Sectional/District Draws |
Ohio High School Tennis
THURSDAY,
Final OTZ State Team Rankings
The Final OhioTennisZone State Team Rankings are included below. Congratulations to Sycamore and Indian Hill for their respective championships in Division I and Division II. Sycamore was dominant all season and had enough strength to counter any creative line-ups. Indian Hill had just two losses this season - one to Sycamore. Both Sycamore and Indian Hill will return with strong teams next year.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Sycamore◄TEAM 4 Final 4 | Indian Hill◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM 3 | Orange◄TEAM 5 Final 4 |
| 3. Springboro◄TEAM 2 | Seven Hills◄TEAM 2 |
| 4. New Albany◄TEAM 1 Final 4 | Bexley◄TEAM 2 Final 4 |
| 5. Olentangy Orange 1 | Lexington◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 6. Solon◄TEAM 1 Final 4 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. St. Xavier◄TEAM 1 | Hawken◄TEAM 2 |
| 8. Findlay◄TEAM 0 Final 4 | Oakwood◄TEAM 1 |
| 9. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 1 | Wellington◄TEAM 0 |
| 10. Mass. Jackson◄TEAM 2 | Bryan 1 |
| HM: Avon 1 | Ottawa Hills 1 |
| HM: Walsh Jesuit 2 | |
| HM: University School◄TEAM 1 | |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. State Spots 3 - Denotes Number of Spots at States. Final 4 - Denotes State Tournament District Representative. |
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The Southwest District was by far the most dominant district in the State this season by earning both team championships. They also won the State D1 singles and doubles championships and the D2 doubles championship. These things tend to run in cycles but Southwest's dominance will not slow down next year. Lacrosse has become extremely popular in Central Ohio.
Note that the rankings also include the number of State participants (in gray) for each school. This provides a bit more background for each team. Orange was the big winner with a whopping five State spots.
Because of the frequent rainouts, creating the rankings was more difficult this season. There were many interesting match-ups that were scheduled but they went unplayed.
In addition to updates with the team rankings, the individual rankings were also updated to reflect States. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. These rankings may still be tweaked slightly.
OhioTennisZone went into intermittent update mode to launch the Central Ohio Adult Summer Pickleball Season on PickleballZone.com on June 5. Now that the pickleball season is well underway, OTZ will be revisited. This is especially the case with processing photos and photo orders.
FRIDAY,
Incoming Freshman Boys - Class of 2026
Coaches will soon be requesting information on who the strong teams are for boys season, 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 |
| Gregory Bernadsky - 5 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Nikhil Bhimireddy - 2 | Lewis Center (C) | Olentangy Orange |
| Elijah Corrin - 3 | Canton (NE) | Canton McKinley |
| Jackson Goodman - 2 | New Albany (C) | New Albany |
| Shane Hand - 3 | Powell (C) | Olentangy Liberty |
| Arjun Jain - 2 | Springboro (SW) | Miami Valley School |
| Smaran Jairam - 2 | Milford (SW) | Moved to GA |
| Samanyu Jairam - 1 | Milford (SW) | Moved to GA |
| Nason Lo - 3 | Columbus (C) | Columbus Academy |
| Conor Lynch - 2 | Montgomery (SW) | St. Xavier |
| Andrew Mao - 1 | Montgomery (SW) | Sycamore |
| Aditya Nayak - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Seven Hills |
| Shailen Patel - 3 | Lewis Center (C) | Olentangy Orange |
| Devan Patel - 2 | Lewis Center (C) | Olentangy Orange |
| Ashwin Ramachandran - 2 | Solon (NE) | |
| Tyler Thomas - 2 | New Albany (C) | New Albany |
| Rohan Thung - 2 | New Albany (C) | New Albany |
| Daniel Tonkal - 4 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Ethan Vass - 1 | Liberty Township (SW) | Lakota East |
| Nicholas Von Krosigk - 2 | Tipp City (SW) | Tippecanoe |
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 eight, Northeast - two, Northwest - zero, and Southwest - ten.
OTZ has provided daily updates since March 25. That is 71 straight days without taking a day off. There will still be an update or two next week, but OTZ will soon be going into "intermittent mode". Note that there is still a great deal of work going on in the background to enter additional scores and to process photos.
[6/7/2022: Seven tennis fans provided help with the school locations. Thank you! A process that I used with the TRN stars was out-of-sync so several were incorrect. Those were also corrected.]
THURSDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team
Congratulations to the boys selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team for 2022.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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Division II - Singles |
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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 rounds in which players reach at States. If a player reaches the semi-finals, he is on the first team and quarter finalists are on the second team. If a player gets an unfavorable draw in the first round of States, then he might not receive any recognition. Again, their list is great, but a more subjective approach allows other deserving players to be recognized.
The number of players included on this list will vary from year to year. This year's group has about the same number of players as last year.
More players are becoming OTZ members - either by enrolling individually or via a Team Membership. OTZ members are provided with a Player Profile as indicated by the yellow-PP. Click on the player name to view his OTZ Player Profile. Click Join OTZ to obtain a Player Profile and to be recognized later on the College List.
The OTZ Top Players Lists will eventually be updated. 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 freshman players. The purpose of this list is to not only recognize the players but to also help coaches understand which teams should be included in their schedules next spring.
A few of these player profile photos will be updated as time permits.
As for action photos.. Things are still waaay backed up with other non-tennis projects that need to be addressed.
Again, congratulations to these players.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Usage Report: Who, What, Where from?
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 March 1 to May 30, 2022.
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Jackson's Altman - Click to enlarge |
Gahanna's Carpico - Click to enlarge |
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Jerome's Fickas - Click to enlarge |
Mason's Gogineni - Click to enlarge |
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Bexley's Lessard - Click to enlarge |
Sycamore's Miller |
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Orange's Pomeranets - Click |
UA's Samora - Click to enlarge |
From the team page perspective, Sycamore's team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top ten (in order) were: Massillon Jackson, Mason, Bexley, Columbus Academy, New Albany, Indian Hill, Lexington, Dublin Jerome, and Pepper Pike Orange.
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 future customers (tennis parents and players). Of course, having an OTZ Team page for a private school is a complete no-brainer. Tennis parents value the education / tennis combination and if a school can attract a parent/player by using an OTZ $99 team membership who will then spend $65,000 over four years, that is a return on investment that would make a CPA hug him or herself with happiness.. In fact, if a private school is not an OTZ team member, then you know that the private school does not have a good math program..
The eight players who had the most views of their OTZ Player Profiles are (in alphabetical order): Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni, Bexley's Sam Lessard, Sycamore's Chad Miller, Orange's Ben Pomeranets, and Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora. 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 may be clicked to enlarge them.
The top pages accessed on OhioTennisZone (outside of this main page) are listed below and they are sorted in pageview order. The OTZ Personalized Report is what users see when they first login. The biggest usage day of the season was on the second day of States.
- Central Ohio Team Lookup
- OTZ Personalized Report (page presented at sign-in)
- Boys State Draws-2022
- Boys State Team Tournament Draws
- Southwest Ohio Team Lookup
- Northeast Ohio Team Lookup
Some numbers that have not been shared in the past include the total number of users and the total number of pageviews. Per Google Analytics, there are now 33,564 users who accessed OTZ during the above time period. For the 2021 season, the total was 30,825. That's a 9% increase. The number of pageviews in 2021 was 415,986 and that increased to 465,641 in 2022. That's a 12% increase. Note that the number of users, counts the number of devices that people use to access OTZ. For that reason, the actual number of users is probably about half of the above.
There were changes in which Metro Areas use OTZ. The Cleveland-Akron Metro (with 20%) area is now much higher than 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 24%. Other top areas are: Dayton (4.7%) and Toledo (4.1%). Other areas above 1% are Washington DC (3.5%), NYC (2.6%), Philadelphia (2.5%), Chicago (2.5%, and Detroit (1.3%). Interestingly, Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland metro areas are all about the same in population with more than 2 million people. Cincinnati, however, would include parts of Kentucky and Indiana which would have less interest in Ohio tennis.
Yes, Twitter is largely a waste of time. It does; however, draw people from Twitter onto the OhioTennisZone web site. It also extends the OhioTennisZone brand. The top six OTZ tweets for the season are as follows. To see the actual "Tweet", click on the "[Tweet]" hyperlink.
1. Mason’s Vignesh Gogineni is the D1 State Singles Champion. He defeated Gahanna’s Brandon Carpico 6-3, 6-2. [Tweet]
2. And here they come.. The Sectional Draws for Central District D2 are now available. Click for more at ohiotenniszone.com/#2022-05-01_art [Tweet]
3. Westerville Central is hosting Lancaster in today’s match. It’s windy. It’s cool. It’s not raining. Yet. [Tweet]
4. States will be going indoors today. See you there! Click for more at ohiotenniszone.com/#2022-05-27_art [Tweet]
5. The OHSAA State Draws for the 102nd Ohio Boys State Tennis Tournament are now available. Click for the OTZ-enhanced draws (with photos / info) at ohiotenniszone.com/tennis_state_d… @OHADNewsHS @mlaughman @ThisWeekSports @tennis_point_US @ThisWeekDave [Tweet]
6. The Sectional Draws for Central District D1 are now available. The top singles players (i.e. Brandon Carpico) chose the Pick Central #1 location. Click for more at ohiotenniszone.com/#2022-05-01_art [Tweet]
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and absolutely more are needed. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity continues to grow. For more information about advertising, please submit a Feedback.
In tomorrow's update, OhioTennisZone.com presents its All-Ohio OTZ Boys Tennis Team.
For those interested in purchasing (not just looking at) OTZ photos, please let me know and I will gather photos of your son and email you a pdf of photos to review.
TUESDAY,
OHSAA Tournament Championship Points
Three out of the four championship points were captured this year. The timing of the finishes just did not allow me to be at D1 Doubles when their championship point was played. If someone captured D1 dubs on a camera or cell phone and is willing to provide that video to me, I may be able to use it for their video.
New camera gear provided a much better video image than last year, but the width of the video is less because of the camera lens that is used. This can largely be overcome when matches are played on the stadium courts (Grandstand, Court 3, and Court 10) but it is an issue on Court 11.
Player photos were included at the end of the videos. There were also a few extra points included as well.
For best results, use full screen mode and increase the resolution to HD (for high definition)..
There is not much control over the image that is selected for the video. When time permits, this image may be tweaked.
I see that advertisements are being included with the videos. OTZ does not benefit financially from these advertisements but YouTube does (and it is their platform so that is ok with me).
Crank up the volume so that co-workers (or neighbors) stop by your office cubicle to see what is going on.
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Division I Singles: Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Gahanna's Brandon Carpico. |
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Division II Singles: Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky. |
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Division II Doubles: Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati - RJ Poffenberger beat Orange’s Jake Goldstein - Gabi Kalir. |
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,
Sycamore D1 | Indian Hill D2 State Team Champions
Conditions were perfect to wrap up the high school tennis seaon. There were also new champions on the pedestal this year.
Sycamore defeated New Albany and Solon on the way to their championship. Indian Hill beat Bexley and Orange. The coaches of both Indian Hill and Orange applied Bass-O-Matics to their typical line-ups which certainly made things more interesting.
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Sycamore D1 Team Champs - Click to enlarge |
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Indian Hill D2 Team Champs - Click to enlarge |
In the third place matches, New Albany defeated Findlay, and Bexley beat Lexington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Coach Mike Teets shared this about the season and his team, "It was a fantastic season with a really talented team! This group of players was on the same page from day 1 about what our goals were, and they worked extremely hard in practices and matches. I could not have asked for more effort from them, and I am grateful to have had the chance to work with them!"
As normal, OTZ choose unwisely on which site to visit first. The plan was to go to D2 (Upper Arlington), zoom to D1 (New Albany), and then be back in time to watch the end of the D2 Championships. D2 finished much earlier than D1 so I stayed in New Albany. D1 had four 3-set matches and D2 had one (in the consolation bracket).
Most matches did not go to completion. Among the top players, Sycamore's Chad Miller defeated Solon's Niko Romanov; Orange's Ben Pomeranets beat Lexington's Tommy Secrist; Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu defeated Lexington's Ethan Remy and Indian Hill's Max Berghausen; Findlay's Max Hosey beat Solon's Niko Romanov and New Albany's Declan Freedhoff; Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati defeated Bexley's Stefan Schiff; Bexley's Sam Lessard beat Lexington's Tommy Secrist; New Albany's Jackson Clements defeated Findlay's Kosuke Asada; and Bexley's Stefan Schiff beat Lexington's Ethan Remy. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There will be more OTZ content released this week and then I'll wrap up the season. The videos of the championship points will be released tomorrow. The OTZ Usage edition will be on Wednesday. Thursday will be the listing of the All-OTZ players. On Friday, the final OTZ Team Rankings will be announced.
It is always nice to talk with parents and players at this end-of season event. Many will be moving on from high school tennis but hopefully I will still see many of you again.
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. Conditions were perfect for playing and watching. Play finished at approximately 3:15pm.
Click for the final OTZ Enhanced State Tournament Draws.
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Mason's Gogineni - Click to enlarge |
Mason's Joshi-Gangavaram |
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Orange's Pomeranets |
Indian Hill's Poffenberger-Pisati |
The State champions and the finalists are:
Division I Singles: Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Gahanna's Brandon Carpico.
Division I Doubles: Mason’s Akshay Joshi - Anish Gangavaram beat Sycamore’s Nicholas Meyers - Mark Karev.
Division II Singles: Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky.
Division II Doubles: Tejas Pisati - RJ Poffenberger beat Orange’s Jake Goldstein - Gabi Kalir.
Unfortunately, the McNasty Food Truck nor any other food service was at States yesterday. If conditions had been hot, the general public would have been substantially inconvenienced (or worse). Teams and tournament workers have access to water and food. The general public does not. (The teams bring their own.)
Again (and again and again), is too much being asked of these players to compete two days in a row? There was evidence of cramping in both of the singles finals. The boys even had the benefit of playing indoors on Friday and in moderate temperatures yesterday. (And of course, some of these players are also competing in the State Team Tournament today.)
The State Team Tournament will be played at two different locations today. Division I will take place at New Albany. Division II will be played at Upper Arlington. Hopefully next year, Upper Arlington will be the site for both tournaments. The tournament loses much of its "family reunion" atmosphere and appeal when it is split between two different locations. UA has not yet finished its construction of its parking lot areas.
Division I begins with match-ups between Sycamore versus New Albany and Findlay versus Solon. Sycamore is a big favorite. They beat the second ranked team in the state, Mason, 3-0 earlier in the week.
Division II begins Indian Hill versus Bexley and Orange versus Lexington. Indian Hill and Orange are expected to face off in the finals.
Remember, each match ends when a team gets to three court wins. This may go faster than many expect. I plan to start at D2 at Upper Arlington, then zoom over to D1 until they0 conclude, and then bounce back to D2 before they finish.
After 66 straight days of updates, OTZ will attempt to wrap up the season quickly this coming week.
SATURDAY,
On to Day Two of States
Yesterday was expected to be a rain-out. It was not, but conditions was still irritating enough that "going indoors" was the correct call. For D1, it was a longer day because of the later start and because there were more competitive matches. D1 had five 3-setters versus D2's two. In one-sided matches (opponent with two or less games), D1 had five matches and D2 had nine.
