Ohio High School Tennis
THURSDAY, MARCH
Ohio State Tennis | OHSAA Press Conference
Progress continues with Ohio State's Ty Tucker Tennis Center. This $22 million facility is expected to be finished in the fall of 2020 (unless construction is delayed because of the coronavirus). It will house six indoor courts and tennis fans will be especially pleased with the theater style seating provided behind each court.
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Ty Tucker Ctr - Click to enlarge |
Auer Tennis Complex - Click to enlarge |
These photos were taken at sunrise on March 16. It is best to click on the images to view them clearly.
Major contributors to this project are the Auer, Weiler, Shulman, and Nourse families, The entire indoor and outdoor complex is named the Auer Family Tennis Complex. Fellow platform tennis player, Dick Nourse, has a lethal backhand that you do not see coming until it is too la ..
Just as a point of comparison, OTZ recently attended and took photos at the Kentucky Bank $100K tournament in Nicholasville, KY (outside of Lexington). This tournament was held at Top Seed Tennis which is a two year old facility that includes 12 indoor and 11 outdoor courts. It is hard to make dollar comparisons because of the many factors involved (i.e. OSU will stadium seating), but Top Seed Tennis' building costs for the entire facility was $6.1 million. It will be very interesting to compare the two buildings after OSU's indoor courts are completed.
Ohio High School Athletic Association's Jerry Snodgrass will hold a press conference at noon today to provide updates on the winter tournaments and on the spring sports. Keep your fingers crossed (after you carefully wash them).
The coronavirus is being advised to not interfere with any building named after Coach Tucker..
MONDAY,
Us (or U.S.) vs. Coronavirus
Last week, Ohio Department of Health's Dr. Amy Acton shocked the Internet when she estimated that 1% of Ohio's residents already had the coronavirus. That equates to 110,000 (1% of 11,000,000). Much to my surprise, she did not back away from that number at the following day's news conference.
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Cumulative COVID-19 Cases - Click to enlarge |
Based on the 1% fatality rate, it is now time to wait to see if Ohio has 1,100 deaths in about 12 days. If not, the 1% fatality rate is too high or her estimate was too high.
Ten days ago, Italy had 3,858 cases and as of this morning, the U.S. has 3,774. The U.S. has 5.4 times the population that Italy has.
The U.S. number of new cases is expected to spike up as more testing comes online this week.
Now please go wash your hands. Again.
SATURDAY,
April 6th (Hopefully)
All (frequently washed) fingers and toes are crossed in hopes that the boys high school season will continue after students come back after the three week break. The big question is *if* the students come back after the three week break. Even though the risk of acquiring the virus has to be lower since the spring sports are outdoor sports, it is highly doubtful that sports will continue if school is canceled.
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Cumulative COVID-19 Cases - Click to enlarge |
Based on the information that is currently available, the key date for high school tennis is Monday, April 6. Practices may resume and matches may start on this date. For more detailed information, click on this OHSAA link. It is updated as of March 13.
Many coaches have already posted their schedules on OTZ, but it is likely that many of those schedules will be changed to insure that the "in conference" matches are played.
Since there is no new high school tennis data, the graph to the right is another way in which to visualize how the U.S. is doing against the coronavirus. These stats are from the John Hopkins web site and they are gathered each morning by OTZ at 8am. This data has been collected since March 6.
This graph is a bit different from others in that it is the cumulative number of cases reported thus far. So far, the upward slope of the curve for the U.S. is less than other countries but this may change as more testing occurs. The flatter the curve (i.e. South Korea), the better it is. The Excel trend lines are also included for the U.S. and for Italy.
Now please go wash your hands. Again.
TUESDAY,
First Day of Practice
Weather conditions were great for the first practice of the season. In central Ohio, players were provided with a nice breeze to help them acclimate to outdoor conditions. Temperatures were in the 60's. Practices will be hit or miss for the rest of the week as temperatures remain mild and showers move in and out of the forecast.
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Watterson's Nick Geelan - Click to enlarge |
The closest courts to the OTZ headquarters are the Whetstone Park of Roses courts and the Upper Arlington courts. These are the go-to courts when a quick picture is needed. Both Bishop Watterson and Whetstone practice at the Park of Roses.
Bishop Watterson returns four of their starters from last season. They are: Nick Geelan, Johnny DiOrio, Adam Pavliga, and Cole Petrilla.
Conditions for taking photos were absolutely ideal yesterday with largely overcast conditions and a hint of sun.
MONDAY,
Boys Season Starts Today | COVID-19
The boys season will start with great weather conditions today. As for the rest of the week, who knows?
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Weather Conditions - Click to enlarge |
Some college tennis teams are canceling their west coast spring break plans as COVID-19 fears rise. Even if no one on a team catches the virus, getting caught up in a quarantine or isolation situation after flying on a plane would have a similar effect. Plus, no one knows what will happen by the end of this week.. Teams affected include Denison, Case Western (women's team), and probably more to come..
Commonly referred to as the fifth grand slam, Indian Wells has been postponed. It was to start this week. Players with Ohio ties who were expected to compete in the main draws or qualifiers included Lauren Davis, Caty McNally, JJ Wolf, and Nicole Gibbs.
TUESDAY,
OTCA Award Winners
The Ohio Tennis Coaches Association (OTCA) Clinic / Conference was held this past weekend at the Dublin Marriott. The OTCA presented a number of awards to recognize deserving coaches and players. The award winners for this year were:
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Reagan Resor - Click to enlarge |
Niraj Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
Sportsmanship Award Winners: Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor and Mason's Niraj Komatineni.
Coach of the Year: Hathaway Brown's Greg Aten (Girls) and Wellington's Thomas Haddow (Boys)
Hall of Fame: Cuyahoga Falls' Ray Montgomery and Lakeside's Robert Walters
Sportsmanship, Ethics, and Integrity: Columbus School for Girls' Sean Delaney and North Canton Hoover's Ryan Shaffer
Scholarship Winners: Bowling Green's Mitchell Drumm, Mason's Kelly Reid, and Findlay's Drew Swisher.
Congratulations to all of the award winners.
MONDAY,
OTZ Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The State Team Draws were determined yesterday (Sunday) at the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Meeting. The top four teams in each district were seeded by the coaches.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to go to draws |
The draws are available at the top of this page and they will remain there throughout the season. As with everything else on OTZ, the goal is to enable high school tennis fans to quickly obtain the information they need rather than to maximize OTZ clicks and page views. As indicated in the four features that are circled: 1) the most recent update date is included; 2) the navigation links allow users to quickly jump throughout the draw; 3) the Team designation means that a Team Membership was purchased and that all of the individual player information is available via their OTZ Player Profiles; and 4) the team links are "click-able" to enable fans to do more research. For the best experience, sign-in to OTZ first. The goal is to keep the draws promptly updated throughout the season. Click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament Participation- Click to enlarge |
The number of boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year. This year, there is a nice increase. This season, there are 128 teams participating. The number of boys teams participating by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; 2019 - 119; 2020 - 128. As is shown in the graph, the Southwest District has the largest increase in the number of teams participating. Out of the 386 OHSAA boys tennis teams, 33% of the teams compete in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams (beta release)
The boys season will be here soon. It is time for another edition of the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams lists. As is often the case, there are several top level teams that are clearly in contention for State Team Champion. The rankings and the rational behind the rankings are listed below. They are all subject to tweaking if players decide not to play (or to play) Ohio high school tennis this spring. The OTCA meetings which are being held on Sunday and Monday (March 1-2) normally reveal some surprises.
OhioTennisZone.com Pre-Season State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams February 28, 2020 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Cincinnati Country Day◄TEAM |
| 3. University◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 4. New Albany◄TEAM | Chagrin Falls |
| 5. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 6. Olentangy◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 7. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 8. Solon◄TEAM | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 9. Findlay | Ottawa Hills |
| 10. St. Ignatius | Orange◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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In D1, St. Xavier, Mason, and University School will be the teams to beat. Other teams will need to rely on their depth or freshman to win.
Division I
St. Xavier starts at the #1 position. They return Ronit Hiryur (State Singles Finalist), Charlie Temming (State Doubles Champion), as well as Alex Brandt and Kyle Powers. They pick up 4-star Drew Evans and Vincent Knott. They lost Max DeCurtins and Nicholas Aronoff to graduation. Preston Stearns is not playing high school tennis this year.
#2 The defending State Team champion, Mason, lost State Singles Champion, Niraj Komatineni, to graduation as well as Pranav Viswanathan and Aneesh Zutshi. Mason returns Vignesh Gogineni, Anish Gangavaram, Akshay Joshi, and Sam King.#3 University School returns its top three players. Chas Norman, Charlie Joranko, and Ben Martin, plus Nathan Mu. They lost Max Borsch to graduation.
#4 New Albany returns experienced States competitors, Devin Boyer and Ryan Mudre. Also returning is Alek Jacoby. They lost State Singles Champion, Robert Cash, and Joel Jose.
#5 Dublin Jerome returns a solid team, including: Max Fickas, Anish Patel, Christopher Knight, and Andrew Dvorkin. They lost just one player to graduation, Dylan Cai.
#6 Olentangy returns its top singles players: Sam Routzahn, Omar Khayat, and Ayush Sunkad. They lost Tucker Strawser to graduation.
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St. Xavier's 2019 Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#7 Upper Arlington returns Will Reynolds, Emerson Dean, and Nathan Yu. They lost Paige Kompa and Lance Li to graduation.
#8 Solon returns Andy Lebowitz, Aaron Lee, and Scott Zhao. They gain freshman, Nikolas Romanov. They lost Thomas Liu to graduation.
#9 Findlay returns their top three players: Drew Swisher, Max Hosey, and Carson Dale.
#10 St. Ignatius returns Nathaniel Day, Arjun Brahmbhatt, and Kai Vesikallio. They lost John McNally to graduation.
Teams that lost numerous players to graduation include Sycamore and Massillon Jackson. There is inadequate information to rank Perrysburg, Canfield, and North Canton Hoover.
D2 is always tough to determine because many of the teams do not travel outside of their district. Please consider scheduling more out-of-town matches. Columbus remains the perfect place to meet to hold dual matches among Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest District teams. Many of the top players are accustomed to going out-of-state for matches once or twice a month so traveling is not an issue for them. If your soccer, lacrosse, and baseball teams are traveling outside of your outer belt, then tennis can, too.
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Wellington 2019 Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#2 Cincinnati Country Day returns much of its line-up from last year. Players returning include: Sai Nalagatla, Neil Badlani, and Ashutosh Annapantula. They lost Manav Midha and Herschel Albert to graduation.
#3 Columbus Academy returns the State Finalists in Doubles, Arie Tuckerman and Jack Madison, and State Doubles Champion, Rhian Seneviratne, returns. They lost Seneviratne's partner, Suriya Sundaram, and Drew Haffer to graduation.
#4 Chagrin Falls returns State Singles Champion, Andrew Zimcosky, as well as Jackson Quinn and Ellis Clark.
#5 Indian Hill returns Tejas Pisati, Anay Gautham, and Coleman Warstler. They lost Mack Ellis to graduation.
#6 Seven Hills returns Ajay Gupta, Kevin Wang, and Naail Sajjad. They lost Max Yuan to graduation.
#7 Lexington lost no players to graduation. They return Benton Drake, Blake Webster, Brent Webster.
#8 Ursuline returns State Finalist Greg Morgione, Josh Khavari, and Gavin Blacksher. They lost Austin Arfaras, Luke Tsudis, and Sean O'Connor to graduation.
#9 Ottawa Hills returns Matthew McGee, Henry Harders, and Jack Burke. They lost James Schwann to graduation. They pick up Libbey Rhegness who is a senior this year.
#10 Orange returns Jake Goldstein and Rohit Kashyap. They gain 5-star Benjamin Pomeranets. They lost Ilon Goldberg to graduation.
D2 teams who lost a significant number of players to graduation include Wyoming, Bexley, and Hawken.
Note that there is additional detail for players with high-lighted links. Teams with the green "team" designation will include information (or they soon will have) about all of their players.
Those with additional insights on why a team should be ranked differently or included on one of these lists are welcome to submit a Feedback. Please include specific reasons and player names.
Remember. If your team beats a a better team, that's your fault - not mine.
MONDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Upcoming USTA Tournaments
The OHSAA Boys Season Calendar is listed below. The boys season calendar is normally chaotic because of the weather and due to the timing of spring breaks. With the high school season starting later than previous years (March 27 in 2020 versus March 22 in 2019), most schools will thankfully be finished with their breaks prior to the season starting.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Feb. 15-17: USTA MW Lev 2's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Feb. 22-23: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 1-2: OTCA Coach Clinic |
| Mar. 9: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 7-8: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 14: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 27: HS Season Begins |
| Mar. 28 - Apr. 5: Easter Bowl |
| Apr. 4-7: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Apr. 4: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 12: Easter |
| Apr. 13: Non-Interscholas. Date |
| Apr. 25: Waiver Ext. Ends |
| May 2: SAT Test Date |
| May 3: Sectional Tourn. Draw |
| May 11-16: Sectional Tourn. |
| May 18-23: District Tourn. |
| May 29-30: State Tournament |
| May 31: State Team Tourn. |
| June 6: Season Ends |
The OTZ calendar includes a few additional dates that are important to tennis players, such as the dates of several major USTA tournaments and the ACT / SAT test dates. While these dates are believed to be correct, always check with other sources before planning the rest of your future. The tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
This will be the second season that the boys can use waivers to play non-HS tennis during the season. The waivers should enable most boys to start the season on time (rather than waiting to play in a key tournament). For more information, click OHSAA Waivers. Always (always, always) work with your coach, athletic director, and the OHSAA to insure that this waiver is completed way in advance and is done absolutely correctly.
There will be no shortage of great matches and high school tune-up opportunities for players competing in USTA tournaments. There are three, high level tournaments coming up this weekend as well as during the weekends of February 22-23 and March 7-8. There is also a Level 3 tournament just a week after the season begins. Click on the links for more information.
OhioTennisZone will remove last year's graduates from the rosters. This will happen near the beginning of the season. Coaches, please do not remove graduated players from your roster. This will be done by OTZ.
THURSDAY,
New OTZ Personalized Report
Now you can make your time even more productive on OhioTennisZone. Members now receive a report that can be personalized to quickly show information about their favorite teams and players. This report is expected to be especially beneficial to college coaches who like to watch the progress of players who compete on a variety of teams. This report has been in the works for years but there was finally time to create it this winter.
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Favorite Teams - Click to enlarge |
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Favorite Players - Click to enlarge |
This report will automatically appear after OTZ members sign-in to the web site. It is also available via the Tennis Statistics / Info menu drop down.
The personalized team portion of the report includes team and coach photos, the teams' records, and the Average Court Winning % graph.
The Average Court Winning % is new this year and it provides the average "by court" performance of teams throughout the season. This graph will enable enthusiasts to quickly identify teams' strengths and weaknesses. This new graph will also be included on team reports for member viewing.
The personalized player chart includes player photos and records. It also provides easy access to players' OTZ Player Profiles and TennisRecruiting.net information. The Boys list will automatically be shown during the boys season, but there is an option at the top of the report to view the girls information.
Included on both the team and player personalized reports is the ability to quickly jot down comments about teams and players.
In addition to the favorite teams and players lists, members can also easily access OTZ information and tools that will enhance their use of OhioTennisZone.
Users will be presented with their payment status and most recent access time. Please contact OTZ if your payment information was not updated.
Sign up to OhioTennisZone to get your own OTZ Personalized Report and to obtain an OTZ Player Profile. In fact, give your sweetheart an OTZ membership for Valentine's Day and it will be the last present that you will ever need to buy her (him).. Really. (But don't make the same mistake with your next sweetheart.)
