girls; Oak Hills beat Lakota West; St. Joseph Academy defeated Hudson; Reynoldsburg beat Westerville Central; Olentangy Liberty defeated Olentangy; Thomas Worthington beat Whetstone; and Hartley defeated Ready. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Archbishop Alter - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Archbishop Alter. They are coached by Charlie Painter. They are Team Members. They are led by Grace Lampman, Annie Gayonski, and Emily Pojman.
Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (A) versus Pickerington North; Mason (H) versus Seven Hills; Mayfield (A) versus Shaker Heights; and Revere (A) versus Walsh Jesuit.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
North Canton Hoover Beats Massillon Jackson | Columbus Academy Defeats Upper Arlington
About half of the 22 matches were competitive, 3-2 contests yesterday. Among the top teams, North Canton Hoover defeated Massillon Jackson; Columbus Academy beat Upper Arlington; and Oakwood defeated Archbishop Alter. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 5, and Northeast - 7. The close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy Orange defeated Wellington; Granville beat Westerville North; Big Walnut defeated Marysville; Kettering Fairmont beat Springboro-B; Worthington Christian defeated Reynoldsburg; Bellbrook beat Chaminade-Julienne; Hilliard Bradley defeated Westerville Central; and Lexington beat Manchester. There were no scores in the Cincinnati Enquirer or Columbus Dispatch this morning. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Academy's Sydni Ratliff - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Westlake's Madison Shami; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson; Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu beat Revere's Morgan Dobos; St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt defeated Boardman's Ava Valko; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman beat Oakwood's Sarah Hall; Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule; Medina's Elizabeth Stuart beat Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy; Reynoldsburg's Kareen Meoko defeated Worthington Christian's Abby Mayotte; and Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung beat Upper Arlington's Megan Basil. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There were quite a few updates to the State Team Tournament. Click Team Tournament Draws for the latest results. The Southwest D2 District is the furthest along.
Today's matches include: Magnificat (H) versus Brecksville; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Olentangy Berlin; Olentangy Liberty (H) versus Olentangy; and St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Eaton. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Updated OhioTennisZone.com Team Rankings
It looks like today will be a great day for tennis. Because it is September 21, it is a cloudless day.. Ba de ya.
The OTZ Rankings have been updated. North Canton Hoover makes a big jump in the Division I rankings after beating St. Joseph Academy 4-1. Hoover has lost just one court all season, and they have played three highly ranked teams. Will this write-up jinx Hoover in their match against Massillon Jackson tonight? We'll see..
OhioTennisZone.com State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams September 21, 2020 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 3. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Indian Hill |
| 4. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM |
| 5. St. Joseph Academy◄TEAM | Eaton |
| 6. Notre Dame Academy◄TEAM | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| 7. Centerville | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 8. Ursuline Academy | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 9. St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM | Hawken◄TEAM |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy |
| HM: Olentangy Orange◄TEAM | Toledo Central Catholic |
| HM: Sycamore◄TEAM | Revere◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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Centerville also makes a big move after their strong showing against Mason. That is the best "full strength line-up" match that Mason has had this season. Mason's court 1 singles player did not play in Mason's matches against Upper Arlington and Hathaway Brown.
The Division II Rankings included minor tweaks.
Occasionally, the OTZ Rankings are identified as a poll. That is not the case. While coaches provide feedback from time to time, the rankings are created by OhioTennisZone. OTZ started its rankings a few years ago because of the regional biases associated with voting and because there is a tendency by coaches to vote for teams that have had high rankings in the past. OTZ simply shows favoritism to teams with nice dogs..
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Revere (H) versus Hathaway Brown; Olentangy Orange (H) versus Wellington; Upper Arlington (H) versus Columbus Academy; Oakwood (H) versus Archbishop Alter; and Worthington Christian (A) versus Reynoldsburg. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Notre Dame Academy Beats Lexington | St. Ursula Academy Defeats Walnut Hills
It was a relatively quiet day. Eaton won the Chaminade-Julienne Doubles Tournament and Bellbrook was second. In dual matches, Notre Dame Academy defeated Lexington and St. Ursula Academy beat Walnut Hills. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Season-to-Date Report - Click to enlarge |
Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Walnut Hills' Alexis Covington; Lexington's Gracie Pfieffer beat Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein beat Walnut Hills' Claire Meng; and Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher defeated Lexington's Gabriela Wallace. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
One of the best reports, especially before Sectionals and at the end of the season, is the Season-to-Date Report. This report allows a coach to quickly gather the records of all of the players for Sectionals and/or for the end-of-year recognition program. For a coach who values his/her time, this report pays for OTZ in just a few minutes. It is available via the OTZ Personalized Report and via the Coaches tab.
Not all of your results included on the report? That's no problem. Please use today as a catch-up day to enter your results on OTZ. Have tournament results that would help your players? That's ok, too. Just use this format:
September 19, 2020
Tomak (Avon) def. Queen (North Ridgeville) 6-0, 6-0
McLellon-Koziy (Avon) def. S.Williams-V.Williams (Miami) 6-4, 7-5
OhioTennisZone will also be using today to catch-up with scores.
This is going to be a busy week with the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Classic taking place at the end of the week.
Monday's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Upper Arlington; Massillon Jackson (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Magnificat (A) versus Westlake; and Olentangy Orange (H) versus Wellington.
SATURDAY,
Mason Beats Centerville
Friday night football gets in the way of Ohio high school girls tennis, but that's ok this year.. It is great that they finally get to compete, too.
Mason defeated Centerville in a good State Team Touranment match. As stated before, it has been difficult to rank teams this year because of playing restrictions. Centerville certainly deserves special mention though. With both teams using their full strength line-ups, Centerville won 34% of the games. That compares to Notre Dame Academy's 18% versus Mason, Sycamore's 19%, Eaton's 27%, and Columbus Academy's 33%.
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St. Joseph Academy - Click to team page |
In other matches, Notre Dame Academy defeated Walsh Jesuit; Archbishop Alter beat Lebanon; St. Joseph Academy defeated Laurel; and Sycamore beat Seton. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Click to view the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws, which include both the Mason and Sycamore wins.
Among the top players, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Centerville's Clara Owen; St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt beat Laurel's Ellie Brotherton; Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher defeated Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy; Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw beat Mason's Anna Tonkal; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Laurel's Samyuktha Iyer; and Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman beat Lebanon's Jada Seuberling. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is St Joseph Academy. They are coached by Dan Mitoff. They are Team Members. They are led by Amara Brahmbhatt, Tia Clemens, and Delia Guzic. Several teams have not taken new photos this year because of mask requirements. This team photo is from last year.
Several teams had planned to get together to play two dual matches today. The new OHSAA prohibits this so many matches were canceled.
FRIDAY,
Massillon Jackson Defeats Hawken | Jerome Beats Liberty | Photo Phriday
Another week is almost done and there are just five more weeks to go.. Among the top teams, Massillon Jackson defeated Hawken and Dublin Jerome beat Olentangy Liberty. OTZ was in attendance at the Jerome/Liberty match and Jerome's 3-2 win went down to the wire. It was clinched on 3rd singles.
There were 24 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 13, Southwest - 7, and Northeast - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Big Walnut defeated Reynoldsburg; DeSales beat Worthington Kilbourne; Hilliard Darby defeated Westerville North; and Olentangy Orange beat Pickerington Central. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy's Archita Sriram - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated Dublin Jerome's Ella Oleson; Oakwood's one "L'd" Lily McCloskey beat Valley View's two "L'd" Lilly Holbrook; Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule defeated Pickerington Central's Semmie Moore; Hawken's Hayley Garber beat Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson; Rocky River's Samantha Robertson defeated Avon's Denver Johnson; Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer beat Oak Hills' Gabrielle Kadakia; Lancaster's Mallory Thomas defeated Logan Elm's Clouse; and Olentangy Orange's Tyler Reed beat Pickerington Central's Khandice Thomas. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Ohio high school tennis is now moving into the home stretch.. The Sectional Draws are coming up on September 27. OTZ Coach Members and OTZ Parent Members, Please provide the scores that are not yet included on OTZ. It is important that these be posted soon.The Top OTZ Girls Photos page has been updated to reflect recent photo additions. The photos of the professionals have been replaced with Ohio high school players. What generally happens with these top photos is that a great photo location melds with good quality sun light. Some of the better locations, Dublin Scioto, Bexley, and Thomas Worthington, yielded six of these photos. Click to view the Most Recently Added Photos. There were 15 new photos added.
Dublin Scioto may be the new OTZ favorite location because of the windscreen on the north side of the court and the pine trees on the south side. The worst location remains Upper Arlington, but things are looking up there, too, as my new best friend, Mr. Excavator, lurks in the background. Here's a perfect example of why UA is a problem with this photo of Massillon Jackson's Samantha Reese. It would be a perfectly good photo, but the background is completely cluttered and distracting. Viewers have to hunt for the ball (plus, it is equally distracting for the players).
Today's matches include: Laurel (A) versus St. Joseph Academy and Notre Dame Academy (A) versus Walsh Jesuit. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
North Canton Hoover Defeats St. Joseph Academy | Mason Beats Oakwood
OTZ #8 North Canton Hoover did not get the memo about the OTZ rankings and erroneously defeated #4 St. Joseph Academy yesterday by the score of 4-1.. They will have a rematch in the State Team Tournament in two weeks. In another big match, Mason beat Oakwood 5-0. There were 17 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 5, and Northeast - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Reynoldsburg defeated Marysville and Lancaster beat DeSales. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Mag's Audrey Smitek - Click to Profile |
Among the top players, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Shaker Heights' Kayla Lowery; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt; Orange's Alexis Nyborg beat Hawken's Hayley Garber; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock defeated Wilmington's Claire Burns; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova beat Olentangy's Pranjal Agochiya; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated North Canton Hoover's Lilly Altman; and Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter beat Columbus School For Girls' Lanie Klatt. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Player Profile is one of the best ways to recognize players on OhioTennisZone. This report not only recognizes the player of interest but also all of the other competitors who have OTZ Player Profiles whom she has played. This report is unique in tennis and it is more comprehensive than fans get in Division I college tennis. Click on the player links above to go to their Player Profiles. There is also a Player Profile Lookup in the right-hand navigation bar. Now that it is getting harder to find player results, this report is ideal to share with friends, relatives, and college coaches.
Tomorrow will be another photo Friday.
There will be several interesting matchups tonight. The matches include: Centerville (A) versus Springboro; Dublin Jerome (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (A) versus Seven Hills; Hathaway Brown (H) versus Brecksville; Hawken (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and Avon (A) versus Rocky River. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason Beats Sycamore | Dublin Jerome Defeats Dublin Coffman
The biggest matches yesterday included: Mason defeated Sycamore and Dublin Jerome beat Dublin Coffman. There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Franklin Heights defeated Groveport; Chaminade-Julienne beat Badin; Dixie defeated Carlisle; Reynoldsburg beat Gahanna; Kettering Fairmont defeated Miamisburg; Hilliard Davidson beat Delaware Hayes; Wilmington defeated Western Brown; and Greeneview beat Carroll. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Olentangy. They are coached by Jeff Luxenburger. They are Team Members. They are led by Pranjal Agochiya, Archita Sriram, and Sydney Nickel.
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; Mason (H) versus Oakwood; Magnificat (A) versus Shaker Heights; and Hawken (A) versus Orange. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
St. Ursula Academy Beats CHCA | Columbus Academy Defeats Olentangy Liberty
The temperatures are finally dropping, but not the level of tennis play. Among the top teams, St. Ursula Academy defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy and Columbus Academy beat Olentangy Liberty. There were 25 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 10, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Shaker Heights defeated Walsh Jesuit; Canfield beat Laurel; Hilliard Davidson defeated Lancaster; Madison Senior beat Middletown; Reynoldsburg defeated Granville; and Pickerington Central beat Dublin Jerome. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws for the latest results.
The Cincinnati Enquirer has been spotty with their sports coverage recently. Note that OTZ Coach Members can always catch-up with their score reporting on OTZ. Also note how Northeast Ohio is really starting to come on-board with more (and more) scores being reported via OTZ.
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Massillon Jackson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Massillon Jackson. They are coached by Jennifer Janson. They are Team Members. They are led by Paige Reese, Madison Altman, and Emma Henson.
The OTZ Cheer contest has officially begun. They will be retweeted by @OhioTennisZone as they are received. So far so good..
I almost thought that I was going to get through my emails yesterday until our Internet provider (Spectrum) went down for most of the afternoon and early evening. Plus, I was tied up in a meeting last night. Today will be the day.
Today's matches include: Seven Hills (A) versus Summit Country Day; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Walsh Jesuit (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and Watkins Memorial (H) versus Big Walnut. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OTZ Cheer Contest
It is time for something new..
A good pre-match cheer should enthusiastically and cheerfully obliterate any hope that the opposing team has to flip more than a couple of score cards during a match. Is your team cheer better than other teams' cheers? It is time to find out.
Upper Arlington is hosting a tournament with Ursuline Academy, Columbus Academy, and Massillon Jackson. This is CA’s cheer and it was the best of the four. Really. It was.. pic.twitter.com/w2a4yhHhN5
— Scott Gerber (@OhioTennisZone) September 12, 2020
How will this work? Forget about finding a bunch of ballots in your mail box. Fraudulent voting will only be done via Twitter rather than via the mail. Can dogs vote? Sure! How about great, great, great, great, grandparents? Of course. Maybe a cat? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
The ground rules are still to be determined (made up on the fly) but getting a bunch of retweets on a cheer is probably a good thing.
Now is your team's chance to sparkle in this first (and possibly only) ever annual contest. Does your team have the zeal to compete?
Any team can participate -- this contest does not care how many players have high TennisRecruiting.net rankings or UTR ratings.
Tweet your cheer by including @OhioTennisZone and we'll get this party started.
This contest will officially replace Ohio State Football this fall as entertainment unless the Big 10 Conference also shuts this down.
Good luck to all of the participants.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Rocky River; and Walsh Jesuit (A) versus Hawken. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
St. Ursula Beats Oakwood | Upper Arlington Wins Its Dubs Tournament
Earlier in the week, rain was expected on Saturday but it turned out to be a great day. Upper Arlington won its own doubles tournament and Massillon Jackson finished second. In dual match play, St. Ursula Academy defeated Oakwood in a match that included three, 3-setters. Eaton defeated Mariemont in State Team Tournament play. In other dual match play, Manchester defeated Ashland and Lancaster beat Marysville. To view the graphs from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws for recent updates.
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Jackson's Emma Henson - Click to enlarge |
It was nice to see everyone at the Upper Arlington Doubles Invite yesterday. I got a few good photos as I battled mask-induced glasses fogging..
Time to try something new.. Stay tuned tomorrow.
SATURDAY,
Eaton Beats Sycamore | Hoover Defeats Toledo SUA
There were more matches than expected yesterday, and there were also some really good matches. Among the top teams, Eaton defeated Sycamore and North Canton Hoover beat Toledo St. Ursula Academy. In a close, 3-2 match, Manchester defeated Chippewa. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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North Canton Hoover - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is North Canton Hoover. They are coached by Ryan Shaffer. They are Team Members. They are led by Tess Bucher, Lilly Altman, and Claire Wood.
Quite a few teams are getting together for tournaments today. While several of these would have likely been dual matches, a recent OHSAA COVID-19 rule change prohibits a Team A vs Team B and Team A vs Team C scenario. When considering that some Sectionals will have ~15 teams, this new rule does not make much sense, but hey, Ohio is still playing girls high school tennis. OTZ will travel a few blocks to Upper Arlington to watch Massillon Jackson, Upper Arlington, Ursuline Academy, and Columbus Academy this morning.
FRIDAY,
Mag Beats Hathaway Brown | Columbus Academy Defeats Wellington | Foto Friday
Ohio tennis has almost made it through another week. Yay. It is also Foto Friday. Double yay.
There were some really big matches yesterday. Magnificat defeated Hathaway Brown; Columbus Academy beat Wellington; and Olentangy Liberty defeated New Albany (State Team Tournament). There were also quite a few close, 3-2 matches. They included: Westerville Central defeated Marysville; DeSales beat Big Walnut; Buckeye Valley defeated Grandview; Hilliard Davidson beat Hilliard Darby; Olentangy Orange defeated Olentangy; Laurel beat Howland; and Notre Dame Academy defeated Toledo St. Ursula Academy; There were 31 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Dublin Scioto's Megha Joish - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated New Albany's Paige Cornelius; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey beatBellbrook's Maya Brink; Magnificat's Natalie Smitek defeated Hathaway Brown's Alice Lin; Rocky River's Samantha Robertson beat Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson; Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman defeated Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova; Toledo St. Ursula Academy's Marissa Patino beat Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai defeated Delaware Hayes' Alana Kay; and Watkins Memorial's Lillia Walter beat Lancaster's Mallory Thomas. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This is the first update that includes photos from the brand new Nikon lens, coupled with my newer camera. I had hoped to get this lens at the end of the girls season last year, then in time for the college season, then before the boys season, then in time for the professional tennis season, and finally it was picked up on September 1. Your daughters will now appear ~15% more wonderful than before. Click to view the Most Recently Added Photos. There were 24 photos added.
The Top OTZ Girls Photos for 2020 will soon be updated, but it still currently includes a few professional players.
Since this is the fourth Foto Friday in a row and since that has never happened before, OTZ will humbly receive the Crumbly Coffee Cake Award following today's update.
There have been numerous photo purchase requests. Today is the day. Really. Please disregard the previous promises made..
Today's matches include: Grove City (H) versus Reynoldsburg; North Canton Hoover (A) versus Toledo St Ursula Academy; and Seven Hills (A) versus Walnut Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
Never forget. It is 9/11.