In the battle of the Districts, Southwest leads the way with eight in the semi-finals; Northeast has five, and Central has three.
Many of yesterday's competitors were very pleased to be at States. Today's group is in it to win it.. Do what this guy says.
Just in case you still do not have the OTZ-Enhanced State Draws on your mobile phone, they are here:
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Perrysburg's Mason Deal - Click to enlarge |
The results of the semi-finalists are listed below:
In Division I singles, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico beat Springboro's Rishi Dore and Springboro's Sainandan Dore;
Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman and Perrysburg's Mason Deal; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat Highland's Elijah Hadler and Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; and Sycamore's Nicholas Choo defeated Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman and Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora.
In Division II singles, Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Mariemont's Will Stephens and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky beat Athens' Luke Frost and Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan; Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu defeated Bexley's Sam Lessard and Bryan's Jay Fortner; and Legacy Christian Academy's Tucker Culpepper beat Lexington's Ethan Remy and Waverly's Penn Morrison.
The doubles teams in the semi's are:
D1: Olentangy Orange’s Parth Patel - Kallen Arledge; Mason’s Akshay Joshi - Anish Gangavaram; Sycamore’s Nicholas Meyers - Mark Karev; and Dublin Jerome’s Max Fickas - Tanish Pairu.
D2: Seven Hills’ Ethan Blatt - John Corbett; Indian Hill’s Tejas Pisati - RJ Poffenberger; Orange’s Jake Goldstein - Gabi Kalir; and Orange’s Ace Bloom - Krish Mehra.
Good luck to everyone today. See you at States.
FRIDAY,
States Going Indoors
It is no surprise but it is still disappointing. The start of States will be indoors today.
Division I will begin at noon at:
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State Draws - Click for draws |
Camargo Racquet Club
8215 Camargo Road
Cincinnati, OH 45243
Division II will begin at 10:00am at:
Five Seasons Family Sports Center
11790 Snider Road
Cincinnati, OH 45249
As learned last night, eight of the ten courts at Camargo will be available for use. Five Seasons will have four courts at 10am and eight courts at noon.
Due to indoor space limitations at Five Seasons, D2 dubs players and fans are to report no earlier than 11:30am.
There were parking issues at Camargo last year but it is unknown if those issues still exist. Just be prepared to walk or to drop off the grandparents near the door and park elsewhere. Let's save the "creative parking" techniques for when you play Tetris.
While all of this information is believed to be accurate, always check with your coach. He/she should be your main source of information.
Please note that the McNasty Food Truck was going to be at the outdoor site today but they will not be going to the indoor sites. I like peanut butter, but I was still looking forward to going to McNasty's.. That's another fun tradition that will not happen this season..
Taking OTZ photos will be a little helter skelter today. If you see me and you are going to buy a photo or two, please let me know and I will try to get a few of your son. Taking doubles photos are two billion thousand times [slight exageration alert] more difficult than taking photos of singles players. If I could, I would charge a billion dollars (in today's dollars) for each one.
Remember to save the following URL on your mobile device to stay abreast of the results.
THURSDAY,
Solon Earns Final Final Four Spot
The final Final Four spot for this Sunday's State Team Tournament was finally determined yesterday. Solon defeated Massillon Jackson to clinch the Northeast Division 1 spot. Division I will play at New Albany on Sunday and D2 will be at Upper Arlington. To view the graphs from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
The teams competing in the Final Four are:
- Central: New Albany and Bexley
- Northeast: Solon and Orange
- Northwest: Findlay and Lexington
- Southwest: Sycamore and Indian Hill
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Central District D2 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Sycamore is favored in Division I but it is too close to call in D2 between Indian Hill / Orange.
The weather does not look great for tomorrow. Yes, this is starting to become normal. The first day of States was rained out last season for the girls and it happened to the boys last year. Camargo and Five Seasons (Cincinnati) will be the rain-out sites but it has not been determined where each division will go. I will go to the same site as the McNasty food truck (but I will make up a more official sounding reason as to why I chose that site).
Tomorrow's update will be brief as I prepare to leave Columbus for States.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Video of Its Top Picks for the State Championships
It is time for another OhioTennisZone video. This video recognizes the players who are OTZ's top picks for States. 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. This will also help match a name with a face for those who attend States.
Click for OTZ Top Picks for States - Click for video |
Time frames are always super tight in creating these videos. This video was hammered out last night and this morning. A new camera required me to jump through additional technical hurdles this time and it delayed the process, but I liked the result.
The goal was to make this a five minute video and it came in very close to that. If the old Caitlin Fisher from Turpin High School video clip had not been included at the end, then it would have been even closer.
For a better viewing experience, please click on the little gear thingy and select 1080p60 HD. The screen can also be enlarged by clicking on the partially completed "square".
The recently remodeled basement was used as the studio area versus last year's video so there are no car, lawn mower, and A/C compressor noises this time. As an added bonus, it is cooler in the basement so there is also no profuse sweating.
Please let me know if there are any inaccuracies. There always are and you always do.
Some of the players are repeats from last year's video. Click to view it.
There have been a few more photos emailed to me for the State Draws. Those will be added this afternoon after I have an opportunity to take a breath.
TUESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview of Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky | Sycamore, Lex, Findlay, & Solon Advance
There will be plenty of tennis content early this week as Ohio tennis wraps up the season. Today's update begins with an OTZ interview with Andrew Zimcosky. Yesterday's big State Team Tournament matches are summarized below.
Andrew Zimcosky is a senior at Chagrin Falls and he is a two-time State D2 Singles Champion.
His road to those championships were quite different. In 2019, he had a tough, 3-set match with Preble Shawnee's Pierce Elliott in the semi's but then received a walk-over in the finals when both players in the other semi-final match were unable to continue. They both battled with heat-related health issues. In 2021, he had a tough draw where he defeated Welllington's Griffin Biernat, Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan, and Orange's Ben Pomeranets on his way to the singles title.
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Zimcosky at NE Districts - Click to enlarge |
As for this year, "My goals were a lot different this season compared to the last couple seasons. Coming into this season my goals kept changing until it was basically just to be healthy for States. I’ve had a wrist injury that has kept me from playing consistently since December and then my back was hurting for the past three weeks since I’ve come back. Ultimately, I would like to be able to compete for another State Championship this year. That’s always been my biggest goal." He will need to get through some talented players, including Avi Mahajan and Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu. He would then have a possible rematch with Ben Pomeranets in the finals.
His parents are David and Leslie and his sister is Sydney. Sydney will be a junior at Ohio University and she majors in Theatre and Marketing. His dad works in robotics at Sherwin-Williams, and his mother is a speech pathologist at Cleveland Clinic.
Other than running cross country as a middle-schooler, Zimcosky has stayed focused on tennis . "I started playing tennis pretty much when I was born. My grandpa played and introduced me to it when I was about 4. He got into it when he was about 30 and loved it, so he wanted me and my sister to try it out." Zimcosky's parents did not play but they have learned a great deal about the sport through Andrew.
Zimcosky is a highly ranked national player with a national ranking that has ranged from 113 in the nation to 154 over the last four years. He is currently ranked 114. His UTR is 11.10 and his serve is in the 115 mph range. As for his shot making, "my volleys are probably my favorite shots. I love hitting forehands and serves, but I feel much more comfortable at the net and have always loved volleying. I feel like my net game has always been the best part of my game."
Why play high school tennis? "My favorite part is the atmosphere. High school tennis is so much different than tournaments because most of it is local, so there are always some more people that come to the matches. A lot of my friends are able to come support me which always makes it more fun. I love having teammates and representing a school as well. I take a lot of pride in my matches when I’m representing Chagrin Falls."
In terms of classwork, he liked his AP Computer Science "A" class the most. "I’m definitely a math / science guy. I’ve loved math and science so much more and am happy to be studying computer engineering next year. I took all the math classes that Chagrin Falls has to offer [...]. I’ve always liked the critical thinking that happens in those classes as well as all the computer science classes I’ve taken." He took a total of ten AP classes. His others were World History, United States History, Calculus AB, Physics I, Calculus BC, US Government, Spanish Language and Culture, Physics II, and Statistics.
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Zimcosky at 2019 States - Click to enlarge |
His strong junior credentials will give him an opportunity to play in college. "I will be attending Cleveland State University this fall. [...] I narrowed it down to Toledo, Navy, and Case Western Reserve University last fall and had a tough time choosing between those schools. I knew a big part of my college was going to be the tennis program because I’ve always loved playing and I wanted to play for a school that would compete and grow its program. All the coaches I talked to were great coaches, but I thought Cleveland State was the best fit. I like being in the city, the tennis program was great, and I thought I could make a good name for myself academically. I was fortunate to be selected for their honors college as well, so I thought that would be an amazing academic opportunity." He hopes to be able to get in their line-up quickly.
This summer he plans to play ITA's to prepare for college tennis with his future college teammates.
As for the obligatory question about OhioTennisZone usage, "Honestly, the biggest thing is that it covers tennis. Tennis doesn’t always get the most attention, so to see the daily updates and to see something covering all of high school tennis is pretty cool. There aren’t a lot of places where you can find individual or team records, it’s pretty amazing. I think a lot of coaches still use pen and paper to record the matches."
For his service project, he primarily volunteered for Habitat for Humanity Restore.
He does use Snapchat and Instragram, but "I try not to use them too often since I tend to get addicted to them a little too easily." "I play a lot of basketball and football with my friends at our high school field or at some courts near my neighborhood."
Zimcosky starts the defense of his title on Friday.
In yesterday's matches, Sycamore defeated Mason; Findlay beat Perrysburg; and Lexington defeated Bryan to secure their Final Four spots for the State Team Tournament. Solon defeated Westlake to play Massillon Jackson in the NE Final. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. The OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws are also updated.
Among the top players, Bryan's Jay Fortner defeated Lexington's Tommy Secrist; Solon's Niko Romanov beat Westlake's Rohit Jain; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo defeated Mason's Anish Gangavaram; and Findlay's Kosuke Asada beat Perrysburg's Aiden Bielefeld. As is often the case, many of the most contested courts did not finish. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The plan is to release the OTZ Top Picks for States video tomorrow.
It was great to launch the State Draw yesterday with so many player photos, but there are still photos needed. Please send them my way.
MONDAY, - EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS ISSUE
Draws Posted
This is just a quick bonus entry to alert fans that the draws are available. Please read on below for today's update.
Note that the draws are quickly accessible via the link in the dark gray box at the top of this page.
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OTZ-Enhanced State Draws - Click for draws |
This year, D2 will be going on the courts first. While almost all singles matches will go on at the same time since there are about 15 courts, D2 dubs will go on before D1 dubs.
MONDAY,
It's States Week
This will be a crazy busy week. There are more State Team Final Four spots to be determined in the Northeast (D1), Northwest (D1 / D2), and Southwest (D1) Districts. At OTZ, there is an interview with Andrew Zimcosky planned, the OTZ Top Picks for States video to prepare, and the OTZ draws for States that need to be done. While these three tasks, the State tournament, and the State Team Tournament are juggled, there is also the second season launch of the PickleballZone.com league on June 5th. Whew..
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Central D1 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Watch for the state draws to be released by early this afternoon. The draws are difficult to do since District results are gathered from throughout the state. There is also a new OHSAA tennis administrator (Dustin Ware) this season. OTZ is ready to roll as soon as the information becomes available. Keep your fingers crossed.
If you know where your son's black or dark-colored shirt is for States, now is a great time to make it "disappear" until next Monday. Boys love to wear dark clothes at States so they can cramp up before they finish their matches. This happens every single year and it always will. Experienced fans can go through state draws from previous years and identify the boys who "should have won" but did not because they faltered in the third set since they wore their most awesomely favorite black tennis jersey in 80 degree temperatures. The Lindner Family Tennis Center is unlike anywhere else they will play because: 1) it is a huge facility with hot asphalt everywhere and little shade, 2) the courts are huge which requires far more walking to retrieve balls, and 3) the extra excitement drains that much more energy from the players. Hide the black jersey. Hide it now. (The Southwest District players are somewhat more accustomed to LFTC since they play their District tournament there.)
Today's photo is of the Central District D1 State Qualifiers.
SUNDAY,
Ready for States
The District seeding rounds were completed yesterday. The draws for States are expected to be released tomorrow. OTZ will be ready to roll with its Enhanced States Draw with photos and player information about an hour after the OHSAA releases its draws. Many players are nursing injuries so this will make States even more interesting. The draws will probably show a bunch of interesting early-round matches.
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Gahanna's Brandon Carpico - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman and Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat Springboro's Rishi Dore and Mason's Vignesh Gogineni; Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky and Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu; Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman beat Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller and Warren G Harding's Anthony Payiavlas; Perrysburg's Mason Deal defeated Sylvania Southview's Isaac Vens; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan beat Indian Hill's Ethan Camp and Legacy Christian Academy's Culpepper; Bryan's Jay Fortner defeated Lexington's Ethan Remy; and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue beat Bexley's Sam Lessard. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's photo is of Gahanna's Brandon Carpico who is the defending D1 Singles champ. He is a junior.
OTZ still needs a few more player photos of the State Qualifiers. I will be reaching out to coaches / parents to obtain these photos.
The State Qualifiers (less the East / Southeast District players) are listed below according to seed. Click on the links to see more information about the players who have OTZ Player Profiles. Note that if you have paid for an OTZ Player Profile and the link is not included, please let me know asap.
Central Division I
Singles: 1. Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, 2. Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora, 3. Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman, and 4. Pickerington North's Cole Alcala.
Doubles: 1. Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel - Kallan Arledge, 2. Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas - Tanish Pairu, 3. Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari - Hummza Ali, and 4. New Albany's Declan Freedhoff - Ben Bilenko,
Central Division II
Singles: 1. Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue and 2. Bexley's Sam Lessard.
Doubles: 1. Bexley's Austin Flamm - Stefan Schiff and 2. Columbus Academy's Ryan Panley - Rowen Lo.
Northeast Division I
Singles: 1. Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman, 2. Warren Harding's Anthony Payiavlas, 3. Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller, 4. Avon's Logan DeHaven, 5. Solon's Niko Romanov, and 6. Highland's Elijah Hadler.
Doubles: 1. University School's Nathan Mu - Dean Kirchick, 2. St. Ignatius' Michael Nock - Kai Vesikallio, 3. Avon's Luke LeMaster - AJ Sidoti, 4. Massillon Jackson's Ryan Kelley - Lucas Immel, 5. Walsh Jesuit's Michael Ulrich - Michael Vallone, and 6. Westlake's J.P. Mogyordy - Xander Jhaveri.
Singles: 1. Orange's Ben Pomeranets, 2. Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu, 3. Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky, 3. and 4. Orange's Gabriel Guiler.
Doubles: 1. Orange's Jake Goldstein - Gabi Kalir, 2. Hawken's Berend Diderich - Praveen Kumar, 3. Hawken's Axel Neely - Zach Forte, and 4. Orange's Ace Bloom - Krish Mehra.
Northwest Division I
Singles: 1. Perrysburg's Mason Deal.
Doubles: 1. St. John's Jesuit's Tyler Wood - Jack Oswald.