Any comments about the new report? Please submit a Feedback.
THURSDAY,
Top Freshman Boys
Using TennisRecruiting.net (TRN), OTZ has identified the Ohio freshmen who are in the Top 800 in the nation. Many of these players will contribute immediately on varsity squads. Of course, it is also important to know which school these players are attending. I will need your help with this. If you have inside knowledge of which school a player attends, please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Alvin Altman - 3 | Canton (NE) | Mas. Jackson |
| Brandon Carpico - 3 | Columbus (C) | Gahanna |
| Drew Evans - 4 | West Chester (SW) | St. Xavier |
| Elijah Hadler - 3 | Medina (NE) | Highland |
| Shreyas Kode - 2 | Springboro (SW) | Springboro |
| Reece Page - 2 | Dublin (C) | Dublin Scioto |
| Benjamin Pomeranets - 5 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Orange |
| Nikolas Romanov - 3 | Solon (NE) | Solon |
| Anthony Shalakov - 4 | West Chester (SW) | Lakota West |
| Pavan Uppu - 4 | Pickerington (C) | Pickerington North |
| Merit Wagstaff - 2 | Akron (NE) | Revere |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who attended the school.
The TennisRecruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to TennisRecruiting.net.
There are likely a player or two who are not playing high school tennis.
There may also be players who are freshmen but are not included in the TRN freshman class info.
Of the 13 players on the list, the Central District has three, Northeast - 7, Northwest - 0, and Southwest - 3.
Are there other changes? If you are aware of non-graduate players who played high school tennis last year, but are not returning to play this year, please let OTZ know by submitting a Feedback form. This information could be helpful for the pre-season OTZ Top Ten Team Rankings.
Now is the perfect time to update contact information on TRN. TRN is commonly the way in which college coaches reach out to prospective recruits. Setting up a profile is free.
SATURDAY,
Top OTZ Photos for 2019
The last major OTZ project for the girls' season was to create the Top Photo Video / Slideshow for 2019. This year's video is loosely separated into four portions: the photos of professionals, college players, platform tennis players (including a magazine cover photo), and of course, high school players. Player photos are largely sorted in alphabetical order by last name. Obviously it is a subjective list, but these are the OTZ favorites.
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Click for OTZ Top Photos Video - Click for video |
Eagle eye viewers will see that OTZ thanks its sponsors at the end of the video. Having sponsors is crucial for OTZ. Special OTZ thank-you's go out to The Players Club, the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA), and Midwest Sports for their sponsorships of OhioTennisZone.
The Players Club is a tennis club in Hilliard, which is a suburb in northwest Columbus. They offer all of the services that junior and adult players need to be successful with and to have fun with tennis. Contact Players to inquire about indoor practice time for your team and for pre-season clinics.
The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) provides an adult summer tennis league and it promotes tennis throughout the year. The GCTA leagues are very popular and teams from private clubs and public courts participate. Players compete on both hard and clay courts. There are 11 women's leagues consisting of 178 teams and nine men's leagues with 75 teams. The GCTA won the national USTA Community Tennis Association of the Year Award in 2014. To look for familiar faces, click to view photos from the 2019 season and awards banquet. OhioTennisZone also provides the web site for the GCTA. Contact the GCTA now to inquire about playing during the 2020 season.
Midwest Sports is the premier tennis web store in the Midwest and it is located in Cincinnati. This is a very popular place to go for juniors competing in Cincinnati-area tournaments. Midwest Sports provides great discounts to OhioTennisZone users, and OTZ benefits financially from each order you place online via the OTZ links (Code: Gerber).
The high school photos in this video are available for purchase by the parents and/or by the schools. Some schools use OTZ photos in their year books to recognize their tennis teams.
YouTube has essentially eliminated the ability of using music from the top artists in any new videos. This is the first OTZ video using Youtube's "in-house" artists. It worked out well.
Contact OhioTennisZone via Feedback with any questions.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17,
College Tennis Commitments
The number of Ohio high school tennis players who have committed to colleges is starting to grow. The list below will continue to be updated to reflect this.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - Girls | High School / College |
| Ananya Aggarwal | Mason / Williams |
| Cassie Alcala | Pickerington North / Toledo |
| Annika Alper | Seven Hills / Dickinson |
| Rachel Buchinsky | Laurel / Lehigh |
| Morgan Coburn | Indian Hill / Georgetown |
| Carly Cohen | Gil. Acad. / Univ of Richmond |
| Sydney Khosla | Centerville / Wittenberg |
| Ava McQuillin | Tol. Central Catholic / Toledo |
| Blessing Nwaozuzu | Orange / Xavier |
| Sanjana Reddy | Mason / University of Cincinnati |
| Kortney Reed | Olentangy Orange / Ashland |
| Reagan Resor | Dublin Jerome / Findlay |
| Olivia Rondini | Magnificat / Bryant |
| Laurel Utterback | North Canton Hoover / Bucknell |
| Katherine Wang | Dublin Jerome / Case Western |
| Player - Boys | High School / College |
| Kyle Fout | Gahanna / Wittenberg |
| Milan Gonela | Wellington / Denison |
| Ronit Hiryur | St. Xavier / Dayton |
| Ben Marshall | Wellington / Denison |
Last year, there were at least 34 players who committed. So far this year, there are 20.
The players with OTZ Player Profiles are included in the table on the right. Click on the player names to view their OTZ Player Profiles.
Other players with college commitments include: Julia Bays, Sylvia Gray, Hayley Hirsch, and Angelia Ross.
To see the complete list of Ohio players competing in college, click on College Players from Ohio or by using the drop-down above.
Please send a Feedback or email if you are aware of changes to this list.
This information was sourced by TennisRecruiting.net and OhioTennisZone.
SATURDAY,
Top Incoming Freshman Girls
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Using TennisRecruiting.net, OTZ identifies the current eighth graders who are in the Top 600 in the nation. This information should be especially helpful to the coaches who want to schedule strong opponents. Of course, it is also important to know which school these players are attending. I will need your help with this. If you have inside knowledge of which school a player plans to attend, please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Elizabeth Alderman - 2 | Columbus (C) | Worth. Kilbourne |
| Brooke Arington - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Indian Hill |
| Amara Brahmbhatt - 4 | Westlake (NE) | St. Joseph Acad. |
| Tess Bucher - 4 | N. Canton (NE) | N. Can. Hoover |
| Arya Chabria - 2 | Powell (C) | Columbus Academy |
| Sarah Clark - 4 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Pritika Choudhuri - 3 | Dublin (C) | Dublin Coffman |
| Paige Cornelius - 2 | New Albany (C) | |
| Shradha Grover - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Sycamore |
| Emily Jennewein - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | St. Ursula Academy |
| Summer Mu - 4 | Solon (NE) | Hath. Brown |
| Clara Owen - 3 | Dayton (SW) | Centerville |
| Maria Poon - 2 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Catherine Rhegness - 2 | Ottawa Hills (NW) | Ottawa Hills |
| Natalie Smitek - 3 | Avon (NE) | Magnificat |
| Lily Walker - 2 | Perry (NE) | Perry |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending the school.
The Tennis Recruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to Tennis Recruiting.net.
Based on where some of these players are competing in tournaments, some are likely no longer living in Ohio.
Of the 16 players on the list, the Central District has four, Northeast - 5, Northwest - 1, and Southwest - 6.
Speaking of Tennis Recruiting.net, now is the perfect time for upper class men to insure that their player contact information is up-to-date on TRN. This is a common way for college coaches to reach out to prospective recruits.
OTZ has provided daily updates since August 9th. That is 79 straight days without taking a day off. There will still be an update or two next week, but OTZ is now in " intermittent mode". Feel free to check back in from time to time.
FRIDAY,
Final OTZ State Team Rankings - Mason and Hathaway Brown #1
The final OTZ State Team Rankings are posted. Mason began the season at #1 and ended the season at #1. Hathaway Brown began the season at #3 but finished in the #1 spot after their wins over Indian Hill and Toledo Central Catholic in the State Team Tournament.
State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams Final 2019 Rankings October 25, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM State Spots 3 Final 4 | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM 3 4 |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM 2 4 | Indian Hill 3 4 |
| 3. Upper Arlington◄TEAM 1 4 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 1 4 |
| 4. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 2 | Oakwood◄TEAM 2 |
| 5. Pickerington North 1 | Cinc. Hills Christian Acad. 1 |
| 6. Notre Dame Acad. ◄TEAM 2 4 | Orange◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. Olentangy Orange 1 | Laurel◄TEAM 1 |
| 8. Sycamore◄TEAM 1 | Toledo Central Catholic 3 4 |
| 9. Brecksville 1 | Eaton 1 |
| 10. N. Canton Hoover◄TEAM 1 | Wellington◄TEAM 1 |
| HM: St. Ursula Acad. ◄TEAM 1 | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| HM: Massillon Jackson 2 | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| HM: Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM 2 | Mariemont |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
There were tweaks after the results from States and the State Team Tournament were considered, but the rankings are very similar to the October 17 rankings.
Interested in getting on this ranking list next year? Then it is important to play other highly ranked teams especially when both teams are at full-strength. Check next year's OTZ Girls tennis calendar to identify conflicts with big ACT / SAT test dates and major USTA tournaments.
Congratulations to these teams.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team
Congratulations to the players selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team for 2019.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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 Abby Nugent Springboro |
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 Anna Kan Canfield |
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Division II - Singles |
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 Rylie Hanford West Geauga |
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 Macy Hitchcock Eaton |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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 Hayley Hirsch Indian Hill |
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The OTZ list is a bit different than the OHSAA All-Ohio team. While a player's performance at States is the best way to get on the team, OTZ also looks at a player's entire season and includes players who may not have even qualified for States because of unfortunate District draws. OTZ also believes that the OHSAA team is too mechanical in its approach by granting honors only based on the round in which the player reached at States.
The number of players on the OTZ All-Ohio Team can vary from year to year based on the skill levels of the players. As per TennisRecruiting.net's analysis, this year's players are very talented. In previous years, the number of D1 players on the OTZ All-Ohio team has been: 2018 - 7, 2017 - 7, and 2016 - 6. The D2 teams have totaled: 2018 - 8, 2017 - 6, and 2016 - 6.
Note that players with the yellow PP tennis balls next to their names have Player Profiles and that more information is available for them by clicking on their names. Click to sign-up to get obtain an OTZ Player Profile.
The OTZ Top Players Lists will be updated later today. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. To see all of the players on one page, click on All Districts.
OTZ will soon list next year's top upcoming freshmen. The purpose of this list is to not only recognize the players but to also help coaches understand which teams should be included in their schedules for next fall.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com Usage Activity Edition
What is accessed on OhioTennisZone and who accesses it? It is time for the seasonal usage edition. Read on to learn what areas of the nation access OTZ the most. Which players get the most views on their OTZ Player Profiles; and what team pages generate the most views. The usage covered is for the time period of August 1 to October 21.
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OTZ Team Pages - Click to enlarge |
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Usage by Metro Area - Click to enlarge |
The Hathaway Brown team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top five were: Dublin Jerome, Upper Arlington, Columbus Academy, and Magnificat. All of the top five teams are OTZ Team Members. Note that bars on the chart are percentages based on that team's pageviews divided by Hathaway Brown's usage. So for example, Olentangy Liberty had approximately one-half (48%) of the usage that Hathaway Brown's page generated. While it is unknown who specifically accesses each OTZ page, note that middle school players and parents are certainly big users. Teams need to think of these OTZ Team pages as advertisements for potential future customers (and/or team players / students).
The top Metro Areas that access OTZ may surprise a few people. While Ohio's metro areas dominate, Nashville, Detroit, Washington DC, NYC, and Chicago make up a significant percentage of the pageviews. All of the numbers were divided by Columbus' usage. For example, Cincinnati and Cleveland-Akron had approximately half of Columbus' usage while Dayton had 14% and Toledo had 12%.
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Mason's Aggarwal - Click to enlarge |
Pick. North's Alcala |
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Liberty's Atway |
NDA's Black - Click to enlarge |
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HB's Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
Olentangy's Khayat |
The six players who had the most views of their OTZ Player Profiles during the girls season are (in alphabetical order): Mason's Ananya Aggarwal, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway, Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov, and Olentangy's Nour Khayat. Click on the player names above to view their OTZ Player Profiles. The parent associated with the Player Profile may view the total number of views since the Player Profile was created. The photos of the players to the right may be clicked to enlarge them.
The top pages accessed on OhioTennisZone (outside of this main page) are:
- Central Ohio Team Lookup
- Girls State Draws-2019
- Southwest Ohio Team Lookup
- Northeast Ohio Team Lookup
- OTCA Girls State Team Draws
Even though the OTZ wife may say that too much time is wasted on Twitter (and the OTZ wife would be correct with this assessment), Twitter remains another way to reach the high school tennis audience and to draw users back to the OhioTennisZone web site. To the right are the top OTZ tweets sorted by impressions.
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and it can always use more. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity continues to grow. The number of OTZ users increased 22.7% versus last year and the number of pageviews increased 24.0%. For more information about advertising, please submit a Feedback.
TUESDAY,
OHSAA Tournament Championship Points
Videos of all four championship points were captured this season. Normally, there have been zigs when there should have been zags when selecting the next court to zoom to next but that was not the case this season. The order of finish was D1 Singles, D2 Singles, D2 Doubles, and then finally, D1 Doubles.
For best results, use full screen mode and increase the resolution to HD.
Some videos include more than just the final point.
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Division I Singles: Springboro's Abby Nugent defeated Mason's Ananya Aggarwal. |
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Division I Doubles: Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala - Lalasa Nagireddy beat their teammates, Reagan Resor - Katherine Wang. |
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Division II Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff |
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Division II Doubles: Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn - Hayley Hirsch beat Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky - Laurel's Ellie Brotherton. |
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There are always some scoring snafus found by coaches as they begin to print off their end-of-season reports. If results are incorrect, please provide:
- the *incorrect* match information. The error first needs to be located in the database and their are a zillion scores. Please include the date, the name(s) of all of the player(s) and their schools, and the score.
- then provide the correct match information which includes all of the above, but with the correct information
If the commentary is incorrect, please provide *when* the commentary was in error, the erroneous comments, and what it should be. Screen shots are always helpful.
Please keep in mind there are quite a few moving parts. The players could have reported the wrong score, the coach could have recorded it incorrectly, the newspaper may have posted it incorrectly, or maybe, just possibly, OTZ could have made an error.
MONDAY,
State Team Champions: Mason - Division I and Hathaway Brown - Division II
Congratulations to Mason and Hathaway Brown as repeat State Team Champions in Division I and Division II, respectively. This is Mason's third in a row and HB's fifth in a row. Click for Mason's from 2018 and 2017 and HB's championship photos for 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.
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Mason - Click to Enlarge |
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Hathaway Brown - Click to Enlarge |
The order of finish in the State Team Tournament for Division I was: Mason, Magnificat, Upper Arlington, and Notre Dame Academy.
For Division II, it was: Hathaway Brown, Indian Hill, Columbus Academy, and Toledo Central Catholic.
Click on Previous Day Match Results to see the OTZ team performance graphs.
The weather deserved a gold star for the weekend. Having three terrific weather days was great for the fans and for the players.
The tradition for the State Team Tournament is to end matches after teams get to three wins so many of the top court players did not finish. For those that did, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov beat Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin and Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; and Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black defeated Magnificat's Olivia Rondini. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This (almost) wraps up a great tennis season. OTZ has done 74 consecutive daily updates, but there will be a few more updates before OTZ switches to the PTZ (PlatformTennisZone.com) web site.. The plan for tomorrow is to post the OHSAA championship points.