THURSDAY,
Wellington Beats Dublin Jerome
It was a hot, but quieter tennis night. There were 22 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 10, and Northeast - 6. The close, 3-2 matches included: Westlake defeated Laurel; Reynoldsburg beat Columbus School for Girls; Turpin defeated Seton; Centerville-B beat Beavercreek; Valley View defeated Fenwick; and Wellington beat Dublin Jerome. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Avon - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Avon. They are coached by Eric Korey. They are led by Denver Johnson, Hanna LeMaster, and Amelia Tomak.
For those who have not yet paid for their OhioTennisZone.com memberships, please get your payment into OTZ via check or PayPal. A PayPal link is provided on the Sign-up page. (Have extra, hoarded toilet paper rolls? Contact OTZ for the current exchange rate..) Even though there was OTZ content created during the spring, money paid for the boys season can be moved to this girls season or to the next boys season. OTZ logins are recorded so if you are using OTZ, you need to pay. Contact OTZ if an invoice is needed.
Tomorrow will be another Photo Friday.
Today's matches include: Hathaway Brown (H) versus Magnificat; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Worthington Kilbourne; Columbus Academy (H) versus Wellington; and Notre Dame Academy (H) versus Toledo St Ursula Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Indian Hill Beats Sycamore | Olentangy Liberty Defeats Olentangy Orange
The state started the week out in a hurry by playing a bunch of tennis matches. Among the top teams, Indian Hill defeated Sycamore and Olentangy Liberty beat Olentangy Orange; There were 33 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 7, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Granville defeated Worthington Christian; Medina beat Revere; Mariemont defeated Wyoming; Dublin Scioto beat Westerville North; and Archbishop Hoban defeated Manchester. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Dublin Coffman - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Dublin Coffman. They are coached by Brett Hundertpfund. They are Team Members. They are led by Dasha Chistyakova, Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri, and Cassi Shough.
Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (A) versus Wellington; Walsh Jesuit (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; and Dublin Scioto (H) versus Olentangy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
OTZ Top Players Update
The creation of the OTZ Top Players list has been challenging this year. Last year's seniors were exceptional with ~nine going on to play D1 college tennis. Several other grads are playing D3 tennis. There were also six players on the list who are not playing high school tennis this year. Without these really skilled players, the number of players on this list will not total the same number (30) as last year's but there will still be a good, solid group.
It has also been more difficult to compare players in different districts because several teams are playing "close-to-home" due to COVID-19. Some Court 2 players and doubles players also deserve to be on the list but it is difficult to do this when they cannot be compared with other strong singles players.
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Alter's Annie Gaynoski - Click to enlarge |
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
In dual match play, Watkins Memorial defeated DeSales and Valley View-B beat Carroll. Watkins Memorial's Lillia Walters defeated DeSales' Molly Ballard.
Click for the most recent updates to the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
As mentioned in Sunday's update, the sun can be very challenging when it is too bright (or harsh). There is, however, also potential for great photos, especially when players do not wear visors or hats. The photo Archbishop Alter's Annie Gaynoski to the right is under full sun. This photo of Oakwood's Claudia Schnell is from the same match but under full shade. With photos, it is always about the sun.. This is also why cameras have a bunch of adjustment buttons..
Today's matches include: Notre Dame Academy (A) versus Lima Senior; Avon (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; Hawken (A) versus Hathaway Brown; and Dublin Coffman (H) versus Hilliard Bradley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
2020. Again.
2020 is waiting for you to make a mistake before it pounces. Don't tempt it. Just ask Novak Djokovic (but wait for a few days first). If you've been thinking about trying skydiving, learning how to skateboard, or surfing, just no. Don't do it. Play tennis (responsibly).
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Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Click to enlarge |
There were no high school tennis matches yesterday but there were a few scores entered by parents and coaches to help get things caught up.
There are quite a few girls competing this weekend in the USTA Level 3 tournaments in Grand Rapids, MI. These players include: Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman, Anthony Wayne's Lilly Black, Laurel's Ellie Brotherton, Wilmington's Claire Burns, Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova, Hawken's Hayley Garber and Beatrice Hardacre, Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker, Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw and Clara Owen, St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein, Mason's Rashi Loni, Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu, and Orange's Alexis Nyborg.
Congrats to #3 seed, Lilly Black, who won the G18 division.
The complete draws are located in the OTZ Season Calendar which is located in the right navigation bar.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
SUNDAY,
Eaton > Ursuline Academy | Oakwood > Alter | Hoover > NDA
Several teams took advantage of the great weather and traveled to get good competition. Eaton defeated Ursuline Academy; Oakwood beat Archbishop Alter; and North Canton Hoover defeated Notre Dame Academy. Click Previous Day's Match Results to view the graphical results and the other matches.
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Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Click to enlarge |
The above Oakwood match was a State Team Tournament match. Click for the State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Oakwood's Lily McCloskey defeated Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; Oakwood's Sarah Hall beat Archbishop Alter's Annie Gaynoski; North Canton Hoover's Lilly Altman defeated Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher; and Avon's Denver Johnson beat Avon Lake's Brooke Mangano. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The last two Saturday early morning suns have not been favorable for photo taking. The sun has been way too bright. Half of the players' faces are overexposed and the other half is too dark. The harsh sun also washes out much of the colors.
Both JJ Wolf and Caty McNally were defeated yesterday at the US Open. Both had terrific tournaments.
SATURDAY,
Caty McNally into 3rd Round of US Open | JJ Wolf to Play Medvedev
Caty McNally continued her run in the US Open. She upset the #21 seed, Ekaterina Alexandrova , 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (tb 7-2). McNally won an impressive 17 of 25 (68%) at the net. She often hits winning volleys by taking on just enough risk to win the point. Why hit a winning volley by 15 feet when five foot margin on a less risky shot is adequate? The doubles team of Coco Gauff and Caty McNally (referred to as "McCoco") did not fair as well in their 7-6, 7-6 loss to the #3 seeds, Nicole Melichar and Yifan Xu. Gauff loss faith in her second serve and she had a number of key double faults.
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Grove City - Click to team page |
JJ Wolf takes on #3 seed Daniil Medvedev today at noon. Medvedev is ranked #5 in the world. Check out USOpen.org for more information and for streaming video.
There was just one match recorded from yesterday. Mariemont defeated Ursuline Academy-B. Click Previous Day's Match Results to view the graphical results.
Among the top players, Mariemont's Logan Wilhelm defeated Ursuline Academy-B's Thea Han. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Grove City. They are coached by Joshua Chandler. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Gabriella Hougland, Julie Moore, and Breanna Bellar. Grove City has the best team photo to date.
OTZ is headed to Oakwood to watch Oakwood and Archbishop Alter play in their State Team Tournament match today. They start at 8:15am (ouch). On the bright side, I may be able to get back to Columbus in time to watch JJ's match. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Ursuline Academy Beat St. Ursula | HB Defeated Jackson | Foto Friday
Great weather and a rush to get matches in before the holiday weekend meant that last night was a very busy night for tennis. There were several big matches yesterday: Ursuline Academy defeated St. Ursula Academy; Hathaway Brown beat Massillon Jackson; and Upper Arlington defeated Dublin Coffman.
There were 34 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 9, and Northeast - 8. The close, 3-2 matches included: Laurel defeated Boardman; Worthington Kilbourne beat Westerville North; Kent Roosevelt defeated Manchester; and Olentangy Berlin beat Marysville. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hathaway Brown's Ally Mills - Click to enlarge |
This is the third Photo Friday in a row. Yes, I am more amazed than you are. There were 19 photos added. Still in catch-up mode and but that is what holiday weekends are for. Several parents have inquired about photos and please look for an email within the next couple of days. Please sign-in first and then click to view the Most Recently Added Photos.
Ohio is doing very well at the US Open. JJ Wolf won another huge match at the US Open yesterday. He plays the 3rd seed, Daniil Medvedev, next. Caty McNally got rained out. Her second round match against 21st seed, Ekaterina Alexandrova, will resume today. Caty will be starting in the third set.
Have a safe weekend. Wear a mask. Only breath in and not out (when you are around me)..
THURSDAY,
Updated OTZ State Team Rankings | St. Joseph Academy Beats Notre Dame Academy
The OTZ State Top Ten Team rankings are updated today. Mason and Columbus Academy continue to lead the rankings. Read on for more information.
Matches that included the top teams in the state included: St. Joseph Academy defeated Notre Dame Academy; Columbus Academy beat Olentangy Liberty; and Eaton defeated Archbishop Alter. There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 6, Northeast - 5. The close, 3-2 matches included: Westerville Central defeated Pickerington North; Reynoldsburg beat Mount Vernon; Lancaster defeated Granville; and Highland beat Revere. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
OhioTennisZone.com State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams September 3, 2020 (Corrected) |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 3. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Indian Hill |
| 4. St. Joseph Academy◄TEAM | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM |
| 5. Notre Dame Academy◄TEAM | Eaton |
| 6. Ursuline Academy | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| 7. St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 8. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 9. Olentangy Orange◄TEAM | Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy |
| 10. Centerville | Hawken◄TEAM |
| HM: Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Revere◄TEAM |
| HM: Sycamore◄TEAM | Toledo Central Catholic |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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Among the top players, Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman; Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal defeated Oak Hills' Morgan Lint; St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt beat Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher; Revere's Morgan Dobos beat Highland's Madison Pawlak; Lancaster's Mallory Thomas defeated Granville's Olivia Eckels; Westerville Central's Levi Burks beat Pickerington North's Miller; and Eaton's Sophia Murphy defeated Archbishop Alter's Emily Pojman. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Updating the OTZ Team Rankings is much tougher this year. Some teams are not traveling as much, and in some cases, play is being restricted to within each conference. The top players are key for any team and numerous eligible players are not competing this year. There were also a large number of graduates. D1's St. Joseph Academy was the biggest upward mover after wins over Olentangy Orange, Hathaway Brown, Massillon Jackson, and Notre Dame Academy.
There needs to be a complete state rain out so that I can catch-up. For those awaiting a reply to a feedback or email, today will be the day. Really. There are also more scores that need to be processed.
Today's matches include: Hathaway Brown (A) versus Massillon Jackson; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Upper Arlington; Solon (A) versus St. Joseph Academy; and Oakwood (A) versus Wyoming. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Magnificat Beats Massillon Jackson | Upper Arlington Defeats Olentangy Orange
Sometimes updates take (a lot) longer than normal and that was the case today. Things are also backed up so hopefully today will go smoother. If you expected a reply to a request, look for it later today or tonight. The OTZ team rankings will be released tomorrow morning.
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Grandview - Click to team page |
In some of the bigger matches in the state, Magnificat defeated Massillon Jackson and Upper Arlington beat Olentangy Orange; There were 26 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Westerville Central defeated Gahanna; Taylor beat Madison Senior; Watterson defeated Worthington Christian; Lancaster beat Reynoldsburg; and Mayfield defeated Laurel. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie defeated Laurel's Samyuktha Iyer; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Massillon Jackson's Paige Reese; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova defeated Hilliard Davidson's Maya Koob; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz beat Dublin Jerome's Ella Oleson; Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher defeated Findlay's Sydney Swisher; and Magnificat's Natalie Smitek beat Massillon Jackson's Madison Altman. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Grandview. They are coached by Kathy Kinnard. They are led by Cate Stanley, Dylan Dobbs-Euans, and Lydia Robertson.
In US Open play, Cincinnati's JJ Wolf and Caty McNally won their first round matches.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; Notre Dame Academy (A) versus St. Joseph Academy; and Dublin Coffman (A) versus Watterson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
St. Ursula Academy Beats Sycamore | Mason Defeats Eaton
Competition is heating up. There were eight, 3-2 matches recorded yesterday and there were 24 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 7, Southwest - 13, and Northeast - 4. In matches involving the state's top teams, Mason defeated Eaton and St. Ursula Academy beat Sycamore. The close, 3-2 matches included: Turpin defeated Loveland; Blanchester beat New Richmond; Worthington Christian defeated Watkins Memorial; Marysville beat Delaware Hayes; Westerville Central defeated Westerville North; Kettering Fairmont beat Beavercreek; and Canton South defeated Manchester. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Mason's A.Kruse-R.Chada - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Eaton's Macy Hitchcock; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated Dublin Scioto's Ashima Srivastava; Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw beat Miamisburg's Eden Hill; and St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein defeated Sycamore's Marilene Van den Berg. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There will be new OTZ State Team Rankings tomorrow.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (A) versus Magnificat; Solon (A) versus Hathaway Brown; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (A) versus Oakwood; Laurel (A) versus Mayfield; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Olentangy Orange. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
More about OhioTennisZone Photos
Mondays provide an opportunity to talk about something other than tennis results since there are normally no matches on Sundays. Today's blog entry talks more about the OTZ photos. OhioTennisZone has evolved overtime. Initially there were only team results and no Player Profiles and very few photos. Unfortunately only people who worked in the financial industry (financial planners and tax professional) really liked that level of detail. Since there was an interest in taking photos, that seemed to be a logical extension for OTZ. While processing the scores takes most of the morning, much of the rest of the day is spent with photos.
While most of the photos taken are of high school players, OTZ posts a large number of professional and college photos as well. The hardest part of getting professional photos is access to the courts. Thankfully, OTZ has had Western & Southern Open credentials for about six years and OSU court side access for several years. While the W&S has a photo blind that is provided, I sit on the courts at OSU and other professional events just as I do for high school matches. Sitting on the courts is not exactly the most comfortable place to be, but the lower perspective provides an angle that more closely provides the "photo-blind" perspective that are in professional venues.
The W&S also offers interview rooms for the players and media. It is interesting to be in a room within just a few feet of the athletes. While action photos are preferred, these rooms provide an opportunity to get other shots that are away from the court as players respond to questions. (See Novak Djokovic and Garbine Muguruza.)
It maybe counterintuitive, but getting great photos of the professionals is by far the easiest to do. Those players have excellent technique (i.e. good player and ball spacing, great eye-on-ball, and good body coiling). They make a lot of balls. They wear the latest, colorful fashions, and they are regularly in full extension as they chase down balls. Plus. the backgrounds are subdued and consistent, which makes the player images "pop". College matches have many of the same features of professional tennis but to a lessor degree. Meanwhile, getting great high school match photos is hard. Very, very hard. Plus, a great high photo can get destroyed by having a porta-jon or a bunch of shiny automobiles in the background.
The video of the Top 2019 photos has the players in the the following order: professional, college, and high school players (by last name). Click for the top photos of 2018, 2017, and 2016. It is best to view the videos in high resolution mode and on a full screen.
The Top Ten(ish) Girls Photos of 2020 have been updated to include a few high school players. There are also images of several professional players that are "fillers" until more high school photos are taken. Most of the professional images were taken at the Top Seed Young Kings Scholarship exhibition on July 3rd and 4th in Lexington, KY. With near-90 degree temperatures and masks, it made for a long day. Several of these players will be competing during the US Open. Very few images make good Twitter profile images, but eagle-eyed viewers may notice that the "color version" of the Genie Bouchard image is the same image as the @OhioTennisZone's Twitter profile. A link to the Top Ten photos is available via the Tennis Photos drop down menu at the top of any page.
Contact OTZ via Feedback with any photo-related questions.
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Eaton; St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Laurel; and St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Sycamore. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Upper Arlington > Mason | Mason > HB | HB > Upper Arlington
Central Ohio hosted many of the top teams in the state yesterday and the tennis was great. Concerns over rain dissipated and Ohio was left with a sunny and breezy day. Because of the masks, most people did not suffer from severe nose sunburns.. (Thank you, 2020, for granting us with this one benefit.)
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Ursuline Academy's Nini Dhaliwal- Click to enlarge |
Click on Previous Day's Match Results but the biggest matches included: Upper Arlington defeated Mason; Hathaway Brown beat Upper Arlington; Mason defeated Hathaway Brown; Magnificat beat Notre Dame Academy; Ursuline Academy defeated Dublin Coffman; and Sycamore beat New Albany. Also, North Canton Hoover beat Sycamore and New Albany. Numerous matches were determined by three-setters.
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Oak Hills' Morgan Lint; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Mason's Anna Tonkal; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher beat Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer and New Albany's Paige Cornelius; Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal defeated Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova; Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu beat Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker and Mason's Anna Tonkal; Upper Arlington's Megan Basil defeated Mason's Rashi Loni; and Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer beat New Albany's Paige Cornelius. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
A ton of OTZ photos were taken at the Mason versus Hathaway Brown and Dublin Coffman versus Ursuline Academy matches. The photos were not as good as was hoped. It was too sunny and then it was too shady. Players with dark complexions wore visors only when it was sunny.. Still though, tennis is at least having a season.. It was also nice to catch up with the parents and kids.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Beats Bellbrook in State Team Tournament
It was a relatively quiet evening tennis-wise with much of the state affected by rain. It was not at all a quiet evening on football fields around the state. While restrictions make it difficult for football fans to attend games, the success of football is extremely important to all sports. Please consider buying a "ticket" to stream a game if your team offers it. (I will be doing this to help a team as well as to check out the technology behind it.)