Northwest Division II
Singles: 1. Bryan's Jay Fortner, 2. Lexington's Ethan Remy, 3. Shawnee's Gabe Burke, and 4. Ottawa Hills's Jack Burke.
Doubles: 1. Lexington's Tommy Secrist - Karl Etzel, 2. Lexington's Ryan Mecurio - Ross Drlik, 3. Maumee's Braden Tucker - Gavin Yu, and 4. Ottawa-Glandorf's Eli Schmenk - Joshua Walls.
Southwest Division I
Singles: 1. Sycamore's Chad Miller, 2. Mason's Vignesh Gogineni, 3. Springboro's Sainandan Dore, 4. Springboro's Rishi Dore, and 5. Sycamore's Nicholas Choo.
Doubles: 1. Mason's Akshay Joshi - Anish Gangavaram, 2. Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers - Mark Karev, 3. Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Kevin Dong, 4. Mason's Aron Dornhecker - Vamshi Singidi, and 5. St. Xavier's Drew Evans - Tucker Berry.
Southwest Division II
Singles: 1. Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan, 2. Mariemont's Will Stephens, 3. Legacy Christian Academy's Tucker Culpepper, and 4. Indian Hill's Ethan Camp.
Doubles: 1. Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati - RJ Poffenberger; 2. Indian Hill's Max Berghausen - Michael Ryu, 3. Oakwood's Noah Boyce - Max McCloskey, and 4. Seven Hills' Ethan Blatt - John Corbett.
SATURDAY,
New Albany and Bexley in State Team Final Four
Two more Final Four spots were determined yesterday. New Albany beat Dublin Jerome for the Central Division I spot and Bexley defeated Columbus Academy in Division II. Both matches went the distance. New Albany's victory was clinched on 1st dubs with Ben Bilenko - Abhi Dandu winning. Bexley's clinch was on third singles by Austin Flamm.
To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. To view the State Team draws, click on OTZ-Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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St. Xavier - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is St. Xavier. They are coached by Joe Jackson. They are Team Members. They are led by Drew Evans and Tucker Berry.
OTZ went on another field trip yesterday -- this time to Northeast Ohio for their D2 districts. About ten minutes after I arrived, it started raining. Indoor photos were taken but those are always shaky at best. I have not had an opportunity to review or process the photos.
The State Qualifiers (so far) are listed below for each District that has reported them. After the seeding rounds today, the lists will be in seeded order. All of the results for these matches are online. Click the player links to view the OTZ Player Profiles. Congratulations to these players.
Central Division I
Singles: Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman, Pickerington North's Cole Alcala, and Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora.
Doubles: New Albany's Declan Freedhoff - Ben Bilenko, Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas - Tanish Pairu, Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari - Hummza Ali, and Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel - Kallan Arledge.
Central Division II
Singles: Bexley's Sam Lessard and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue.
Doubles: Bexley's Austin Flamm - Stefan Schiff and Columbus Academy's Ryan Panley - Rowen Lo.
Northeast Division I
Singles: Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman, Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller, Warren Harding's Anthony Payiavlas, Avon's Logan DeHaven, TBD, and TBD.
Doubles: University School's Nathan Mu - Dean Kirchick, Massillon Jackson's Ryan Kelley - Lucas Immel, St. Ignatius' Michael Nock - Kai Vesikallio, Avon's Luke LeMaster - AJ Sidoti, TBD, and TBD.
Singles: Orange's Ben Pomeranets, Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky, Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu, and Orange's Gabriel Guiler.
Doubles: Orange's Ace Bloom - Krish Mehra, Hawken's Berend Diderich - Praveen Kumar, and Orange's Jake Goldstein - Gabi Kalir, and Hawken's Axel Neely - Zach Forte.
Northwest Division I
Singles: TBD
Doubles: TBD
Northwest Division II
Singles: NA
Doubles: NA
Southwest Division I
Singles: Mason's Vignesh Gogineni, Sycamore's Chad Miller, Springboro's Sainandan Dore, Springboro's Rishi Dore, and TBD.
Doubles: Mason's Akshay Joshi - Anish Gangavaram, Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Kevin Dong, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers - Mark Karev, Mason's Aron Dornhecker - Vamshi Singidi, and TBD.
Southwest Division II
Singles: Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan, Mariemont's Will Stephens, Legacy Christian Academy's Tucker Culpepper, and Indian Hill's Ethan Camp.
Doubles: Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati - RJ Poffenberger; Indian Hill's Max Berghausen - Michael Ryu, Oakwood's Noah Boyce - Max McCloskey, and Seven Hills' Ethan Blatt - John Corbett.
Good luck at today's District Seeding round. I will be at the Central District Olentangy courts.
FRIDAY,
Findlay Beats Sylvania Northview | State Qualifiers from Central/Southwest
Great weather conditions allowed Districts to be played throughout the state yesterday. There was also a Northwest State Team Tournament match where Findlay defeated Sylvania Northview. Click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Springboro's Sai Dore - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Dublin Coffman's Shinya Akiyama; Mason's Vignesh Gogineni beat Sycamore's Nicholas Choo; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Sylvania Northview's Wieligman; Pickerington North's Cole Alcala beatr Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue defeated Wellington's Sanjan Shanker; Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman beat Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight; and Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Normally, the State Qualifiers are listed in today's edition, but there was a weird error that wiped out much of this morning's update which then had to be redone. I hope this is the only weird thing that is encountered today as I head up to the Northeast D2 Districts. I am getting a later start than what I had hoped.. Click on the links at the top of the page for all of the State Qualifiers. The results from yesterday are; however, included in the player and team records.
While the weather was great for playing yesterday, the Southwest skies were not kind to photographers. It was far too gray of a day to get great photos. Today's photo is of Springboro's Sainandan Dore.
Bexley (H) plays Columbus Academy for the Central District Final Four berth today.
THURSDAY,
Orange and Indian Hill in Final Four
Two teams have earned their spots into the Final Four of the State Team Tournament. Orange defeated Ursuline last night and Indian Hill beat Oakwood on Tuesday.
Orange's match was the only one recorded from yesterday. To view the graph from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the updated OTZ-Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Orange - Click to team page |
Rain plagued the start of the Cental Districts tournament yesterday. It will take place today.
OTZ will be leaving shortly for the Southwest District tournament which will field both the D1 and D2 matches at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Tomorrow, I go back on the road to the Northeast District D2 tournament.
Among the top players, Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Ursuline's Chris Simon and Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu beat Ursuline's Mateo Santiago. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Orange from Pepper Pike. They are coached by Rich Bole. They are Team Members. They are led by Ben Pomeranets and Chika Nwaozuzu.
WEDNESDAY,
Massillon Jackson Beats Avon | St. X Defeats Centerville
In the State Team Tournament, Massillon Jackson defeated Avon. Jackson will now face the winner of the Westlake versus Solon match. Click to view the OTZ-Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
There was only one other match reported - St. Xavier defeated Centerville. To view the graphical 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 Ryan Panley and Lucas Xue.
Today does not look good weather-wise for the Central District Tournament. Now that the Sectional data is finally entered, this may be a good OTZ catch-up day.
TUESDAY,
Jackson Beats Revere | Perrysburg Defeats SJJ | Orange Beats Jerome
Ohio tennis just needs a few more good weather days so that the season can be wrapped up. After perfect weather last week, this week does not look as promising. There were some big matches last night as teams competed in the State Team Tournament. These matches included: Massillon Jackson defeated Revere; Perrysburg beat St. Johns Jesuit; Lexington defeated Shawnee; and Bryan beat Ottawa Hills. Click to view the OTZ-Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws
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Upper Arlington - Click to team page |
Overall, there were eight matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 1, Southwest - 2, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lakeside defeated Sts. John & Paul and Olentangy Orange beat Dublin Jerome. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Perrysburg's Mason Deal defeated St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood; Dublin Jerome's Eli Wiblin beat Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge; and Lexington's Ethan Remy defeated Shawnee's Gabe Burke. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Upper Arlington. They are coached by Will Thieman. They are Team Members. They are led by Ethan Samora and Joseph Saalman.
I am looking forward to seeing a bunch of high school tennis fans this week. Current travel plans are: Central District D1 on Wednesday, Southwest D1/D2 on Thursday, Northeast D2 on Friday, and Central D1 seeding round on Saturday. If it rains though, I will stay at home and save my gas money for States.
The Sectional results for Northeast, Central, and Southwest are online. I am on the edge of eye strain but I plan to enter the Northwest District results this morning.
Today's big State Team Tournament match will match-up Massillon Jackson (A) versus Avon.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview of Sycamore's Chad Miller
Today's OTZ interview is with Chad Miller. He is a senior at Sycamore.
This is the time of the season when high school tennis goals begin to look doable or not so much. After winning five matches in the Cincinnati ATP Sectional where he lost a total of one (1) game, Miller's singles game is absolutely ready to roll, and his goal for the team is looking even better. "I have two main goals for the rest of the season. The first one is for my team to win a State Team championship. I’m very fortunate to be on a team with a lot of talented guys who push me every day. We are very lucky with the team that we have, so hopefully we can make something special out of it this year. In addition, I definitely want to win individual State. [...] There are a lot of very good singles guys in the state this year so it should be a good challenge." Miller has had just three losses this season -- all to Mason's Vignesh Gogineni. The Sycamore team is undefeated and ranked #1 in the OTZ State Team Rankings.
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Chad Miller at the ATP Challenger- Click to enlarge |
Miller is one of four children of Steven and Robyn Miller. His brother, Tyler, works in Texas for American Airlines. His sister, Sydney, works in Chicago as a technology consultant. Another sister, Taylor, is attending Indiana University where she is majoring in recreational therapy. His father is in commercial real estate with Viking Partners, and his mother assists with a hospice organization.
Like many of the state's best players, Miller played numerous sports until he reached high school. Overall, he played six sports. He also played on select soccer teams and he even played freshman soccer on the JV-B team at Sycamore. "I started playing tennis around the age of seven and I didn’t start playing tournaments [...] until around the age of nine. I think ever since I picked up a racquet, I just fell in love with the sport. I got started because my dad played tennis in high school [at Walnut Hills] and then strung rackets as well, but he never pursued tennis to the college level. My dad has definitely been the biggest influence on me for tennis growing up." In an interesting "behind-the-scenes" interview, his father was interviewed by Payers and Players Podcast on March 28, 2022.
This is Miller's second year of high school tennis. He played Court 1 for Sycamore as a freshman where he reached Districts. He could not play as a sophomore due to COVID-19. He also did not play his junior year because he wanted to focus on tournaments that would help with his college recruiting.
"One of the things I like the most about high school tennis is the team environment because you don’t get that too often in junior tennis. I think it really is a good way for me to get used to it before college. Another thing that is great about high school tennis is having all of your friends there to cheer you on and support you. I think it’s a great feeling and it makes it so much more fun trying to make your school proud and just enjoying the whole season with the guys on the team."
Miller is a highly ranked national player. In his age group, his ranking has ranged between 35th and 86th in the nation over the last four years. He is currently ranked 61st by TRN, #3 on OTZ, and his UTR is 11.67. He is a five-star on TennisRecruiting.net.
Miller has a well-rounded game, but there is one shot he likes better than the others. "My favorite shot is definitely the forehand and I feel like I use it as a weapon pretty well. When I get my feet in position I can hit forehands from almost anywhere in the court and I try to be aggressive with that and look to assert myself in the point." Miller participated in a ATP Challenger qualifier in January where he faced Nick Hardt, a player who was ranked 312 in the world. As expected, the score was one-sided, but Miller was able to go toe-to-toe with Hardt with his forehand. In addition to his strong forehand, Miller also sports a serve in the 112 mph range. The photo above is from the ATP Challenger match at Tennis Ohio..
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Chad Miller as a freshman - Click to enlarge |
Miller took five AP's at Sycamore with AP Stats being his favorite. His other AP's included: Physics C: Mechanics, Calculus AB, Computer Science Principles, and Psychology. He plans to major in economics in college. He is an OTZ-approved math-science guy.
After he graduates, Miller is Northwestern bound. "I chose Northwestern because it has an excellent tennis program with the goal of winning Big Ten titles, and it is also an unbelievable school. I was looking for a school that had a Top 25 tennis program and a top academic environment. I really love the coaches and I really clicked with all of the teammates. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about the school, so that made the decision much easier. I was considering Ohio State, North Carolina, Virginia, Dartmouth, and a few other schools." He hopes to contribute in the line-up as a freshman, but the pandemic is still having a major affect on college athletics. While there are three seniors currently on the team, the NCAA granted players an additional year of eligibility because of COVID-19 so they are all staying for a fifth year. Northwestern had just one freshman spot available in their line-up, and Miller got that spot.
He is going to have a busy summer. He plans to start college early (June 21) so that he can start working out with his teammates. Northwestern is still on the quarter system so his class will finish near the end of July. In addition to classwork, he will play in the ITA Summer Circuit, USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo, and he plans to be a hitting partner with the pros at the Western & Southern Open in mid-August.
As for the obligatory question about OhioTennisZone usage, "I love to read the daily updates on OTZ and I like to look at the previous day's match results just to see how all of my friends from around the state are doing. .. It is such a jam packed season."
In terms of service projects, Miller has worked with Cleats for Kids. He described it as "an organization that takes used sports equipment and gives it to those who are less fortunate who need that equipment to help them in many ways in their young lives. I think I’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have gotten all of the resources that I’ve needed to be successful up to this point, so I think it’s important to try to give back to the community and to those who aren’t as fortunate." One of Miller's friend's mothers started this organization in Cincinnati.
As for social media, he uses Instagram and Twitter (@chadmiller3699).
Sycamore coach, Mike Teets, added, "Chad is an extremely hard-working player who never takes a day off when it comes to effort. He is focused and relentless when it comes to improving. It has been a pleasure coaching him during his senior season!"
Best of luck to Chad at Districts. The Southwest District takes place on Thursday.
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The OTZ plan was to enter Sectional data yesterday. Those plans got derailed because of other projects.
The District draws are out for all but the Southwest District. Links to the draws are avaIable at the top of this page.
SUNDAY,
Sectional Seeding Done -- Awaiting District Draws
The weather was perfect last week. Can Ohio tennis have two more good weeks?
All of the Sectional results have been included on OTZ for the Central District. The results for the Southwest and Northeast District will begin to be entered after pesky OTZ dog (Zoey) is walked. None of the results for the Northwest District have been posted. There was one dual match played yesterday. Lakeside defeated Edgewood Ashtabula. To view the results graphically, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hilliard Davidson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Hilliard Davidson. They are coached by Shannon Murlin. They are Team Members. They are led by Hayes Houseworth and Dylan Murlin.
The Microsoft Start Key on the OTZ keyboard mysteriously began working again this morning after mysteriously not working for about a week after a systems update. I probably use this key 100 times a day. Hopefully, it is a good omen for this week..
Tomorrow's update will include an OTZ interview with Sycamore's Chad Miller.
SATURDAY,
Sectional Seeding Day
Earlier in the week, the weather today was forecasted to be shaky. It appears now that all Districts will be able to finish their seeding rounds today. After these matches take place, it is "District draw watch time" to see which players have the most favorable draws to reach States.