SUNDAY,
Congrats to State Champions | State Team Tournament
Great tennis matched the great weather yesterday. States may have benefited from the best weather conditions ever. The weather today is expected to be equally good at Reynoldsburg.
The tournament finished at 3:30pm yesterday on Court 10 with the D1 doubles finals.
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Springboro's Nugent - Click to enlarge |
Jerome's Dudipala - Nagireddy |
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Academy's Ratliff |
IH's Hirsch - Coburn |
The State champions and the finalists are:
Division I Singles: Springboro's Abby Nugent defeated Mason's Ananya Aggarwal
Division I Doubles: Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala - Lalasa Nagireddy beat their teammates, Reagan Resor - Katherine Wang
Division II Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen
Division II Doubles: Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn - Hayley Hirsch beat Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky - Ellie Brotherton
As soon as the tournament finished, I zoomed back to Columbus for the CompuServe 50th Anniversary / Reunion. (We were just a half hour late.) Mrs. OTZ and I originally met at CompuServe and we both worked there for many years. This also explains why there were no OTZ tweets following the tournament. Oh yeah, a GIF file is pronounced JIF-- like the peanut butter. CompuServe invented this format which is widely in use today, so yes, we know how to pronounce it..
OTZ will be processing photos like crazy now. For those who are buying photos, you will get a pdf with numerous photos from which to choose. This is going to take some time so please (with your favorite sweetener on top) tell me if you need to get the photos by a certain date (i.e. your daughter's wedding). Creating these pdf's takes time (as did taking the photos with expensive equipment) so as long as there are good photos, the expectation is that you are going to purchase at least two photos (and pay for them).
See you in Reynoldsburg.. Mason plays Upper Arlington and Notre Dame Academy plays Magnificat first. Division II follows with Indian Hill versus Columbus Academy and Toledo Central Catholic versus Hathaway Brown.
SATURDAY,
Ready for the Finals
A chilly morning led to a perfect tennis day. To start out the day, Columbus Academy's Lauren Motta did a great job singing the Star Spangled Banner. Play concluded at approximately 5:15pm with a three set match that ended with a third set tie-breaker (which is what always happens at the end of the day). In that match, Olentangy Orange defeated Ursuline Academy.
Players competing in the semi-finals today are:
Division I Singles: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala, North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback, and Springboro's Abby Nugent.
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CA's Lauren Motta - Click to enlarge |
Division II Singles: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff, Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov, and West Geauga's Rylie Hanford.
Division I Doubles: Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada, Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala - Lalasa Nagireddy, Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor - Katherine Wang, and Olentangy Orange's Erin Storrer - Kortney Reed.
Division II Doubles: Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn - Hayley Hirsch, Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky - Ellie Brotherton, Oakwood's Sophie Russell - Oakwood's Natalie Connelly, and Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi.
Central won the "which District has the most semi-finalist spots" award. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6; Northeast - 5; Northwest - 0; Southwest - 5.
Among the top singles players in Division I: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal defeated Magnificat's Audrey Smitek and Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala beat Magnificat's Olivia Rondini and Canfield's Anna Kan; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Kettering Fairmont's Dasha Dotsenko and Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; and Springboro’s Abby Nugent beat Riverside Painesville's Angelica Ross and Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black.
In Division II: Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu; Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen beat Napoleon's Aliza Lankenau and Unioto's Sylvia Gray; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Eaton's Macy Hitchcock and Orange's Alexis Nyborg; and West Geauga’s Rylie Hanford beat Adena’s Madelyn Shipley and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy’s Lynn Kader.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Good luck to all of the players today. See you in Mason soon.
FRIDAY,
It's Time.
According to this video, it is time for States..
Many teams headed over to the Lindner Family Tennis Center to enjoy the facility and to hit some balls yesterday. There will no doubt be a line awaiting the courts to open this morning.
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Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
Today is the biggest usage day of the season for the OhioTennisZone web site. Let's hope it goes better than yesterday. GoDaddy, the OTZ web hosting service, encountered major outage problems throughout the United States. OTZ was not working from approximately 2:15pm to 3:30pm. Sorry for any inconvenience but these problems still unfortunately happen from time-to-time.
Will there be a re-re-re-re-re-repeat this year for the Gillinov's? Hathaway Brown's Lauren Gillinov [click for photo] won the D2 singles championship three straight years (2014, 2015, 2016). Current senior, Nicole Gillinov, has won it for the last two years (2017, 2018). Just as with last year, Nicole starts as the fifth seed from the NE District. She will play the highly ranked (on TennisRecruiting.net) freshman, Eaton's Macy Hitchcock, in the first round. If you are a fan, that is a good place (on Court 9) to start the morning..
Please bookmark this page before going to the courts.
I am leaving in a few minutes for Mason. Hope to see everyone soon.
THURSDAY,
Count Down to States
This update includes a hodgepodge of items as we countdown to States. Today is a travel day for most teams. Most teams will then practice at the Lindner Family Tennis Center this afternoon. OTZ heads off to States early tomorrow morning after a short update is posted.
State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams October 17, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM State Spots 3 Final 4 | Indian Hill 3 Final 4 |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 3. Upper Arlington◄TEAM 1 Final 4 | Columbus Academy◄TEAM 1 Final 4 |
| 4. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 2 | Oakwood◄TEAM 2 |
| 5. Pickerington North 1 | Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy 1 |
| 6. Notre Dame Academy◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Orange◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. Olentangy Orange 1 | Laurel◄TEAM 1 |
| 8. Sycamore◄TEAM 1 | Eaton 1 |
| 9. Brecksville 1 | Toledo Central Catholic 3 Final 4 |
| 10. Mayfield◄TEAM 1 | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| HM: North Canton Hoover◄TEAM 1 - Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM 2 - St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM 1 | Seven Hills◄TEAM Wellington - ◄TEAM 1 - Mariemont |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
The OTZ State Draws have been updated to show the first round court assignments. [Double check yours - there were errors in D1.] The draws will be updated with new court assignments throughout the day. This should be helpful to get the older tennis fans into their seats. Scores will be updated throughout the day tomorrow and Saturday. Updates will occur every 20-30 minutes. Remember that there is a time stamp at the top of the draw that shows the most recent update time. The draws are now posted at the top of this page. It is best to include the draws on your smart phone now - ohiotenniszone.com/draws.
The OTZ State Team Rankings have been updated. Mason and Indian Hill remain on top. The Final Four teams and the number of States spots that each team has are listed.
A number of publications prepare articles about States. Several have been retweeted via the @OhioTennisZone Twitter account so readers may wish to view those via Twitter or via the OTZ Team Lookup page (see right-side navigation bar). There was also a nice article published in today's Columbus Dispatch by Steve Blacklege titled, "Olentangy Liberty's girls doubles champs chase singles tennis title". Click title to read.
The Lindner Family Tennis Center is a huge place. Note that a good site map (that is enlargeable) is included on the draw sheet. Not all of the restrooms are open. If you have younger or older people with you, know which restrooms are open before they need it. The word "before" is the key here. That is why it is emphasized. The most reliably open restroom is near Court 10.
The OTZ photo "dance card" is almost full. Contact OTZ asap if you are interested in preserving your daughter's States experience with great, memorable photos. Please contact OTZ only if you plan to purchase at least $34.95 worth of photos. All of the action photos in the OTZ Tournament Hype video are also for sale.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ Video Time
Yes. It is time for the annual OhioTennisZone States / State Team Tournament hype video as OTZ recognizes the players who are competing this weekend. There were 104 photos of your athletic daughters crammed into a tune lasting just three short minutes.
The rhythm is so fast that it is best to watch the video a couple of times first and then go back and hit the pause button to see the names. Use the HD setting (1080p) to better view the photos.
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Click for OTZ Hype Video - Click for video |
Work in a cube? Crank up the music so that co-workers in the lunch room know that your daughter is going to States. Also remind them that no other (zero, none, nada) high school sport has a hype video like this. (You're welcome.)
OTZ is using more "parental-like" music. The videos are primarily watched by the parents and it is getting harder to find new artists who are willing to allow their music to be included in Internet videos. It is much easier to get permission from the artists who created their music before the Internet (and the players) were conceived.. Note that this loud music and questionable lyrics may not be appropriate for younger ears - after all - look what it did to your parents..
This is also a great time to recognize OhioTennisZone.com sponsors and advertisers. Special thanks to The Players Club, Greater Columbus Tennis Association, and Midwest Sports for their support. If you enjoy high school tennis, please frequent these great supporters of high school tennis.
The creation of this video is intense and fast. Not all of the players were even determined until Monday night. So.. were mistakes made? Perhaps. There is a system in place (using Excel spreadsheets) to insure that everything happens, but this system is always being improved when mistakes are made. Sorry in advance if any names are wrong.
Have I responded to emails and feedbacks for the last few days? No - but catching up begins later today after I finish the State draw update process.
TUESDAY,
Hathaway Brown Beats Laurel | OTZ Enhanced State Draw
It was another busy day yesterday as we march toward States and the State Team Tournament.
The remaining State Team Final Four spot was claimed yesterday when Hathaway Brown defeated Laurel for the last spot. (No scores were reported.) Click to see the OTZ State Team Tournament Draws. The State Team tournament takes place at Reynoldsburg - Summit Station. The cost is $10. The schedule for Sunday is:
Division I (starts first at 8:15am)
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OTZ State Draws - Click to draws |
- Mason versus Upper Arlington
- Magnificat versus Notre Dame Academy
Division II
- Indian Hill versus Columbus Academy
- Hathaway Brown versus Toledo Central Catholic
The OTZ Enhanced State Draws were released yesterday at about noon. The draws now include all 96 of the player photos. Most of the photos were already in the OTZ photo vault, but special thanks to the coaches who quickly obtained the remaining player photos.
For easy access to the draws during States, please put this link into your cell phone now:
To view the action photos associated with the players, please sign-in first.
The State draws are brutal. Great first round matches that will be particularly interesting include: Southwest #1's Eaton's Macy Hitchcock versus 2x Defending State Champion Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu versus Oakwood's Lily McCloskey. Great potential second round matches are far too numerous to mention.
Work is underway on the OhioTennisZone State Hype Video. Photos from last week's Districts are currently being processed.
Interested in getting exciting action photos of your daughter at States? Contact OTZ asap via Feedback. Please only contact OTZ if you are willing to spend $35 or more on photos. Click for price list (on right side navigation bar).
MONDAY,
State Draw Watch (updated 12:06pm)
ALERT: The OTZ Enhanced State Tournament Draws are now online. Wow. There are going to be some great early round matches. Most players have profile photos. More photos will be posted throughout the day. Note that the draws are now including the new OTZ logo. There has not been enough spare time to implement this everywhere on OTZ, but draw users get to see it first.
The field is set. It is now time to wait for the draws. The enhanced OhioTennisZone draws (which include player photos and links to many players' OTZ Player Profiles) is expected to be available at approximately 1:00pm. This page will be updated when the draws become available.
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Southwest D1 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
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Southwest D2 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
It almost has to happen but hopefully the states' top players will not have to face each other in the first two rounds. The biggest problem draw is Division II since there are five #1 seeds. (Draws do not work with five #1 seeds.) Since there is a very limited recovery time between singles matches, bad draws have often affected the overall outcome of the tournament. When professional and college players normally have a day between singles matches, it is difficult for high school players to recover after just one hour. For all of the State Tournament Rules, click here.
Thanks to Mason coach, Mike Reid, for taking the photos of the Southwest State Qualifiers. Special credit goes to Coach Reid for saying something humorous enough to get the girls to smile while their retinas were being torched by the sun.
Hathaway Brown faces Laurel tonight for the final Final Four Spot finally. Click to view the OTZ State Team Tournament Draws. While this information is included on the draw, note that this year, the Central District teams get the unfortunate rotation of playing the Southwest District in the first round. Division I will play first on Sunday. These rotations change every year.
There are still more District results that need to be added to OTZ, but it is unclear when that will happen.
SUNDAY,
Seeds Set for States (updated @10:30am)
It was chilly but clear for most of Ohio as the final State qualifiers and seeds were determined.
Note that the seeds have been added below in previous day's updates for the State qualifiers from each District. In the Northeast's case, additional State qualifiers were also added.
The Northwest District State Qualifiers are:
Division I
Singles: 1. Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black; 2. Springfield's Avi Shah
Doubles: 1. Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher - Olivia Assenmacher; 2. Perrysburg's Sydney Onest - Lydia Ellinger
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Central District D1 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Division II
Singles: 1. Lexington's Gracie Pfeiffer; 2. Toledo Central Catholic's Ellie Hire; 3. Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin; 4. Napoleon's Aliza Lankenau
Doubles: 1. Toledo Central Catholic's Bella Spinazze - Lucia Spinazze; 2. Ottawa Hills' Priya Bhatt - Abbie Westmeyer; 3. Bath's Ruby Bolon - Esther Bolon; 4. Shawnee's Katie Clark - Alotus Wei
Central District Division II players were determined yesterday. D2 receives just one spot for States. Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff is their singles player. Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter - Katie Zerbi are the State qualifiers in doubles.
OTZ is in "hunker down" mode for the next few days. The OHSAA State draw needs to be created. The video / slideshow has to be produced. The State Team Rankings also need to be updated (because of uncooperative teams that did not lose when they should have).. There are also a zillion photos that need to be processed for the video and draws. I suspect that I will have to leave the desk when Zoey drags me outside for my walk, but other than that I am tethered to my desk..
OTZ is in shutdown mode with unpaid Player Profiles. If you want to keep your Player Profile, please Paypal a payment or get a check into the mail pronto. The price is $25.95 for an individual membership. If you did pay and the Player Profile was never setup or it was removed in error, please Feedback or email OTZ asap. Many Player Profile were shut down last night.
SATURDAY,
District Seeding Round | Still a Few Qualifiers to be Determined
Real Ohio weather finally returns today as fans and teammates start huddling under their blankets again.. There are still a few more State qualifiers to be determined for the Central, Northeast, and Northwest Districts, but today is mainly the seeding round.
Not all of the Northeast Districts spots have been finalized but this is the initial group who have earned State spots. The Northeast gets six spots for D1 and five for D2.
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Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen - Click to enlarge |
The Northeast Division I State Qualifiers are:
Singles: 1. North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback; 2. Canfield's Anna Kan; 3. Riverside's Angelica Ross; 4. Rocky River's Samantha Robertson; 5. Magnificat's Audrey Smitek; 6. Magnificat's Olivia Rondini
Doubles: 1. Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu; 2. Highland's Emily Hadler - Rachel Fannin; 3. Massillon Jackson's Madison Altman - Paige Reese; 4. Brecksville's Mia Zivkovic - Megan Baker; 5. Solon's Yang - Fried; 6. Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson - Samantha Reese.
NE Division II
Singles: 1. Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen; 2. Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu; 3. West Geauga's Rylie Hanford; 4. Orange's Alexis Nyborg; 5. Gillinov
Doubles: 1. Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky - Ellie Brotherton; 2. Hathaway Brown's Brigette Fuentes - Melissa Kazazic; 3. Hathaway Brown's Alex Wolf - Ally Mills; 4. Revere's Morgan Dobos - Maddie Kavenagh; 5. Orrville's Abby Adcock - Sydney Adcock.
Note that the above results are not yet databased on OTZ.
Make sure that you get a *group* photo of all of the players so that they can be recognized on OhioTennisZone. I will not be publishing individual or "by school" photos. Note that the group photo can be of one division (i.e. Central Division I or Southwest Division II).