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Reynoldsburg's Kareen Meoko - Click to enlarge |
In match play, Anderson defeated Loveland and Sycamore beat Bellbrook in State Team Tournament play. To view the graphic results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer defeated Bellbrook's Brink and Anderson's Daly beat Loveland's Hodar. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The timing of the State Team Tournament is always tough on players who compete at States. Some players are competing in six matches during those three days. When considering the rules that the OHSAA has imposed on baseball players with pitch counts, this might be a great year to try something different with tennis. High school tennis players serve about 100 times during a competitive match. Baseball players are restricted to 125 pitches per game and then they have to rest for three days. In fact, they have to rest for three days once they reach 76 pitches in one game. Some tennis players will serve 600 times during those three days plus there is wear and tear on their entire bodies. Everyone is happy that the high school tennis season is underway but it is unknown if tennis can make it to the end of the season. Could the State Team Tournament be moved up to another weekend? Could it be moved to the Sunday after Sectionals? For the best teams in the State, Sectional week is not as draining as States. Moving the tournament to a different date would not only be better for the health of the players but it may also allow the State Team Champions to be determined. Is this the year to try something new?
If the weather behaves, it appears that there will be numerous dual matches in Columbus today. OTZ will be at the Hathaway Brown versus Mason match at 10am.To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Foto Friday | Magnificat Defeats Hathaway Brown
Weather conditions may be a bit dicey over the next two days as Hurricane Laura moves through Ohio. Conditions were windy yesterday. Matches featuring the state's top teams included: Magnificat defeated Hathaway Brown; Upper Arlington beat Olentangy Liberty; and Dublin Coffman defeated Olentangy Orange.
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Bexley's Stefani Leyman - Click to enlarge |
There were 28 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hilliard Bradley defeated Hilliard Davidson; Worthington Christian beat Columbus School for Girls; and Big Walnut defeated Worthington Kilbourne. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie defeated St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Oak Hills' Ziebro; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker beat Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; Laurel's Ellie Brotherton defeated Massillon Jackson's Paige Reese; Centerville's Caroline Hinshaw beat Springboro's Hulbert; and St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Mayfield's Katerina Ng. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is Photo Friday and there were 36 photos uploaded from August 7 to August 26. Not only does it take a monster amount of time to travel to and take these photos, but it also takes a substantial amount of time to prepare and upload them. Having photos connected to a specific player and team is very difficult to do and that is why it is not seen elsewhere. All of the high school photos are available for sale. No OTZ photos can be used elsewhere unless they are purchased. Sign in first and then click for Most Recently Added Photos. Note that there is a "Next" link at the bottom of the page. Click to Buy an OTZ Photo.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Kettering Fairmont; Dublin Jerome (H) versus St. Ursula Academy; and Laurel (A) versus Canfield. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Revised OTZ Top Players / Watch Lists | Mason Beats Ursuline Academy
This update includes the first major change in the OTZ Top Players and Watch List. Read on below for more.
There was just one match that included the top teams -- Mason defeated Ursuline Academy. There were 18 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 10, and Northeast - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hudson defeated Hawken; Taylor beat Talawanda; Lake defeated Manchester; Reynoldsburg beat Delaware Hayes; and Loveland defeated Seton. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OTZ Top Players Lists - Click to report |
Among the top players, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes and Wilmington's Claire Burns beat Chaminade-Julienne's Patty Estrada-Sanchez. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
As for the OTZ Top Players and Watch Lists...All players start out on the Watch List. Why? Because it is the law.. Many will stay there and some will move up to the Top Players List. There is no limit to the number of players on the Watch List but the Top Players list will total about 25 players.
While there is certainly an awareness of how a player is ranked on the TennisRecruiting.net and UTR systems, this is a high school ranking. Some players perform better on high school teams than during non-HS matches because they have access to a good coach and because they benefit from team camaraderie.
There are numerous players with great records, but OTZ looks for a "signature win" (or close loss) against another player on the Top Players or Watch List to get on a list.
While it is always fine for a coach to contact OTZ on behalf of a player, no other feedback is necessary. Really.
The plan is to have a really solid group by the Sectional Draw date which is on September 27. If your daughter, niece, granddaughter, sister, neighbor, or friend is not currently on a list, do not have a cow. There is still plenty of time.
In some cases, there will be a really strong player who is on a team where the coach is not an OTZ member. There will be accommodations for player members (who can carefully follow directions, are detail-oriented, and who do their own taxes just for fun) to submit results directly to OTZ. Note: OTZ is not the UTR. There is no cherry-picking of good matches allowed. Sign-up quickly though. It is painful for OTZ to add matches after the fact.
Today's matches include: Hathaway Brown (A) versus Magnificat; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Olentangy Orange; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Laurel; and Upper Arlington (H) versus Olentangy Liberty. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
St. Joseph Academy Beats Massillon Jackson | Magnificat Defeats Solon
The season is firing on all cylinders now that all of the top teams have played at least one contest. The top teams that competed include: St. Joseph Academy defeated Massillon Jackson Magnificat beat Solon; and Notre Dame Academy defeated Toledo Central Catholic. There were 18 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 4, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy defeated Olentangy Berlin and Dublin Coffman beat Olentangy Liberty; To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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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 Kate Haydel-Brown and Francesca Decker.
Today's matches include: Olentangy Orange (H) versus Columbus Academy; Delaware Hayes (A) versus Reynoldsburg; and Seven Hills (A) versus Turpin. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Mason Beats Indian Hill | Ursuline Academy Defeats Sycamore
Stormy weather impacted the Central District, but a few matches were able to finish. Matches among Ohio top teams included: Mason defeated Indian Hill; Ursuline Academy beat Sycamore; Wellington defeated Olentangy Liberty; and Eaton beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (in a State Team Tournament match). There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 9, and Northeast - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Anderson defeated Lakota West; Marlington beat Manchester; Hamilton Township defeated Whitehall. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draw.
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DeSales' Molly Ballard - Click to enlarge |
Today's matches include: Magnificat (H) versus Solon; St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (H) versus Seven Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Top Academic High Schools in Ohio | Wolf Loses in His W&S Open Battle with Richard Gasquet
Fans of this web site already know that the outdoor winter sport of platform tennis is the major OTZ interest. Obviously, tennis is also high on the list. Another big interest is high school education testing. Since there were no high school tennis matches on which to report today, this was an ideal day to discuss the education testing.
The interest in education started about 10 years ago when the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) was analyzed via the OTZ sister web site, Gerber Analytics, LLC, to identify the top academic high schools in the state. The analysis was picked up by the Cincinnati Enquirer and they wrote a nice summary of the analysis in November 2011. Some of you may remember it and some of you may have selected the school district in which you now living because of it.
This report is unique because it ranks schools based on how each school performs on each subject matter test. This makes it an ideal way to compare schools with each other and the departments within each school. For example, if your school is ranked substantially higher in math than the other subjects, there is a reason why and it should be investigated.
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GA's Top Academic HS Report - Click to enlarge |
Unlike the Gerber Analytics' reports published from 2007-2014, which used the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), this report provides information from the ACT and SAT tests. The OGT provided a great, apples-to-apples comparison while this report had to make several accommodations to allow the ACT and SAT schools to be compared. Read the Top Academic Ohio High School report for more information.
It is probably no surprise but the top ACT / SAT schools are essentially the same as those that did well with the Ohio Graduation Test.
Unfortunately, some of the best schools in the state were not included in the Ohio Department of Education data sets. These schools include Seven Hills, Hathaway Brown, Columbus School for Girls, and Columbus Academy.
While all regions of the state have a great school or two, Cincinnati is the best area in the state for education. The Cincinnati-area has numerous private schools that have to compete against each other, and Cincinnati also has a terrific public school, Walnut Hills, which is part of Cincinnati Public School system.
There is some chatter about how Ohio students should not be tested this year because of interruptions caused COVID-19. That is absolutely ridiculous. This is the most important year *ever* to test the kids so that it is known how much the education process was disrupted.
It is also important to mention that while the numbers in this report are worthwhile, the numbers need to be supplemented with discussions with students, former students, and parents to fully understand how well a high school is performing.
Have questions about the report? Enter an OhioTennisZone.com Feedback.
In other tennis news, JJ Wolf had a great match at the Western & Southern Open with Richard Gasquet but got beat 6-4, 6-4.
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus Indian Hill; Olentangy Liberty (A) versus Wellington; Seven Hills (A) versus Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy; and Thomas Worthington (H) versus DeSales. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Magnificat, Watkins Memorial, Eaton Win Tournaments
Yesterday was a great tournament day. Magnificat won the Canfield Doubles Tournament with Upper Arlington coming in second. Eaton was the Schoeder Invite champ and Chaminade-Julienne was second. The winner of the Reynoldsburg Doubles tournament was Watkins Memorial and Big Walnut was the runner-up.
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CCD's JJ Wolf as a Freshman in 2014 - Click to enlarge |
To view dual match results from previous days, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Ohio State's and Cincinnati Country Day's JJ Wolf qualified for the Western & Southern Open. Wolf will be playing France's Richard Gasquet on Court 10 today. His match is "fourth on" and play begins at 11am. Other OSU players who have qualified for the main draw include Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola. The W&S Open is being held at the US Open site this year.
Yesterday was to be catch-up day but it turned out to be a "get further behind day". Hopefully today will be better after I win in tennis this morning..
SATURDAY,
Notre Dame Academy Beats Wellington and Watterson
Since the 270 outer-belt surrounding Columbus does not contain a force field, it makes Columbus-area teams vulnerable to interlopers who come and take wins away from local teams. That was the case yesterday when Toledo's Notre Dame Academy swooped in and beat Wellington and Watterson and then disappeared into the night..
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NDA's Olivia Assenmacher - Click to enlarge |
The schedule was light yesterday with Magnificat, Mariemont, and Westerville Central also securing wins. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Hawken's Hayley Garber; Watterson's Sara Goodlive beat Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; and Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher defeated Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There were a few tournaments scheduled for today, but COVID-19 has been eliminating numerous tournaments recently. It was confirmed that Reynoldsburg is holding its doubles tournament.
FRIDAY,
Mason Beats Columbus Academy | St. Joseph Academy Defeats Hathaway Brown | Foto Friday
Yesterday was the biggest night of the season in both the number of matches played and the quality of the match-ups. The biggest matches included: OTZ #10 St. Joseph Academy defeated OTZ #4 D2 Hathaway Brown; #1 D2 Columbus Academy beat #3 D2 Indian Hill; and #1 Mason defeated Columbus Academy.
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USC's Daniel Cukierman - Click to enlarge |
There were 31 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 1. While there were 31 matches from yesterday, there were also quite a few matches from previous days included as some coaches got "caught up". The close, 3-2 matches included: Wyoming defeated Oak Hills; Centerville-B beat Kettering Fairmont; New Albany defeated Dublin Coffman; Delaware Hayes beat Westerville North; and Taylor defeated Harrison. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Mason's Shyla Aggarwal; Indian Hill's Bella Kirby beat Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Canfield's Anna Kan; St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt beat Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova defeated New Albany's Paige Cornelius; Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher beat Clay's McKenzie Arquette; Wyoming's Sydney Evans defeated Oak Hills' Morgan Lint; Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung beat Indian Hills' Brooke Arrington; and St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Hathaway Brown's Alice Lin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
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Gabriela Talaba - Click to enlarge |
This is the first Foto Friday of the season. The photos are included under the Most Recently Added Photos link on the main menu. There are quite a few photos so use the "Next" link to see more. These photos are behind the OTZ paywall but the college and professional photos are typically "open" for everyone to see. The photos today are primarily from college and professional matches. The college matches would normally have been shown during the boys season but, of course, that did not happen. The professional matches are from the Kentucky Open (pre-COVID). Photos of high school players are available for sale to their parents or schools. Photos that are purchased are also "opened" for everyone to see.
Perhaps the best photo in the group is of University of Southern California's Daniel Cukierman when USC played Ohio State. (See above.) Cukierman ended the abbreviated season as the highest ranked player in the nation but he was beaten by OSU's Cannon Kingsley in this match. Gabriela Talaba competed in the Kentucky Open. This was a pre-COVID tournament. It was held outside of Lexington Kentucky. Most of the OTZ action photos include the tennis ball, but the Talaba photo is example of the "non-ball" photos that are now being taken. There are quite a few additional photos that will be added over the next few days. There were plans to get photos of the OSU Women's team but the season ended one weekend too soon for me to take photos..
Today's matches include: Magnificat (A) versus Hawken. Notre Dame Academy is coming to Columbus to play Wellington and Watterson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Indian Hill Beats Ursuline Academy | Laurel Defeats Brecksville
Perfect weather led to the most matches recorded thus far this season. The biggest matches of the night were: OTZ #3 D2 Indian Hill defeated OTZ #5 D1 Ursuline Academy and Laurel beat Brecksville. There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Archbishop Alter defeated Bellbrook; Reynoldsburg beat Bexley; Delaware Hayes defeated Mount Vernon; Hartley beat Thomas Worthington; Manchester defeated Copley; Worthington Christian beat Jonathan Alder; and Highland defeated Walsh Jesuit. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Reynoldsburg - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Reynoldsburg. They are coached by Les Somogyi. They are led by Olivia Cox and Kareen Meoko.
The Western & Southern Open kicks off today in New York City. Hopefully this is the last time that fans will ever read the above sentence..
Tomorrow is Photo Phriday. Really. I will say this every Thursday throughout the season, but it may actually happen this time.
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Columbus Academy; Massillon Jackson (H) versus Mayfield; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Hathaway Brown; and Dublin Coffman (H) versus New Albany. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
St. Joseph Academy Beats Olentangy Orange | Magnificat Defeats Laurel
Weather impacted matches played in Central and Southwest Ohio, but there were still several good match-ups. OTZ Pre-Season #10 St. Joseph Academy defeated OTZ #7 Olentangy Orange and OTZ #2 Magnificat beat OTZ Honorable Mention Laurel. In a close match that included two 3-setters, OTZ #10 Hawken defeated Walsh Jesuit 3-2.
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SJA's Tia Clemens - Click to enlarge |
There were 15 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 4, and Northeast - 5. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Laurel's Ellie Brotherton defeated Magnificat's Audrey Smitek; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker beat Columbus School for Girls' Sophia Vershinin; North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Rocky River's Samantha Robertson; Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy beat Hawken's Hayley Garber; Massillon Jackson's Paige Reese defeated Lake's DeLuca; St. Joseph Academy's Amara Brahmbhatt beat Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule; and St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Olentangy Orange's Karol Korotkin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Unsure why, but there have been numerous weird line breaks which readers may or may not be experiencing. It is being investigated.
Today's matches include: Laurel (H) versus Brecksville; Indian Hill (A) versus Ursuline Academy; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Lakota West; Centerville (A) versus Beavercreek; and Dublin Coffman (A) versus Pickerington North.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Mariemont | Springboro Defeats Kettering Fairmont
As Ohio's high school contact sports await the big decision on whether they can proceed. Girls tennis can be thankful that play is underway. It was a picture perfect day for tennis. There were 14 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 6, and Northeast - 3. Many of the matches were one-sided. The close, 3-2 matches included: Seven Hills defeated Mariemont; Grandview beat Central Crossing; and Springboro defeated Kettering Fairmont. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Columbus School For Girls - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Columbus School for Girls. They are coached by Sean Delaney. They are Team Members. They are led by Sophia Vershinin, Lanie Klatt, and Lane Sharfin.
This was the first OTZ COVID-19 group photo taken. The steps were: 1) all of the players had masks on; 2) the players were arranged in reasonable order; 3) a few test photos were taken to insure the focus and exposure levels were good; 4) the players held their breaths and took off their masks; 5) photos were taken; and 6) the masks were put back on. The girls looked relatively happy because the photo was taken before they ran out of oxygen. (Pro Tip: Pleasant, cheerful smiles turn into grimaces as oxygen levels drop..) Click for the OTZ test photo. Click for OTZ Team Photo hints on how to take a good team photo. OTZ is relying on more school created team photos this year so contact OTZ to get your team photo online.
The State Team Tournament continues to move forward. Click for updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
Today's matches include: Olentangy Orange (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; Big Walnut (H) versus Delaware Hayes; and Indian Hill (H) versus Columbus Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Mason > Magnificat > Sycamore
There were more great matches yesterday as the best teams in the state faced off. Mason defeated Magnificat; Magnificat beat Sycamore; and Notre Dame Academy defeated St. Ursula Academy. To view the graphs from yesterday's play, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Notre Dame Academy - Click to team page |
Each year, Magnificat travels to Mason each August to play Mason and another team and to attend the Western & Southern Open. (See photo from 2015.) Even though there was no W&S Open (at least in Cincinnati anyway..), Magnificat still made the trip.
In tournament play on Saturday, Watkins Memorial won the Reynoldsburg Doubles Tournament. Marysville was second and Reynoldsburg was third.
Solon was the only OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten team in either division that was not playing fall sports due to COVID-19. That has changed. They will be having try-outs this week. Let's all do this and hope that the season continues..
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Magnificat's Audrey Smitek; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer; Magnificat's Natalie Smitek beat Mason's Anna Tonkal; and Magnificat's Caroline Moritz defeated Sycamore's Marilene vandenBerg. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Notre Dame Academy. They are coached by Kim Pacella. They are valued OTZ Team Members. They are led by Olivia Assenmacher, Ellie Assenmacher, and Emma Nofziger.
Today's matches include: Hawken (A) versus Chagrin Falls. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Mason Beats Notre Dame Academy | NDA Defeats Ursuline Academy
More iffy weather led to cancellations yesterday. There were still some great matches though. In matches involving the OTZ State Top Ten, Mason defeated Notre Dame Academy and Notre Dame Academy beat Ursuline Academy. Oak Hills defeated Seton in a 3-2 match. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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NCH's Lilly Altman - Click to enlarge |
The Columbus Dispatch is not providing any high school results for any sport. If coaches (or parents) are interested in recognizing their players, please contact OhioTennisZone via email or Feedback. There are a number of parents who report their daughters' results directly to OTZ. Several college coaches have OTZ memberships so OTZ remains a great way to share results with these coaches.