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Watterson - Click to team page |
There were only four matches recorded from state-wide play yesterday. Central had three matches and Southwest had 1. In the closest match of the day, Marion Harding defeated Big Walnut. Other matches were: Bellbrook defeated Butler; Watkins Memorial beat Logan; and Newark defeated Central Crossing. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Some of the better singles matches included: Marion Harding's Alexander Lisiecki defeated Big Walnut's Kyle Rines and Bellbrook's Songer beat Butler's Charlie Stiver. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Watterson. They are coached by Ryan Schwieterman. They are Team Members. They are led by Tommy O'Brien and Grant Gilsenan.
FRIDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Cincinnati Country Day | Photo Friday
In what would normally be a very quiet Sectional week, teams continue to whittle down their rained out matches from earlier in the season. In comparison to last year's, dual match scores are now down just six percent. There were 11 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Southwest - 2, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Jonathan Alder defeated Urbana; Hilliard Davidson defeated Delaware Hayes; and Olentangy Berlin defeated Big Walnut. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Cincinnati Country Day's Nikhil Shah; Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight beat Big Walnut's Mudre; Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle defeated Hilliard Davidson's Hayes Houseworth; Copley's Akisa Kayashima beat Aurora's Vincent Cannata; and Chaminade-Julienne’s Sam Zelinski defeated Archbishop Alter’s Ethan Paul. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Sectional data for the Central District and some of the Southwest District sites are online. This information can be found under the team and player records. Results for other Sectionals can be found via the links above.
Today is a Photo Friday. There were 10 new photos added. To view, sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos.
THURSDAY,
Solon Defeated Shaker Heights
Teams throughout the state keep marching forward with the State Team Tournament with some areas of the state still playing "catch-up". Solon beat Shaker Heights to advance in the Northeast.
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Avon - Click to team page |
There were five matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 3 and Northeast - 2. The matches were Lakeside defeated Willoughby South; St. Charles beat DeSales; Watkins Memorial defeated Westerville Central; and Olentangy Berlin beat Worthington Kilbourne. To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Solon's Niko Romanov defeated Shaker Heights' Ben Jamal; St. Charles' Brady Pema beat DeSales' Preston Thai; Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Aja Sampath; Watkins Memorial Josh Hare beat Westerville Central’s Tyler Gebbie; and Lakeside's Joey Varckette defeated Willoughby South's Connor Munson. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Efforts to enter Sectional results into team and player records continue. I am behind in responding to emails. The goal is to work on photos today so that there can be a Photo Friday.
Today's featured team is Avon. They are coached by Eric Korey. They are led by Logan DeHaven and Luke LeMaster.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason, Jerome, and New Albany Advance
In the State Team Tournament, Mason defeated St. Xavier; Dublin Jerome beat Pickerington North; and New Albany defeated Olentangy Orange. Click for the OTZ-Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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New Albany - Click to team page |
There were 13 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 7, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Newark defeated Mount Vernon; Piqua beat Celina; and Marysville defeated Delaware Hayes; and Watkins Memorial beat Olentangy Berlin. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated St. Xavier's Mason Rohmiler; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Pickerington North's Thambyrajah; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Ottawa Hills' Jack Burke; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel beat New Albany's Declan Freedhoff; and Marysville's Gianni Russo defeated Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is New Albany. They are coached by Marc Thomas. They are Team Members. They are led by Declan Freedhoff and Jackson Clements.
More Sectionals are taking place throughout the state today. When the scores are entered on OTZ, they will be in the Team and Player Profile reports. As the draws are updated, OTZ will link to those.
TUESDAY,
Indian Hill Defeats Seven Hills | Columbus Academy Beats Wellington
Dual and some Sectional matches were posted this morning. In dual match play, Indian Hill defeated Seven Hills and Columbus Academy beat Wellington to advance in the State Team Tournament. There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 8, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Madeira defeated Harrison; Marysville beat Hilliard Bradley; Bellefontaine defeated Urbana; Kenton Ridge beat Valley View-B; and Wooster defeated Glenoak. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jonathan Alder - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Jonathan Alder. They are coached by Ryan Swinehart. They are led by Jacob Zang and Grant Welsch.
The plan is to enter all of the Central District results as they are provided to OTZ. Most of Central's coaches are OTZ members and I have a very effective way to enter those results. The Pickerington Central-1 from Monday results are now online. Results from elsewhere in the state for Team/Coach and Individual members will be added after the seeding round takes place on Saturday. This is the time of year that I have to be careful that I do not get eye strain or that will set me back a couple of days, so please be patient.
At this point, it is really difficult to determine how accurate the schedules are so the upcoming matches will not be listed.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview of Mason's Vignesh Gogineni
The first OTZ interview of the season is with Vignesh Gogineni. Gogineni is a senior at Mason.
After being a State Doubles Finalist in 2019 [pdf] and a State Singles Finalist in 2021 [pdf], will this be Gogineni's year to be a Singles champion? That is certainly one of his goals, "[My] main goal for the season is to win a team state championship and an individual singles championship. [An] additional goal is to go undefeated this season and prepare myself for college." With a 10-0 dual match record, he is certainly headed in the right direction to be undefeated. After playing major roles in Mason's two previous State Team Championship, that goal will be tested soon when Mason plays St. Xavier and possibly Sycamore in the State Team Tournament. Mason has been beaten once already by Sycamore.
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Mason's Vignesh Gogineni - Click to enlarge |
Gogineni does not come from a tennis family. Both of his parents were athletes in India prior to coming to the United States for graduate school. His father, Rama, played cricket and his mother, Smitha, ran track. Gogineni started playing tennis at age four, but he also played basketball, baseball, and soccer, plus he swam. He started devoting his time to tennis in middle school.
In addition to Vignesh, the Gogineni's have 11 year-old twins - a daughter (Vibha) and a son (Vidur). Both his parents work in the information technology field -- Rama at Munic and Smitha at Anthem.
Gogineni has maintained a high ranking in his age group throughout his junior career that has ranged between 20th and 40th in the nation. He is currently ranked 30th by TRN, #2 on OTZ, and his UTR is 12.29. How has he done it? "[My] favorite shot is for sure the backhand volley. Both sides of my ground-strokes, serve, and net play are all strengths for me." His weapon is his inside-out forehand. He can crank his serve up to 110 mph.
As for his college choice, "I selected Yale because I felt a strong connection with Head Coach Chris Drake. I also felt that the guys on the team weren’t just friends but they were a family. Obviously Yale’s reputation as an Ivy League school speaks for itself, providing some of, if not the most, top notch education in the world. I considered every other Ivy League school along with Michigan, Northwestern, UCLA, Stanford, Berkeley, UNC, and Duke, along with other Big 10 and ACC schools, even a few D3." Yale has a young team with just one junior and one senior this year, but he hopes to play court three or four singles as a freshman. He stated, "What I like most about high school tennis is the memories that you make with your team." He will be able to continue that in college at Yale.
Gogineni had a rigorous curriculum at Mason where he took nine AP classes. His AP's were Human Geography, U.S. History, Biology, Psychology, Government, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics, and Calculus. AP Micro was his favorite. He added, "When I was younger, I definitely associated myself as a math and science guy. However, as of recently, I have more of a passion for humanities and social sciences.' He plans to major in economics at Yale.
As for the obligatory question about OhioTennisZone usage, "[My] favorite thing on OTZ is to see how my friends from different teams across the state are performing."
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Gogineni at the 'Zoo in 2019 - Click to enlarge |
When asked about his service project, he shared that he "partnered with a nonprofit to aid rural villagers in India who do not have adequate access to healthcare. I did this because the COVID pandemic affected all of us in different ways and I felt the responsibility to assist people in need, especially when my grandparents are going through similar circumstances." His grandparents live in southeast India in Andhra Pradesh. He last visited them in 2016. More recent visits have been hampered by COVID-19 restrictions. His mother's parents are coming to the U.S. on May 17th and they will stay for a few months.
He plans to play the USTA National Championship B18's in Kalamazoo this year, and he hopes to hit with the pros again at the Western & Southern Open. He not only got to hit with the women, such as Ash Barty (who won the tournament) and Jil Teichmann (who was a finalist), but also the men, such as Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Jannik Sinner. "It was probably one of the best experiences that I have ever had." [Gogineni, who has far more experience with the W&S courts than Daniil Medvedev has, poses for a photo with Medvedev after hitting with him..]
His favorite social media vices are Instagram (@vignesh_gogineni) and Snapchat. Another thing that he likes to do is fish.
Mason coach, Mike Reid, added, "Vignesh is a complete player. His contributions to the Mason tennis program are immeasurable."
Best of luck to Vignesh (and everyone else) at Sectionals.
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Sectionals begin today in numerous Districts across the state. This is the first year that the Central District has started on Monday. Hopefully there will not be too much chaos associated with AP test taking.
OTZ plans are to post the Sectional results for Central and for any teams (or paying individuals) from other parts of the state. It will take extra time to do this..
SUNDAY,
Bexley Beats Tippecanoe | Springboro Defeats Miamisburg
With the threat of a all-day rain-out, many teams canceled matches yesterday. As it turned out, it was not that bad of a day after-all. Versus last year, dual matches are down eight percent YTD so teams have clawed back many of the canceled matches. As of April 19, we were down 30% from 2021. The weather looks good for Sectionals this week.
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Hawken - Click to team page |
There were just two dual matches recorded. Bexley defeated Tippecanoe and Springboro beat Miamisburg. Click on Previous Day's Match Results to see the graphs.
In tournament play, Bellbrook won the Chaminade-Julienne Doubles Tournament with Chaminade-Julienne coming in second.
Among the top players, Springboro's Sainandan Dore defeated Miamisburg's Josh Thompson; Bexley's Sam Lessard beat Tippecanoe's Kessler Hackenberger; Springboro's Jack Siehl defeated Miamisburg's Matthew Wells; and Bexley's Stefan Schiff beat Tippecanoe's Cameron Davis. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Hawken. They are coached by Brian Smallwood. They are Team Members. They are led by Zach Forte and Axel Neely.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Defeats Springboro | Columbus Academy Beats St. Xavier
It was another "rinse and repeat" day with the weather yesterday as more matches were canceled. There were only seven matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Southwest - 2, and Northeast - 1. In the highlighted matches, Columbus Academy beat St. Xavier and Sycamore defeated Springboro. In another close match, Ready defeated Columbus Catholic League foe, Watterson. 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 Nik Shough and Shinya Akiyama. Dublin Coffman is having a tournament on May 14-15 for those not competing in high school tennis. Click to enter. Paid placement.
Several teams had planned to travel today to compete, but some of those matches were canceled. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
OTZ Photo Friday | Massillon Jackson Beats Copley
More rain led to more cancellations yesterday. Next week's weather is scheduled to be better. There were 11 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 7, Southwest - 1, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0. In two of the bigger matches, Massillon Jackson defeated Copley and University School beat Aurora. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Avon's Logan DeHaven beat Brunswick's Naugle; Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman defeated Copley's Diego Ugarte; and St. Charles' Brady Pema beat Watterson's Tommy O'Brien. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
It is an OTZ Photo Friday. There were 29 new photos added. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos to view. This update includes the Thomas Worthington vs. Hilliard Darby match, Mason vs. Orange match, DeSales vs. Beechcroft match, and the Lexington Invite.
It has been a long week at OTZ due to the nasty system changes. Just to add insult to injury, my Microsoft Start button no longer works after Microsoft ran an update yesterday.. I think it has been that type of week for everyone..
There are several really interesting matches slated today if they happen. New Albany (H) versus University School; Bexley (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; Columbus Academy (H) versus St. Xavier; and Indian Hill (A) versus Mason. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Mason Beats Seven Hills | Findlay Defeats Lexington
Hopefully there will be two good tennis nights in a row before the rain hits against on Friday. There were 26 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Scioto defeated Pickerington North; Mason beat Seven Hills; Bexley-B defeated Jonathan Alder; Findlay beat Lexington; Wooster defeated Copley; Olentangy beat St. Charles; Hamilton Township defeated Franklin Heights; Northwestern beat Urbana; Thomas Worthington defeated Marysville; and Dublin Coffman beat Wellington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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DeSales - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller beat Brecksville's Liu; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Lexington's Ethan Remy; New Albany's Declan Freedhoff beat Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Olentangy's Trevor Gerald defeated St. Charles' Brady Pema; and Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman beat Hilliard Davidson's Hayes Houseworth; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel defeated Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; and Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough beat Wellington's Sanjan Shanker. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
As has been mentioned previously, the company that OTZ uses for hosting, GoDaddy, has had problems lately, and that has led to outages. They finally identified the problem to be too many users at the same time on OTZ. To resolve the problem that forced an upgrade to a bigger, more expensive system. As they migrated OTZ to the new system, there were problems. Most, but not all, of those problems have been resolved. Given how busy things are, this is not the time of the year for me to chase down and correct problems.. The last time in which the system was upgraded in November 2020, there were immediate improvements, rather than immediate problems. Hopefully, this upgrade will at least resolve the system outage problems. If you see anything that looks different than normal, please email or send a Feedback to OTZ.
Today's featured team is DeSales. They are coached by Tom Snyder. They are led by Preston Thai and Brandon Heil.
Today's matches include: Bexley (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Indian Hill (H) versus Walnut Hills; Oakwood (H) versus Springboro; and Upper Arlington (H) versus Olentangy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Indian Hill Beats St. Xavier | Moeller Defeats Oak Hills
It was not a complete rain-out last night, but it was close to that. There were just six matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Southwest - 3 and Northeast - 3. In the higher profile matches last night, Moeller defeated Oak Hills and Indian Hill beat St. Xavier. 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 |
Today's featured team is Mason. They are coached by Mike Reid. They are Team Members. They are led by Vignesh Gogineni and Akshay Joshi.
Today's matches include: Olentangy Liberty (A) versus New Albany; Lexington (A) versus Findlay; Mason (H) versus Seven Hills; Orange (H) versus Hawken; and Centerville (A) versus Oakwood. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
University School Beats Hawken and Academy Defeats Jerome
The weather was perfect last night. Hopefully conditions will be playable on Wednesday and Thursday. There were 31 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: St. Xavier defeated Covington Catholic; Gahanna beat Worthington Kilbourne; Lehman Catholic defeated Carroll; Sycamore-B beat Cincinnati Country Day; Big Walnut defeated Delaware Hayes; Bellefontaine beat Kenton Ridge; Worthington Christian defeated DeSales; St. Charles beat Marysville; Lakota East defeated Oak Hills; University School beat Hawken; Olentangy Berlin defeated Hilliard Davidson; and Franklin Heights beat Whitehall. In other big matches, Columbus Academy defeated Dublin Jerome and Olentangy Orange defeated Olentangy Liberty. 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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Solon - Click to team page |
Springboro's Sainandan Dore beat Beavercreek's Alan Xie; St. Xavier's Drew Evans defeated Covington Catholic's Brady Hussey; Solon's Niko Romanov beat Brecksville's Liu; University School's Dean Kirchick defeated Hawken's Zach Forte; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel beat Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Bexley's Sam Lessard defeated Pickerington North's Thambyrajah; Olentangy's Trevor Gerald beat Wellington's Sanjan Shanker; Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle defeated Big Walnut's Grant Mudre; Marysville's Gianni Russo beat St. Charles' Victor Roscoe; Oak Hills’ Tomasso Strocchi defeated Lakota East's Andrew Vass; and Tippecanoe’s Kessler Hackenberger beat Centerville’s Elliot Galbraith. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Solon. They are coached by Fredrik Nyborg. They are Team Members. They are led by Niko Romanov and Zach Krantz.