Good luck today.
FRIDAY,
Southwest District State Qualifiers | Central District D1 Qualifiers
Weather conditions were great yesterday and they should be good for the Northeast D2 Districts today. On Saturday, the weather will return to Ohio-mode.
This is another quick update as I scurry off to Akron for the NE D2 Districts. Results are on OTZ as provided by the Columbus Dispatch and Cincinnati Enquirer. Other results will be added as Districts conclude.
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Wyoming's Sydney Evans - Click to enlarge |
The State qualifiers for the Southwest and Central Districts are included below.
The Southwest District Division I State Qualifiers are:
Singles: 1. Mason's Ananya Aggarwal; 2. Springboro's Abby Nugent; 3. St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast; 4. Kettering Fairmont's Dasha Dotsenko
Doubles: 1. Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada; 2. Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal - Bridget Estes; 3. Mason's Shyla Aggarwal - Sanjana Reddy; 4 Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan - Maya Fukuda
The Southwest Division II State Qualifiers are:
Singles: 1. Eaton's Macy Hitchcock; 2. Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; 3. Indian Hill's Bella Kirby; 4. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader
Doubles: 1. Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn - Hayley Hirsch; 2. Oakwood's Sophie Russell - Natalie Connelly 3. Wyoming's Sydney Evans - Peyton Osha; 4. Indian Hill's Jessica Budde - Jessica August
The Central District Division I State Qualifiers are:
Singles: 1. Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala; 2. Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway; 3. Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; 4. Olentangy's Nour Khayat
Doubles: 1. Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor - Katherine Wang; 2. Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala - Lalasa Nagireddy; 3. Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker - Wendy Shi; 4. Olentangy Orange's Kortney Reed - Erin Storrer
Congratulations to these players.
Results including the top players and that are databased on OTZ include: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal defeated Harrison's Makenna Williams; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala beat Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova and Dublin Jerome's Kavya Alagappan; Springboro's Abby Nugent defeated Mason's Emma Kruse; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Mason's Anna Tonkal; Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway defeated Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule and Marion Harding's Nicole Flock; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai and Upper Arlington's Megan Basil; and Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Olentangy Orange's Larol Korotkin and Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Remember -- please take a group photo of your State Qualifiers tomorrow!
See you soon(ish) at the Springside Racquet Club in Akron.
THURSDAY,
Districts Start Today
Districts start in much of the state today. While States is the goal for most players, it is important to keep in mind that reaching Districts is a great accomplishment, too. Everyone is under pressure, so let's relax a bit and make this tournament fun and memorable. So here we go..
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Click for OTZ Hype Video - Click for video |
I will be leaving shortly to attend the Southwest Districts at the ATP site. Both Division I and Division II will be playing so it is an ideal place to watch players and to take photos. A really big deal with photos is having a pleasing or non-distracting background. It is not possible to have better background than what a professional tournament site provides. Some photos taken today will be in the OhioTennisZone States Hype Video / Slide Show.
In the video today, you will recognize a few seniors who competed at the 2016 OHSAA States or State Team Tournament when they were freshmen. Seniors include: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala, Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn, Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov, Mason's Emma Kruse, Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor, and Magnificat's Olivia Rondini.
OTZ likes to recognize the players from each District who reach States by using group photos. Please get those cameras (or high-level, new cellphones) ready for Saturday. Click for group photos of previous year State qualifiers. One free action photo* goes to the first person who identifies the two adorable OTZ young-lings (via Feedback). (*The action photo has to already be in the OTZ inventory of photos.)
Dual match scores are still coming in from earlier in the season. As long as coaches are using the OTZ score reporting system, that is all good.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason, Magnificat, Notre Dame Academy, and Upper Arlington in Final Four
It was another perfect tennis night as some of the biggest matches of the season were played. Four more teams get to book reservations to the State Team Tournament in Reynoldsburg. Mason defeated Ursuline Academy; Magnificat beat Brecksville; Notre Dame Academy defeated Toledo St. Ursula Academy; and Upper Arlington beat Pickerington North. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lancaster - Click to team page |
Click to view the updated OTZ State Team Tournament Draws. There is just one spot to be determined. Hathaway Brown plays Laurel on Monday.
Among the top players, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Upper Arlington's Hazelbaker; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black beat Toledo St. Ursula Academy's Ava Moore; and Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Ursuline Academy's Haley Enslein. 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 Mallory Thomas, Hannah Sheets, and Abby Tener.
The Upper Arlington Sectional was delayed due to numerous vehicle crashes on Thursday. Teams that arrived earlier than others had plenty of time to warm-up as well as to get their team photos taken by OTZ. Click to see the team photos for Canal Winchester, Franklin Heights , Hamilton Township, Mifflin, Olentangy Orange, Westland, Whitehall, and Worthington Kilbourne.
Districts begin tomorrow. Plans are to go to the Southwest Districts (Thursday), Northeast Districts (Friday), and Central Districts (Saturday)
TUESDAY,
Toledo Central Catholic in Final Four | SUA Beat Ursuline Academy
There were three big matches last night. Another team was added to the State Team Final Four when Toledo Central Catholic defeated Shawnee last night. In a big Cincinnati-area match, St. Ursula Academy defeated Ursuline Academy. In the Northeast District, Laurel defeated Revere. To view all of the graphic results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Columbus Academy - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky defeated Revere's Morgan Dobos; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes; Laurel's Ellie Brotherton defeated Revere's Maddie Kavenagh; and Ursuline Academy's Brigid Lynch beat St. Ursula Academy's Kathleen Davin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. There were a few changes made to the Top Players / Watch Lists last night.
Today's featured team is Columbus Academy. They are coached by Tommy Haddow. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Sydni Ratliff, Alex Graham, Carolyn Tsung, and Lauren Motta.
All of the District Draws are now online. The draws for Central, Northeast, and Northwest are largely pretty good where the most skilled players have a good shot to get to States. The Southwest Draws are not good. All four Southwest draws have strong players who will not get to compete at States.
Today's matches will determine four more State Team Final spots. They are: Upper Arlington versus Pickerington North; Magnificat versus Brecksville; Notre Dame Academy versus Toledo St. Ursula Academy; and Mason versus Ursuline Academy.
Tennis is a close knit community with parents and players of different schools going to clinics and tournaments together. Unfortunately there is some very sad news to share. Preston Kruse, father of Mason players, Emma and Annie Kruse, passed away on Friday, October 4. Our prayers and condolences to his wife, Tara, and his daughters, Morgan, Emma, Annie, and Maggie.
MONDAY,
District Draw Watch
To get to the State tournament, players have to be very good and a bit lucky. The lucky part comes into play today. Good players still need a good District draw and the draws should be available very soon. In fact, the Northeast District won the "First Out with the District Draw" contest by releasing theirs last night. The draws will be listed above under "District Draws" as they become available. <The Northwest District draws are now available (8:50am), but not their Sectional results.>
Most of the Sectional results (less the Northwest's and the Northeast's Rocky River site) are online. The results include many of the final matches and most of the OTZ member matches. Contact OTZ via Feedback if a key match is missing for your player. The Sectional results make up 12% of all of the OTZ results thus far so it was no small undertaking to get these online. Note that in some cases, no results were provided so "1-0, 1-0" was used as the scores for those matches.
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Mason's Ananya Aggarwal - Click to enlarge |
Some of the key singles match-ups for the state's top players are listed below:
Southwest District:
Mason's Ananya Aggarwal defeated teammates, Anna Tonkal and Emma Kruse; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Ananya Annapantula beat Indian Hill's Bella Kirby; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Harrison's Makenna Williams and Lakota East's Megan Hoke; Springboro's Abby Nugent beat Kettering Fairmont's Dasha Dotsenko and Beavercreek's Julia Bays; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock defeated Oakwood's Sarah Hall and Lily McCloskey; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey beat Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman; and Seven Hills' Annika Alper defeated Seven Hills' Gabriella Khaskelis.
Northeast District:
Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu defeated Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen and West Geauga's Rylie Hanford; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat teammate, Lilly Altman, and Canfield's Anna Kan; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens and teammate, Audrey Smitek; and Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen beat Orange's Alexis Nyborg.
Northwest District:
Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black defeated Toledo St. Ursula Academy's Ava Moore.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
SUNDAY,
Ready for Districts
The Sectional seeding rounds took place statewide on a perfect fall day. Because of the heat, the Central District used no-ad scoring on Thursday but resorted back to regular scoring yesterday.
The Central District results are now online because they were included in the Columbus Dispatch and could be processed in a timely manner. The scores for the Northeast and Southwest Districts have been finalized on their respective web sites. (Great job, Northeast and Southwest. This is a great way to recognize your players.) They will be processed next and this will take a substantial amount of time. None of the results have been posted from the Northwest. Hopefully the Northwest scores will go online before all focus turns to Districts. The focus for OTZ is to include the Sectional results of OTZ members.
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Pick. North's Cassie Alcala - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players in the Central District, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Columbus Academy's Alexandria Graham;
Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala beat Olentangy's Nour Khayat and Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway; Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway defeated Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule beat Upper Arlington's Megan Basil; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz defeated Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat Olentangy's Nour Khayat; and Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai defeated Dublin Scioto's Nicole Santoso.
The all-important District draws should become available online tomorrow. At that point, it will be possible to start speculating who the State participants might be. Central's draws may even be released today.
The power outage early yesterday morning will force OTZ to review its emergency policies. For those interested in how OTZ creates its daily updates, click to read this article from April 1, 2016, which also happens to be the first day of April..
SATURDAY,
Sectional Seeding Rounds | OTZ Early Morning Power Outage
The Sectional seeding rounds take place today. This round determines the seedings for Districts. The weather should be perfect.
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Olen. Orange's Caroline Sproule - Click to enlarge |
It has never happened before but the OTZ Operations Center started the day without power. OTZ immediately went to a back-up location for emergency coffee. Thankfully, the power was restored at 7am.
Problems with the Reynoldsburg Sectional results kept them from being added yesterday, but they are now online. OTZ will go to the Reynoldsburg site today where the Central District's top singles players are competing.
The platform tennis season is getting geared up. Platform tennis is an outdoor winter racquet (actually a paddle) sport played by only the hardiest idiots. (Play is curtailed when the temperature drops to 10 degrees with wind chill.) Leagues exist in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus. I am involved with the Columbus web site, schedule, scores, photos, etc. (but yes, you would have already guessed that). Submit a Feedback if you are interested in playing in a Columbus 3.5 or 4.0 league. Click to view last year's information.
With the combination of early morning matches and the power outage, this morning's update is brief.
FRIDAY,
Sectional Data Processing Underway | Now Available
Friday 11:30am: The Central District Sectional results are now online. Any additional results included in the Cincinnati Enquirer or Columbus Dispatch will be posted as they become available. As the other Sectional results are finalized, OTZ member results will be posted.
The goal each day is to finish the data portion by 7am and the verbal portion by 8am. That is not the case today. The update process has begun but the Central Ohio Sectional results from the Columbus Dispatch will not be available until it eventually happens.
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Dispatch Sectional Data - Click to enlarge |
The Columbus Dispatch does a phenomenal job of recognizing high school athletes by posting these tennis results (as circled in blue) Central Ohio is very fortunate that the Dispatch does this.
Note that there was a problem with the D1 Central District Reynoldsburg results and they were not posted in the Dispatch today.
Scores from other Sectionals will be posted after the Sectionals are completed and posted online. It is extremely time consuming to do this so just scores of OTZ Coach, Team, and Individual members will be included on OTZ.
THURSDAY,
Dublin Jerome Beat Columbus Academy | IH in Final Four
Even though the Northeast District is way ahead of the rest of the state, today is the big start day for Sectionals for most of the state. While "States" begin on October 18, for all extents and purposes, the state tournament begins today with Sectionals.
In dual match play, Dublin Jerome defeated Columbus Academy. Both teams used their Sectional line-ups. While Jerome may have won the match, they unfortunately lost in their battle on how to correctly pronounce their mascot's name ("seltic").. Indian Hill will represent the Southwest District in the Final Four after beating Oakwood.
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Bloom-Carroll - Click to team page |
To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Click to view the OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Dublin Jerome's Kavya Alagappan; Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn beat Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch defeated Oakwood's Sarah Hall; and Columbus Academy's Alexandria Graham beat Dublin Jerome's Ella Oleson. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Bloom-Carroll. They are coached by Rick Rowland. They are led by Alexandria Bedsole and Jhayma Ehrenborg.
Good luck at Sectionals.
WEDNESDAY,
Columbus Academy Earns 1st Final Four Spot
Columbus Academy earned the first State Tournament Final Four spot by beating Wellington, 3-0, in the Central District final. Click for this ThisWeekSports article and interview by Frank DiRenna. The OTZ State Team Tournament Draws have been updated and the draws now show when many of the district finals are scheduled.
It was a hot day yesterday, but at least no players appeared to be impacted by the heat at the Hilliard Davidson versus Lancaster match. Because no learning is apparently better than some learning, the Columbus City School District gets another day off of school today due of the heat. Click for the Columbus City Schools' Ohio School Report Card.
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Hilliard Davidson - Click to team page |
There were 12 matches recorded from state-wide play and many were 3-2 matches. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10 and Southwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Grove City defeated Hilliard Darby; Centerville-B beat Wilmington; Columbus School for Girls defeated Westerville Central; Bexley beat Dublin Scioto; Teays Valley defeated Reynoldsburg; Worthington Christian beat DeSales; and Hilliard Davidson defeated Lancaster. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Wellington's Lauren Okoye; Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai beat Delaware Hayes' Evelyn Mignanou; Worthington Christian’s Abby Mayotte defeated DeSales’ Megan Husslein; and Lancaster's Mallory Thomas beat Hilliard Davidson's Kaitlyn Quinn. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Hilliard Davidson. They are coached by Adrian Tolentino. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Kaitlyn Quinn, Sophia Persad, and Lila Davis.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (H) versus Dublin Jerome and Reynoldsburg (H) versus Watkins Memorial. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Sectionals Begin | Upper Arlington Beat Pickerington Central
Sectionals began yesterday at some of the Northeast Ohio Sectional sites. Results are already posted for the Oberlin site. (Nice job in getting these results posted promptly.) There are often questions on why the Sectional draws have to take place so "early" in the season (on September 21). With Northeast Ohio starting on Monday, it would not have been logistically possible to hold the draw on September 28.
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Dublin Jerome - Click to team page |
The heat is on in Columbus today and Columbus City Schools have canceled school because of the high temperatures. All afternoon activities are also canceled. OhioTennisZone will remain open..
There were 17 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14 and Southwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Thomas Worthington defeated Hartley; Delaware Hayes beat Marion Harding; Olentangy Liberty defeated New Albany; and Grove City beat London. In other notable matches, Upper Arlington defeated Pickerington Central and Olentangy Liberty beat New Albany. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway defeated New Albany's Maya Klein; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat New Albany's Helen Wang; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz defeated Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter beat Bloom-Carroll's Alexandria Bedsole; and Westerville Central's Levi Burks defeated DeSales' Megan Husslein. 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 OTZ Team Members. They are led by Lalasa Nagireddy, Arya Dudipala, Katherine Wang, and Reagan Resor.
Today's matches include: St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Mount Notre Dame; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Lancaster; and Wilmington (A) versus Centerville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OTZ College Report Available
The OhioTennisZone College Report for the 2019-2020 season is now available. It includes information on 142 Ohio high school players who are competing in D1, D2, and D3 college tennis programs. High school tennis players tend to do well after high school, and this report is a way to recognize them by making it easy for fans to see where they are attending college and what their college majors are. (Perhaps you will even want to hire one of these players when they graduate from college and include them on your company's tennis team..) It is also fun to see how much the players have changed physically since their high school years.