Teams in the State Team Tournament are starting to compete against each other. Click for the updated State Team Tournament draws.
Among the top players, Mason’s Shyla Aggarwal defeated Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher; Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher beat Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal; Mason's Anna Tonkal defeated Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher; and Notre Dame Academy's Olivia Assenmacher beat Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are some great matches planned today. Magnificat (A) plays Mason and Sycamore. Mason(H) also plays Hathaway Brown, and it is St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Notre Dame Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SATURDAY,
Hawken Beats Laurel | Ursuline Academy Defeats Alter
The weather played havoc with matches in Central Ohio. Other areas of the state had a bit more luck. Matches involved several of the top teams in the state. Ursuline Academy defeated Archbishop Alter and Hawken beat Laurel; and North Canton Hoover defeated Lexington. There were just four matches recorded from state-wide play. To view the graphs from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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CSG's Sophia Vershinin- Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman defeated Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal; Laurel's Ellie Brotherton beat Hawken's Hayley Garber; and North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Lexington's Gracie Pfieffer. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The photo of Columbus School For Girls' Sophia Vershinin was taken before the CSG versus North Canton Hoover match was rained out.Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Notre Dame Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
OTZ Personalized Report | Magnificat Beats St. Joseph Academy
It was a beautiful (and hot) day yesterday and there were numerous competitive matches. In matches that included the top teams in Ohio, Magnificat defeated St. Joseph Academy and Dublin Coffman beat Wellington. The close, 3-2 matches included: Anthony Wayne defeated Toledo Central Catholic; Avon beat Highland; Delaware Hayes defeated Marion Harding; Harrison beat Madeira; Anderson defeated Lakota East; Monroe beat Madison; Westerville Central defeated Big Walnut; and Greeneview beat Urbana. There were 21 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The Columbus Dispatch did not post any tennis scores in today's newspaper. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OTZ Personalized Report - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated St. Joseph Academy’s Amara Brahmbhatt; Anthony Wayne’s Lilly Black beat Toledo Central Catholic’s Ellie Hire; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova defeated Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter; Big Walnut’s Kina Ehlers beat Westerville Central’s Levi Burks; and Magnificat's Natalie Smitek defeated St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
A valuable new report was added this year to help fans customized their experience on OhioTennisZone. It is the Personalized Report and it appears after members sign-in to the service. Members can save their favorite teams and players for quick and easy access to more information. The Favorite team information includes the new Average Court Winning %. It also includes the most commonly used OTZ tools for Coaches (coaches only see these tools) and "How-to" documents on how to use the various reports. It was added prior to the boys season but it never had an opportunity to be fully used. (Note: The list used by OTZ actually has far more teams and players (including your team and your player), but it had to be condensed for this example..)
Today's matches include: Upper Arlington (H) versus Canfield; Avon (A) versus Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin; Laurel (H) versus Hawken; North Canton Hoover (A) versus Lexington and Columbus School For Girls; and Seven Hills (H) versus Mariemont.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Archbishop Alter Beats Wyoming | Massillon Jackson Beats Revere
Now things are starting to click. There were 18 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 7, and Northeast - 2. In matches among the top teams in the state, Archbishop Alter defeated Wyoming; Massillon Jackson beat Revere; and Upper Arlington defeated Chaminade-Julienne. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lancaster defeated Hilliard Darby; DeSales beat Westerville North; and Olentangy Berlin defeated Worthington Christian. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Mason - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Chaminade-Julienne's Patty Estrada-Sanchez; Massillon Jackson's Paige Reese beat Revere's Morgan Dobos; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz defeated Worthington Christian's Abby Mayotte; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman beat Wyoming's Sydney Evans; Magnificat’s Natalie Smitek defeated Avon Lakes’ Brooke Mangano; Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter beat Olentangy's Sydney Nickel; Wilmington's Claire Burns defeated Loveland's Hodar; Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai defeated Lancaster's Mallory Thomas; and Lancaster's Mallory Thomas defeated Hilliard Darby's Lexi Mincy. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Mason, the defending D1 State Team Champions. They are coached by Mike Reid. They are Team Members. They are led by Shyla Aggarwal, Annie Kruse, Anna Tonkal, and Raina Chada.
Today's matches include: Avon (A) versus Highland; Big Walnut (A) versus Westerville Central; Delaware Hayes (H) versus Marion Harding; Hawken (H) versus Rocky River; Magnificat (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; and Olentangy Liberty (H) versus Thomas Worthington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
St. Joseph Academy Beats Westlake | Seven Hills Wins over Chaminade-Julienne
Much of this week looked like a rain-out but that has not materialized - yet. Several teams are quickly jumping into good competition. St. Joseph Academy defeated Westlake; Seven Hills beat Chaminade-Julienne; Olentangy Liberty defeated Big Walnut; and Oak Hills beat Kings;.
In state-wide play, there were 11 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 4, and Northeast - 2. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watterson's Sara Goodlive - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated Big Walnut's Kina Ehlers; Seven Hills' Shriya Sekar beat Chaminade-Julienne's Patty Estrada-Sanchez; St. Joseph Academy’s Amara Brahmbhatt defeated Westlake’s Neige DeAngelis; Pickerington Central’s Khandice Thomas beat Westerville Central’s Levi Burks; Lancaster's Mallory Thomas defeated Canal Winchester's Erin Duckworth; and Walsh Jesuit’s Emma Kealy beat Notre Dame-Academy’s Kate Harlan. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There were no box scores in the Columbus Dispatch today for Monday's matches for the Central District. Without the box scores, there are no individual match scores. Coaches who would like to recognize their players can become Coach Members to report their scores into OhioTennisZone. If your coach is not interested in recognizing your team's players and more specifically, your daughter, that's ok. A parent may sign-up for a Parent/Player OTZ membership to report her daughter's results into OTZ. Please submit a Feedback with any questions. Click to Sign-up to OhioTennisZone.com.
Today's matches include: Hawken (H) versus Beachwood; Magnificat (H) versus Avon Lake; North Canton Hoover (A) versus Boardman; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Chaminade-Julienne. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Watkins Memorial Beats Marysville
The season is s l o w l y coming up to speed. Having the scores delayed by one day in the Columbus Dispatch is going to cause no end of grief this season. It is still unclear whether the Dispatch will be posting the box scores. Box scores are the individual results for each singles player and doubles team.
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Caty McNally - Click to enlarge |
On the good news front, all but one of the teams (Solon) in the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten for both D1 and D2 are playing. Hopefully Solon will be rolling soon.
There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 3, Southwest - 5, and Northeast - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Watkins Memorial's Lillia Walter defeated Marysville Mallory Huffman. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are more and more professional matches being played. In fact, there is a big WTA event, The Top Seed Open, taking place this week outside of Lexington, KY at Top Seed Tennis. Today's photo of Cincinnati's Caty McNally is from a July 4th tournament taken at that site. Top Seed hosted an exhibition of eight players and I was on the court taking photos (just as I do for high school matches). Attendance was very limited and social distancing guidelines were followed.
Today's matches include: St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Westlake; Walsh Jesuit (A) versus North Royalton; Big Walnut (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; and Delaware Hayes (H) versus Watkins Memorial. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Average "By Court" Performance Graph
A new graph called the Average "By Court" Performance Graph was created in time for the boys season but it never got fully utilized. The purpose of the graph is to provide the average performance of each court throughout the season. The graph works best when coaches use a similar line-up but it still shows the strengths and weaknesses of each court over time. The graph is located on each team report.
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OTZ By Court Performance Report - Click to enlarge |
Wellington played Watterson on Friday. (See graph on right). Because Wellington has played just one match, the average is the same as their first match results.
This graph is especially useful for OTZ because it helps identify the strongest players for inclusion on the OTZ Top Players Lists.
This graph is also shown on the OTZ Personalized Report to allow users to quickly scan all of the teams that they follow. (The Personalized Report automatically appears for members when they sign-in to OTZ.)
Note that this is a premium graph and users must sign-in to use it.
The season will begin in earnest this week as almost all teams begin match play. There are still a few COVID-19 holdouts as the various county and city health departments debate health risks. It is believed that if health departments take a strong stance against opening schools then that increases the potential liability issues for the schools that open. Schools; however, are not immune to the pressures of the community. The Columbus suburb of Worthington made a quick "about face" to allow extracurricular activities last week as complaints surged from parents and students. There are no easy answers for any school and all schools will have to remain flexible to get through this. It will also be interesting to see if New York's sudden eagerness to open schools late last week will have any affect on other states.
Central District Coaches, please enter your results online on OhioTennisZone to recognize your players. The box scores might no longer be provided in the Columbus Dispatch.
To view all of the matches scheduled (and posted on OTZ), click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Olentangy Wins Delaware Hayes Invite | Big Walnut Wins KVCTA
It was another perfect picture day. Several teams had tournaments yesterday. Olentangy won the Delaware Hayes Invitational. Marysville came in second. Marysville's Mallory Huffman won the singles A flight. Big Walnut won the KVCTA Invite.
Things normally start out slowly for the girls season as coaches and the newspapers get into gear. It is a bit worse this year because of the uncertainty of having a girls season. Hopefully things pick up next week.
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Ty Tucker Tennis Center - Click to enlarge |
The construction of the Ty Tucker Tennis Center on the Ohio State campus continues. It was expected to be finished in October but it may finish earlier. Thanks to the lack of traffic in Columbus, most construction jobs have progressed faster than normal.
Eagle eye photo viewers may notice an aberration or two in the photo because two photos were combined to make one. The image of the building was combined with an image of the sky. This technique is used to provide equal illumination levels.
The OTZ Top Ohio Players lists have been updated by removing the graduates. There were no "order changes" from last fall. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
SATURDAY,
First Day in the Books - Wellington Beats Watterson
Ok. Day One is in the books. Can we successfully finish Day Two? Is this how the opening paragraph will start every day of the season?
There were just two matches recorded from state-wide play. Wellington defeated Watterson by the score of 3-2 and Blanchester beat Colerain. Click on Previous Day's Match Results to view the graphs.
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Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players in the state, Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Watterson's Sara Goodlive.
OTZ attended the Wellington / Watterson match and everyone behaved with the masks. I did not know who was behaving because I cannot tell who anyone is..
The Columbus Dispatch was the gold standard with high school scores. The results were timely, the player names were spelled correctly, and the formatting was impeccable. This may be about to change. As mentioned yesterday, the Dispatch now has an extremely early cutoff time (4:00pm). This means that Thursday results will not be posted until Saturday. It is not really anyone's fault -- that is just what they had to do to survive. The paper is now printed in Indianapolis so the shipping time is substantial to get the paper copies to Columbus. To get your scores into OTZ, please consider signing up for OhioTennisZone as a Coach or Team Member. Your players deserve to be recognized and the fans, college coaches, and parents like to follow the results.
This is the ugly duckling time of the season for OhioTennisZone. The scores from last year have been removed and all but two schools have results for the 2020-2021 season. The top players who have graduated also need to be removed.
Numerous teams have entered their schedules but always check first with a player or coach first. Many of these schedules were posted before everything was sorted out with COVID-19. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. Have a match today in the Central Ohio area? Send a Feedback to OTZ.
FRIDAY,
Matches Begin Today
It was unsure if the girls season would even get this far, but here we are. Girls tennis has even gotten a break from the hot temperatures this week, and the weather is expected to be nice this weekend.
There are still a few uncertainties on how teams will proceed when they encounter positive cases, but everything has been uncertain for months so everyone should be accustomed to that.
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Whetstone at Practice on 8/3 - Click to enlarge |
There are also uncertainties when it comes to the tennis data. OhioTennisZone provides about 60% of the Columbus Dispatch's tennis scores, and that is expected to continue. The issue is that the Dispatch also provided scores to OTZ, and because the Dispatch is now printed in Indianapolis, it goes to print in the afternoons prior to the completion of most matches. As a quick example, Governor Mike DeWine's "positive test result" is the lead in today's Dispatch even though his negative test result was known by early evening. OTZ needs fresh, not day-old data, so this may be a work-in-progress for a few days. The best way to insure that OTZ quickly gets the results from your team is to sign-up for an OTZ Coach Membership and submit your scores to OTZ.
Last year's graduates were removed from the rosters last night and more system-related changes will take place today.
OTZ plans to attend the Wellington versus Watterson match this afternoon.
Wear a mask, and be nicer to each other than you would normally be, and we will get through this..
Good luck this season.
FRIDAY, JULY 31
Columbus Academy Starts Season as #1 in Division II (beta release)
On Wednesday, the Top Teams in Division I were ranked by OTZ. Today, it is Division II's turn. First though... I think we will start the tennis season with most of the private schools participating and a few of the public schools. I think high school tennis will pick up more public schools as the season progresses, especially those schools with a tennis tradition (and vocal parents). Everyone needs to be careful, but those in high-risk-class situations need to take extra precautions.
D2 has numerous great teams and many of them are in the Southwest District. In previous years, it has been difficult to come up with ten teams to include in these rankings. That is not even close to the situation this year. There are numerous notable teams and many have solid players who are returning.
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 fall.
Note that the Division II rankings are more difficult to do because D2 teams do not travel as well as Division I teams do. Why they do not travel is a complete mystery because the same school will allow teams of other sports to travel. Plus, tennis players and parents are accustomed to traveling frequently to participate in USTA tournaments so they expect to do so in high school. Please remember - Columbus remains a perfect location for teams throughout the state to meet for dual matches. Schedule a match for 11:00, another match at 3:00pm, Cane's Chicken at 5:30pm, and Graeters at 6:30pm. That said... COVID-19 will throw a wrench into many teams' travel plans this season.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Division II |
1. Columbus Academy◄TEAM  |
| 2. Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 3. Indian Hill |
| 4. Hathaway Brown◄TEAM |
| 5. Eaton |
| 6. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy |
| 7. Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| 8: Wellington◄TEAM |
| 9. Revere◄TEAM |
| 10. Hawken ◄TEAM |
| HM. Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| HM: Toledo Central Catholic |
| HM. Laurel◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes Team Membership so extensive OTZ information is available |
The TennisRecruiting.net rankings for incoming freshman players are listed below. Click on player names for their OTZ Player Profiles.
Division II
#1 Columbus Academy starts out at the number one position. They return a really good and deep team including state singles champion, Sydni Ratliff, plus Carolyn Tsung, Lauren Motta, and Emily Motta. They pick-up Arya Chabria, who is a TennisRecruiting.net 2-star.
#2 Oakwood returns most of their fourth ranked team from last year. Their top three singles players, Lily McCloskey, Sarah Hall, and Katie Ritschel, are returning as well as Natalie Connelly and Sophie Russell. Connelly and Russell reached the semi-finals at States in dubs last year. They lost Claudia Schnell and Sidney Purks to graduation.
#3 Indian Hill lost a great deal of talent from last year's team, including Hayley Hirsch and Morgan Coburn. Players returning include Bella Kirby, Jessica Budde, and Jessica August. They pick up a 3-star player, Brooke Arington.
#4 Hathaway Brown is not going to start out at #1 even though they always seem to find a way to get there at the end of the season. HB lost their 2x state singles champion, Nicole Gillinov. They also lost Melissa Kazazic. Players returning include: Alex Wolf, Olivia Gidlow, Ally Mills, Brigette Fuentes, and Ella Lynch. They pick-up Summer Mu who is a 4-star freshman. The parents on this team buy quite a few OTZ photos so they are liked by the entire OTZ staff more than your daughter's team..
#5 Eaton was new to the Top Ten last year and they retained their top players. Returning are Macy Hitchcock and a minivan full of Murphy's, including Tess Murphy, Sophia Murphy, and Grace Murphy.
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Columbus Academy - Click to enlarge |
#6 Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy is yet another strong Southwest District team. Returning players include: Lynn Kader, Kennedy Puryear, and Payton Puryear. They lost Sammie Nowitski and Gashy Kim to graduation.
#7 Archbishop Alter kept their top singles players but they also lost a few key contributors. Returning for Alter are: Grace Lampman, Emily Pojman, Soren Dinkins, and Elisebeth Collins. They also bring in some strong freshmen players. They lost Rachael Harker and Mary Stier to graduation.
#8 Wellington moves into the top ten with an experienced team. Returning are Alexis Burkhalter, Katie Zerbi, Lauren Okoye, and Olivia Vegas. Burkhalter and Zerbi finished fourth in dubs at States last season. They lost Camille Olmstead to graduation.
#9 Revere returns its entire starting lineup from last season including Morgan Dobos, Maddie Kavenagh, Nina Lazbin, Jenny Fan, and Katie Kinder. They lost Erica Price and Eda Sezer.
#10 Hawken retains their top three singles players (Eliana Yang, Molly Xiao, Tina Tewari) and three of their doubles players (Jamie Park, Ellie Faber and Cassidy Feng). They lost Sammi Fremont and Tess Namy to graduation.
HM: Seven Hills returns Shriya Sekar, Gabriella Khaskelis, Sohana Thompson, and Anika Parameswaran. They lost Annika Alper, Avital Isakov, and Anika Parameswaran.
HM: Toledo Central Catholic lost Ava McQuillin to graduation, but they still have Isabella and Lucia Spinazze as well as Ellie Hire.
HM: Laurel lost a substantial amount of talent to graduation. They were: Rachel Buchinsky, Abby Knetig, and Elizabeth Sims. Returning players include: Ellie Brotherton, Julia Bowman, and Nikhita Goel.
Most of the Division I Top Ten Teams are OTZ Team Members. It would be nice to have the same in Division II. Tennis fans and college coaches like the additional information about players. It is also a great way to engage your middle school players as they try and determine where they might fit in with your team in the future. Please consider adding a $99 OTZ Team Membership to your budget.