The Northeast and Southwest's Cincinnati Sectional draws are now online. Click the links at the top of the page to view them
Today's matches include: Indian Hill (A) versus St. Xavier; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Copley; Walsh Jesuit (H) versus St. Ignatius; and Olentangy Liberty (H) versus Olentangy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Sectional Draws
Now that the Sectional Draws have taken place, focus now shifts to the District and State tournaments. For many, the goal is to reach Districts, but for the most skilled players, their focus is to reach States and beyond..
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Olentangy Berlin - Click to team page |
Two districts currently have all or some of their Sectional Draws online. The Central District D1 and D2 draws are online. The Southwest District Mason and Troy locations are also online. The draws for the other districts will be available at the above links when they are released.
The number of spots that each District receives for States varies based on the number of schools in each District. The District breakdowns for D1 are: Central - 4, Northeast - 6, Northwest - 1, and Southwest - 5. The D2 spots are: Central - 2, East/Southeast - 2, Northeast - 4, Northwest - 4, and Southwest - 4.
This year, the top Central District D1 singles players chose Pickerington Central #1 to play Sectionals. These players will not have to worry about playing any of the others in their Sectional in order to qualify for States. It always takes a bit of luck to get to States but Central's approach of picking Sectional locations typically enables their best players to reach States. In other Districts, especially in the Southwest, they have had players who could have reached the State finals who did not even get to go to States.
Today's featured team is Olentangy Berlin. They are coached by Richard Hunt. They are Team Members. They are led by Joshua McKnight and Logan Van Horne.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Dublin Jerome; New Albany (H) versus Olentangy Orange; and University School (A) versus Hawken. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore, Lexington, and University School Are Tournament Champs
The weather cooperated for at least some of the state yesterday. It allowed several of the state's biggest tournaments to take place while spotty rain in the Central Districts caused a number of cancellations.
In tournament play, Sycamore won Flight A of the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches' Association's Classic while Mason was the runner-up. Lexington won its own Lexington Invitational and Columbus Academy was second. University School won the Hawken Tournament championship. Results are included online for the GCTCA Flight A and Lexington's first singles and first dubs.
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Ottawa Hill's Jack Burke - Click to enlarge |
There was just one dual match recorded -- Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy defeated Chagrin Falls.
Among the top players, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Sycamore's Chad Miller, Springboro's Sainandan Dore, and Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger. Sycamore's Chad Miller beat Springboro's Sainandan Dore and Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger; Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky defeated Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Ethan Stradtman; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller beat Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue and Lexington's Ethan Remy; Lexington's Ethan Remy defeated Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough and Ottawa Hills' Darwin Posta; Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated Mason's Akshay Joshi, Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati, and Springboro's Rishi Dore; Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough beat Findlay's Kosuke Asada; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue defeated Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Mason's Aron Dornhecker, Indian Hill's Eshaan Gandhi, and Springboro's Jack Siehl; and Springboro's Jack Siehl defeated Mason's Aron Dornhecker. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is Sectional draw day as the state prepares for the State tournament. The draws will be posted on OTZ as soon as they become available. The normal timeline is that Central's draws come online first at about 6pm, followed by some of Southwest's draws, followed by the Northeast draws on Monday, and then the Northwest's.
The photo is of Ottawa Hill's Jack Burke. It was taken at the Lexington Invite yesterday. Indoor lighting always provides difficult shooting conditions. Hopefully there will be other opportunities to take photos later in the season. The team photos taken yesterday will be posted later today.
SATURDAY,
Lexington Beats Centerville | Seven Hills Defeats Covington Catholic
Lexington defeated Centerville and Seven Hills beat Covington Catholic in the marquee matches yesterday. There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Jonathan Alder defeated Northwestern; Urbana beat Sidney; Milford defeated Loveland; Carroll beat Archbishop Alter; Sidney defeated Northmont; Westlake beat Walsh Jesuit; and Chagrin Falls defeated West Geauga. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lexington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Lexington. They are coached by Ron Schaub. They are Team Members. They are led by Tommy Secrist, Ethan Remy, and Karl Etzel.
Today's dual matches include: Bexley (H) versus Oakwood, but today is going to be a huge tournament day. Lexington has their invitational which OTZ will be leaving for in a few minutes. The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association also takes place at numerous sites. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Olentangy > Olentangy Orange | Orange > University School | Findlay > Perrysburg
Perfect conditions resulted in the most matches of the year being played. There were 45 matches recorded from state-wide play but coaches in "catch-up mode" brought the total to 60. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 21, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lehman Catholic defeated Milton-Union; Olentangy beat Olentangy Orange; Lakota West defeated Fairfield; Hawken beat St. Ignatius; and Elder defeated Badin. Other notable matches include: Orange defeated University School; Findlay beat Perrysburg; and Springboro defeated Centerville. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Beechcroft's Amani Lyles - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Sycamore's Chad Miller defeated Oak Hills' Max Doerger; Springboro's Sainandan Dore beat Centerville's Elliot Galbraith; Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated University School's Dean Kirchick; Avon's Logan DeHaven beat Kenston's Max McNeal; Perrysburg's Mason Deal defeated Findlay's Max Hosey; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Dublin Scioto's Sohum Patel; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel defeated Olentangy's Trevor Gerald; Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora beat Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman; and Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated St. Charles' Victor Roscoe. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's photo is of Beechcroft's Amani Lyles. Lyles is one of many two sport athletes who compete in tennis. At 6' 8" he also starred on Beechcoft's basketball team.
A few days ago several photos were included in the OTZ Top Ten Boys Tennis Photos. These photos will continue to change as other photos are taken.
Today's update was a total [preferred word retracted] nightmare. It was the worst in several years. This was going to be a Photo Friday but those plans got blown up by all of the extra scores. There is also still "clean-up work" that needs to be done, but OTZ dog, Zoey, needs to take me for a walk..
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Lexington; St. John's Jesuit (H) versus Ottawa Hills; New Albany (H) versus St. Ignatius; and Orange (H) versus Beachwood. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Seven Hills Beats St. Xavier | University School Defeats Westlake
Cool conditions continue but it is far better than rain. There were 34 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 15, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lakota West beat Loveland (with four 3-setters); Seven Hills defeated St. Xavier; Walsh Jesuit beat Hudson; University School defeated Westlake; Lancaster beat Zanesville; and Marysville defeated Marion Harding. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Franklin Heights - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat Walnut Hills' Anish Kandi; Springboro's Sainandan Dore defeated Beavercreek's Alan Xie; St. Xavier's Drew Evans beat Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller defeated Hudson's Sa; University School's Dean Kirchick beat Westlake's Rohit Jain; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel defeated Bexley's Sam Lessard; Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari beat Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue defeated Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; and Sidney’s Grant Hoying beat Lehman Catholic’s Sam Gilardi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
With the Sectional Draws on Sunday, the season has gone from zero to frantic as coaches schedule their most important matches and triage the others. The OTZ goal is to identify the best players in the state before the draws but it has been difficult to do this given the match shortage. More players were added to the OTZ Top Players / Watch List last week and more will be added today.
Today's featured team is Franklin Heights. They are coached by James Wassmuth. They are led by Vaughn Chum and Eric Martinez
Today's matches include: Findlay (H) versus Perrysburg; Centerville (A) versus Springboro; Oak Hills (A) versus Sycamore; University School (A) versus Orange; and Kenston (H) versus Avon. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Updated OTZ State Team Rankings | Sycamore Beats Mason
There were high quality and a large quantity of matches recorded yesterday. There were 39 matches recorded from matches that played yesterday, but there were 53 matches entered as coaches caught up with previously played matches. The breakdown by District was: Central - 18, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 3. In the three premier matches yesterday, Sycamore defeated Mason; Olentangy Orange beat Olentangy Liberty; and Seven Hills defeated Cincinnati Country Day. The close, 3-2 matches included: Bryan defeated Ottawa Hills; Pickerington North beat Gahanna; Valley View defeated Yellow Springs; and Olentangy Berlin beat Thomas Worthington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Sycamore◄TEAM | Orange◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 3. Springboro◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 4. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 5. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 6. Avon | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 7. University School◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 8. New Albany◄TEAM | Hawken◄TEAM |
| 9. Solon◄TEAM | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 10. Findlay◄TEAM | Bryan |
| HM: Walsh Jesuit | Mariemont |
| HM: Olentangy Orange | |
| HM: Perrysburg◄TEAM | |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Mason's Vignesh Gogineni beat Sycamore's Chad Miller; Bryan's Jay Fortner defeated Ottawa Hills' Jack Burke; Perrysburg's Mason Deal beat Maumee's Tucker; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel defeated Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Olentangy's Trevor Gerald beat Marysville's Gianni Russo; Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated Mason's Akshay Joshi; Walnut Hills’ Anish Kandi beat Loveland’s Max Jody; Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated Hilliard Bradley's Neil Reddy; and Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Mason's Aron Dornhecker. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There is a new OTZ State Team Ranking today. Sycamore's win over Mason yesterday places them in the #1 spot in D1. Sycamore also had a higher game winning percentage while playing against the same teams that Mason has played. Another big mover in D1 is Avon. In D2, Bexley was the big mover. The OTZ Matrix Report is the main resource for determining the rankings. To use this report, please find your bottle of Advil first before you sign-in. This report will give you a headache..Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Seven Hills; Sycamore (H) versus Walnut Hills; Bexley (H) versus Olentangy Orange; Indian Hill (A) versus Springboro; and Orange (A) versus Solon. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Mariemont
Rainy weather impacted matches again yesterday but the rest of the week looks good. There were six matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 1, Southwest - 3, and Northeast - 2. There was just one 3-2 match reported - Anderson defeated Lakota West. In another notable match Seven Hills defeated Mariemont. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Copley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Copley. They are coached by Mark Ullman. They are Team Members. They are led by Akisa Kayashima and Pramod Muthigi.
Information for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws comes from coaches as they enter scores on OhioTennisZone. Other sources include updates on Twitter and the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association draws. (The OTCA is doing a good job of keeping their draws updated this season.) Hopefully good weather this week will enable more matches to be played. Aware of result that is not posted online? Click Feedback to report it.
Today's matches will be very interesting to watch. The biggest is Sycamore (A) versus Mason. Others include: Indian Hill (H) versus Oakwood; Seven Hills (A) versus Cincinnati Country Day; and Solon (H) versus Massillon Jackson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Boys "By Court" Player Performance Report
A new report was first released during the girls season and it is now ready to roll for the boys. It is called the "By Court Player Performance Report" and it lists the players who are doing the best on each court. In Ohio high school tennis, each court is worth one point so a high performing Court 3 player can make the same impact on the score as the Court 1 player. It is time to recognize them as well.
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By Court Performance Report - Click for report |
It is sorted by the "Winning %", followed by the number of court wins. Players need to have at least seven matches before they are included. This restriction is a problem for many players this season because of the inclement weather.
This report runs off the same data as the information listed on the Team Report.
And yes, this is yet another OhioTennisZone innovation to recognize those who play high school tennis.
This report is available to view under the "Tennis Statistics / Info" drop down menu which is located at the top of the page.
GoDaddy provides the hosting support for OhioTennisZone. This means that rather than OTZ providing the computers that tennis fans access -- GoDaddy does. Unfortunately, GoDaddy has been doing a poor job recently and they have had numerous outages. I encountered three problems last week -- just on my own. When the problem is occurring, fans received a “Page Not Found” error. The problem normally disappears after ten minutes.
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus Indian Hill; Centerville (H) versus St. Xavier; Bexley (A) versus New Albany; and Columbus Academy (A) versus Upper Arlington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Oakwood Wins the Coaches' Cup | Bexley Beats Orange | Orange Defeats CA
It is always nice to get the players acclimated to the heat, and yesterday was very helpful in doing that. There were also several double headers, and St. Xavier pulled off an elusive triple header as teams made good use of the great weather to catch-up. There were 14 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 3, and Northeast - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Bexley defeated Orange; Dublin Scioto beat Gahanna; Orange defeated Columbus Academy; and Jonathan Alder beat Bellefontaine. In other big matches, Columbus Academy defeated Lexington; and Dublin Jerome beat Walsh Jesuit; and Lexington defeated Bexley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Dublin Jerome - Click to team page |
It is important to note that not all teams use their best line-ups for all their matches. This is especially the case when a team goes on the road and they need to give more players on the team an opportunity to play. There are also some players who are dealing with injuries so they cannot play in every match. This is why it is important to sign-in to OTZ and look at the line-up view while evaluating teams.
In two tournaments yesterday, Oakwood won the Coaches Cup in Southwest Ohio and Springboro came in second. Big Walnut won Reynoldsburg's dubs tournament with Watkins Memorial coming in second.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Dublin Scioto's Sohum Patel; Orange's Ben Pomeranets beat Bexley's Sam Lessard and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; St. Xavier's Drew Evans defeated Moeller's Ethan Hawryschuk; Solon's Niko Romanov beat Lakeside's Joey Varckette; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller; Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu beat Columbus Academy's Ryan Panley; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue defeated Lexington's Tommy Secrist; Bexley's Sam Lessard beat Lexington's Ryan Mecurio; and Dublin Jerome's Eli Wiblin defeated Hudson's Sa. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Dublin Jerome. They are coached by Ken Berlin. They are Team Members. They are led by Max Fickas, Kevin Liu, and Eli Wiblin.
SATURDAY,
#1 Mason Beats #1 Orange
It was a big day for big matches as many of the top teams throughout the state competed. In the biggest match of the day (Week? Month? Season?) was OTZ D1 #1 Mason defeated OTZ D2 #1 Orange 4-1. The match was hosted by Bexley, which is a Columbus suburb. It was a perfect weather day. In other big matches, Sycamore defeated St. John’s Jesuit and Solon beat Walsh Jesuit.
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Westerville Central - Click to team page |
There were 26 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 13, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Troy defeated Greenville; Westerville Central beat Westerville South; and Chaminade-Julienne defeated Valley View. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Orange's Ben Pomeranets; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat St. John’s Jesuit's Tyler Wood; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller defeated Solon's Niko Romanov; Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu beat Mason's Akshay Joshi; Bryan's Jay Fortner defeated Defiance's Nathan Blunt; St. Xavier's Drew Evans beat Tippecanoe's Kessler Hackenberger; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Toledo Central Catholic's Webb; New Albany's Declan Freedhoff beat Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; and Pickerington North's Cole Alcala defeated Marysville's Gianni Russo. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Westerville Central. They are coached by Bradley Baker. They are led by Tyler Gebbie and Max Rojanasakdakul.