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OTZ College Report - Click for report |
This report includes easy access to each player's OTZ Player Profile, the player's high school profile photo, his/her college tennis web site, and one click access to a player's OTZ action photos.
Because this report is very time consuming to create, note that this it is not exhaustive. OTZ primarily focuses on players who had OTZ Player Profiles (or in other words were team or individual OTZ members).
Players who did not have OTZ Player Profiles are often still listed, especially if the college coach is an OTZ member.
Also note that this report includes an occasional update on how Ohio's professional players are doing on the tour. This information was updated this morning and it is in the right-side navigation bar.
This is Sectional week as the march toward Districts and States begins. In fact, Sectionals begin today in the Northeast District.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Chaminade-Julienne; Dublin Scioto (A) versus Olentangy Orange; and Thomas Worthington (H) versus Hartley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. Always check with a player or coach prior to leaving for a match.
SUNDAY,
Magnificat Beat Villa Marie Academy | Ball and Ratliff Receive GCTA Awards
It was another nice (but warm) Saturday. In tournament play, Mason won the GMC Tournament and Logan Elm was the Grandview Invitational winner. In dual match competition, Magnificat defeated Pennsylvania's Villa Maria Academy. Click on Previous Day's Match Results for the per-court results.
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Trevor Ball | Sydni Ratliff - Click to enlarge |
Magnificat's singles players all won their matches over Villa Maria's. Olivia Rondini defeated Sarah DeMarco; Audrey Smitek beat Thomas; and Ally Stoehr defeated Valone. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) holds its awards banquet each year to recognize those who have promoted and grown the sport of tennis in the central Ohio area. The GCTA also recognizes its top junior players. This year's winners were Wellington's Trevor Ball and Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff. For the list of all of this year's award winners, click on GCTA Awards.
SATURDAY,
Magnificat Beat Hathaway Brown
With Ohio in "Football Friday Night" mode, there was just one tennis match between teams that do not have football teams - two all-girls schools. It was a big match, too. OTZ #3 Magnificat defeated OTZ #2 D2 Hathaway Brown by the score of 3-2. Click to view the by-court summary on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Grandview - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Grandview. They are coached by Kathy Kinnard. They are led Taylor Fultz, Kayla Ward, and Liz McDermott.
There are a few tournaments, but today is a relatively quiet day as teams prepare for next week's Sectionals.
FRIDAY,
Upper Arlington Beat Dublin Jerome | It's Photo Friday
It is a Photo Friday Finally. There have been a large number of photos taken but not many had been uploaded to OTZ until yesterday. There were 57 photos added. Click to view the Most Recently Added Photos and the recently updated Top Ten(ish) Girls Photos.
Inspired by being the OTZ Featured Team yesterday (or not), Upper Arlington upset OTZ #2 Dublin Jerome, 3-2. UA will play Pickerington North next to determine which team will represent the Central District in the Division I State Team Final Four.
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Olentangy's Nour Khayat - Click to enlarge |
There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 8, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Watterson defeated Wellington; St. Ursula Academy beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy; Bexley defeated Olentangy Berlin; Anderson beat Mercy McAuley; Dublin Scioto defeated Westerville Central; Seven Hills defeated Summit Country Day; Worthington Kilbourne beat Westerville North; and Hilliard Bradley defeated Hilliard Davidson. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Ananya Annapantula; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat Revere's Nina Lazbin; Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Pickerington Central's Semmie Moore; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker beat Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader defeated St. Ursula Academy's Kathleen Davin; Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala beat Upper Arlington's Megan Basil; Dublin Scioto’s Nicole Santoso defeated Westerville Central's Levi Burks; and Watterson’s Caroline Goodlive defeated Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
THURSDAY,
Olentangy Orange Beat Olentangy Liberty | St. Ursula Defeated 7 Hills
The number of matches taking place each evening is starting to wind down as teams prepare for Sectional play. The line-ups during this time of year tend to be different than those earlier in the season as coaches use their Sectional line-ups. The Sectional line-ups often include the #1 and #2 singles players competing in doubles.
There were several matches among teams in the OTZ State Top Ten. Mason defeated Sycamore in the State Team Tournament. Mason is now in the finals against Ursuline Academy. Plus, Olentangy Orange defeated Olentangy Liberty and St. Ursula Academy beat Seven Hills. Click for the updated OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
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Upper Arlington - Click to team page |
There were 23 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 4, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches were Westerville South defeated Big Walnut and Revere beat Our Lady Of The Elms. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
The Sectional Draws are now posted and available online for all of the major Districts except for the Northwest District.
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway defeated Olentangy Orange's Kortney Reed; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Seven Hills' Shriya Sekar; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Hudson's Nijhuis; Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Sycamore's Gabrielle Frischer; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated Olentangy Orange's Erin Storrer; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova beat Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; and Westerville Central's Levi Burks defeated Reynoldsburg's Olivia Cox. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Upper Arlington. They are coached by Shaun Stamps. They are Team Members. They are led by Ella Hazelbaker, Wendy Shi, and Megan Basil.
The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) is holding its annual awards banquet tonight. Click to view the previous award winners. If the GCTA.net web site looks somewhat familiar, it is because I also provide that web site. Hope to see you at the banquet tonight.
Today's matches include: Revere (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Hilliard Bradley; Dublin Coffman (A) versus New Albany; and St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. Note that this is the time of year when it is really (really) important to check with the coach or a player prior to traveling to a match. Many of these schedules were entered early in the season. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Pickerington North Beat Olentangy | Jerome Defeated Olentangy Liberty
Perfect weather with hazy skies led to some pretty good photos yesterday. Watch for more photos to be added to OTZ today.
There were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 20, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 0.
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Thomas Worthington - Click to team page |
In matches which included the state's top teams, Pickerington North defeated Olentangy Orange; Dublin Jerome beat Olentangy Liberty; North Canton Hoover defeated Mayfield; Mason beat St. Ursula Academy; and Magnificat defeated Solon.
The close, 3-2 matches included: St. Joseph Academy defeated Laurel; Olentangy Berlin beat Gahanna; and Lakota East defeated Oak Hills. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Click for updated OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Mason's Ananya Aggarwal defeated St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast; Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway beat Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule; Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky beat St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated Solon's Maggie Yang; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat Mayfield's Cameron Meador; Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat Solon's Niya Fried; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly defeated Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala; and Mason's Emma Kruse beat St. Ursula Academy's Kathleen Davin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Thomas Worthington. They are coached by Andrew Sinclair. They are led by Riley Dodson and Sydney Cooke. Worthington is a Columbus suburb.
The Northeast Division I Sectional Draws are now online. Click the link above for that information.
This main OTZ web page accumulates information as the season progresses. This makes it easy for fans to refer to postings from previous days. Unfortunately, this page can get too large and this leads to slow loading times. The size of this page was halved yesterday when most of the boys season was removed. This will save fans time and data downloading costs. To view the most recent tennis archive, sign in first and then click on Tennis Archive - June 2018 - May 2019.
Today's matches include: Hawken (H) versus Laurel; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Massillon Jackson; and St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Seven Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Mason Defeated Indian Hill | Ursuline Academy Beat St. Ursula
Having enough daylight to finish matches is going to be a problem soon. There were 30 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0.
In matches which included the state's top teams, Mason defeated Indian Hill; Ursuline Academy beat St. Ursula Academy; and Oakwood defeated Archbishop Alter.
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Sycamore - Click to team page |
The close, 3-2 matches included: Hilliard Bradley defeated Westerville Central; Ready beat Central Crossing; Western Reserve Academy defeated Orange; Lancaster beat Unioto; Mercy McAuley defeated Badin; Delaware Hayes beat Buckeye Valley; Centerville defeated Lakota East; Mariemont beat Oak Hills; Summit Country Day defeated Anderson; Middletown beat Fairborn; and Wellington defeated Hilliard Davidson. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mason's Ananya Aggarwal defeated Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey defeated Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman; Olentangy Orange's Kortney Reed beat New Albany's Maya Klein; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Avon's Hannah LeMaster; Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai beat Westerville Central's Levi Burks; Orange's Alexis Nyborg defeated Western Reserve Academy's Katie Chen; and Worthington Christian’s Abby Mayotte beat Reynoldsburg’s Olivia Cox. 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 Harsitha Kalaiarasan, Marilene VandenBerg, and Gabrielle Frischer. Look on Twitter @OhioTennisZone for photos from the Cincinnati Coaches' Classic.
Note that all of the Sectional Draws are now online for the Southwest District. Click the link above for that information.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Olentangy; Dublin Jerome (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; Laurel (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; Mayfield (A) versus North Canton Hoover; and Solon (A) versus Magnificat. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, - MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
Sectional Draws Becoming Available
Other than the State tournament, nothing gathers as much interest as the Sectional draw information. Players, parents, fans, and coaches like to see who is playing singles or doubles and what the match-ups will be. They also involve the top seven players on every team in Ohio. While the release of draws is extremely hyped in other sports, that is largely not the case in high school tennis. It should be, but it is not.
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Central D1 Draw - Click to draw |
The Central District Sectional Draws for Division I and Division II released its draws on Sunday at 5:50pm. The Southwest ATP site released its D2 draws at about the same time. As of 7:00am on Monday morning, the Southwest District has half of its draws available with its D1 and D2 draws posted at the Cincinnati ATP and Troy sites. The Southwest's Mason and Centerville sites have yet to be posted.
As the other District's draws become available, links will be available at the top of this page. If history repeats itself, some of the Northeast District draws will become available on Monday. For information about the availability of the Northwest District Sectional Draws, please contact one of their District representatives in a few days.
As for the Singles or Doubles question, two time State D1 doubles champions, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway and Dani Schoenly, will not be defending their doubles crowns this year. Both will be competing in singles.
Dual matches today include: St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Ursuline Academy; Mason (H) versus Indian Hill; Centerville (H) versus Lakota East; and St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Avon.
SUNDAY,
Mason and Mason-B Finish 1st and 2nd in the Cincy Coaches' Classic
Most of yesterday's play was tournament-related, but there were two good dual matches.
While almost all fans would have expected Mason to win the Cincinnati Coaches' Classic yesterday, it may have surprised a few that the second best team in Cincinnati was the Mason-B team. That's what you call a deep tennis program. Some of the #1 singles results from Flight A were entered on OTZ but OTZ is awaiting the Cincinnati Enquirer's posting of the other results.
In other tournaments, Notre Dame Academy won the TRAC Tournament. St. Joseph Academy won the North Coast League Tournament.
In dual match play, Dublin Jerome defeated Mayfield and Solon.
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Sycamore's Natasha Singh - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Mason's Ananya Aggarwal; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie beat Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black defeated Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin; Revere's Morgan Dobos beat Highland's Emily Hadler; and Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala defeated Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This is tournament time for many leagues. OTZ will enter these results if they typed and emailed in this format:9/22/2019
Federer (Mason) def. Nadal (Sycamore) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
Bouchard (Mason) def. McNally (Walnut Hills) 8-0
S.Williams-V.Williams (Cincinnati Country Day) def. Bouchard-Davis (Gilmour Academy) 7-5, 6-7, 6-3
Not to belabor this point (Ok. Yes, I'm actually going to really belabor this point.), but every space and comma and parentheses and period and dash need to be in the correct spot. The names also need to be spelled correctly. First names are unnecessary, but first initials are necessary if players share the same last name. OTZ will accept team abbreviations if the legend is clear, but please do not use the same letter (i.e. G) if 27 teams in the tournament have school names that begin with G. (Ok. I need to cut down on the caffeine.) Note that no one has probably ever entered everything correctly for a tournament, and I can deal with it, but every single mistake has to be corrected by me before it can be included into the OTZ database. Note that every single mistake makes me a tiny bit more cranky. There were two point five billion thousand mistakes <slight exageration warning> this morning.
Today is the Sectional Draw for all teams in all of the Districts in the state. It begins at 2:00pm. If you are the person who runs late, it begins at 1:39pm. Mrs. OTZ and I will be assisting with the D1 Central District Draws. The Central District D1 and D2 Draws, run by Kathy Kinnard and Mike O'Callaghan, are a well-oiled machine and they do the best job in the state with the draws. Their draws have correct names, graduation years for the players included (that are extremely important to college coaches), and the draws are posted promptly.
Good luck with your Sectional draws.
SATURDAY,
Mason Beat Lakota West | Cincy Coaches' Classic to Finish Today
Even though the skies were anything but quiet yesterday (at least in Central Ohio), it was a quiet day for Ohio high school tennis. Just two matches were recorded. Mason defeated Lakota West and Reynoldsburg beat Grove City. To view the graphical results from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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7 Hills' Annika Alper - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Mason's Shyla Aggarwal defeated Lakota West's Abigail Sturgeon; Mason's Annie Kruse beat Lakota West's Mea Trent; Reynoldsburg’s Olivia Cox defeated Grove City’s Emma Smith; and Mason's Risha Chada beat Lakota West's Mia Alakhan. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There was a nice interview in the Columbus Dispatch today with CCD's and OSU's Danielle Wolf on page G16 today. (There is no link currently available.)
This is a big competition day for high school tennis. This is the final day of the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches' Association Classic Tournament. Dublin Jerome travels to Northeast Ohio to compete against Mayfield and Solon. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
GCTCACCT Begins | Hathaway Brown Beat Orange
The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Coaches' Classic Tournament began yesterday under sunny skies. Click to read Cincinnati Enqurier's Luke Feliciano's article about the tournament. This tournament will finish on Saturday. A few OTZ photos from the first round will be uploaded today.
There were 31 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 21, Southwest - 4, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 1. In a Top Ten Team match, Hathaway Brown defeated Orange. The close, 3-2 matches included: Marysville defeated Hilliard Darby; Chaminade-Julienne beat Archbishop Alter; Hartley defeated Grove City; Highland beat Solon; Hilliard Bradley defeated Reynoldsburg; Kettering Fairmont beat Miamisburg; and Poland Seminary defeated Cardinal Mooney. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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SUA's Elizabeth Pendergast - Click to enlarge |
Only the Flight A, number one singles matches were included in today's update. Other matches will be included on Sunday.
THURSDAY,
Mason Beat Oakwood | Upper Arlington Defeated Olentangy
The best tournament in the state, the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Classic, begins today and ends on Saturday. The tournament includes ten different flights, and the teams in each flight are based on strength as determined by the coaches. Division I and Division II teams are intermixed. Every district should have one of these tournaments.
There were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1.
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Whetstone - Click to team page |
Matches that included the state's top teams included: Mason defeated Oakwood and Upper Arlington beat Olentangy.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Lakota East defeated Summit Country Day; Whetstone beat Thomas Worthington; Badin defeated Madeira; Pickerington Central beat Bexley; Massillon Jackson defeated Revere; Oak Hills beat Mercy McAuley; Centerville defeated Archbishop Alter; Olentangy Liberty beat Olentangy Berlin; Granville defeated Bloom-Carroll; Eaton beat Beavercreek; and Seven Hills defeated Wyoming. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mason's Ananya Aggarwal defeated Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway beat Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz; Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black beat Anthony Wayne's Emma Nofziger; Revere's Morgan Dobos defeated Massillon Jackson's Abigail Williams; Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan beat Lakota West's Abigail Sturgeon; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman defeated Centerville's Milena Alappatt; and Mason's Shyla Aggarwal beat Oakwood's Sarah Hall. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Whetstone. They are coached by Bucky Walters. They are led by Stella Thompson, Alysia Swinehart, and Maizy Pratt. Photos of these players are shown on Twitter @OhioTennisZone.