Feel free to submit a Feedback if any obvious schools are missing from the rankings.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29
Mason Starts Season as #1 in Division I (beta release)
And away we go.. It is time for the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten lists. Today, the Division I teams are named. The Division II Top Ten Teams will be listed tomorrow. When the Boys Pre-Season Rankings were released, the quip was that the rankings were so accurate that they would not have to be changed at all during the season. Well, that sadly turned out to be the case when the boys season was not played... Hopefully that will not be the case with the girls..
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 fall. Some of this uncertainty has already been baked into the rankings. "OTZ thanks" go to several coaches who provided feedback for the list.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Division I |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM |
| 3. Upper Arlington◄TEAM |
| 4. Notre Dame Academy◄TEAM |
| 5. Ursuline Academy |
| 6. St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM |
| 7. Olentangy Orange |
| 8. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM |
| 9. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM |
| 10. St. Joseph Academy ◄TEAM |
| HM: Solon◄TEAM |
| HM: Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM |
| HM: Brecksville |
◄TEAM - Denotes Team Membership so extensive OTZ information is available |
The TennisRecruiting.net star rankings for incoming freshmen are included below for many.
Click on player names for their OhioTennisZone Player Profiles.
Division I
#1 Mason is the defending Division I champion and they start the season at #1. They return a great deal of depth but they lost key contributors to graduation. Returning players include: Shyla Aggarwal, Annie Kruse, Anna Tonkal, and Raina Chada. They lost Ananya Aggarwal, Sanjana Reddy, Emma Kruse, and Kelly Reid to graduation.
#2 Magnificat finished last season as #2 in the state. They return: Audrey Smitek, Alexis Ospelt, Kayra Koprulu, and Caroline Moritz. They pick up Natalie Smitek who is a 3-star player and who is probably somehow related to Audrey.. They lost Olivia Rondini to graduation.
#3 Upper Arlington represented the Central District in the Final Four last year and they return with another strong team. Their players include: Ella Hazelbaker, Megan Basil, Ava Richard, and Noah Mizer. They lost Wendy Shi and Sarah Marti to graduation.
#4 Notre Dame Academy returns a strong team. Their players include: Lilly Black, Ellie Assenmacher, and Olivia Assenmacher. They lost Tierney Sturgeon and Megan Ohlinger to graduation.
#5 Ursuline Academy returns Nina Dhaliwal, Bridget Estes, Brigid Lynch, and Jane Kronenberger. They did not lose any starters to graduation.
#6 St. Ursula Academy returns most of their players including Elizabeth Pendergast, Kathleen Davin, and Eugenia Campos. They lost Lucy Aberg, Kellie Hannan, and Devyn Stoddard to graduation. They also pick-up 3-star freshman Emily Jennewein.
#7 Olentangy Orange took some big hits from graduation but they return Caroline Sproule, Tyler Reed, and Karol Korotkin. They also pick-up Ellie Logan. Erin Storrer and Kortney Reed graduated.
#8 North Canton Hoover reportedly has a stronger team than last year, which finished 10th in the state. They return Lilly Altman, Izzy Warburton, and Claire Wood. They pick up Tess Bucher, a 4-star freshman. They remain Utterback neutral after losing Laurel Utterback to graduation but gaining Addyson Utterback. They also lost Abby Altman and Alexia Guira to graduation.
#9 Dublin Jerome has Lalasa Nagireddy, Arya Dudipala, and Ella Oleson returning. Jerome lost State dubs finalists, Katherine Wang and Reagan Resor, to graduation.
#10 St. Joseph Academy returns Tia Clemens, Delia Guzic, and Mary Kate Kahl. They pick up Amara Brahmbhatt who is a 4-star freshman. SJA grads were Melissa Martin and Kerrigan Ponsart.
Other teams on the radar include Solon (Niya Fried and Eliana Chelnick), Olentangy Liberty (Maddie Atway and Dani Schoenly), and Brecksville (Catherina Iltchev and Lakshmy Arakoni).
Feel free to submit a Feedback if you mistakingly believe that a team was overlooked.. Please provide specific reasons why.
TUESDAY,
OTZ Girls State Team Draws Now Available
The OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws are now online.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to go 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 promptly updated throughout the season. Please click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament Participation- Click to enlarge |
The number of girls teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year. This year, there is a decrease. In fact, this is the lowest number of teams in the last six years. There are 117 teams participating. The number of girls teams by year is: 2015 - 134, 2016 - 133, 2017 - 132, 2018 - 132, 2019 - 124, and 2020 - 117. As shown in the graph, Southwest has the most participants and Northwest has the least. Out of the 398 OHSAA girls tennis teams, 29% of the teams are competing this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
FRIDAY,
In One More Week..
The OHSAA Girls Season begins in just one more week. We hope. Today's posting includes a variety of items. It provides: the key dates for the season; OTZ member information; OTZ Top 10 team update; why Top 10 teams are encouraged to be OTZ Team Members; and why graduates are still included on team rosters.
OhioTennisZone.com
|
| Aug. 1 (S): First Day of Coaching |
| Aug. 1 (S)-2: USTA MW Level 2's -- G14, G16, G18, B14, B16, B18 |
| Aug. 7 (F): High School Match Play Begins |
| Aug. 9 (U)-16: |
| Aug. 16 (U): |
| Aug. 29 (S): SAT Date |
| Sep. 8 (S)-9: USTA MW Level 3's -- G14, G16, G18, B14, B16, B18 |
| Sep. 8 (T): Non-Interscholastic Date |
| Sep. 12 (S): |
| Sep. 18 (F)-20: Rosh Hashanah |
| Sep. 20 (U): Waiver Extension Ends |
| Sep. 27 (U): Sectional Draw |
| Sep. 27 (U)-28: Yom Kippur |
| Oct. 5 (M)-Oct. 10: Sectional Tournament |
| Oct. 3 (S): SAT Date |
| Oct. 12 (M)-17: District Tournament |
| Oct. 23 (F)-24: State Tournament |
| Oct. 25 (U): State Team Tournament |
| Oct. 24 (S): ACT Date |
| Oct. 31 (S): HS Season Ends |
The key dates for the season are included in the table. It also includes the dates of several high level USTA tournaments, key testing dates, holidays, and, of course, the key OHSAA dates. This calendar will remain in the right-side navigation bar during the entire season.
There are two events that are included but crossed out (Western & Southern Open High School day and USTA National Championships) because it is worthwhile to keep them in mind for future years.
If you are currently an OTZ Member, there is no need to go through the sign-up process again for OhioTennisZone. Please just mail or PayPal your payment to OhioTennisZone.com.
OTZ will soon post its Pre-Season Top 10 Team lists after it is clear where players are going to attend school and which girls are playing high school tennis.
It is highly encouraged that the OTZ Top 10 teams become OTZ Team Members. OhioTennisZone provides the teams in the Top 10 with a great deal of recognition and coverage. This recognition is very helpful because many middle school kids follow OTZ and they want to be a part of a program which has a winning tradition. It is a complete no-brainer for private schools to be team members because attracting strong tennis players also means more tuition dollars for the school, but it also makes sense for public schools, too. Consider an OTZ Team Membership as the cheapest and most effective advertisement that you can buy, plus it is focused on the absolute perfect audience for your program. Click on Join OTZ for more information about being a team, coach, or individual OTZ member.
Note that graduates are still included on rosters. Many fans like to see which players have graduated. Note to coaches - OTZ will remove the graduates as match play begins. It is unnecessary for coaches to remove them.
MONDAY, JULY
Junior Competition Ramping Up
Columbus-area adults may have gotten back on the courts first, but junior tennis continues to ramp up as players pursue competition.
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St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur - Click to enlarge |
OTZ went on a field trip to Indianapolis to take photos of a Cracked Racquets Open Tournament that was held at local park and country club on June 12-14. It was nice to talk with the players and parents again and be back on the court to take photos. The draw was expected to be for 32 players and they quickly expanded it to 64 with several on the waiting list. Players from Ohio included: St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur, St. Charles' Reece Yakubov, Springboro's Sainandan Dore, Preston Stearns, Seven Hill alum and Michigan State's Nick Williams, UA alum and Mary Washington's Brandon Griffin, Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu, Olentangy Liberty's Vishnu Bodavula, Mason's Anish Gangavaram and Vignesh Gogineni, Benjamin Pomeranets, Chad Miller, New Albany's Ryan Mudre and Devin Boyer, and Westlake's Aris Jhaveri. Many photos were Tweeted from that tournament via @OhioTennisZone.
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St. Charles' Reece Yakubov - Click to enlarge |
There are a wide assortment of tournaments coming up in July and August for players in a variety of skill levels. (Click the month links above to view those tournaments within 200 miles of Columbus.) It was especially nice to see the District and Sectional USTA tournaments re-added to the schedule albeit with lower draw sizes. While the Midwest Closed was canceled, there were several tournaments created in its place to help identify those who deserve to represent the Midwest Section at the National Championships.
While there are a large number of tournaments, some of the Ohio tournaments include: Cracked Rackets Hard Courts National Preview at St. Xavier HS on July 17-19, Elysium Girls G14, 16, 18 Compass Draw on July 18-19, and Dublin Coffman Summer Open (various ages) on July 21-23.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have risen sharply recently but most of those are being blamed on those zany millennials who crowd into bars. The 90+ degree temperatures have not helped and are no doubt forcing many into confined spaces indoors. As long as people behave and wear their masks indoors and in outdoor confined spaces, hopefully the numbers can be managed. Thankfully the hospitalization and death totals are still in check. It would at least be nice to think that those who are especially risk-adversed can now manage their situation. Several new COVID-19 graphs were posted today on Twitter @OhioTennisZone.
THURSDAY, JUNE
Greater Columbus Tennis Association Adult League Ready to Roll
It has been a tough year for tennis players and for tennis fans. There is finally some good news for Columbus-area adults who enjoy playing. The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) launches its tennis season for adult players this weekend. The men start on Saturday, June 20, and the women begin on Monday, June 22. It took a great deal of behind-the-scene efforts to make this happen, but the waiting will be worth it.
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WHCC's Scott West - Click to enlarge |
There are special rules and a waiver that players must agree to and sign in order to participate. Click to view the most recent documents.
- Special COVID-19 Rules & Assumption of Risk and Release Agreement
- Team Assumption of Risk and Release of Liability Form
Also note the email to members sent by GCTA President Geoff Bibo.
There are 160 women's teams and 68 men's teams competing this year on teams from public courts and private clubs. Approximately 3,000 players will participate, which makes the GCTA one of the largest tennis leagues in the nation. For more information about the GCTA, click on GCTA.net.
Special thanks go to the GCTA executive committee: Geoff Bibo (President), Aaron Ockerman (Vice President), Lori Brown (Women's Chair), Bill Curry (Men's Chair), and Terri Jones (Executive Director). They worked long hours to work through the issues that is allowing this year's season to be played.
Great job, Columbus!
FRIDAY, MAY
Recognizing Findlay's Drew Swisher
The fourth OTZ interview of the season is with Northwest Ohio's and Findlay's Drew Swisher. In the "It's a Small World" [link] department, Swisher's home would almost be within view of my grandparent's home on the edge of Findlay (if my grandparent's home was still standing).
As with the other seniors, Swisher's tennis goals are transforming into other goals as he moves onto college this fall. Swisher will be attending Ohio State and he plans to major in a health or medical field. While he intends to be at the OSU Main Campus (in Columbus), he may temporarily switch to the OSU Lima campus for the first semester if OSU switches to digital-only classes. Other colleges that he considered included: Ohio Northern, University of Cincinnati, and the school that got beat by Appalachian State in football.
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Findlay's Drew Swisher at States - Click to enlarge |
He is an OTZ-approved math/science student. He took three AP's (Chem, Stats, and Calc) at Findlay. He enjoyed AP Chem the most. Swisher also loaded up his curriculum with other science courses.
His interest in the medical field may be influenced by his mother, Allison, who is a physical therapist. It is probably safe to say that every sports family would benefit from having a physical therapist in the household. Swisher's father is Sean and he is also the Findlay high school tennis coach. Sean's day job is the Findlay School District assistant treasurer. Swisher's siblings are Sam, who will be an eighth grader next year, and Sydney, who will be a junior. Sam may eventually find himself on the Findlay team.
Swisher benefited from playing other sports (soccer and baseball) early on. "I started playing tennis in the 5th grade after most of the other sports didn’t work out. I liked all the other sports but I never really fell in love with a sport. I found my sport in tennis. I would hit on my garage all the time and I took lessons whenever I could. My dad had played tennis for years and he helped me pursue the sport. My mom doesn’t really play but my siblings do."
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Swisher at the State Team Tourn. - Click to enlarge |
Swisher had hoped to build on his tennis successes last year with another trip to States and the State Team Tournament. "Max's [Max Hosey] and my goal after States last year was to make it back and try to get to day two of State's. We had won a tight first round match [against Olentangy Liberty's Vishnu Bodavula / Marcelo Aguilar] and ran into the two buzzsaws that were the two freshmen from Mason [Vignesh Gogineni / Anish Gangavaram]. We worked from that point on to improve our doubles skills and chemistry." Swisher and Hosey's success against Liberty could be attributed to their underdog mentality, plus they executed the basics by returning and serving well.
Swisher's favorite tennis stroke is his forehand, but he can counter-punch effectively thanks to his speed. He stated that my "defensive game is stronger than my offensive game" When asked about what he enjoyed most about high school tennis, he replied, "I liked the team atmosphere the most. The best times were in the van on the way to matches and the feeling watching a deciding court when the match score was 2-2. I guess I’ll miss the bonds I made with my teammates."
In addition to liking tennis, Swisher also has a great interest and knowledge of the various brands and models of tennis racquets. He personally uses Babolot Pure Strike with Laserfibre Smooth (co-poly) string. Swisher also has a tennis stringer and that could come in handy if he decides to play for the OSU club team.
While OTZ usage is sparse in Northwest Ohio, Swisher does use OhioTennisZone. "I liked how OTZ covered the state tournament. The live draw was awesome and I liked how everyone had a picture by their name on the draw." (Click for the 2019 OTZ State draw.)
Swisher's service projects at Findlay included running their summer tennis camp. "I felt like this was the best way for me to pass on the love of tennis to my community."
He is a social media user. Snapchat is his favorite, followed by Twitter (@SwisherDrew), and Instagram.
Coach Swisher shared this about his son, " Drew is a player that played #1 singles since his freshman year. He loved the team aspect of the sport and being part of a team. Nothing got Drew more fired up than a team win even if his court didn’t go his way. He also loved the challenge of playing #1 no matter how tough the opponent was. While having the coach/dad/ player relationship was tough at times he will be certainly missed next year."
Best of luck to Drew at Ohio State next fall.
THURSDAY, MAY
Recognizing Wellington's Trevor Ball
The third OTZ interview of the year is with Wellington's Trevor Ball. Rather than talking about his tennis goals, he would have no doubt hoped to fulfill them this week at States. Ball's goals were to "win a third team state championship, and bring home Wellington's first singles state championship. I also wanted to have our doubles team win states as well." With all of its key players returning from last year's championship team, Wellington was in a great position to run the table.
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Wellington's Trevor Ball - Click to enlarge |
Ball got involved with tennis early. "I started playing tennis when I was about five years old. My father played college tennis and as soon as he put a racquet in my hand I didn’t want to put it down. We would be in the driveway and he would toss balls at me while I would launch them into the street."
His father, Dale, played D1 tennis at Edinboro, a college in Pennsylvania, where he had a big forehand. He is a sales executive at the Columbus Dispatch. His mother, Darla, is a human resource recruiter. Ball also has a brother, Princeton (LinkedIn link), who is a 2016 Wellington School grad and a recent grad at Fordham (in Bronx, NY). Ball also has an older sister named D’jovanna.
Ball has not yet made a college choice. "I’m still in process with my college decision due to COVID-19. The colleges I’m considering are Xavier University, University of Dayton, Marquette University and Southwestern University." Ball is ranked 213 in the nation in TennisRecruiting.net and he has a UTR of 10.76. These rankings/ratings would give him an opportunity to contribute on any of the above teams. Ball's interest in college is a degree in business and more specifically in marketing. [Update on June 26, 2020: Ball will be playing for Northern Kentucky University this fall. His UTR ranking would place him sixth on NKU's current roster.]
His favorite stroke is his backhand down the line. His weapon is his serve. "I've been working a lot on it and I am able to get some free points with it. There are so many different variations of the serve and I love to mix it up with topspin, slice, flat, etc." His first serve clocks in at the 105-110 mph range.
Ball was not a fan of distance learning during COVID-19 at Wellington. Wellington held classes at their regular times via Zoom. He would have preferred being with his friends. "I wouldn’t say I’m a math, science, or humanities student, my favorite/best subject in school is history. I've always had a fascination with history and it’s made me work harder in that subject." Wellington primarily has honors classes so it does not provide any AP's. A recent hobby that Ball has picked up because of the COVID-19 break is learning Morse code.
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GCTA Jr Players of the Yr for 2019 - Click to enlarge |
Why play high school tennis? "I love the energy about high school tennis during a match and looking to your left and seeing everyone from your school coming out to watch you and cheer you on is a great feeling. It makes it even better with a winning team. It makes more and more people want to come, watch and cheer. I would say the thing I like best about high school tennis is storming the court after a big win."
As for the obligatory, "What do you use on OhioTennisZone" question which forces players to actually get on and use OhioTennisZone, Ball responded, "My favorite thing to read on OTZ is the daily reports. Especially after a big win from any team, it’s fascinating to see the results. I also visit the photos, read through the top Ohio boys and see the different teams in the four districts."