Today's matches include: Bexley (H) versus Orange and Lexington; Columbus Academy (H) versus Orange and Lexington; and Indian Hill (A) versus St John's Jesuit. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | University School Beats Solon | Academy Defeats Wellington
It was a perfect evening - at least weather-wise. There were 39 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 18, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Scioto defeated Big Walnut; Worthington Christian beat Watterson; Moeller defeated Wyoming; Dublin Coffman beat Upper Arlington; Pickerington Central defeated Lancaster; Olentangy Berlin beat Marysville; and Anderson defeated Loveland. Other notable matches included: University School defeated Solon and Columbus Academy beat Wellington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Dublin Coffman's Shinya Akiyama - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Solon's Niko Romanov defeated University School's Dean Kirchick; Bryan's Jay Fortner defeated Shawnee's Gabe Burke; Wellington's Sanjan Shanker defeated Columbus Academy's Ryan Panley; Pickerington North's Cole Alcala defeated New Albany's Declan Freedhoff; Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated Upper Arlington's Joseph Saalman; Marysville's Gianni Russo defeated Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight; Pickerington Central’s Phelps defeated Lancaster’s Jonah Hoffman-Weitsman; and Loveland's Max Jody defeated Anderson's Ben Zhou. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws. There were quite a few updates.Today is OTZ Photo Friday. Ten new photos were added. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos to view.
Today's matches include some big matches: Mason and Orange come to THE capital city to play each other at Bexley. Plus, Solon (H) versus Walsh Jesuit and Chagrin Falls (H) versus Hawken. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Sycamore Beats Indian Hill | Mason Defeats Springboro | Jerome Wins the Uh-Oh Spaghettio Bowl
The weather was in "full accommodation" mode yesterday and the number of results reflected that. As identified back on March 29, tonight will be the biggest night of the season for matches. Hopefully the rain will move out of the way in time for matches to take place.
There were 35 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 2. There were a large number of close, 3-2 matches included: Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy defeated Loveland; St. Xavier-B beat Cincinnati Country Day; Highland defeated Copley; New Albany beat Lexington; Ross defeated Badin; Westerville North beat Hilliard Darby; Bexley defeated Olentangy Berlin; Marysville beat Gahanna; Olentangy Liberty defeated Upper Arlington; Big Walnut beat Westerville Central; Franklin Heights defeated Groveport; Oakwood beat Beavercreek; and Valley View defeated Miami Valley School.
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Centerville - Click to team page |
In other big matches, Sycamore defeated Indian Hill and Mason beat Springboro. In the Uh-Oh Spaghettio Bowl [click link], Dublin Jerome defeated Dublin Coffman. This contest is so named for the numerous traffic circles that Dublin uses to get to their other traffic circles as they build more traffic circles. Dublin's goal is that it takes five miles of driving to go one mile. [Ok. Fine. I just made that up. It's probably 10 miles to go one mile.] This is Dublin's most notorious traffic circle [click link] and it was a boon to the nearby Discount Tire because of all of the sliced tires it caused as drivers attempted to navigate it.
To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Marysville's Gianni Russo; Mason's Vignesh Gogineni beat Springboro's Sainandan Dore; Sycamore's Chad Miller defeated Indian Hill's Jack Pollock; Highland's Elijah Hadler beat Copley's Akisa Kayashima; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; New Albany's Declan Freedhoff beat Lexington's Tommy Secrist; Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora defeated Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Pickerington North's Cole Alcala beat Olentangy's Trevor Gerald; Bexley's Sam Lessard defeated Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight; Wellington's Sanjan Shanker beat St. Charles' Brady Pema; Beavercreek's Alan Xie defeated Oakwood's Max McCloskey; and Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle beat Dublin Scioto's Sohum Patel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Centerville. They are coached by Scott Long. They are Team Members. They are led by Aiden Ross and Elliot Galbraith.
Today's matches include: Lexington (A) versus Wooster; Massillon Jackson (H) versus Orange; Olentangy Orange (A) versus Wellington; University School (H) versus Solon; and St. Xavier (H) versus Beavercreek. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
CHCA Defeats CCD | Jackson Beats NCH
Ohio tennis was not back up to full speed yesterday, but today should be much better. Tomorrow will be worse. There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 17, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Elder defeated Loveland; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy beat Cincinnati Country Day; and Badin defeated McNicholas. Massillon Jackson also defeated North Canton Hoover. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Massillon Jackson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Massillon Jackson. They are coached by Louis Thomas. They are Team Members. They are led by Alvin Altman, Ryan Kelley, and Denil Joseph.
Today's matches include: Springboro (A) versus Mason; Oakwood (H) versus Beavercreek; Lexington (A) versus New Albany; Kenston (H) versus Walsh Jesuit; Sycamore (H) versus Indian Hill; Sylvania Northview (A) versus Ottawa Hills; and Dublin Coffman (H) versus Dublin Jerome. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Indian Hill Beats Mariemont | Seven Hills Defeats Wyoming
It was not a complete state rainout last night, which at this point, is good news.. There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. Notable matches from last night included: Indian Hill defeated Mariemont; Seven Hills beat Wyoming; and Walnut Hills defeated Oak Hills. The breakdown by District was: Central - 2, Southwest - 6, and Northeast - 1. In a 3-2 match, Sycamore-B defeated Loveland by clinching on court 3 singles. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Indian Hill - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Indian Hill. They are coached by Wade Ward. They are Team Members. They are led by Tejas Pisati and Jack Pollock.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (A) versus University School; Solon (H) versus Hawken; Upper Arlington (H) versus Olentangy Orange; and Sylvania Northview (H) versus Anthony Wayne. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Passing of Coach Arnold Bradshaw | OTZ Report Changes
There was more unfortunate tennis news last week. Arnold Bradshaw, who once coached at Geneva High School, passed away. Bradshaw had a celebrated career playing and coaching tennis. He was inducted into the Edenboro University Hall of Fame in 1982. He was elected into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1992 after compiling a 485-44 record. Click to read this nice article about Coach Bradshaw from the Star Beacon at starbeacon.com.
On the tennis front this week, there might be two or three days of ok weather. Today will not be one of them. Conditions for Toledo and Cleveland call for rain that turns into snow.
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Report Changes - Click to enlarge |
Eagle-eyed, paying members may have noticed that the team report changed this spring. The default view for the report was to always show the "Graph-only View" of the Team Report. This meant that users had to select the "Line-Up View" every single time after logging into OhioTennisZone. Now the default view is to see the "Line-Up View" after logging into OTZ. As always, the goal is to provide information as quickly as possible rather than keep users online.
Note that all of the team photos provided to OhioTennisZone are now online. If a coach provided OTZ with a photo and it is not online, please send a reminder email to OTZ. For those who have not yet provided a team photo, 1) always make sure that the photographer has given permission for it to be posted online and 2) provide a photo that is at least 1MB in size. Only about 25% of the photos that OTZ first receives are high-resolution photos (> 1MB). Please keep the OTZ sphygmomanometer happy and save everyone time by sending a high-resolution image first.
At this point, the schedules that coaches and OTZ entered at the beginning of the season are highly suspect as teams jockey "nice-to-have" matches with league and State Team Tournament matches. Potential matches include Indian Hill (H) versus Mariemont; Orange (A) versus Hawken; Springboro (H) versus Bellbrook; and Cincinnati Country Day (H) versus Oakwood. Always check with players or coaches prior to attending matches. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Happy Easter | Olentangy Beats Massillon Jackson
Poor weather and the Easter weekend led to a limited number of matches being played yesterday. There were just four recorded. Olentangy defeated Massillon Jackson; Watkins Memorial beat Logan; and Bryan defeated Maumee and Bluffton. To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Loveland - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Loveland. They are coached by Jennifer Kapszukiewicz. They are led by Max Jody and Ethan Sproull.
Happy Easter!
SATURDAY,
Olentangy Beats Dublin Scioto | Lakota East Defeats Loveland
It was a beautful, but windy night for tennis. There were eight matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 2, Southwest - 5, and Northeast - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Northwestern defeated Jonathan Alder and Lakeside beat Howland. In other notable matches, Lakota East defeated Loveland and Olentangy defeated Dublin Scioto. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Newark - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Newark. They are coached by Rob Hays. They are led by Will Woughter and Jeremy Schweiger.
Ohio State defeated UM 4-1 last night in their big match. Click for more.
Today's matches include: St. John's Jesuit (H) versus Westlake; Indian Hill (A) versus St. Xavier-Louisville; Sylvania Northview (H) versus Westlake; Wellington (A) versus New Albany; and Massillon Jackson (A) versus Olentangy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | Columbus Academy Beats Pickerington North | Olentangy Liberty Defeats Upper Arlington
It was a pleasant, but windy evening for most of the state as teams rushed to get more matches played. In comparison to last year, there have been 323 dual matches played versus 456 last year. That is a 29% decrease.
Last night, there were 38 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Westerville Central defeated Grove City; Beavercreek beat Centerville; Butler defeated Sidney; Olentangy Liberty beat Upper Arlington; Kenton Ridge defeated London; and Olentangy Berlin beat Hilliard Darby. In another noteworthy match, Columbus Academy defeated Pickerington North. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lancaster's J. Hoffman-Weitsman - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated New Albany's Declan Freedhoff; Perrysburg's Mason Deal beat Sylvania Southview's Isaac Vens; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Marysville's Gianni Russo; Bryan's Jay Fortner beat Ada's Dexter Woods; Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman defeated Big Walnut's Grant Mudre; Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora beat Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Pickerington North's Cole Alcala defeated Columbus Academy's Ryan Panley; Bexley's Sam Lessard beat Olentangy's Trevor Gerald; Olentangy Orange's Parth Patel defeated Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; and Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle beat Westerville South's Sammy Gurgiolo. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
It is time for another photo Friday. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos to view. There were 12 photos added.Today is Good Friday but there are still a few matches planned. They include: Upper Arlington (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Indian Hill (A) versus Sycamore; Dublin Scioto (A) versus Olentangy; Lakeside (H) versus Howland; and Jonathan Alder (H) versus Northwestern. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
The Ohio State Men's team plays University of Michigan at home at 6pm. UM won their last match so this is a key match for the Buckeyes.
THURSDAY,
Oakwood Beats Wyoming
Oakwood defeated Wyoming in the only match recorded from yesterday's play. They played indoors to escape the rain. This was a State Team Tournament match. Click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
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Oakwood - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Oakwood. They are coached by Kim Gilbert. They are Team Members. They are led by Max McCloskey, Noah Boyce, and Andrew Rich.
There is a nice, affordable tournament coming up in Central Ohio on April 23rd that includes age groups that are not involved with high school tennis. This will be at Upper Arlington's new courts. Click to register at U.A. Spring Jr. Open - COGP. [Paid placement]
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus Lakota West; Avon (A) versus St. Ignatius; Seven Hills (A) versus Mariemont; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Olentangy Liberty. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Avon > University School | Findlay > SJJ | Walsh > Jackson | Bex > Wellington
As Ohio received one day of relief from the rain, not only were there a large number of matches but there were also numerous great matches. Among the top tier teams, Avon defeated University School; Findlay beat St. John's Jesuit; Walsh Jesuit defeated Massillon Jackson; and Bexley beat Wellington. Other close, 3-2 matches included: Worthington Kilbourne defeated Delaware Hayes; Lehman Catholic beat Milton-Union; St. Ignatius defeated Copley; Whetstone beat Watterson; Lancaster defeated Gahanna; Northwestern beat Bellefontaine; Northmont defeated Wayne; Cincinnati Country Day beat Summit Country Day; and Marysville defeated Hilliard Darby. The Whetstone versus Watterson match included four 3-setters -- so much for homework.
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Lancaster - Click to team page |
Overall, there were 47 matches recorded and the breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Northeast - 4, Northwest - 2, and Southwest - 22. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Lancaster's Jonah Hoffman-Weitsman; Mason's Vignesh Gogineni beat Oak Hills' Paul Nienaber; Avon's Logan DeHaven defeated University School's Dean Kirchick; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller beat Massillon Jackson's Ryan Kelley; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood; Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman beat Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle; Perrysburg's Mason Deal defeated Sylvania Northview's Forquer; Indian Hill's Jack Pollock beat Wyoming's Mark Keller; Bexley's Sam Lessard defeated Wellington's Sanjan Shanker; Copley's Akisa Kayashima beat St. Ignatius' Kai Vesikallio; and Olentangy's Trevor Gerald defeated Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Lancaster. They are coached by Gary Elick. They are led by Jonah Hoffman-Weitsman, Grant Hampson, and Cohen Parker.
Another state-wide rainout is expected today, but if they do play, today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (A) versus Upper Arlington; Mason (H) versus St. Xavier; Oakwood (A) versus Seven Hills; and Wellington (H) versus Massillon Jackson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Mason Beats Kings | Massillon Jackson Defeats Glenoak | Rain Pummels Ohio
Even though there were three matches recorded, yesterday was essentially a state-wide rain-out. In the State Team Tournament, Mason defeated Kings. In the other two matches, Massillon Jackson defeated Glenoak and Oak Hills beat Seven Hills-B. To view the graphs from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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St. Charles - Click to team page |
Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws for the updated draws.
Among the top players, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Kings' Vogt; Glenoak’s Dylan Wiles beat Massillon Jackson's Ryan Kelley; Mason's Akshay Joshi defeated Kings' Garter; and Massillon Jackson's Lucas Immel beat Glenoak's Marginean. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is St. Charles. They are coached by Costas Alevizopoulos. They are Team Members. They are led by Brady Pema, Victor Roscoe, and Daniel Ferguson.
The weather looks promising for most of the state for today, Thursday, and Friday. Today's matches include: Bexley (A) versus Wellington; Copley (A) versus St. Ignatius; Findlay (A) versus St John's Jesuit; Olentangy Berlin (H) versus Olentangy; Avon (A) versus University School; and Perrysburg (A) versus Sylvania Northview. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Top Player / Watch List Changes
It's a tradition unlike any other -- it is going to rain again on a Monday.. Here is an appropriate tune to get your day started..
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OTZ Top Players / Watch List- Click to report |
The OhioTennisZone Top Players and Watch List is starting to change ever so slowly. The large number of rain cancelations is slowing things down more than usual. There are currently 14 players on the Top Players Report and eight on the Watch List. By the end of the season, the Top Players report will include between 22 to 28 players. These lists are based on how well a player competes in high school tennis matches. While OTZ monitors both TennisRecruiting.net and Universal Tennis Ratings (especially before the season starts), the OTZ rankings will be based on high school play. This year's rankings largely start as they ended last spring. The D1 State Champion, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, starts out with the OTZ top ranking. Before any player advances to the Top report, he will start out on the Watch List. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for a Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Coaches may always suggest their own players or others who they feel should be on the lists. No help is necessary from parents, pros, uncles, or friends.
Matches expected to be canceled today include: Springboro (H) versus Sycamore; Oakwood (A) versus Chaminade-Julienne; Bexley (A) versus Olentangy; and St. Xavier (A) versus Lakota West. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Mason Beats Jerome | SJJ Defeats Academy
The OTZ sunglasses had to be used on the way back from the coffee shop this morning, but it looks like they can go back into long-term storage for this coming week.. Teams went indoors yesterday to escape the weather. Driving through rain, sleet, and snow, Sycamore came to Columbus and beat New Albany at Tennis Ohio. Mason and Dublin Jerome traveled to Springboro's South Regency where Mason was the victor. Both Seven Hills and Indian Hill beat the traveling Bexley team. The close, 3-2 matches included: St. John's Jesuit defeated Columbus Academy and St. Xavier beat Massillon Jackson. The SJJ/Academy match had four 3-setters.