OTZ will attend the Flight A matches today at the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Classic. In dual contests, matches includes Laurel (A) versus Westlake; Dublin Jerome (H) versus New Albany; and Big Walnut (H) versus DeSales. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ Top Players / Watch List Reports | Oakwood Defeated St. Ursula Academy
Yes, it was another perfect, blah-blah-blah weather night. This great weather is almost getting tiresome. If we wanted great weather, we would move to San Diego.. There were 34 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Revere defeated Medina; Groveport beat Franklin Heights; St. Joseph Academy defeated Shaker Heights; Reynoldsburg beat Big Walnut; Blanchester defeated Felicity; Bloom-Carroll beat Circleville; Lakota West defeated Oak Hills; and Oakwood beat St. Ursula Academy. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OTZ Top Players - Click to report |
The OTZ Top Players / Watch List Reports have undergone significant changes. Numerous players were added to both reports. While OTZ is certainly aware of the other ranking services, this report is focused on high school play. Of course, that has been difficult this season because numerous players have not had many recorded high school matches. As always, OTZ welcomes comments from coaches on players who should be considered for these lists. As for others, no, not so much. Results and photos are available for players who have OTZ Player Profiles. Sign-in for information for those without Player Profiles.
Among the top players, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Westerville Central's Levi Burks; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Shaker Heights' Kayla Lowery; Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Columbus School for Girls' Sophia Vershinin; and Oakwood's Sarah Hall defeated St. Ursula Academy's Kathleen Davin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus Archbishop Alter; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Columbus Academy; and Revere (H) versus Massillon Jackson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Laurel Beat Magnificat | Oakwood Defeated Eaton
In comparison to last year, the weather has been great this season. Despite this, there have been 5.9% fewer matches recorded this year versus last year. It is unclear if teams are playing less matches or if they are not reporting their results. There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play yesterday. The breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 0.
In matches involving the state's top teams, Laurel defeated Magnificat; Oakwood beat Eaton; Columbus Academy defeated Olentangy; Orange beat Hawken; North Canton Hoover defeated Massillon Jackson; and Upper Arlington beat Pickerington Central (State Team Tournament).
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Centerville - Click to team page |
The close, 3-2 matches included: Whetstone defeated Hilliard Darby; Delaware Hayes beat Thomas Worthington; Franklin Heights defeated Hamilton Township; and Mayfield beat Chardon; To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu defeated Hawken's Eliana Yang; Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky beat Magnificat's Olivia Rondini; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Oakwood's Lily McCloskey; Laurel's Victoria Vasquez defeated Magnificat's Audrey Smitek; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker beat Pickerington Central's Semmie Moore; Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung defeated Olentangy's Nour Khayat; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz beat Worthington Christian's Abby Mayotte; and Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Dublin Scioto's Nicole Santoso. 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 led by Sydney Khosla, Milena Alappatt, and Arabelle MacPherson.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; Mayfield (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Solon (H) versus Hawken; and St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Oakwood. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Mason and Indian Hill Remain as OTZ #1's
Mason and Indian Hill remain as OhioTennisZone #1's in the state team rankings in Division I and Division II, respectively. The remaining top four teams in Division I are: Dublin Jerome, Magnificat, and Pickerington North. The other three in the top four in Division II are: Hathaway Brown, Columbus Academy, and Oakwood.
State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams September 16, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM | Indian Hill |
| 2. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM |
| 3. Magnificat◄TEAM | Col. Academy◄TEAM |
| 4. Pickerington North◄TEAM | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 5. Olentangy Orange◄TEAM | Cin. Hills Chr. Acad.◄TEAM |
| 6. Notre Dame Academy◄TEAM | Orange◄TEAM |
| 7. Mayfield◄TEAM | Laurel◄TEAM |
| 8. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM | Eaton |
| 9. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Toledo Central Catholic |
| 10. Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| HM: Sycamore◄TEAM, Ursuline Academy◄TEAM, Brecksville | Seven Hills◄TEAM, Wellington◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
It became pretty clear after about ten minutes into the season that the OTZ Pre-Season Rankings would have to be changed before the end of the season. Today's rankings mark the first change and there are significant changes. Why? Some players did not come out to play high school tennis this year. It has also been hard to evaluate teams because some players have only played in a match or two.
As always, there are a few Rosetta Stone teams that can be used to evaluate all of the teams. The major one is Pickerington North. Pickerington North played a wide variety of teams from throughout the state including Hathaway Brown, Toledo Central Catholic, Ursuline Academy, Columbus Academy, and Olentangy Liberty. Refer to the OTZ Matrix Report in the drop-down above to view the game winning percentages on how Pickerington North has performed against all of their opponents.
Note that it is always the intent to rank teams based on their best team line-ups, rather than include a loss when a key player is missing.
Were any worthy teams omitted from the list? Feel free to submit a Feedback or email your suggestions. Please, however, research the Matrix Report first.
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Columbus Academy (A) versus Olentangy; Dublin Scioto (H) versus Wellington; Hawken (A) versus Orange; and Laurel (A) versus Magnificat. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
Please sign-in to view Indian Hill's page.
SUNDAY,
Tournaments | UA and Olentangy Orange Beat Massillon Jackson
There were a combination of dual matches and tournaments that were held yesterday. In dual match play, Upper Arlington and Olentangy Orange defeated Massillon Jackson.
In tournament play, Magnificat and Notre Dame Academy were the co-champions of the Lexington Invitational; Eaton won the Miami Valley Coaches Cup; and Wellington won their own tournament.
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Laurel's Ellie Brotherton - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black, Â Laurel's Ellie Brotherton, and Lexington’s Grace Pfeiffer; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Chaminade-Julienne's Caroline Hinshaw; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson; Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule beat Massillon Jackson's Emma Henson; and Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Worthington Christian's Audrey Mousa. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The all-important Sectional Draws will be held next Sunday. If OTZ is missing results from Coach, Team, or Parent/Player members, please get these scores into OTZ asap so that they can be posted. Coaches can enter the results via the OTZ score-reporting process. Parents may email the results using the proper OTZ format. If you have a question about the correct format to use, please contact OTZ first via email.
It is always difficult to get good photos in indoor facilities. A few of the better photos will be posted today from the Lexington Invite.
The Columbus Challenger takes place this week at the Ohio State Indoor Varsity Center. Play begins tomorrow (Monday) and admission is free. Players competing include OSU's Mikael Torpegaard, JJ Wolf, John McNally, Robert Cash, Kyle Seelig, Cannon Kingsley, and James Trotter.
SATURDAY,
Revere Beat Hawken
It was another slow, Football Friday Night for tennis. There were seven matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 7, Southwest - 3, and Northeast - 3.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Centerville-B defeated Springboro-B and Wilmington beat Clinton-Massie.To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jerome's Reagan Resor - Click to enlarge |
In State Team Tournament action, Revere defeated Hawken. Click to view the OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Solon's Maggie Yang defeated Shaker Heights' Mona Lowery; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black beat Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy; Revere's Morgan Dobos defeated Hawken's Eliana Yang; and Wilmington's Claire Burns beat Clinton-Massie's Lazic. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
OTZ travels to the Lexington Invitational today. This is one of the best tournaments of the year because it includes a large number of teams, and singles and doubles play. It also offers food. Lots of food.
FRIDAY,
Dublin Jerome Beat Upper Arlington | CHCA Defeated Seven Hills
It was yet another hot, uncomfortable evening. In matches that included the top teams in the state, Dublin Jerome defeated Upper Arlington; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy beat Seven Hills; Indian Hill defeated Olentangy Liberty; and Orange beat Laurel. The Jerome / Upper Arlington match included three, 3-setters.
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Magnificat - Click to team page |
There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 15, Southwest - 10, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Aurora defeated Revere; Dublin Scioto beat Dublin Coffman; Independence defeated West; Newark beat Westerville South; Blanchester defeated West Clermont; and Worthington Christian beat Whetstone. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway defeated Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala beat Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu defeated Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy’s Ananya Annapatula beat Seven Hills' Annika Alper; Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy defeated Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker; Dublin Scioto’s Nicole Santosa beat Dublin Coffman’s Dasha Chistyakova; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Sarah Harlan; Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat Indian Hill's Jessica Budde; and Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala defeated Upper Arlington's Megan Basil. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Magnificat. They are coached by Chris Johnson. They are OTZ Team Members and they are led by Olivia Rondini and Audrey Smitek.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Lexington; Notre Dame Academy (A) versus Walsh Jesuit; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Sycamore; Â Wilmington (H) versus Clinton Massie; and Delaware Hayes (H) versus Mount Vernon. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
North Canton Hoover's Ryan Shaffer Gets 900th Win
It was another scorcher last night as teams played in another round of hot temperatures. There were 28 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 13, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0.
Congratulations to Coach Ryan Shaffer of North Canton Hoover. He earned his 900th win when his team defeated St. Joseph Academy last night.
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Hoover's Ryan Shaffer - Click to enlarge |
The close, 3-2 matches included: Wyoming defeated Mason-B; DeSales beat Hilliard Bradley; Grandview defeated Worthington Kilbourne; St. Ursula Academy beat Loveland; Pickerington North defeated Olentangy; and Ursuline Academy beat Walnut Hills. In the battle of the Lakota's, Lakota East beat Lakota West. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Olentangy's Nour Khayat; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens; Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal defeated Walnut Hills' Alexis Covington; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Loveland's Anna Svitkovich; New Albany's Thalia Fuentes defeated Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; DeSales’ Megan Husslein beat Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai; and Lakota East’s Megan Hoke defeated Lakota West’s Abigail Sturgeon. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (H) versus Upper Arlington; Laurel (H) versus Orange; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Dublin Scioto; Centerville (H) versus Springboro; and Wellington (A) versus Worthington Christian. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason Beat Sycamore | Upper Arlington Defeated Wellington
It was another warm night and many teams had matches. There were 35 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 18, Southwest - 16, Northeast - 0, and Northwest - 1.
Matches among the top teams included: Mason defeated Sycamore; Pickerington North beat Dublin Coffman; and Upper Arlington defeated Wellington.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Gahanna defeated Hilliard Bradley; Newark beat Reynoldsburg; Anderson defeated Kings; Granville beat Worthington Kilbourne; Oak Hills defeated Fairfield; Westland beat Franklin Heights; Seven Hills defeated Summit Country Day; Worthington Christian beat Big Walnut; Indian Hill defeated Mariemont; Pickerington North beat Dublin Coffman. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy Berlin - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Olentangy Berlin. They are coached by Richard Hunt. They are led by Ella Franz and Janna Harris.
We have a family farm in northwest Ohio and it was finally (past) time to scrape and paint one of the buildings. After doing the OTZ morning update, Mrs. OTZ and I traveled from Columbus to the farm, worked, and returned. That is what we have done for three of the last six days. After applying 11 gallons of primer and paint, it is finally done. I can finally place my focus back on tennis.. It will take a couple of days to get through all of the emails. Thanks for your patience.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; North Canton Hoover (A) versus St. Joseph Academy; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Loveland; and Solon (H) versus Shaker Heights. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Hathaway Brown Beat Magnificat | Coffman Defeated Wellington
Temperatures will get toasty again today and tomorrow; however, a large number of teams took advantage of the great playing conditions yesterday. There were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 1.
The matches involving the top teams in the state included: Hathaway Brown defeated Magnificat; Dublin Coffman beat Wellington; Mason defeated Springboro; and Ursuline Academy beat Centerville.
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North Canton Hoover - Click to team page |
The close, 3-2 matches included: Worthington Christian defeated Westerville Central; Mariemont beat Wyoming; Loveland defeated Lakota East; Chaminade-Julienne beat Beavercreek; St. Ursula Academy-B defeated Oak Hills; St. Joseph Academy beat Walsh Jesuit; New Albany defeated Olentangy Berlin; Badin beat Monroe; and Batavia defeated Blanchester. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Magnificat's Audrey Smitek; Springboro's Abby Nugent beat Mason's Shyla Aggarwal; Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova defeated Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter; Chaminade-Julienne's Caroline Hinshaw beat Beavercreek's Julia Bays; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Walsh Jesuit's Emma Kealy; Worthington Christian’s Abby Mayotte beat Westerville Central's Levi Burks; Olentangy  Berlin's Ella Franz defeated New Albany's Thalia Fuentes; and Wellington’s Katie Zerbi beat Dublin Coffman's Hannah Qin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is North Canton Hoover. They are coached by Ryan Shaffer. They are Team Members. They are led by Laurel Utterback and Lilly Altman.
There has been an out-of-town project that has me burning the candle on both ends. Things will return to normal, abnormal soon. If you have not seen a response from me recently, this is (probably) why.
Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (A) versus Olentangy; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Pickerington North; Mason (H) versus Sycamore; and Teays Valley (H) versus Circleville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
HB > Pickerington North > TCC
Normally there is not much to post in a Monday update, but since there was an update snafu on Sunday, today's update will include matches played on Saturday. In these matches, Hathaway Brown defeated Pickerington North; Olentangy Orange beat Mayfield; and Pickerington North defeated Toledo Central Catholic. To view the graphical results recorded, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Denison's / Canfield's Tim Cianciola - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov and Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie beat Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule; Pickerington North's Rhyan Cook defeated Hathaway Brown's Brigette Fuentes and Toledo Central Catholic's Ella Hire; and Olentangy Orange's Erin Storrer beat Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There have been too many things going on recently to take action photos but Mrs. OTZ and I traveled to a Kenyon College tournament yesterday and saw two Ohio high school graduates compete. The plan was to see quite a few players, but several had injuries. We did get to see Solon's Vlad Rotnov and Canfield's Tim Cianciola complete in singles. They both play for Denison. Check Twitter for the photo of Rotnov.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Wellington; St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Walsh Jesuit; Centerville (H) versus Ursuline Academy; Thomas Worthington (A) versus Hilliard Davidson; and Big Walnut (H) versus Granville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Dublin Jerome Beat Hathaway Brown | Magnificat Defeated Olentangy Orange
It was difficult to determine which of yesterday's matches should be the headline today with so many of the OTZ Top Ten teams in action. There were eight matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 2, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 0, and Northwest - 3. The matches which included the Top Ten teams were: Dublin Jerome defeated Hathaway Brown and Toledo Central Catholic; Magnificat beat Olentangy Orange and Olentangy Liberty; Indian Hill defeated Columbus Academy; and Notre Dame Academy beat North Canton Hoover. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Perrysburg - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Perrysburg. They are coached by Julie Weider. They are led by Sydney Onest and Lydia Ellinger.
Today's matches include: the Browns begin their undefeated run to the Super Bowl, or not.
SATURDAY,
Mason Beat Columbus Academy | St. Ursula Defeated Centerville
Several teams are headed out of town this weekend to play strong opponents. Things got started early with Columbus Academy going to Mason and St. Ursula Academy traveling to Centerville. In those contests, Mason defeated Columbus Academy and St. Ursula Academy beat Centerville. In another good match, Sycamore defeated Walnut Hills. 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 |
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Mason's Ananya Aggarwal; St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast beat Centerville's Sydney Khosla; Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan defeated Walnut Hills' Alexis Covington; and Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung beat Mason's Shyla Aggarwal. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Dublin Scioto. They are coached by Sean Gilbert. They are led by Nicole Santoso and Peyton Shaffer.
I dented the to-do list yesterday, but with the University of Cincinnati football team in Columbus, the list will grow by the end of the day.. As always, if your request has been in the queue too long, feel free to reach out via email or Feedback.
Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (A) versus Hathaway Brown and Toledo Central Catholic and North Canton Hoover (A) versus Notre Dame Academy and Toledo St Ursula Academy. Columbus Academy (A) is playing Indian Hill and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. Mayfield (A) will play Olentangy Orange. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Columbus Academy Beat Wellington | Upper Arlington Defeated Dublin Coffman
More perfect weather and a full slate of matches led to the largest OTZ update of the season. There were 48 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 24, Southwest - 17, Northeast - 7, and Northwest - 0.
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Seven Hills - Click to team page |
In matches involving the state's top teams, Columbus Academy defeated Wellington and Upper Arlington beat Dublin Coffman.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Anderson defeated Milford; Clermont Northeastern beat Blanchester; Hilliard Bradley defeated Hilliard Darby; Poland Seminary beat Struthers; Bexley defeated Worthington Christian; Lancaster beat Reynoldsburg; Thomas Worthington defeated Worthington Kilbourne; Pickerington Central beat Gahanna; Revere defeated Nordonia; Indian Hill beat Walnut Hills; Mayfield defeated Kenston; and Olentangy beat Olentangy Liberty; To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat Highland's Emily Hadler; Olentangy's Nour Khayat defeated Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; Rocky River’s Samantha Robertson beat St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz defeated Delaware Hayes' Evelyn Mignanou; Chaminade-Julienne's Caroline Hinshaw beat Fenwick's Bell; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker defeated Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova; Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor beat Dublin Scioto's Nicole Santoso; Pickerington Central’s Semmie Moore defeated Gahanna’s Thomas; Lancaster's Mallory Thomas beat Reynoldsburg's Olivia Cox; and Columbus Academy's Alexandria Graham defeated Wellington's Katie Zerbi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Seven Hills. They are coached by Tim Drew. They are Team Members. They are led by Annika Alper, Shriya Sekar, and Gabriella Khaskelis.
Things are really backed up at OTZ. Hopefully today will be a catch-up day rather than a get further behind day.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus St. Ursula Academy; Columbus Academy (A) versus Mason; Sycamore (A) versus Ursuline Academy; Hawken (A) versus Shaker Heights; and Solon (A) versus Western Reserve Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Oakwood Beat CHCA | Jerome Defeated Coffman
Yesterday was a big tennis night with plenty of highly competitive matches. There were 34 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 20, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0. Many teams also used yesterday as a score-reporting, catch-up day. To add to an already high volume of scores, the Cincinnati Enquirer provided both yesterday's and today's results. (Of course, all of this occurs because I need to get out of town early this morning..)
The biggest matches of the night included: Dublin Jerome defeated Dublin Coffman; Oakwood beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy; Magnificat defeated St. Joseph Academy; and Eaton beat Archbishop Alter.
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St. Ursula Academy - Click to team page |
The close, 3-2 matches included: Granville defeated Reynoldsburg; Indian Hill beat Sycamore; Bexley defeated Hilliard Bradley; and Clinton-Massie beat Miami Trace. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu beat West Geauga's Rylie Hanford; Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang defeated Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova;  Springboro’s Abby Nugent beat Chaminade-Julienne's Caroline Hinshaw; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Ananya  Annapantula; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman; Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung defeated Watterson's Caroline Goodlive; Indian Hill's Bella Kirby beat Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan; Oakwood's Sarah Hall defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Lynn Kader; Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz beat Columbus School for Girls' Sophia Vershinin; Olentangy Orange's Erin Storrer defeated Westerville Central's Levi Burks; and Seven Hills' Annika Alper beat Turpin's Ferman. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is St. Ursula Academy. They are coached by Jason Woods. They are Team Members. They are led by Elizabeth Pendergast, Kellie Hannan, and Lucy Aberg. SUA probably has the best professional team photo thus far.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Wellington; North Canton Hoover (H) versus Highland; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Upper Arlington; and Dublin Jerome (A) versus Dublin Scioto. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Brecksville Beat Hoover | 7 Hills Defeated Eaton
Perfect weather enabled a large number of matches to be played. There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 18, Southwest - 6, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. There were no scores from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
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Notre Dame Academy - Click to team page |
There were several matches among high level teams. In the State Team Tournament, Brecksville defeated North Canton Hoover and Seven Hills beat Eaton. (Click OTZ State Team Tournament Draws for all of the results.) Other prominent matches included: Laurel defeated Mayfield and Olentangy Orange beat Olentangy.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Westerville North defeated Westerville South; Kettering Fairmont beat Wilmington; Hilliard Darby defeated Thomas Worthington; Marion-Franklin beat Independence; Upper Arlington-B defeated Worthington Christian; Chaminade-Julienne beat Miamisburg; and Dublin Scioto defeated Hilliard Bradley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Brecksville's Catherina Iltchev; Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala beat Reynoldsburg's Olivia Cox; Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky defeated Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black beat Findlay's Earhart; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock defeated Seven Hills' Annika Alper; Chaminade-Julienne's Caroline Hinshaw beat Miamisburg's Abbie Campbell; Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy defeated Delaware Hayes' Evelyn Mignanou; Wilmington's Claire Burns beat Kettering Fairmont's Dasha Dotsenko; and Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai defeated Dublin Scioto's Nicole Santoso. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Notre Dame Academy. They are coached by Kim Pacella. They are Team Members. They are led by Lilly Black, Ellie Assenmacher, and Olivia Assenmacher.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Dublin Scioto (H) versus Pickerington Central; Mayfield (A) versus Kenston; St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Magnificat; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Ursuline Academy; and Wellington (A) versus Hilliard Davidson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Reporting Scores via OhioTennisZone
OhioTennisZone is always trying to find ways to help coaches do their jobs faster and better.
One of the most important things a coach can do is to report accurate scores. Scores are the lifeblood of any sport because they are the primary way to recognize players. Each score is an advertisement for the team and for the sport. For players who are interested in playing in college, score reporting is critical as college coaches follow a player's progress.
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OTZ Score Reporting - Click to enlarge |
A number of schools utilize players and parents to report scores on OTZ. Let your coach know if you are interested.
In the Midwest Level 3 tournaments that took place over the weekend in Michigan, Magnificat's Audrey Smitek won the G16. She was the tournament's seventh seed. Olentangy's Sam Routzahn was a finalist in the Boys 16.
Today's matches include: Sycamore (H) versus Mason; Mayfield (A) versus Laurel; Notre Dame Academy (H) versus Findlay; Solon (H) versus Jackson; Â and Wilmington (H) versus Kettering Fairmont. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Midwest Level 3 Tournaments
Many Ohio girls are competing in the Midwest Level 3 tournaments this weekend in Michigan. These tournaments finish today. Click-able draws are listed in the OTZ calendar and via the following links: G14, G16, and G18.
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Mag's Audrey Smitek - Click to enlarge |
Girls 14's
In quarter-finals: Chaminade-Julienne's Caroline Hinshaw.
Girls 16's
In quarter-finals: Olentangy's Nour Khayat, Orange's Alexi Nyborg, and Magnificat's Audrey Smitek.
Others: Upper Arlington's Megan Basil, Wilmington's Claire Burns, Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova, Solon's Niya Fried, Oakwood's Sarah Hall, Mason's Rashi Loni, and Hathaway Brown's Alex Wolf.
Girls 18's
In quarter-finals: Indian Hill's Bella Kirby.
Others: Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz, Unioto's Sylvia Gray, Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman, Canfield's Anna Kan, Oakwood's Lily McCloskey, Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy, St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast, Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor, Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule, and Columbus Academy's Carolyn Tsung.
Only the girls playing high school tennis are listed. If a player was missed (or included erroneously), please contact OTZ via Feedback.
The boys are also competing in Midwest Level 3's. Their tournaments are being held at the same locations as the girls and their draws are available via the same links.
SUNDAY,
Marion Harding Defeated River Valley
It was no surprise, but yesterday was a slow high school tennis day. There were just two matches recorded and neither match included box scores. Marion Harding defeated River Valley and Roger Bacon beat Winton Woods. While yesterday's matches did not include box scores, note that dates at the top of the Previous Day's Match Results are click-able to select other days.
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Walsh Jesuit - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Walsh Jesuit. They are coached by Rocco Cona. They are led by Emma Kealy and Stephanie Waltz.
It is getting more difficult for high school tennis fans to follow the sport. Several years ago, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported a large number of high school tennis scores. Due to staffing cutbacks, the Plain Dealer now just focus on high school football results. The Youngstown Vindicator did a great job with high school sports but that newspaper shut down completely yesterday. Some of the news from that area of the state may be picked up in other smaller publications.
Scores are the lifeblood of any sport. Each score published should be viewed as an advertisement for the sport. This is an advertisement that is viewed by middle school kids (and their parents) who might want to play for their high school team and by interested grandparents.
For teams in Northeast Ohio that want to share their results online, OhioTennisZone does publish scores provided by paying coach members. It is also easy to enter previous matches. Click to sign-up.
No teams are expected to play today or tomorrow because of the holiday.
SATURDAY,
Magnificat Beat Notre Dame Academy
Because it is Football Friday Nights, not Tennis Friday Nights, the number of tennis matches taking place on Friday's will be much lower going forward. There were still a few good matches last night. Two OTZ Top Ten teams competed - OTZ #5 Magnificat defeated #10 Notre Dame Academy. Other matches included: Olentangy defeated Worthington Christian; Centerville beat Kettering Fairmont; and Pickerington Central defeated Lancaster. 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 |
Today's featured team is Franklin Heights. They are coached by James Wassmuth. They are led by Liliana Soy, Umayma Omar, and Ava Harris.
As indicated in the OTZ tennis season calendar, this is the last big weekend for high level USTA matches. Quite a few Ohio players will be competing in these tournaments.
FRIDAY,
Magnificat Defeated Solon | St. Joseph Academy Beat Hawken
It was another beautiful evening. There were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 0. Among the state's best teams, OTZ #5 Magnificat defeated Solon and St. Joseph Academy beat Hawken. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hartley defeated Whetstone; Bloom-Carroll beat Circleville; and Big Walnut defeated Newark. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Revere - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Revere. They are coached by Kathy Shisler. They are Team Members. They are led by Morgan Dobos, Maddie Kavenagh, and Nina Lazbin.
Today's miscellaneous topic is team photos. Taking team photos is really time consuming and travel extensive for OTZ. I have to be at the match early, but teams are often late because of bus problems. Even when I am on time, occasionally teams start their matches early and I miss the photo opportunity. The best time to get multiple team photos is at tournaments, but tournaments often start early in the morning. Even though I get up stupid early each morning, the OTZ morning update can run late. I have been late by just four minutes to a tournament and missed out on taking team photos for eight teams. That is extremely frustrating. For the above reasons and because cell phones can now take better photos, teams that want to be recognized can now email their team photos to OTZ.
Here are the tips for providing a good team photo:
- The sun is the key. Either have the sun in the players' faces or have the players in a shaded area. Did the sun just go behind a cloud? Great. Hurry and snap a photo. Never have the sun behind the players.
- Ask the players to remove their hats or visors. Tell them that their hair looks fine even if it does not.
- Use the cell phone's portrait view.
- Use two rows of players and stand as close as possible to them.
- Ask the players to keep their arms to their sides.
- Take a few photos. Kids blink. A lot.
- Email a high resolution image to OTZ. When the cellphone asks a low resolution or high resolution image (often called Original Size or Actual Size) is to be sent, choose the highest resolution. Photo should be at least 2-3 MB in size.
- Provide the player names if the team is an OTZ Team Member.
Today's Revere team photo is one of the better cell phone photos. Notre Dame Academy's team photo is likely the best so far this season.
OTZ also accepts professional photos but it must be acceptable to the professional photographer that the image can appear on OhioTennisZone. Schools often purchase professional photos so that the photos can appear in multiple places. OTZ is happy to include the name of the photographer on the photo.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus Kettering Fairmont; Notre Dame Academy (A) versus Magnificat; and Worthington Christian (A) versus Olentangy.
THURSDAY,
Columbus Academy Beat Olentangy Orange | Pickerington North Defeated Liberty
Perfect weather contributed to 33 matches being recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 15, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1.
Not only were there a large number of matches yesterday, there were numerous matches that included the OTZ Top Ten Teams. OTZ #6 Pickerington North defeated #4 Olentangy Liberty; #4 (D2) Columbus Academy beat #3 Olentangy Orange; #1 (D2) Indian Hill defeated St. Ursula Academy; and #3 (D2) Hathaway Brown beat #9 North Canton Hoover.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Valley View defeated Middletown; Wyoming beat Western Hills; and Clinton-Massie defeated Washington CH. 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 Dianna Hibinger. They are Team Members. They are led by Evelyn Mignanou, Alana Kay, and Lilly Tope.
In last night's prime time US Open match, it took about two points before ESPN announcer, Chris Evert, had completely written off any hopes that Caty McNally would have a quality match against Serena. [Slight exaggeration alert - but ever so slight.] It did not turn out that way. McNally won the first set 7-5 with great serving and net play. After adjusting to McNally's unconventional tactics, Serena rallied and took the next two sets, 6-3, 6-1. It was a great effort by McNally. She will now team up with Coco Gauff in doubles.
In other US Open matches, Lauren Davis had a great match with #1 Ash Barty, losing 6-2, 7-6. Francesca Di Lorenzo plays at 3pm today against Julia Goerges.
Today's matches include: Solon (H) versus Magnificat; Mason (H) versus Lakota East; Hawken (H) versus St. Joseph Academy; and Orange (H) versus Gilmour Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
NDA Beats TCC | Three Ohio Players in R2 of US Open
In the big match-up of the day, and for Toledo bragging rights, OTZ #10 Notre Dame Academy defeated #6 (D2) Toledo Central Catholic. In another contested match, #8 Mayfield beat Highland.
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Gilmour Academy's Lauren Davis - Click to enlarge |
The close, 3-2 matches included: St. Joseph Academy defeated Hudson; Oak Hills beat Princeton; and Harrison defeated Talawanda. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Gahanna's Thomas; North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat Louisville's Rachel Kibler; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black defeated Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock beat Bellbrook's Arora; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens defeated Hudson's Laura Nijhuis; and Toledo Central Catholic's Ellie Hire beat Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The US Open is well underway and three Ohio players have reached the second round of play. Gilmour Academy's Lauren Davis was the OHSAA State D2 Singles Champion in 2008. She lost only five games during the state tournament. (Click for draw.) New Albany's Francesca Di Lorenzo was the OHSAA State D1 Doubles Champion with her sister, Cristina, in 2012. (Click for draw.) Caty McNally is the third Ohio player. Caty is just 17 years old from Madeira and she did not play high school tennis. Lauren Davis plays tonight at 7pm against #1 in the world, Ash Barty. Caty McNally plays against someone named Serena Williams at 9pm tonight.. Francesca Di Lorenzo plays Germany's Julia Görges tomorrow.
Today's matches include: Solon (H) versus Walsh Jesuit; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Indian Hill; and Dublin Scioto (A) versus Worthington Kilbourne. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Indian Hill Beat Archbishop Alter | Hawken Defeated Orange
Despite the rain, there were several matches played throughout Ohio. There were eight matches recorded from state-wide play with the Northeast District being the least impacted from the rain. The breakdown by District was: Central - 1, Southwest - 2, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 0. Matches included: OTZ #1 (D2) Indian Hill defeated #7 (D2) Archbishop Alter; Hawken beat Orange; and Solon defeated Strongsville. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Archbishop Alter - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Archbishop Alter. They are coached by Charlie Painter. They are Team Members. They are led by Grace Lampman, Emily Pojman, and Soren Dinkins.
Today's matches include: Solon (A) versus Laurel; St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Ursuline Academy; Notre Dame Academy (A) versus Toledo Central Catholic; Â Wilmington (H) versus Kings; and Bloom-Carroll (A) versus Teays Valley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Miscellaneous Monday..