Thanks to Ball's performance last season at States and at the State Team Tournament, he earned the Greater Columbus Tennis Association's Male Junior Player of the Year Award.
As for social media, Ball maintains the team's Instagram account. Unlike many on his team, he is not a Twitter user.
For his high school service projects, Ball commented, "I have been involved with various service projects, including the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. I worked with Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated and we donated food to the food bank and also created packages for senior citizens. I worked with my Dad and his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, on their Annual Turkey Drive where we gave turkeys and side items to families in need in under-served communities". He has also worked in various activities with the residents at the Heinzerling Foundation, a foundation that supports and cares for the severely disabled.
Coach Tommy Haddow shared this about Ball, "I've been very fortunate to have coached such a special talent. Ever since I first met Trevor four years ago, he has brought energy and has always placed the team ahead of himself. As a two year captain, he has led by example with his work ethic and focus as well as vocally supporting his team. Last year he was injured and missed some early matches, and you could see the guys play for Trevor, their captain. When he returned, the whole team elevated their games due to Trevor being back, all the guys worked for each other, following Trevor's example. As an individual competitor, Trevor always gave 100% at all practices and I could always count on him working his hardest during matches. During the off season he works extremely hard and has really dedicated himself to getting better and better. He will have a very successful college career." Ball also worked part-time during the summer, coaching Wellington students in their summer school program.
Since he was injured during his second year in the 16's, Ball has not yet played at at the USTA Boys National Championships in Kalamazoo. Hopefully he will still have an opportunity to win a spot for The 'Zoo at this year's Midwest Closed (which, unfortunately, is still currently canceled).
WEDNESDAY, MAY
Time to Play Tennis Again
Yesterday marked the first day that players can technically play tennis in Ohio again. Even though it may have been "illegal" for players to hit, many continued to do so because they received permission to hit on private courts and/or they found obscure courts where nets remained up and/or the gates unlocked.
In normal times, this would have also been the start of States week. Of course, right on schedule, temperatures are soaring which could have made things difficult for Ohio players since many would not have been able to fully acclimate themselves to the heat.
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UA Courts Reopen - Click to enlarge |
Initially, tennis received permission to resume earlier than other sports because of its relatively safe social distancing aspects. Since then, essentially all Ohio high school sports have re-opened with social distancing rules in mind.
While players can now train in earnest again, they have nothing to train for. All of the USTA Ohio District tournaments were canceled early-on. Even the USTA Midwest Closed, which was scheduled for June 20, was canceled. Fortunately, conditions are changing so rapidly that these tournaments can still be rescheduled, but unfortunately, not all organizations (and/or the facilities in which they are played) are nimble enough to take advantage of the recent CDC changes and the better understanding of the health risks.
For administrators, missing a year may not be a huge deal but our juniors do not get to re-do this year. The Midwest Closed is critical for those in the 16-18 age brackets. For those who want to play in college, it provides players with great matches against strong competition and it gives the Midwest-area college coaches an opportunity to watch them play. If Michigan State is not available, a 16-18 Closed in Indianapolis would be far better than none at all.
Thankfully a few USTA Sections are allowing their players to compete in their versions of the Midwest Closed. Thus far, the Southern, Southern California, and Southwest Sections have rescheduled their tournaments.
Hopefully the USTA Midwest Closed tournament will be rescheduled soon for late June or July.
THURSDAY,
Photos for Mother's Day
Stumped on what to get for your mom for Mother's Day? Join everyone else. Stores are not open and Amazon is delayed. You cannot even take your mother out for lunch or dinner. And while you could prepare the Mother's Day lunch, no one really wants to go to the hospital for food poisoning, especially now.
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Liberty's Dani Schoenly |
Dani Schoenly - Click to enlarge |
OhioTennisZone is here to help. If you saw me sitting beside your player's court during the season, then there is a reasonable chance that I took a photo of your child.
How do you see the photos? Just sign-in and look for your player.
The prices start at $19.99/photo and decrease in price with quantity. Click for the entire price list. For a limited time only, OTZ will size a photo to work well on your mother's (and grandmother's) cell phone. (If your grandmother has a cell phone, then you are in charge of explaining how to use the photo of her (now) favorite grandchild to her phone's wallpaper.)
One other thing.. It is never (ever) ok to use an OhioTennisZone photo for any purposes of any kind at any time for any reason (OK. I think it is becoming clear..) unless the photo has been purchased from OhioTennisZone. This includes Tweets, Facebook posting, Instagram, etc. Stealing photos is simply the same as shoplifting or "dining and dashing". Camera gear and computer gear is extremely expensive and I also value the time in which I travel to matches and sit on a hard court to take these photos. Never take an OTZ photo. Ever. OTZ prices are extremely reasonable - especially when compared with getting a senior photo. These are professional level photos and are comparable to any in Sports Illustrated or Tennis Magazine.
Click for more insight from the Guardians of the Galaxy stars on pilfering photos.
Have any questions? Please submit a Feedback or send an email.
TUESDAY, MAY
Recognizing University School's Chas Norman
The boys season will not get played this year, but OTZ recognition of the state's top seniors will continue.
Chas Norman from University School had set high team and individual goals this season - winning both Team States and the State singles title. He will have an opportunity to continue tennis collegiately when he attends the United States Coast Guard this fall.
Norman comes from a tennis family. "I started playing when I was about five years old, and started playing tournaments when I was nine. I got started when my dad put a racquet in my four-year-old hand and we started hitting balloons over the couch. While that isn’t exactly tennis, I am told it was fun. My mom (Mary) plays on several USTA teams, my sister (Irene) plays for the US Naval Academy, and my dad (Chuck) plays whenever his knees allow him. My grandfather taught my father to play, and one of my favorite memories was when he came to watch my team win States freshman year." Irene (OTZ link and Navy link) is studying oceanography at the Naval Academy. His father works in Information Technology at JOANN Stores in the Cleveland area. His mother home-schooled Irene and Chas and she is a community volunteer. The Norman Family was also recognized as the Ralph W. Westcott USTA Family of the Year Award in 2017.
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US' Chas Norman at 2019 States - Click to enlarge |
Norman had considered a number of colleges. "I wanted to go to a military academy, and the Coast Guard tennis program had the plus of recruiting me to play tennis there. I was also considering the US Naval Academy, Denison, Xavier, and Sewanee, among others." He is an OTZ-approved math/science student. " I love working with computers (having built my own) and want to pursue a career in cybersecurity which, as you can imagine, will require a little bit of math."
Norman has taken home schooling in stride. "The most beneficial thing in my time at home has been my previous experience homeschooling [with his mother, Mary] (kindergarten through 8th grade). I already knew how to work from my house, so it’s been a kind of return to tradition for me." Norman then shifted to University School for high school.
Norman has taken five AP courses -- two last year (History and English) and three this year (BC Calc, Computer Science, and Satire in Fiction). His favorite AP was the satire course thanks to his teacher, Dr. Lee Fallon. As for how the students are getting through school-at-home, Norman replied, "They've given us more homework at home than when we were in school." The school uses Zoom to interact with its students and Norman also uses Khan Academy to help him with math concepts.
His on-court strategy is to use his big forehand to get his opponent on the defensive. As for his other shots, "My favorite shot is a backhand overhead. It’s always entertaining for me since I don’t actually see the court when I hit it so I could turn around to find I’ve hit a winner or hit it into the bottom of the net. My weapon is most likely my ability and comfort in playing anywhere on the court, but especially at the net." His approach was effective last year when he finished fourth at States. Norman had reached States twice before in doubles (with Charlie Joranko in 2018 and Danny Godes in 2017). The Coast Guard is a Division III school that competes in the New England Women's and Men's Athletics Conference. As a TennisRecruiting.net 3-star, Norman should have an opportunity to play in both singles and doubles as an underclassman. He can hit his first serve in the 100-110mph range.
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With late grandfather, Charles, at NA - Click to enlarge |
Why did Norman play high school tennis? "I like the way it brings individual players together and forces them to work with each other toward a common goal. Beyond doubles partners that kind of team effort practically never happens outside of the high school season, and certainly never in USTA tournaments."
He normally plays in the Northeast Qualifier and Midwest Close but the Closed conflicts with boot camp. Norman will arrive at Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut on June 29 where he will be indoctrinated into the military over the next seven weeks.
As for the obligatory, "What do you use on OhioTennisZone" question which forces players to actually get on and use OhioTennisZone, Norman responded, " I have consistently used your site for the State tournament draws and opinions. I’ll admit that I haven’t perused your site often but the articles I’ve been sent by my parents from you never fail to amuse and inform me."
For his service projects, "I have run fundraisers for the Sean Karl Foundation for the past four years of high school. I chose this charity because it is a cause related to tennis that I appreciate. Additionally, as I think you already know, I volunteer as a ballboy for the Western & Southern Open (see photo) in Cincinnati, something I’ve also done for the past four years. It is a lot of fun and a plus is that it helps support children’s hospitals in Cincinnati."
Norman is not a big user of social media, but he was encouraged by the Coast Guard to participate with their Facebook page.
His coach, Adam Atwell, shared this about Norman. "As a sophomore he was elected captain and thrust into the role of leading a team that had just graduated five seniors. Chas has grown into that role over the past three years with his competitive spirit on the court and dedication in the weight room. He is disarmingly earnest and strives to give his very best in every practice session or drill. Though we all missed out on a great many new memories that would have come from this season, the coaches and younger players on our team will still hold on to the example he set over the last four years."
Best of luck to Chas Norman with his plans at the Coast Guard Academy.
THURSDAY, APRIL
High School ACT Performance Data Now Available
A few OTZ fans may recall this.. Before there was an OhioTennisZone.com, there was a GerberAnalytics.com web site that provided detailed high school performance information on public and private high schools. The site used the Ohio Graduation Test data for comparisons but those tests were largely eliminated about five years ago. Well..
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Ursuline Academy - Click to report |
The Ohio Graduation Test was replaced by the ACT and SAT, with the ACT making up approximately 80% of the schools. After searching for a source for this data, the Ohio Department of Education provided access to the ACT data and it is now included on the GerberAnalytics.com web site. While the 80% includes a large number of Ohio's public and Catholic high schools, there are many private schools and higher-end public schools that take the SAT.
The plan was to process this data after the boys high school tennis season, but there was unfortunately time to do it over the last few weeks...
Similar to the OGT data, the ACT results are the mean results from students who have taken the test during the same school year. For the OGT it was taken at the end of the students' sophomore year. The ACT is taken mid-year for juniors. It is especially important to emphasize that while many students take/re-take the ACT multiple times, these tests were administered during the same time period for those in the junior class.
More analysis capabilities will eventually be added to this web site but the current reports easily and quickly allow education enthusiasts to compare subject data within the same school and to easily compare the results of two schools.
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St. Charles Preparatory - Click to report |
Not surprisingly, the top OGT schools are at the top for the ACT rankings as well. For the 2019 tests, Ursuline Academy (Cincinnati) led the way with the highest composite mean score. They were followed by St. Charles Preparatory (Columbus). Other schools in the top five include: St. Xavier (Cincinnati), Ottawa Hills (Toledo), and Wyoming (Cincinnati).
While there are other good sources to evaluate schools using a number of sources (i.e. ODE Report Cards), this web site provides a "performance only" approach.
As parents select a school for their children, it is recommended that parents look beyond the numbers to view schools through a variety of lenses to identify the best school for their student. As our family evaluated high schools, we attended basketball games and tennis matches to watch the kids and their parents. We also talked with numerous graduates of the school and their parents to see how well the students were prepared for college.
To go to the Gerber Analytics, LLC home page for education, click GerberAnalytics.com/ogt/ogt.php. Select >> Find School By Name << to find your school.
For questions, please submit an OTZ Feedback.
TUESDAY, APRIL
Recognizing Ursuline's Greg Morgione
While the season is in (serious) doubt, there is little doubt that it is time to recognize several of Ohio’s best senior players. The first player to be recognized this spring is Ursuline’s Greg Morgione. Morgione finished second last year in singles at States in Division II, and Ursuline finished fourth in the final OTZ State Team Rankings.
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Ursuline's Greg Morgione at '19 Dist - Click to enlarge |
Morgione is an OTZ-approved math-science guy. He has taken eight AP classes and he has enjoyed AP Statistics and AP Computer Science (with the Python programming language) more than the others.
Morgione plans to major in finance at nearby Youngstown State where his father, Greg, is an attorney. As a huge employee benefit, YSU provides its employees with free tuition for their children. Thanks to several academic scholarships, Morgione will also get most (if not all) of his room and board expenses covered. Morgione's mother, Kristin, is a Canfield middle school special education teacher. His sister, Anna, is a sophomore at Ursuline and she reached Districts in tennis last fall. His brother, William, is in seventh grade. William also plays tennis.
Morgione had planned to compete in a few USTA tournaments to prepare for the high school season, but those were canceled due to COVID-19. He primarily plays tennis during the high school season rather than year-round. He normally does play in the Northeast Qualifier and at the Midwest Closed but he does not plan to play in those tournaments this year. "I like competing for my school more than anything. I sense I am not as motivated for USTA events compared to school events and it results in me playing better for my school. I'm not sure if it's because I can get recognition for it, or that I love my school." Youngstown State does not have a club team so this season may be his last hurrah in competitive tennis.
Much of our conversation dealt with how Morgione was faring with "at home" school during the COVID-19 shutdown. He shared that "Most of my classmates do not like it at all and they find it almost impossible to learn online." Morgione, on the other hand, has adapted to it quite well. He intermixes studies with exercise and he added, "It leaves me with more time to do things I like it because I'm good with managing my time. I get a list of assignments and then I get the entire day to finish it. Some of my friends sleep in until 2:00pm, then mess around, and then they have to work until 11:00pm every night. I get up early and complete half of the homework and then work out and that refreshes my mind so that when I go back to it in an hour or so later, I'm more productive." Morgione felt that after experiencing online school he would be more apt to taking online classes in college, especially for the elective courses.
As for Morgione's tennis goals this year is, "My goals are/were to get my team back to the State Final Four over anything else. It was my fault last year that we were not at full strength on the last day of the season and that’s what I thought of most during the offseason. I never really took a huge leadership role before, but I was trying my best this year to get everyone locked in for what we could accomplish."
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Ursuline's Greg Morgione at 2018 Dist - Click to enlarge |
After an extremely difficult Saturday at States, he is; however, a little hard on himself with the above comment. Both Morgione and Wellington's Trevor Ball ended up being heat casualties after their semi-final match. Morgione said that his match with Ball was one of his best. "Trevor was up 5-2 and I was serving love-40." Gaining confidence as the crowd grew, Morgione came back and won that set 7-6. Even though Ball won the second set, 5-7, he had no energy for the third and Morgione won it 6-0. Neither Ball nor Morgione could compete in their next match. Morgione spent the night in the hospital getting re-hydrated so that he could get back on the court on Sunday for the State Team Tournament.
Morgione plays an all-court game, but he stated that "I like my backhand more than any shot, especially on the run when I'm open stanced. It flows better for me compared to my forehand which sometimes is glitchy. I think too much on my forehand, so I actually prefer when someone tries to attack the backhand." Morgione is a TennisRecruiting.net two-star.
As for the obligatory, "What do you use on OhioTennisZone" question which forces players to actually get on and use OhioTennisZone, Morgione responded, "I always keep my eyes on the rankings on the right side of the page. I also do like seeing the scores of every match on a team's profile. I don't use it to scout for my own match, but I use it to get a better understanding of the team we are about to play."
As for his service projects, "Our tennis team has been volunteering with Buddy Up Tennis and did that periodically in the offseason. I am in various service clubs at Ursuline, but it's more about volunteering for single events throughout the year and rather than doing ongoing projects."
In addition to tennis, Morgione played basketball prior to incurring a knee injury during his sophomore year. Last season was his first tennis season at full-strength from the injury. He still plays some soccer. He prefers watching basketball over anything else including tennis. He also uses Twitter (@greg_morgione), TikTok, and Snapchat.
Ursuline Coach Kent Blacksher gets his team together once a week via Zoom. Through a shared contact, Coach Blacksher, even got Paul Anacone to talk with the boys to help keep them motivated. Coach Blacksher also shared this about Morgione, "Greg is the type of player every coach wishes they had. Not just because he's an elite athlete, but because of the way he handles his business. Hard worker, fantastic teammate, incredible intelligence".
Let's hope that we get to see him play this season.
MONDAY, APRIL
This Is Why We Need High School Tennis This Spring
What matters to everything is that football be played this fall. Ohio high school tennis could help pave the way to make this to happen.
Here are some ground rules as you read this document: 1) Do not mix POST-COVID-19 thinking with PRE-COVID-19 rules and thinking. There is now only POST-COVID-19 thinking. 2) What is done for this season does not necessarily create a precedence going forward for anything else. It may create some great new ideas but those ideas need to be tabled and reviewed later. 3) And finally, some schools, some players, and some coaches will be left behind because of their particular situations. That's ok.
Let's get the big one out of the way first.
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Time to open this up @ UA Courts - Click to enlarge |
1. The statement, "Buildings need to be open and students need to physically be in classrooms before sports can be played.", is a fallacy. This is pure PRE-COVID-19 thinking. COVID-19 is not a snow storm where conditions were too bad to attend school on Friday morning, but sports enthusiasts still wanted to play that night's basketball game. Students *are* in school. If they were not, then PRE-COVID-19 rules and thinking would prevent all of the students from advancing to the next grade level. In some communities it may be entirely appropriate to open a school building for students for learning, but this is probably not the case for most communities. Again, do not mix PRE- and POST-COVID-19 thinking.