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Sycamore - Click to team page |
Overall, there were seven matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 1, Northeast - 0, Northwest - 1, and Southwest - 5. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
It is slow going in the State Team Tournament. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni defeated Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat New Albany's Declan Freedhoff; St. Xavier's Drew Evans defeated Massillon Jackson' s Ryan Kelley; Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati beat Bexley's Sam Lessard; St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood defeated Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; and Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan beat Bexley's Sam Lessard. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Sycamore. They are coached by Mike Teets. They are Team Members. They are led by Chad Miller, Nicholas Choo, Nicholas Meyers, and Mark Karev. Sycamore has played seven matches and they have not lost a set on any court.
Are one of your matches not on OhioTennisZone? Today would be a great catch-up day.
SATURDAY,
Walsh Jesuit Beats Findlay | Bexley Defeats St. Charles
Just nine matches were entered yesterday as Ohio continues to deal with wet weather. Except for a break in the rain tomorrow, rain is forecasted to continue forever.. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Northeast - 0, Northwest - 2, and Southwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Walsh Jesuit beat Findlay; Tippecanoe defeated Oak Hills; and Chaminade-Julienne beat Greenville. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Findlay - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Findlay. They are coached by Sean Swisher. They are Team Members. While some teams have not yet played a match, Findlay has played seven. They are led by Max Hosey, Kosuke Asada, and Mac Robertson.
Unless teams can get indoor court time, it is doubtful if many matches will be played today. Mason is playing Dublin Jerome at Springboro's South Regency. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Indian Hill Beat St. Xavier | Findlay Defeats Anthony Wayne
The rain continues to take a toll on Ohio tennis. Several of the OTZ Top Ten teams have not even played a match yet. They include: Mason, Springboro, Dublin Jerome, Hawken, and Oakwood. Just four teams competed yesterday, but three of these teams are in the OTZ Top Ten. Indian Hill defeated St. Xavier and Findlay beat Anthony Wayne. To view the graphs from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Bexley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Bexley. They are coached by Will Gingery. They are Team Members. They are led by Stefan Schiff, Sam Lessard, and Austin Flamm.
As Central Ohio tennis enthusiasts know, Terri Jones, Executive Director of the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA), passed away on March 16. While the GCTA can never replace Terri, we need to fill this very important, Executive Director position. Click for more information on the GCTA.net site.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (H) versus St. Ignatius; Bexley (H) versus Columbus Academy; Kenston (H) versus Solon; Upper Arlington (H) versus New Albany; Avon (A) versus Westlake; and Lexington (A) versus Walsh Jesuit. Weather conditions look slightly better in northern Ohio. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Walsh Jesuit Beats Green | Weather Obliterating HS Tennis
On what was expected to be a super busy day, there were only nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The Central District was completely rained out. The breakdowns for the other Districts were: Northeast - 5, Northwest - 3, and Southwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Anderson defeated Turpin and Walsh Jesuit beat Green. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lakeside - Click to team page |
There were a few more matches entered from the State Team Tournament. Click to view.
Among the top players, Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller defeated Green's Max White; Findlay's Max Hosey beat Clay's Horvath; Perrysburg's Mason Deal defeated Anthony Wayne's Dietrich; University School's Nathan Mu beat Brecksville's Youssef; and Lakeside’s Joey Varckette defeated Wickliffe’s A.J. Levon. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Lakeside. They are coached by Clark Hewitt. They are new to OhioTennisZone and they are Team Members. They are led by Joey Varckette and Michael Paulchel.
Today's matches include: Findlay (H) versus Anthony Wayne; Indian Hill (H) versus St. Xavier; Solon (H) versus St. Ignatius; and Olentangy Liberty (H) versus Wellington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
CCD Beats CHCA | University School Defeats St. Ignatius
Yesterday was the biggest night of the season for matches so far. There were 28 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Northeast - 1, Northwest - 2, and Southwest - 15. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Scioto defeated St. Charles in a State Team Tournament match and Fairborn beat Valley View-B. In other noteworthy matches, Cincinnati Country Day defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy; New Albany beat Wellington; University School defeated St. Ignatius; and Columbus Academy beat Olentangy. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Dublin Scioto - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Dublin Scioto. They are coached by Sean Gilbert. They are led by Sohum Patel and Akash Manoj.
At least based on the matches entered on OTZ, tonight will be the second biggest match night of the year. They include: Chagrin Falls (H) versus Solon; Kenston (H) versus Hawken; New Albany (H) versus Olentangy; St. John's Jesuit (H) versus Toledo Central Catholic; and Perrysburg (A) versus Anthony Wayne. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. Hopefully the weather does not get in the way.
MONDAY,
Big Week for Matches (Hopefully)
This is the week when the high school tennis season starts in earnest. Today is a huge day and tomorrow will be the second busiest match day of the season. A busy tennis week; however,is going to collide with Ohio weather, but hopefully things will not be as bad as they look now. The weather may clear up today for most of the state and tomorrow should still be fine for the northern part of the state.
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St. John's Jesuit - Click to team page |
To view all of the results recorded from the last few days, click on Previous Day's Match Results and select the date at the top of the report.
Today's featured team is St. John's Jesuit. They are coached by Jim Davis. They are Team Members. They are led by Tyler Wood and Jack Oswald.
Today's matches include: New Albany (H) versus Wellington; North Canton Hoover (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Springboro (A) versus Lakota West; Perrysburg (A) versus Toledo Central Catholic; and Walsh Jesuit (A) versus St. Edward. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Miamisburg Wins Chaminade-Julienne Invitational
It was a relatively quiet day but the flood gates will open next week with matches as all teams begin to play. (Hopefully the flood gates will not be needed for the rain that is expected.) Miamisburg won the Chaminade-Julienne Invite and Troy was second. In dual match play, Bryan defeated Van Wert.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player | Rank |
Best Ranking |
| Lauren Davis HS | 94 |
26 (5/17) |
| Caty McNally | 165 |
105 (9/19) |
| JJ Wolf HS | 167 |
120 (9/20) |
| Blaz Rola | 182 |
78 (1/15) |
| Francesca Di Lorenzo HS | 192 |
118 (2/20) |
| Mikael Torpegaard | 320 |
166 (1/20) |
| Peyton Stearns | 387 |
347 (7/21) |
| Dalayna Hewitt | 461 |
461 (3/22) |
| John McNally | 601 |
470 (7/19) |
| Cannon Kingsley | 615 |
593 (5/19) |
| Kennedy Shaffer | 663 |
506 (4/19) |
| Peter Kobelt HS | 1001 |
332 (5/16) |
| Jacob Dunbar HS | 1267 | 756 (12/18) |
| Maddie Kobelt HS | 1369 |
893 (11/16) |
HS: Ohio High School Player |
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Professional tennis is going full speed and there are several players with Ohio ties who are competing. They are listed in the table to the right.
Cincinnati Country Day's JJ Wolf has been making the biggest impact lately after his close, 3-set match with #5 Stefanos Tsitsipas. This left-handed passing shot by Wolf has earned hundred of thousands of views. Click for tweet of passing shot.
Dalayna Hewitt of Northeast Ohio has also been moving up in the rankings. She just reached a new career best of #461in the world.
In college tennis, the Ohio State Women's Tennis Team has a home match against Michigan State University at noon today.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Defeats St. Xavier | Columbus Academy Beats Walsh Jesuit
It was yet another iffy weather day yesterday, but playing conditions will get worse next week. There were eight matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 3, Northeast - 1, Northwest - 1, and Southwest - 3. Notable matches included: Sycamore defeated St. Xavier; Columbus Academy beat Walsh Jesuit; and Avon defeated North Canton Hoover. Watkins Memorial defeated Pickerington Central in a close, 3-2 match. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OSU / Col. Academy's Sydni Ratliff - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Sycamore's Chad Miller defeated St. Xavier's Drew Evans; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller beat Columbus Academy's Ryan Panley; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Springfield Holland's Kufner; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat St. Xavier's Tucker Berry; and Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated St. Xavier's Chase Homan. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Ohio State Women's team had a great match against the University of Xichigan yesterday. Columbus Academy grad, Sydni Ratliff, clinched the 4-3 win for the Buckeye's on court 4 . Ohio State plays Michigan State at noon on Sunday. The match is expected to be played outdoors.
Just as an aside, the photo of Ratliff, which was taken at an earlier match this season, makes it clear how just one photo can illustrate how good a player is. Note the coiling and the eye-on-ball.
In today's matches, Sycamore (H) is hosting Massillon Jackson. St. Edward is having a tournament. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Is It Time to Wager on High School Sports? You Bet!
It was only a matter of time and apparently that time is now. Sports betting will soon be available for high school sports through Joker's Wild. Tennis will be the first sport to test this offering this spring.
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Bet on HS Tennis Using Joker's Wild - Click to sign-up |
"Nothing will make fans focus more than to have money riding on a second serve of a 14 year old freshman boy on a windy, spring day," stated one enthusiastic grandparent. He continued, "I barely knew how to keep score but now I know the over / under of all of my grandson's potential opponents." He also added, "He's a nice kid, but it's not like I'm betting on him to win every match. He's lucky if he gets his first serve in 20% of the time."
Will this put more pressure on officials to make difficult calls? Not really. Tennis rarely has officials so fans will be deputized to help make the crucial calls. An app from a prominent social media company will be provided to enable fans to quickly crowd-source close calls. A Joker's Wild spokesperson added, "We chose a social media company to provide this app due to their long-term track record of providing accurate and thoughtful information."
Acting OTZ president, Zoey Gerber, stated through an interpreter, "OhioTennisZone will not benefit directly from this new endeavor, but we do anticipate that fans will use OTZ's analytics to identify good opportunities." She added, "Parents and fans have always shown how mature they can be around youth athletics. The natural extension of this will be betting on kids' t-ball leagues during the summers. You can count on OhioTennisZone to soon launch T-BallZone.com just as it has for platform tennis (PlatformTennisZone.com) and pickleball (PickleballZone.com)."
This new service will be rolled out gradually beginning on Monday, April 4, and it should be completely launched by Tuesday, April 5th. Click now to sign-up!
As a public service announcement, please remember: Everyone always loses eventually. And always has. Forever. So please bet responsibly.
As for other tennis news..
There were 15 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Northeast - 2, Northwest - 0, and Southwest - 7. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hilliard Bradley defeated Worthington Kilbourne and Wooster beat Wadsworth. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Bexley's Sam Lessard; Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky beat University School's Dean Kirchick; Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman defeated Hilliard Bradley's Neal Reddy; and Mariemont's Will Stephens beat Moeller's Hawryschuk. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
A email-related problem at the OTZ hosting company, GoDaddy, caused delays in system-generated emails. This prevented OTZ from emailing new passwords, sign-up acknowledgments, score entry confirmations, etc. A flood of emails were sent as GoDaddy cleared their email queue late last night. Hopefully this problem has been resolved (and based on a Feedback test that I just did, it looks good).
Today's matches include: Sycamore (H) versus St. Xavier; Copley (A) versus Westlake; Avon (H) versus North Canton Hoover; and Columbus Academy (A) versus Walsh Jesuit and Massillon Jackson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.Happy Holiday.
THURSDAY,
Upper Arlington Beats Bexley | Wooster Defeats North Canton Hoover
Windy conditions led to some interesting shots last night as Ohio's weather continues to yo-yo. The 19 matches that were recorded included numerous close, 3-2 matches. They were Upper Arlington defeated Bexley; Lehman Catholic beat Kenton Ridge; Wooster defeated North Canton Hoover; Lancaster beat Hilliard Davidson; Wapakoneta defeated Piqua; London beat Ready; and Oak Hills defeated Elder. Wooster's win included three 3-setters. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Northeast - 4, Northwest - 1, and Southwest - 9. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora - Click to enlarge |
The first State Team Tournament match was recorded. Sycamore beat Colerain. This match is now included in the OTZ State Team Tournament Draws
Among the top players, Sycamore's Chad Miller defeated Colerain's Jackson Burke; Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller beat North Royalton's Arnav Gopinath; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Bowling Green's Mathias Drumm; Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora beat Bexley's Sam Lessard; and North Canton Hoover’s Colin Fitzgerald defeated Wooster’s Mark Wood. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
OTZ purchased a new camera over the winter. It has been used for several indoor collegiate and professional matches but no outdoor tennis matches. Last night's Upper Arlington versus Bexley match was the first. So far. So good.
Today's matches include: Oak Hills (H) versus Lakota West; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Watterson; and University School (H) versus Chagrin Falls. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Sycamore Beats Lakota West | Avon Defeats Walsh Jesuit
Conditions were cool but matches were playable. There were 17 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 6, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 2. In the marquis matches: Sycamore defeated Lakota West and Avon beat Walsh Jesuit. The close, 3-2 matches included: North Royalton defeated Wooster; Lexington beat Massillon Jackson; and Anderson defeated St. Xavier-B. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Delaware Hayes - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Delaware Hayes. They are coached by Gary Hibinger. They are Team Members. They are led by Gabe Fogle and Grant Lamar.
Today's matches include: Bexley (A) versus Upper Arlington; Findlay (A) versus Bowling Green; Wooster (H) versus North Canton Hoover; and Walsh Jesuit (H) versus North Royalton. . To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
More about Scheduled Matches | Oak Hills Beats Mariemont
The beginning of the boys season is always chaotic with poor weather (honest) and inconsistent spring break schedules. The season starts slow and rapidly comes up to speed. Now that over 1,200 scheduled matches have been entered on OTZ, the graphs below show April 5th has the second highest number of scheduled matches and April 21st has the most. The second graph shows that Tuesday is the most popular day to schedule a match, followed by Thursday. The OTZ challenge is to visit a large number of matches especially those with teams who have OTZ Coach or Team members. Now that gas prices are so high, another goal is that the match be located close to the OTZ world headquarters in Columbus. The ideal match is when both teams have coach members, and that the match takes place within the 270 Columbus outerbelt.
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Matches per Day- Click to enlarge |
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Day of Week - Click to enlarge |
There were 10 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 2, Southwest - 6, Northeast - 0, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Moeller defeated Lakota West and Newark beat Teays Valley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Matches among the top players included: Findlay's Max Hosey defeated Shawnee's Gabe Burke and Bryan's Jay Fortner beat Springfield Holland's Max Kuffnar.
Today's matches include: Sycamore (H) versus Lakota West; Avon (A) versus Walsh Jesuit; Upper Arlington (H) versus Wellington; Lexington (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and St. John’s Jesuit (A) versus Maumee. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
New Information for the Boys Season
There was additional information added to the OTZ Team Report. This information was added during the girls season and it is new for the boys. The "W/L By Court" results were added to the roster information and it quickly enables readers to see the courts on which each boy plays and how he has performed. This few feature was used extensively to determine the OTZ Pre-Season State Team Rankings. To see all of the information, please sign-in first to OhioTennisZone. (Note that the screen shot for Columbus Academy's information was from the 2020-21 season.)
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By Court Performance - Click to enlarge |
The weather looks very "Ohio-like" for the first full week of the season. Hopefully the boys will be able to endure the low temperatures or find an indoor facility to use. Normally a temperature of 40 degrees is viewed as the minimum because the ball starts to lose its bounce. When the state finally warms up on Wednesday, rain is expected.