2. The "building" does not need to be open, but it may be necessary to lease a porta john. Many facilities already have restrooms available without opening the entire school. Plus, tennis players can arrive at their practices and matches "ready to play" because no dressing room is necessary. Think about it -- how often is an entire school building open for any sporting event?
3. It may not be appropriate for *all* of the athletes to participate and that is ok. Do not shut down an entire sport because of a low percentage of players who cannot play. Some players may be cared for by their grandparents or by parents who are in high-risk categories. *Any* risk may be unacceptable for them. Families should do what is best for them.
4. The virus is fragile and cannot tolerate outdoor conditions such as ultra-violet light and wind. The social distancing requirements have not been reconsidered for outdoor activities even though it is common sense that they should be. Fair weather states are faring among the best. California, Florida, Arizona, and Hawaii have 1,180, 774, 184, and 10 deaths, respectively. States where people are cooped up and death totals are high include: New York (18,298) and New Jersey (4,362). (These numbers are as of April 20, 2020.) This may be the first and only time when Hilliard Davidson is a perfect location for the state tennis tournament. (Hilliard Davidson is a wind tunnel.)
5. The virus cannot infect via skin contact alone. It requires that people touch their faces with their hands. Using hand sanitizers and washing hands are the great ways to protect against the virus. To be extra safe, players could be assigned their own two balls and only handle and serve with those two balls. Many scheduled matches will not be played so there are an ample number of balls already in coaches' inventories.
6. Tennis matches are not packed with spectators. Who knew that this would ever be a benefit for high school tennis? Social distancing is not even a remote problem. Plus, fans and those players not competing could be asked to wear masks. In some cases, fans can watch matches from their vehicles.
7. Transportation will be an issue but it is not insurmountable. All players can walk, ride bikes, or drive cars to their school. For "away" matches, bus riders can open the windows and spread out. In some cases, several vehicles may need to be taken and older coaches may need to ride separate from the team. For some schools, parents are already responsible for getting their players to all events (for home and away matches) so this is not even an issue. Again, masks may be required for all riders.
8. Most players, fans, and coaches will want to start hitting balls on May 4. (OTZ is in this camp.) Understand that some players, parents, and coaches will have reasons not to play. Everyone needs to evaluate their own risk / reward ratio.
9. While all of the outdoor spring sports are infinitely better in social distancing than the indoor winter sports (i.e. wrestling), tennis carries the least amount of risk of any of the spring sports because it is ideal for social distancing. Likewise, some of the track and field events (i.e. shot put, long jump) are also well suited. Are the other spring sports sports "safe"? Is tennis "safe"? No one really knows. Tennis teams are small and there is no player contact. This also is not just about sports -- anything inside that can be moved outside (i.e. choir practice) should be considered for restarting.
OHSAA needs tennis to enable them to experiment with new rules and compliance issues associated with restarting sports. For example, will fans wear masks if asked? Will all players put a container of hand sanitizer in their pockets for frequent use? Should fans and competitors be "temperature checked" prior to any event? If so, how long will it take to obtain temperature readings and how should it be done?
It was a hard decision for Governor DeWine to say "no" and shut down the Arnold Classic but it was the right decision. It will be an equally difficult decision to say "yes", but outdoor spring tennis may offer the right level of risk to slowly crack open the door, especially since tennis is not played in all Ohio high schools. This is an opportunity for Ohio to innovatively lead the way and show the rest of the nation how sports can safely restart.
If you care about football, tennis is how we get to football this fall.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Gradually. Methodically. Carefully.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL
High School VR Table Tennis -- It's Time to Compete Again.
Players are bouncing off of the walls in boredom and there is no definitive time-frame on when (if) the boys high school tennis season will resume. But.. There is a way to compete again..
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COVID virus larger than actual size - Click to enlarge |
Thanks to virtual reality, players can compete against each other while maintaining miles of social distancing between competitors. COVID-19 will not have a chance to compete against this..
Unfortunately the physics and the movement involved with tennis make it almost impossible to have a life-like, skilled simulation, but it is very possible to do this with table tennis. For the past week, OTZ has been testing the Oculus Quest VR gaming system and a game called Eleven. This is *not* a traditional video game. The "physics" associated with this game (such as spins, angles, etc.) are life-like and reviewers have commented that it improves their actual table tennis skills.
OTZ has been playing with a friend in Worthington (a Columbus suburb) which is a few miles from the Columbus-based, OTZ headquarters. The matches are fun and competitive, and for the time being, OTZ has been victorious (but that will no doubt change very soon). It is also easy for me to talk with my friend while we play.
Yes, it is pretty expensive, but it is comparable with other gaming systems. It is also the future and it would be helpful for the entire family to be aware of this technology. This technology is going to be used absolutely everywhere. So in other words, this is not something that is only for the high school tennis player in the family.
A review of the program (by BMF) is provided in the video to the right. By comparison, OTZ normally wins about 80% of the time against the "medium" setting and 10% of the time against "hard". Other videos reviewing the game are: VR Essentials and Paradise Decay. Here are a few points against two strong players to show what game play can be like.
One consideration is that some tennis families have already saved far more than the amount for the Oculus system and the Eleven game (which total about $420) by not being able to compete in tournaments and participate in tennis lessons.
Make sure that you obtain your parents' permission before proceeding. They need to be involved.
The game requires about 6 1/2 by 6 1/2 feet of room.
OhioTennisZone will track at least some of the results (and maybe a large number of the key match-ups).
Depending on the interest, there may be a parent / fan and coach competition. There may even be a state tournament for the players.
For those interested in playing, please send a Feedback to OhioTennisZone.com. Before purchasing a unit, it may be worthwhile to get a "show of hands" on who might be interested in participating. It may be a somewhat easy decision to purchase the Eleven game for those who already have the Oculus Quest system, but not at all an easy decision for those who do not. For those on the fence, it would be best to wait and see what the interest level is.
Now please go wash your hands. Again.
Special Note: While this is being launched on an OTZ-Approved Holiday, this is actually a legit offering.. Really.
THURSDAY, MARCH
Ohio State Tennis | OHSAA Press Conference
Progress continues with Ohio State's Ty Tucker Tennis Center. This $22 million facility is expected to be finished in the fall of 2020 (unless construction is delayed because of the coronavirus). It will house six indoor courts and tennis fans will be especially pleased with the theater style seating provided behind each court.
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Ty Tucker Ctr - Click to enlarge |
Auer Tennis Complex |
These photos were taken at sunrise on March 16. It is best to click on the images to view them clearly.
Major contributors to this project are the Auer, Weiler, Shulman, and Nourse families, The entire indoor and outdoor complex is named the Auer Family Tennis Complex. Fellow platform tennis player, Dick Nourse, has a lethal backhand that you do not see coming until it is too la ..
Just as a point of comparison, OTZ recently attended and took photos at the Kentucky Bank $100K tournament in Nicholasville, KY (outside of Lexington). This tournament was held at Top Seed Tennis which is a two year old facility that includes 12 indoor and 11 outdoor courts. It is hard to make dollar comparisons because of the many factors involved (i.e. OSU will stadium seating), but Top Seed Tennis' building costs for the entire facility was $6.1 million. It will be very interesting to compare the two buildings after OSU's indoor courts are completed.
Ohio High School Athletic Association's Jerry Snodgrass will hold a press conference at noon today to provide updates on the winter tournaments and on the spring sports. Keep your fingers crossed (after you carefully wash them).
The coronavirus is being advised to not interfere with any building named after Coach Tucker..
MONDAY,
Us (or U.S.) vs. Coronavirus
Last week, Ohio Department of Health's Dr. Amy Acton shocked the Internet when she estimated that 1% of Ohio's residents already had the coronavirus. That equates to 110,000 (1% of 11,000,000). Much to my surprise, she did not back away from that number at the following day's news conference.
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Cumulative COVID-19 Cases - Click to enlarge |
Based on the 1% fatality rate, it is now time to wait to see if Ohio has 1,100 deaths in about 12 days. If not, the 1% fatality rate is too high or her estimate was too high.
Ten days ago, Italy had 3,858 cases and as of this morning, the U.S. has 3,774. The U.S. has 5.4 times the population that Italy has.
The U.S. number of new cases is expected to spike up as more testing comes online this week.
Now please go wash your hands. Again.
SATURDAY,
April 6th (Hopefully)
All (frequently washed) fingers and toes are crossed in hopes that the boys high school season will continue after students come back after the three week break. The big question is *if* the students come back after the three week break. Even though the risk of acquiring the virus has to be lower since the spring sports are outdoor sports, it is highly doubtful that sports will continue if school is canceled.
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Cumulative COVID-19 Cases - Click to enlarge |
Based on the information that is currently available, the key date for high school tennis is Monday, April 6. Practices may resume and matches may start on this date. For more detailed information, click on this OHSAA link. It is updated as of March 13.
Many coaches have already posted their schedules on OTZ, but it is likely that many of those schedules will be changed to insure that the "in conference" matches are played.
Since there is no new high school tennis data, the graph to the right is another way in which to visualize how the U.S. is doing against the coronavirus. These stats are from the John Hopkins web site and they are gathered each morning by OTZ at 8am. This data has been collected since March 6.
This graph is a bit different from others in that it is the cumulative number of cases reported thus far. So far, the upward slope of the curve for the U.S. is less than other countries but this may change as more testing occurs. The flatter the curve (i.e. South Korea), the better it is. The Excel trend lines are also included for the U.S. and for Italy.
Now please go wash your hands. Again.
TUESDAY,
First Day of Practice
Weather conditions were great for the first practice of the season. In central Ohio, players were provided with a nice breeze to help them acclimate to outdoor conditions. Temperatures were in the 60's. Practices will be hit or miss for the rest of the week as temperatures remain mild and showers move in and out of the forecast.
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Watterson's Nick Geelan - Click to enlarge |
The closest courts to the OTZ headquarters are the Whetstone Park of Roses courts and the Upper Arlington courts. These are the go-to courts when a quick picture is needed. Both Bishop Watterson and Whetstone practice at the Park of Roses.
Bishop Watterson returns four of their starters from last season. They are: Nick Geelan, Johnny DiOrio, Adam Pavliga, and Cole Petrilla.
Conditions for taking photos were absolutely ideal yesterday with largely overcast conditions and a hint of sun.
MONDAY,
Boys Season Starts Today | COVID-19
The boys season will start with great weather conditions today. As for the rest of the week, who knows?
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Weather Conditions - Click to enlarge |
Some college tennis teams are canceling their west coast spring break plans as COVID-19 fears rise. Even if no one on a team catches the virus, getting caught up in a quarantine or isolation situation after flying on a plane would have a similar effect. Plus, no one knows what will happen by the end of this week.. Teams affected include Denison, Case Western (women's team), and probably more to come..
Commonly referred to as the fifth grand slam, Indian Wells has been postponed. It was to start this week. Players with Ohio ties who were expected to compete in the main draws or qualifiers included Lauren Davis, Caty McNally, JJ Wolf, and Nicole Gibbs.
TUESDAY,
OTCA Award Winners
The Ohio Tennis Coaches Association (OTCA) Clinic / Conference was held this past weekend at the Dublin Marriott. The OTCA presented a number of awards to recognize deserving coaches and players. The award winners for this year were:
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Reagan Resor - Click to enlarge |
Niraj Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
Sportsmanship Award Winners: Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor and Mason's Niraj Komatineni.
Coach of the Year: Hathaway Brown's Greg Aten (Girls) and Wellington's Thomas Haddow (Boys)
Hall of Fame: Cuyahoga Falls' Ray Montgomery and Lakeside's Robert Walters
Sportsmanship, Ethics, and Integrity: Columbus School for Girls' Sean Delaney and North Canton Hoover's Ryan Shaffer
Scholarship Winners: Bowling Green's Mitchell Drumm, Mason's Kelly Reid, and Findlay's Drew Swisher.
Congratulations to all of the award winners.
MONDAY,
OTZ Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The State Team Draws were determined yesterday (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 go 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 promptly 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 Participation- Click to enlarge |
The number of boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year. This year, there is a nice increase. This season, there are 128 teams participating. The number of boys teams participating by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; 2019 - 119; 2020 - 128. As is shown in the graph, the Southwest District has the largest increase in the number of teams participating. Out of the 386 OHSAA boys tennis teams, 33% of the teams compete in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams (beta release)
The boys season will be here soon. 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 (March 1-2) normally reveal some surprises.
OhioTennisZone.com Pre-Season State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams February 28, 2020 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Cincinnati Country Day◄TEAM |
| 3. University◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 4. New Albany◄TEAM | Chagrin Falls |
| 5. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 6. Olentangy◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 7. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 8. Solon◄TEAM | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 9. Findlay | Ottawa Hills |
| 10. St. Ignatius | Orange◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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In D1, St. Xavier, Mason, and University School will be the teams to beat. Other teams will need to rely on their depth or freshman to win.
Division I
St. Xavier starts at the #1 position. They return Ronit Hiryur (State Singles Finalist), Charlie Temming (State Doubles Champion), as well as Alex Brandt and Kyle Powers. They pick up 4-star Drew Evans and Vincent Knott. They lost Max DeCurtins and Nicholas Aronoff to graduation. Preston Stearns is not playing high school tennis this year.
#2 The defending State Team champion, Mason, lost State Singles Champion, Niraj Komatineni, to graduation as well as Pranav Viswanathan and Aneesh Zutshi. Mason returns Vignesh Gogineni, Anish Gangavaram, Akshay Joshi, and Sam King.#3 University School returns its top three players. Chas Norman, Charlie Joranko, and Ben Martin, plus Nathan Mu. They lost Max Borsch to graduation.
#4 New Albany returns experienced States competitors, Devin Boyer and Ryan Mudre. Also returning is Alek Jacoby. They lost State Singles Champion, Robert Cash, and Joel Jose.
#5 Dublin Jerome returns a solid team, including: Max Fickas, Anish Patel, Christopher Knight, and Andrew Dvorkin. They lost just one player to graduation, Dylan Cai.
#6 Olentangy returns its top singles players: Sam Routzahn, Omar Khayat, and Ayush Sunkad. They lost Tucker Strawser to graduation.
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St. Xavier's 2019 Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#7 Upper Arlington returns Will Reynolds, Emerson Dean, and Nathan Yu. They lost Paige Kompa and Lance Li to graduation.
#8 Solon returns Andy Lebowitz, Aaron Lee, and Scott Zhao. They gain freshman, Nikolas Romanov. They lost Thomas Liu to graduation.
#9 Findlay returns their top three players: Drew Swisher, Max Hosey, and Carson Dale.
#10 St. Ignatius returns Nathaniel Day, Arjun Brahmbhatt, and Kai Vesikallio. They lost John McNally to graduation.
Teams that lost numerous players to graduation include Sycamore and Massillon Jackson. There is inadequate information to rank Perrysburg, Canfield, and North Canton Hoover.
D2 is always 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. If your soccer, lacrosse, and baseball teams are traveling outside of your outer belt, then tennis can, too.
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Wellington 2019 Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#2 Cincinnati Country Day returns much of its line-up from last year. Players returning include: Sai Nalagatla, Neil Badlani, and Ashutosh Annapantula. They lost Manav Midha and Herschel Albert to graduation.
#3 Columbus Academy returns the State Finalists in Doubles, Arie Tuckerman and Jack Madison, and State Doubles Champion, Rhian Seneviratne, returns. They lost Seneviratne's partner, Suriya Sundaram, and Drew Haffer to graduation.
#4 Chagrin Falls returns State Singles Champion, Andrew Zimcosky, as well as Jackson Quinn and Ellis Clark.
#5 Indian Hill returns Tejas Pisati, Anay Gautham, and Coleman Warstler. They lost Mack Ellis to graduation.
#6 Seven Hills returns Ajay Gupta, Kevin Wang, and Naail Sajjad. They lost Max Yuan to graduation.
#7 Lexington lost no players to graduation. They return Benton Drake, Blake Webster, Brent Webster.
#8 Ursuline returns State Finalist Greg Morgione, Josh Khavari, and Gavin Blacksher. They lost Austin Arfaras, Luke Tsudis, and Sean O'Connor to graduation.
#9 Ottawa Hills returns Matthew McGee, Henry Harders, and Jack Burke. They lost James Schwann to graduation. They pick up Libbey Rhegness who is a senior this year.
#10 Orange returns Jake Goldstein and Rohit Kashyap. They gain 5-star Benjamin Pomeranets. They lost Ilon Goldberg to graduation.
D2 teams who lost a significant number of players to graduation include Wyoming, Bexley, 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.
Those with additional insights on why a team should be ranked differently or included on one of these lists are welcome to submit a Feedback. Please include specific reasons and player names.
Remember. If your team beats a a better team, that's your fault - not mine.
MONDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Upcoming USTA Tournaments
The OHSAA Boys Season Calendar is listed below. The boys season calendar is normally chaotic because of the weather and due to the timing of spring breaks. With the high school season starting later than previous years (March 27 in 2020 versus March 22 in 2019), most schools will thankfully be finished with their breaks prior to the season starting.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Feb. 15-17: USTA MW Lev 2's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Feb. 22-23: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 1-2: OTCA Coach Clinic |
| Mar. 9: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 7-8: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 14: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 27: HS Season Begins |
| Mar. 28 - Apr. 5: Easter Bowl |
| Apr. 4-7: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Apr. 4: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 12: Easter |
| Apr. 13: Non-Interscholas. Date |
| Apr. 25: Waiver Ext. Ends |
| May 2: SAT Test Date |
| May 3: Sectional Tourn. Draw |
| May 11-16: Sectional Tourn. |
| May 18-23: District Tourn. |
| May 29-30: State Tournament |
| May 31: State Team Tourn. |
| June 6: Season Ends |
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 tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
This will be the second season that the boys can use waivers to play non-HS tennis during the season. The waivers should enable most boys to start the season on time (rather than waiting to play in a key tournament). 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.