Today's matches include: Watterson (A) versus Delaware Hayes; Oak Hills (H) versus Mariemont; St. Charles (H) versus Hartley; and Findlay (A) versus Shawnee (Lima). To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore Beats Solon and Orange
Sycamore went on a field trip to northeast Ohio and came back with two big wins. They defeated both Solon and Orange, 5-0. Solon got 11 games against Sycamore while Orange earned 10. Click to view the graphs on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Sycamore's Chad Miller - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Sycamore's Chad Miller defeated Solon's Niko Romanov and Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Orange's Gabi Kalir; and Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated Solon's Zach Krantz and Orange's Jake Goldstein.
The Ohio State Men play #20 Northwestern at home at noon today.
Cincinnati Country Day's and OSU's JJ Wolf had a great 3-set match against #5 Stefanos Tsitsipas last night. He earned major accolades for this left-handed passing shot. Wolf was injured last year and is now quickly moving up the rankings. Click for the passing shot.
SATURDAY,
Findlay Beats Massillon Jackson
Thanks to six hardy teams there can be an entry in OhioTennisZone today. Good job.
The results were Findlay defeated Massillon Jackson; Oak Hills beat St. Xavier-B; and
Wooster defeated New Philadelphia. Click on Previous Day's Match Results to see the graphs from yesterday.
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New Albany and OSU's Robert Cash- Click to enlarge |
It was nice to see a few out of town faces at the Ohio State versus Illinois match. There was a huge crowd. The official attendance number was 555*. Ohio State students were encouraged to attend by offering a drawing that included gear/services from: Chipotle, Starbucks, lululemon, and a Sony Playstation. There were 300 OSU enrolled by the time we left. The North Canton Hoover team was also reportedly in attendance. OSU won the match 4-0. [*Early this morning, 752 was listed per OSU but OSU revised their number to 555 later in the day. The 752 made no sense because the number was 550 when we left.]
The Ohio State team includes two Ohio high school players -- New Albany's Robert Cash and St. Charles' Reece Yakubov. Cash competed on court 1 dubs and court 6 singles last night. The photo is from an earlier match this season.
There are still a few reports that are out of sync because of the shift from one year to the next, but most of those issues will be resolved today thanks to these teams playing yesterday.
Today's matches include: St. John's Jesuit (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and Orange and Solon play Sycamore. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Match Play Begins Today (Hopefully)
It is time for match play to begin, but will the weather cooperate? Has the weather ever cooperated for the boys season?
There are several good matches scheduled for today. They include: Findlay (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Oak Hills (A) versus St. Xavier; Olentangy Berlin (H) versus St. Charles; Sylvania Northview (A) versus Toledo Central Catholic; Watkins Memorial (A) versus Pickerington Central; and Wooster (H) versus New Philadelphia. Click List of Upcoming Matches to view all of the matches scheduled.
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Marysville - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Marysville. They are coached by Brian Ash. They are Team Members. The captains are Cory Cordell and Jacob Markert. Freshmen, Gianni Russo, Will Nuspl, and Brady Scott, will quickly play a role, as well as Kyrell Stauffer.
The #3 Ohio State Men's Tennis team will be in action this weekend in the new Ty Tucker Indoor Tennis Center. They play on Illinois at 6pm today (Friday) and #20 Northwestern at noon on Sunday. This is a great team bonding experience and admission is free. The new facility is really top-notch. There is also a Cane's Chicken just up the street.
Massive changes will take place on OTZ today as the data from the 2020-21 season is moved out of the way to be replaced with the 2021-22 data. Please expect some Armageddon over the next few days..
WEDNESDAY,
The Passing of Terri Jones..
There is sad news for those in the Central Ohio tennis community. Last week, Terri Jones, the executive director of the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA), passed away after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer.
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GCTA's Terri Jones - Click to enlarge |
Terri had been with the GCTA since 2006, serving as the executive director since 2009. She had played key roles in introducing tennis to Columbus Public Schools, securing the USTA's National Community Tennis Association of the Year Award, and serving the USTA at the National and Midwest levels.
She was a major reason why I joined the GCTA Board in 2012.
All of the Central Ohio junior players who won the annual GCTA awards and their parents, interacted with Terri each year as she managed the popular awards ceremony. Click for previous award winners.
Terri will be greatly missed.
Click for Terri's obituary and for more details on a Celebration of Life ceremony to be held this Sunday, March 27.
MONDAY,
And Away We Go..
The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) Boys Tennis Season begins today. Players and coaches may begin practices. This is the 102nd year for the Boys tennis season. It appears that Ohio may even have a few nice weather days this week which should be very helpful for tryouts. Note the OTZ tennis calendar in the right-hand sidebar for additional important dates.
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Kicking off the season |
There is an administration change at the OHSAA for tennis this year. Dustin Ware was recently hired to administer tennis as well as Cross Country and Track & Field . He replaces John Kuzio. It always rained during the first day of the state tournament for John. Hopefully that will not be the case for Dustin.
There are always documentation and rules changes. Click for the OHSAA Boys Tennis Manual for 2022, OHSAA Tennis Regulations for 2022, and OHSAA Tournament Regulations for 2022.
GoDaddy provides the hosting services for OhioTennisZone.com. Their services have been somewhat spotty lately. If a "Hmmm.. can't reach this page" error is presented, please try again later in a few minutes. This happened to me again yesterday. Given the unfortunate situation in Russia / Ukraine, there may be ramifications with other web services.
TUESDAY,
OTZ Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The OhioTennisZone.com 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 boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year. As is clear in the pivot table to the right, last year was a "down year" as teams returned to play after the COVID-19 season. This year, there are 122 teams participating. The number of boys teams by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; 2019 - 119; 2020 - 128, 2021 - 110, and 2022 - 122. 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, 31% of the teams are competing in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams (beta release)
Last year's OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Team Rankings were difficult to determine because very little was known about the sophomore class. Why? They did not play in 2020 due to COVID-19. Hopefully COVID-19 is behind us (again) for at least the next ten minutes..
This year's analysis is a much easier because of the introduction of the "By-Court" information on the team report. This was introduced during the girls season. Users will also find this to be a helpful tool to evaluate teams.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM | Orange◄TEAM |
| 2. Sycamore◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 3. Springboro◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 4. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 5. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 6. University School◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 7. Solon◄TEAM | Hawken◄TEAM |
| 8. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 9. New Albany | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 10. Findlay◄TEAM | Ottawa Hills |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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For the last two seasons, the D1 and D2 semi's and finals have been held in two different locations because of COVID-19 / weather issues. Hopefully both will be held at Upper Arlington's new, ten court facility this spring. It is a much better tournament when all of the teams compete in the same place. It becomes more of a family reunion environment. High school graduates who attend Ohio State drop by to see all of their old friends. Tennis pros are more likely to come if they know that they can see several of their players compete. There are also plenty of close-by restaurants and there are on-site restrooms at UA.
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.
Ohio lost a large number of great players to graduation last year. Check out the OTZ Top Players Report to see how many. (The report currently includes the 2021 graduates but they will soon be removed from the report by OTZ).
In D1, Mason, Sycamore, and Springboro will be the teams to beat. All three teams are in the Southwest District.
In D2, it is good to be on a hill. The top contenders are Orange, Indian Hill, and Seven Hills. Perhaps more so than in D1, there is a significant gap between these three schools and the rest of the state.
Division I
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Mason's 2021 Championship Team - Click to enlarge |
#1 The defending 2021 State Team champion, Mason, returns with a strong line-up that includes: Vignesh Gogineni (Yale recruit), Anish Gangavaram, and Akshay Joshi. They lost Sam King to graduation. They pick up 2-star freshman Aron Dornhecker.
#2 Sycamore returns all but one player from last year's strong team. They return Nicholas Meyers, Mark Karev, Nicholas Choo, and Andrew Wittenbaum. They lost Jeffrey Sung to graduation. A new "old" addition to the team will be senior, Chad Miller. He will make a huge contribution to the team.
#3 Springboro's Sai Dore (Dayton), Shreyas Kode, and Josh Satter return to the team. They also get 4-star Rishi Dore and 2-star Drew Baumgartner.
#4 Dublin Jerome returns all of the players from last year's team, including: Max Fickas (Belmont Abbey recruit), Frank Li, Kevin Liu, Tanish Pairu, and Eli Wiblin. Four of these players competed in State dubs.
#5 St. Xavier returns Drew Evans and Tucker Berry. They lost Charlie Temming (now at Xavier), Vincent Knott (University of Northern Kentucky), Alex Brandt, and Jimmy Gott to graduation.
#6 University School returns Nathan Mu, Dean Kirchick, Rohan Sethi, and Cole Kirchick. They lost Ben Martin (Case Western) and Spencer Krantz to graduation.
#7 Solon returns Niko Romanov, Eric Liao, Scott Zhao and Aakarsh Garg. They lost Aman Daga and Maximilian Brush to graduation.
#8 Massillon Jackson returns three players who competed at States in dubs: Alvin Altman, Ryan Kelley, and Lucas Immel. They lost Max Gmerex to graduation.
#9 New Albany returns Ben Bilenko and Declan Freedhoff who competed in State dubs together. They lost Devin Boyer (Cleveland State) and Ryan Mudre (Chatanooga) to graduation. They pick up freshman Tyler Thomas.
#10 Findlay returns Max Hosey (Findlay recruit) and Mac Robertson (Ohio Northern recruit). They pick up Sam Swisher. They lost Carson Dale to graduation.
Other teams that are on the radar include: Olentangy, Olentangy Orange, Walsh Jesuit and Walnut Hills.
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.
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Orange's 2021 Championship Team - Click to enlarge |
#1 Orange returns most of their championship team from last year. They include: Ben Pomeranets, Chika Nwaozuzu (dubs champ), Jake Goldstein, and Krish Mehra. They lost Josh Nwaozuzu (dubs champ) to graduation.
#2 Indian Hill returns Tejas Pisati, RJ Poffenberger, Jack Pollock, and Sam Rhoad. They pick up 3-star freshman Michael Ryu and Max Berghausen from CCD. They lost Jasper Bennett and Jai Masturzo to graduation.
#3 Seven Hills returns a strong team. They return their top three singles players: Avi Mahajan, Ethan Blatt, and John Corbett. They also return their first dubs team: Neel Parameswaran and Colin Yeager. They pick up 2-star freshman Chinmay Machavaram.
#4 Columbus Academy returns Ryan Panley, Jaswanth Vandrasi, and Saagar Arya. They lost to Arie Tuckerman, Jack Madison Colorado College), Lucas Huang to graduation. They pick up two 2-star freshmen: Jacob Khvalsky and Lucas Zue.
#5 Columbus' Wellington School returns Sanjan Shanker, Brayden Chawla, and Hussein AlAli but they lost two key singles players to graduation: Griffin Biernat and Evan Manley.
#6 Lexington returns their entire team including Tommy Secrist, Ethan Remy, Ryan Mercurio, and the two worst Wordle last names in the state, Ross Drlik, and Karl Etzel.. Lex is expected to represent the NW again at the State Team Tournament.
#7 Hawken returns Praveen Kumar, Berend Diderich, and Ryan Levine. They lost Jared Crider to graduation. They pick up 3-star freshman Axel Neely.
#8 Bexley may make a run against Columbus Academy and Wellington this year to be the Central D2 representative. They return Stefan Schiff, Austin Flamm, and Mitchell Giller. They lost Will Meyer and Henry Ruckel to graduation. They pick up 3-star freshman Sam Lessard.
#9 Oakwood is new to the list this year. The return Noah Boyce, Max McCloskey, and Michael Ritschel. They lost Sophie Russell to graduation.
#10 Ottawa Hills returns Henry Harders, Jack Burke, and Darwin Posta. They lost Matthew McGee to graduation.
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.
Please. Do not interfere with the accuracy of these rankings. If your team is ranked higher than another, win. If not, lose.
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.
FRIDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Upcoming USTA Tournaments
The OTZ 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. That will likely be the case again this year. The boys get far more time to prepare for the season than the girls, but the inclement weather always reduces the number of days that can be spent outdoors.
OhioTennisZone.com
|
| Feb. 27-28: OTCA Coach Clinic |
| Mar. 5-6: USTA MW Lev 5's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 7: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 12: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 12-13: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Apr. 2: ACT Test Date |
| Mar. 19-21: USTA Level 3 BG16 |
| Mar. 25: HS Season Begins |
| Mar. 26 - Apr. 3: Easter Bowl |
| Apr. 11: Non-Interscholastic Date |
| Apr. 17: Easter |
| Apr. 2-3: USTA MW Lev 5's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Apr. 2: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 24: Waiver Extension Ends |
| May 1: Sectional Tournament Draw |
| May 7: SAT Test Date |
| May 9-14: Sectional Tournament |
| May 16-21: District Tournament |
| May 27-28: State Tournament |
| May 29: State Team Tournament |
| June 4: 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 forever. The tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
There will be no shortage of high school tune-up opportunities for players competing in USTA tournaments. Click for the Midwest Junior Tournament Schedule. There are two, higher level tournaments coming up in March. Click on the links in the calendar for more information.
There is also a big national, USTA Level 3 tournament in mid-March for the Boys and Girls who are 16 years old. It will be held at Top Seed Tennis Club. Top Seed is relatively close in Lexington, KY. Several Ohio players are already signed up for it, including: Noah Boyce, Nick Meyers, Jack Pollock, Caroline Brown, Tess Bucher, Reagan Gilbert, Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri, Emily Jennewein, Morgan Lint, Kareen Meoko, and Natalie Smitek.
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 well in advance and is done absolutely positively correctly.
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.
This calendar will remain in the right sidebar throughout the season.
THURSDAY,
College Tennis Commitments
Many of Ohio's high school players have already committed to college programs to continue with their tennis careers. The number of seniors who have committed are significantly lower than in previous year. It is unclear how much COVID-19 (and the extra year of eligibility) continues to play a role in this. The list below includes the players (with OTZ Player Profiles), their high schools, and their college choices.
OhioTennisZone.com |
|
| Player - Girls | High School / College |
| Megan Basil | Upper Arlington / Ohio State University |
| Alexis Burkhalter | Wellington / Belmont Abbey |
| Audrey Smitek | Magnificat / Western Michigan |
| Player - Boys | High School / College |
| Sainandan Dore | Springboro / Dayton |
| Max Fickas | Dublin Jerome / Belmont Abbey |
| Jay Fortner | Bryan / Capital |
| Vignesh Gogineni | Mason / Yale |
| Max Hosey | Findlay / Findlay |
| Caleb Miller | Walsh Jesuit / U.S. Naval Academy |
| Chad Miller | Sycamore / Northwestern |
| Mac Robertson | Findlay / Ohio Northern University |
| Andrew Zimcosky | Chagrin Falls / Cleveland State University |
This year's group of 18 will continue to grow as more infomation is released. Last year's total was 28 players and the previous year was 37 players.
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 or did not play high school tennis last year include: Chad Miller (Northwestern), Preston Stearns (OSU), Rylie Handford (Notre Dame), Carmen Merkel (LaFayette), Abby Nugent (Xavier), Anthony Payvalias (Denison), 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.