There will be no shortage of great matches and high school tune-up opportunities for players competing in USTA tournaments. There are three, high level tournaments coming up this weekend as well as during the weekends of February 22-23 and March 7-8. There is also a Level 3 tournament just a week after the season begins. Click on the links for more information.
OhioTennisZone will remove 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.
THURSDAY,
New OTZ Personalized Report
Now you can make your time even more productive on OhioTennisZone. Members now receive a report that can be personalized to quickly show information about their favorite teams and players. This report is expected to be especially beneficial to college coaches who like to watch the progress of players who compete on a variety of teams. This report has been in the works for years but there was finally time to create it this winter.
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Favorite Teams - Click to enlarge |
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Favorite Players - Click to enlarge |
This report will automatically appear after OTZ members sign-in to the web site. It is also available via the Tennis Statistics / Info menu drop down.
The personalized team portion of the report includes team and coach photos, the teams' records, and the Average Court Winning % graph.
The Average Court Winning % is new this year and it provides the average "by court" performance of teams throughout the season. This graph will enable enthusiasts to quickly identify teams' strengths and weaknesses. This new graph will also be included on team reports for member viewing.
The personalized player chart includes player photos and records. It also provides easy access to players' OTZ Player Profiles and TennisRecruiting.net information. The Boys list will automatically be shown during the boys season, but there is an option at the top of the report to view the girls information.
Included on both the team and player personalized reports is the ability to quickly jot down comments about teams and players.
In addition to the favorite teams and players lists, members can also easily access OTZ information and tools that will enhance their use of OhioTennisZone.
Users will be presented with their payment status and most recent access time. Please contact OTZ if your payment information was not updated.
Sign up to OhioTennisZone to get your own OTZ Personalized Report and to obtain an OTZ Player Profile. In fact, give your sweetheart an OTZ membership for Valentine's Day and it will be the last present that you will ever need to buy her (him).. Really. (But don't make the same mistake with your next sweetheart.)
Any comments about the new report? Please submit a Feedback.
THURSDAY,
Top Freshman Boys
Using TennisRecruiting.net (TRN), OTZ has identified the Ohio freshmen who are in the Top 800 in the nation. Many of these players will contribute immediately on varsity squads. 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 attends, please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Alvin Altman - 3 | Canton (NE) | Mas. Jackson |
| Brandon Carpico - 3 | Columbus (C) | Gahanna |
| Drew Evans - 4 | West Chester (SW) | St. Xavier |
| Elijah Hadler - 3 | Medina (NE) | Highland |
| Shreyas Kode - 2 | Springboro (SW) | Springboro |
| Reece Page - 2 | Dublin (C) | Dublin Scioto |
| Benjamin Pomeranets - 5 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Orange |
| Nikolas Romanov - 3 | Solon (NE) | Solon |
| Anthony Shalakov - 4 | West Chester (SW) | Lakota West |
| Pavan Uppu - 4 | Pickerington (C) | Pickerington North |
| Merit Wagstaff - 2 | Akron (NE) | Revere |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who attended the school.
The TennisRecruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to TennisRecruiting.net.
There are likely a player or two who are not playing high school tennis.
There may also be players who are freshmen but are not included in the TRN freshman class info.
Of the 13 players on the list, the Central District has three, Northeast - 7, Northwest - 0, and Southwest - 3.
Are there other changes? If you are aware of non-graduate players who played high school tennis last year, but are not returning to play this year, please let OTZ know by submitting a Feedback form. This information could be helpful for the pre-season OTZ Top Ten Team Rankings.
Now is the perfect time to update contact information on TRN. TRN is commonly the way in which college coaches reach out to prospective recruits. Setting up a profile is free.
SATURDAY,
Top OTZ Photos for 2019
The last major OTZ project for the girls' season was to create the Top Photo Video / Slideshow for 2019. This year's video is loosely separated into four portions: the photos of professionals, college players, platform tennis players (including a magazine cover photo), and of course, high school players. Player photos are largely sorted in alphabetical order by last name. Obviously it is a subjective list, but these are the OTZ favorites.
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Click for OTZ Top Photos Video - Click for video |
Eagle eye viewers will see that OTZ thanks its sponsors at the end of the video. Having sponsors is crucial for OTZ. Special OTZ thank-you's go out to The Players Club, the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA), and Midwest Sports for their sponsorships of OhioTennisZone.
The Players Club is a tennis club in Hilliard, which is a suburb in northwest Columbus. They offer all of the services that junior and adult players need to be successful with and to have fun with tennis. Contact Players to inquire about indoor practice time for your team and for pre-season clinics.
The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) provides an adult summer tennis league and it promotes tennis throughout the year. The GCTA leagues are very popular and teams from private clubs and public courts participate. Players compete on both hard and clay courts. There are 11 women's leagues consisting of 178 teams and nine men's leagues with 75 teams. The GCTA won the national USTA Community Tennis Association of the Year Award in 2014. To look for familiar faces, click to view photos from the 2019 season and awards banquet. OhioTennisZone also provides the web site for the GCTA. Contact the GCTA now to inquire about playing during the 2020 season.
Midwest Sports is the premier tennis web store in the Midwest and it is located in Cincinnati. This is a very popular place to go for juniors competing in Cincinnati-area tournaments. Midwest Sports provides great discounts to OhioTennisZone users, and OTZ benefits financially from each order you place online via the OTZ links (Code: Gerber).
The high school photos in this video are available for purchase by the parents and/or by the schools. Some schools use OTZ photos in their year books to recognize their tennis teams.
YouTube has essentially eliminated the ability of using music from the top artists in any new videos. This is the first OTZ video using Youtube's "in-house" artists. It worked out well.
Contact OhioTennisZone via Feedback with any questions.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17,
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 - Girls | High School / College |
| Ananya Aggarwal | Mason / Williams |
| Cassie Alcala | Pickerington North / Toledo |
| Annika Alper | Seven Hills / Dickinson |
| Rachel Buchinsky | Laurel / Lehigh |
| Morgan Coburn | Indian Hill / Georgetown |
| Carly Cohen | Gil. Acad. / Univ of Richmond |
| Sydney Khosla | Centerville / Wittenberg |
| Ava McQuillin | Tol. Central Catholic / Toledo |
| Blessing Nwaozuzu | Orange / Xavier |
| Sanjana Reddy | Mason / University of Cincinnati |
| Kortney Reed | Olentangy Orange / Ashland |
| Reagan Resor | Dublin Jerome / Findlay |
| Olivia Rondini | Magnificat / Bryant |
| Laurel Utterback | North Canton Hoover / Bucknell |
| Katherine Wang | Dublin Jerome / Case Western |
| Player - Boys | High School / College |
| Kyle Fout | Gahanna / Wittenberg |
| Milan Gonela | Wellington / Denison |
| Ronit Hiryur | St. Xavier / Dayton |
| Ben Marshall | Wellington / Denison |
Last year, there were at least 34 players who committed. So far this year, there are 20.
The players with OTZ Player Profiles are included in the table on the right. Click on the player names to view their OTZ Player Profiles.
Other players with college commitments include: Julia Bays, Sylvia Gray, Hayley Hirsch, and Angelia Ross.
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.
This information was sourced by TennisRecruiting.net and OhioTennisZone.
SATURDAY,
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 (District) | Incoming School |
| Elizabeth Alderman - 2 | Columbus (C) | Worth. Kilbourne |
| Brooke Arington - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Indian Hill |
| Amara Brahmbhatt - 4 | Westlake (NE) | St. Joseph Acad. |
| Tess Bucher - 4 | N. Canton (NE) | N. Can. Hoover |
| Arya Chabria - 2 | Powell (C) | Columbus Academy |
| Sarah Clark - 4 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Pritika Choudhuri - 3 | Dublin (C) | Dublin Coffman |
| Paige Cornelius - 2 | New Albany (C) | |
| Shradha Grover - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Sycamore |
| Emily Jennewein - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | St. Ursula Academy |
| Summer Mu - 4 | Solon (NE) | Hath. Brown |
| Clara Owen - 3 | Dayton (SW) | Centerville |
| Maria Poon - 2 | Cincinnati (SW) | St. Ursula Academy |
| Catherine Rhegness - 2 | Ottawa Hills (NW) | Ottawa Hills |
| Natalie Smitek - 3 | Avon (NE) | Magnificat |
| Lily Walker - 2 | Perry (NE) | Perry |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending the school.
The Tennis Recruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to Tennis Recruiting.net.
Based on where some of these players are competing in tournaments, some are likely no longer living in Ohio.
Of the 16 players on the list, the Central District has four, Northeast - 5, Northwest - 1, and Southwest - 6.
Speaking of Tennis Recruiting.net, now is the perfect time for upper class men 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.u
OTZ has provided daily updates since August 9th. That is 79 straight days without taking a day off. There will still be an update or two next week, but OTZ is now in " intermittent mode". Feel free to check back in from time to time.
FRIDAY,
Final OTZ State Team Rankings - Mason and Hathaway Brown #1
The final OTZ State Team Rankings are posted. Mason began the season at #1 and ended the season at #1. Hathaway Brown began the season at #3 but finished in the #1 spot after their wins over Indian Hill and Toledo Central Catholic in the State Team Tournament.
State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams Final 2019 Rankings October 25, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM State Spots 3 Final 4 | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM 3 4 |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM 2 4 | Indian Hill 3 4 |
| 3. Upper Arlington◄TEAM 1 4 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 1 4 |
| 4. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 2 | Oakwood◄TEAM 2 |
| 5. Pickerington North 1 | Cinc. Hills Christian Acad. 1 |
| 6. Notre Dame Acad. ◄TEAM 2 4 | Orange◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. Olentangy Orange 1 | Laurel◄TEAM 1 |
| 8. Sycamore◄TEAM 1 | Toledo Central Catholic 3 4 |
| 9. Brecksville 1 | Eaton 1 |
| 10. N. Canton Hoover◄TEAM 1 | Wellington◄TEAM 1 |
| HM: St. Ursula Acad. ◄TEAM 1 | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| HM: Massillon Jackson 2 | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| HM: Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM 2 | Mariemont |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
There were tweaks after the results from States and the State Team Tournament were considered, but the rankings are very similar to the October 17 rankings.
Interested in getting on this ranking list next year? Then it is important to play other highly ranked teams especially when both teams are at full-strength. Check next year's OTZ Girls tennis calendar to identify conflicts with big ACT / SAT test dates and major USTA tournaments.
Congratulations to these teams.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team
Congratulations to the players selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team for 2019.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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 Abby Nugent Springboro |
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 Anna Kan Canfield |
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Division II - Singles |
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 Rylie Hanford West Geauga |
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Macy Hitchcock Eaton |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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 Hayley Hirsch Indian Hill |
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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 players who may not have even qualified 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 players are very talented. In previous years, the number of D1 players on the OTZ All-Ohio team has been: 2018 - 7, 2017 - 7, and 2016 - 6. The D2 teams have totaled: 2018 - 8, 2017 - 6, and 2016 - 6.
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 obtain an OTZ 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 for next fall.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com Usage Activity 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 21.
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OTZ Team Pages - Click to enlarge |
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Usage by Metro Area - Click to enlarge |
The Hathaway Brown team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top five were: Dublin Jerome, Upper Arlington, Columbus Academy, and Magnificat. All of the top five teams are OTZ Team Members. Note that bars on the chart are percentages based on that team's pageviews divided by Hathaway Brown's usage. So for example, Olentangy Liberty had approximately one-half (48%) of the usage that Hathaway Brown's page generated. 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).
The top Metro Areas that access OTZ may surprise a few people. While Ohio's metro areas dominate, Nashville, Detroit, Washington DC, NYC, and Chicago 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 14% and Toledo had 12%.
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Mason's Aggarwal - Click to enlarge |
Pick. North's Alcala |
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Liberty's Atway |
NDA's Black - Click to enlarge |
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HB's Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
Olentangy's Khayat |
The six players who had the most views of their OTZ Player Profiles during the girls season are (in alphabetical order): Mason's Ananya Aggarwal, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway, Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov, and Olentangy's Nour Khayat. Click on the player names above to view their OTZ Player Profiles. The parent associated with the Player Profile may view the total number of views since the Player Profile was created. The photos of the players to the right may be clicked to enlarge them.
The top pages accessed on OhioTennisZone (outside of this main page) are:
- Central Ohio Team Lookup
- Girls State Draws-2019
- Southwest Ohio Team Lookup
- Northeast Ohio Team Lookup
- OTCA Girls State Team Draws
Even though the OTZ wife may say that too much time is wasted on Twitter (and the OTZ wife would be correct with this assessment), Twitter remains another way to reach the high school tennis audience and to draw users back to the OhioTennisZone web site. To the right are the top OTZ tweets sorted by impressions.
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and it can always use more. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity continues to grow. The number of OTZ users increased 22.7% versus last year and the number of pageviews increased 24.0%. For more information about advertising, please submit a Feedback.
TUESDAY,
OHSAA Tournament Championship Points
Videos of all four championship points were captured this season. Normally, there have been zigs when there should have been zags when selecting the next court to zoom to next but that was not the case this season. The order of finish was D1 Singles, D2 Singles, D2 Doubles, and then finally, D1 Doubles.
For best results, use full screen mode and increase the resolution to HD.
Some videos include more than just the final point.
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Division I Singles: Springboro's Abby Nugent defeated Mason's Ananya Aggarwal. |
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Division I Doubles: Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala - Lalasa Nagireddy beat their teammates, Reagan Resor - Katherine Wang. |
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Division II Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff |
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Division II Doubles: Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn - Hayley Hirsch beat Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky - Laurel's Ellie Brotherton. |
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There are always some scoring snafus found by coaches as they begin to print off their end-of-season reports. If results are incorrect, please provide:
- the *incorrect* match information. The error first needs to be located in the database and their are a zillion scores. Please include the date, the name(s) of all of the player(s) and their schools, and the score.
- then provide the correct match information which includes all of the above, but with the correct information
If the commentary is incorrect, please provide *when* the commentary was in error, the erroneous comments, and what it should be. Screen shots are always helpful.
Please keep in mind there are quite a few moving parts. The players could have reported the wrong score, the coach could have recorded it incorrectly, the newspaper may have posted it incorrectly, or maybe, just possibly, OTZ could have made an error.
MONDAY,
State Team Champions: Mason - Division I and Hathaway Brown - Division II
Congratulations to Mason and Hathaway Brown as repeat State Team Champions in Division I and Division II, respectively. This is Mason's third in a row and HB's fifth in a row. Click for Mason's from 2018 and 2017 and HB's championship photos for 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.
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Mason - Click to Enlarge |
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Hathaway Brown - Click to Enlarge |
The order of finish in the State Team Tournament for Division I was: Mason, Magnificat, Upper Arlington, and Notre Dame Academy.
For Division II, it was: Hathaway Brown, Indian Hill, Columbus Academy, and Toledo Central Catholic.
Click on Previous Day Match Results to see the OTZ team performance graphs.
The weather deserved a gold star for the weekend. Having three terrific weather days was great for the fans and for the players.
The tradition for the State Team Tournament is to end matches after teams get to three wins so many of the top court players did not finish. For those that did, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov beat Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin and Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; and Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black defeated Magnificat's Olivia Rondini. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This (almost) wraps up a great tennis season. OTZ has done 74 consecutive daily updates, but there will be a few more updates before OTZ switches to the PTZ (PlatformTennisZone.com) web site.. The plan for tomorrow is to post the OHSAA championship points.
SUNDAY,
Congrats to State Champions | State Team Tournament
Great tennis matched the great weather yesterday. States may have benefited from the best weather conditions ever. The weather today is expected to be equally good at Reynoldsburg.
The tournament finished at 3:30pm yesterday on Court 10 with the D1 doubles finals.
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Springboro's Nugent - Click to enlarge |
Jerome's Dudipala - Nagireddy |
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Academy's Ratliff |
IH's Hirsch - Coburn |
The State champions and the finalists are:
Division I Singles: Springboro's Abby Nugent defeated Mason's Ananya Aggarwal
Division I Doubles: Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala - Lalasa Nagireddy beat their teammates, Reagan Resor - Katherine Wang
Division II Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen
Division II Doubles: Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn - Hayley Hirsch beat Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky - Ellie Brotherton
As soon as the tournament finished, I zoomed back to Columbus for the CompuServe 50th Anniversary / Reunion. (We were just a half hour late.) Mrs. OTZ and I originally met at CompuServe and we both worked there for many years. This also explains why there were no OTZ tweets following the tournament. Oh yeah, a GIF file is pronounced JIF-- like the peanut butter. CompuServe invented this format which is widely in use today, so yes, we know how to pronounce it..
OTZ will be processing photos like crazy now. For those who are buying photos, you will get a pdf with numerous photos from which to choose. This is going to take some time so please (with your favorite sweetener on top) tell me if you need to get the photos by a certain date (i.e. your daughter's wedding). Creating these pdf's takes time (as did taking the photos with expensive equipment) so as long as there are good photos, the expectation is that you are going to purchase at least two photos (and pay for them).
See you in Reynoldsburg.. Mason plays Upper Arlington and Notre Dame Academy plays Magnificat first. Division II follows with Indian Hill versus Columbus Academy and Toledo Central Catholic versus Hathaway Brown.