Today may be the first all-state rain-out which means it is appropriate to use this theme song.
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Solon - Click to team page |
More players were added to the OTZ Top Players List and Watch List. The Top Players are sorted by their rankings. The Watch List players are sorted alphabetically. All players begin on Watch List (This is a law.) and then some are gradually moved up to the Top Players List. There are normally about 30 players on the Top Players List by the end of the season. (There are currently 23 players list.) The goal is to have players on the right list by the Sectional draw date, which takes place on September 22. There are still numerous players who have no matches recorded for this season. 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 Maggie Yang, Niya Fried, and Amanda Weiskind.
Other items..
The daily goal is to finish each day's update by 8:00am. The data/results portion is slated to be completed by 7:00am. It requires about an hour to provide this occasionally witty, but more than not, witless commentary..
Coaches in the Central District, who want their scores to be included in the Columbus Dispatch, need to have those scores submitted into OTZ by about 8:45pm. The scores are gathered, checked, and forwarded to the Dispatch at 9:00pm sharp. I often move onto other things and I largely do not look for new scores after they are sent to the Dispatch. Scores from other areas of the state need to be entered prior to the morning update process, which can begin as early as 4:30am.
There are quite a few good matches slated for this evening and there is a chance that the Northeast District will not be impacted as much by the rain. The matches include: Mayfield (A) versus Hathaway Brown; Hawken (H) versus Orange; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Sycamore; and Wellington (H) versus Hartley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore Beat Ursuline Academy | Pickerington North Defeated St. Ursula Academy
The weather was absolutely perfect as teams gathered from around the state to compete in tournaments. The tournaments and their (champions / runner-ups) included: Eagle Combine (Notre Dame Academy / Columbus Academy), Canfield Doubles (Hathaway Brown / Magnificat), Warriors Doubles Classic (Watkins Memorial / Big Walnut), and Viking Invitational (Jonathan Alder / Lancaster). Contact OTZ via Feedback or email to include a tournament not mentioned above.
There were also two dual matches recorded. Sycamore defeated OTZ #7 Ursuline Academy and #6 Pickerington North beat St. Ursula Academy. To view graphical results from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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NDA's Lilly Black - Click to enlarge |
This is a catch-up with OTZ day and seal the blacktop driveway day.
SATURDAY,
Pickerington North Beat Ursuline Academy | 7Hills Defeated MVS
It was a quiet Friday evening with just four matches played. Pickerington North defeated Ursuline Academy; Seven Hills beat Miami Valley School; Mariemont defeated St. Ursula Academy-B; and Notre Dame Academy beat Watterson. To view all of the results in graphical form, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Teays Valley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Teays Valley. They are coached by Laura Culbertson. They are lead by Lacey Urban, Lexy Urban, and Kassidy Coey.
There are several tournaments today including the Wilmington Invite and the Watterson/New Albany Invite. The weather should be perfect.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | CHCA Beat 7 Hills | Magnificat Defeated Mayfield
Today is the first Photo Friday of the season. It includes the Top OTZ Photos. Since it is the beginning of the girls season and not many high school photos have been taken, a few photos from the Western & Southern Open are also included.
Iffy weather in central Ohio led to cancellations because the weather looked abysmal early in the day. It ended up largely being another weather-fakeout. Unfortunately, when buses have to be scheduled, the go, no-go decisions have to be early in the afternoon.
There were 25 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. Notable matches included: North Canton Hoover defeated Canfield; Pickerington North beat Pickerington Central; Magnificat defeated Mayfield; and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy beat Seven Hills. The close, 3-2 matches included: Preble Shawnee defeated Waynesville; Grove City beat Lancaster; Mercy McAuley defeated Seton; and Wyoming beat Sycamore-B. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Oakwood's Sarah Hall - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala defeated Pickerington Central's Semmie Moore;
North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback beat Canfield's Anna Kan; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu; Mason's Emma Kruse beat Oak Hills' Mia Ziebro; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy’s Ananya Annapatula defeated Seven Hills' Annika Alper; Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black beat Clay's McKenzie Arquette; Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan defeated Lakota East's Megan Hoke; Pickerington North's Rhyan Cook beat Pickerington Central's Khandice Thomas; and Magnificat's Alexis Ospelt defeated Mayfield's Katerina Ng. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Most people need a diversion on Friday's to help them get through the day. OTZ is here to help with Photo Friday. All of the photos that have been posted on OTZ are available at Most Recently Added Photos. (Please sign-in first for the non-Western & Southern Open photos.)
OTZ also identifies the top photos under Top Ten(ish) OTZ Photos. These photos are selected because they include some (or all) of the following attributes:
- great lighting with some sun light, but not too much sun. (This is often why there are several photos selected from just one match.)
- great, eye-on-ball concentration
- a non-distracting, non-Upper Arlington background. (The Western & Southern Open with its great windscreens and colorful crowds offers the best background.)
- athleticism with flowing hair or uniform, or other motion.. (To get great, athletic photos, both competitors need to be of similar ability and they need to be athletic. This is why it is rather easy to get great photos of players at the Western & Southern Open. Meanwhile, getting good photos of rather new-to-the-sport doubles players who have trouble getting the point started is very (very) difficult.)
- emotion after a big point
Click for the List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Dublin Coffman Beat Olentangy Liberty | Notre Dame Academy Defeated Perrysburg
Dublin Coffman continues to play havoc on the OTZ Team Rankings. Dublin Coffman defeated OTZ #5 Olentangy Liberty. They beat #7 Ursuline Academy last week. In other notable matches, #10 D2 Eaton defeated Centerville; #4 D2 Columbus Academy beat Olentangy Berlin; and #10 Notre Dame Academy defeated Perrysburg.
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Dublin Coffman - Click to team page |
There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Worthington Christian defeated Columbus School For Girls; Marysville beat Thomas Worthington; and Bexley defeated Reynoldsburg. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway defeated Dublin Coffman's Dasha Chistyakova; Eaton’s Macy Hitchcock beat Centerville’s Sydney Khosla; Columbus Academy’s Carolyn Tsung defeated Olentangy Berlin's Ella Franz; Pickerington Central’s Semmie Moore beat Hilliard Bradley's Anh Thi Thai; Notre Dame Academy’s Lilly Black defeated Perrysburg's Sydney Onest; and Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly beat Dublin Coffman's Hannah Qin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Dublin Coffman. They are coached by Brett Hundertpfund. They are Team Members. They are led by Dasha Chistyakova, Hannah Qin, Cassi Shough, and Claire Feit.
There are several high-level matches today. They include: Mayfield (A) versus Magnificat; North Canton Hoover (A) versus Canfield; Solon (H) versus Hathaway Brown; and Hawken (A) versus Rocky River. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Mayfield Beat Solon | Magnificat Defeated Canfield
Rain impacted play in much of Ohio, but there were still several great matches. OTZ #8 Mayfield defeated Solon, 3-2, where Mayfield won 53% (43 vs. 38) of the games. #5 Magnificat beat Canfield by the same score. Other close, 3-2 matches included: Marysville beat Big Walnut; Pickerington Central defeated New Albany (State Team match); Olentangy Berlin beat Hilliard Bradley; and Revere defeated Wadsworth. (These matches are sorted by how close the matches were, based on the game winning percentage.) There were 13 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 1, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 0. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Pickerington Central - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Pickerington Central. They are coached by Kelli Rings. They are led by Semmie Moore, Khandice Thomas, and Talia DiLello.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; Notre Dame Academy (H) versus Perrysburg; Centerville (H) versus Eaton; and Wilmington (H) versus Loveland. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Mason Beat Indian Hill | Oakwood Defeated Centerville
Temperatures remained hot yesterday. There were 22 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 1. Among the top teams, OTZ #1 Mason defeated #1 D2 Indian Hill and #5 D2 Oakwood beat Centerville.
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OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws - Click to report |
The close, 3-2 matches included: DeSales defeated Thomas Worthington; Mount Vernon beat Big Walnut; Centerville-B defeated Butler; and Wellington beat Upper Arlington-B. In State Team Tournament play, Pickerington North defeated Chillicothe and Upper Arlington beat Delaware Hayes. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Oakwood's Lily McCloskey defeated Centerville's Sydney Khosla; Indian Hill's Jessica Budde beat Mason's Anna Tonkal; Archbishop Alter's Grace Lampman defeated Kettering Fairmont's Dasha Dotsenko; St. Joseph Academy's Tia Clemens beat Louisville's Rachel Kibler; Columbus School For Girls' Helen Hoag defeated Dublin Scioto's Peyton Shaffer; and Mason's Rashi Loni beat Indian Hill's Jessica August. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The OhioTennisZone enhanced State Team Tournament draws will be updated promptly throughout the season. Contact OTZ via Feedback if a match result is not included. The cleverly named, "Last Updated" date, will be updated each time there is an update in the report. To quickly move from draw to draw, click on the navigation links. The draws also include team photos, links to the teams, and action photos for many teams (sign-in first).
Today's matches include: Mayfield (H) versus Solon; Hawken (A) versus Walsh Jesuit; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus  Olentangy; and Thomas Worthington (A) versus Dublin Jerome. . To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Big Week of Matches Planned
Almost all schools will be back in session this week and that will hopefully add to the number of teams competing in dual matches. While many of the suburb and private schools play before classes begin, that is not the case for many school districts.
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Oakwood - Click to team page |
Matches scheduled for today include: Centerville (H) versus Oakwood; Hawken (A) versus Chagrin Falls; Mayfield (A) versus Riverside (Painesville); Â North Canton Hoover (A) versus Green; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Louisville; and St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Walnut Hills. Click List of Upcoming Matches to see the complete list. Coaches are encouraged to enter their schedules online so that they can be promoted via OhioTennisZone.
There were a few adjustments made to the OTZ Top Players report. Players who returned to high school tennis, including Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen, Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn, and St. Ursula Academy's Elizabeth Pendergast, were re-added to the list. This list is in transition as the school year begins (so please do not freak out - yet). Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Oakwood. They are coached by Kim Gilbert. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Lily McCloskey, Sarah Hall, and Katie Ritschel.
SUNDAY,
Big Tournament Day
Good weather in much of the state enabled a large number of teams to compete in tournaments yesterday. Massillon Jackson won the St. Joseph Academy tournament and Mayfield was a close second. Oakwood and Pickerington Central were first and second, respectively in the Pickerington Central doubles tournament. Watkins Memorial was the champ of the Reynoldsburg Doubles Tournament.
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Hoover's Laurel Utterback - Click to enlarge |
Dual match results from the Cincinnati Enquirer are now online for last week. Over 30 dual match scores were added. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie defeated Hudson's Laura Nijhuis, Rocky River's Robertson, and St. Joseph Academy's Melissa Martin; Solon's Maggie Yang beat Hudson's Laura Nijhuis and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Sarah Harlan; St. Joseph Academy's Melissa Martin defeated Massillon Jackson's Samantha Reese and Perkins' Lynch; Mayfield's Katerina Ng beat Massillon Jackson's Williams and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Walton; and Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu defeated Rocky River's Conzelmann and Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu defeated Solon's Fried. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
We have continued to have AT&T Internet reliability problems. We have had four five service interruptions in two weeks. Running an Internet company without Internet access is hard to do..
More photos will be processed today.
SATURDAY,
Dublin Coffman Beat Ursuline Academy
Football Friday nights will soon take over Friday nights so it is great that a few teams competed yesterday before the football season starts. There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. Notable matches included: Dublin Coffman defeated OTZ #6 Ursuline Academy; Pickerington Central beat Perrysburg; and Olentangy Berlin defeated Mount Vernon (in the State Team Tournament). To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Sofia Kenin - Click to enlarge |
The Cincinnati Enquirer did provide results for this past week in today's edition. This is good. It is, however, now necessary to review each result to see if it was already included on OhioTennisZone. This is a mentally painful and time consuming process, and it will probably have to wait until Sunday.
Among the top players, Dublin Coffman’s Dasha Chistyakova defeated Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal; Ursuline Academy's Bridget Estes beat Dublin Coffman's Hannah Qin; Pickerington Central’s Semmie Moore defeated Perrysburg’s Sydney Onest; and Westerville Central's Levi Burks beat Hartley's Laurynn Caldwell. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
More Western & Southern photos will be posted in the coming days. I am in massive catch-up mode.
There are a number of tournaments today. I will be at the Columbus School for Girls and Pickerington Central doubles tournaments.
FRIDAY,
Pickerington North Beat Columbus Academy
Last night provided the most number of matches to-date. There were 25 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 0. There has been just one match reported from the Cincinnati Enquirer thus far. The close, 3-2 matches included: Newark defeated Lancaster; OTZ #6 Pickerington North beat #4 D2 Columbus Academy; and Olentangy Berlin defeated Dublin Scioto. Other notable matches included Olentangy Orange defeated Dublin Coffman and St. Joseph Academy beat Revere. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hilliard Bradley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Hilliard Bradley. They are coached by Colleen Baker. They are led by . Lighting conditions were good last night for photos. Check out @OhioTennisZone on Twitter or click on Team Lookup and check out the right-side navigation bar.
THURSDAY,
Hathaway Brown Beats Olentangy Orange | Oakwood Defeats 7 Hills
While there have been good, early season matches, many schools do not start their seasons until school begins. There were only nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1.
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Hathaway Brown - Click to team page |
In matches involving OTZ Top 10 teams, D2 #3 Hathaway Brown defeated #3 Olentangy Orange. In Division 2, #5 Oakwood beat #9 Seven Hills.
Other notable matches included: Oak Hills defeated Mount Notre Dame and Worthington Kilbourne beat Hartley in a close match that included two 3-setters. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule; Oakwood's Lily McCloskey beat Seven Hills' Annika Alper; Hilliard Bradley’s Thai defeated Lancaster's Mallory Thomas; Pickerington Central’s Moore beat Bloom-Carroll's Alexandria Bedsole; and Hathaway Brown's Olivia Gidlow defeated Olentangy Orange's Kokotkin. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Hathaway Brown. They are coached by Greg Aten. They are Team Members. They are led by Nicole Gillinov (2x state singles champion), Olivia Gidlow, and Brigette Fuentes.
Today's matches include: Big Walnut (A) versus Olentangy; Delaware Hayes (H) versus Hilliard Darby; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Revere; Wellington (H) versus Buckeye Valley; and Wilmington (H) versus Beavercreek.
WEDNESDAY,
Notre Dame Academy Beats St. Ursula Academy and Centerville | HB Beats Liberty
Ohio's best teams are still on the road, traveling to play other strong teams. OTZ #10 Notre Dame Academy went to the Southwest District where they beat St. Ursula Academy and Centerville. NDA combined those matches with a trip to the Western & Southern Open. Other notable matches included: OTZ D2 #3 Hathaway Brown defeated D1 #4 Olentangy Liberty and Westerville Central beat Big Walnut.
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Marion Harding - Click to team page |
There were 10 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. Note that the above location breakdowns are based on where matches are played. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Olentangy Liberty's Dani Schoenly; Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu beat Perry's Anna Fletcher; St. Ursula Academy’s Elizabeth Pendergast defeated Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black who beat Centerville’s Sydney Khosla; Westerville Central's Levi Burks beat Big Walnut's Kina Ehlers; and Wellington's Alexis Burkhalter defeated Granville's Marie Weis. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Marion Harding. They are coached by Blaine Pitts. They are led by Nicole Flock and Destiny Mooney.
Coaches have started emailing team photos to OhioTennisZone. If the photo was taken by a professional photographer, then the photographer's permission must be granted before the photo can be posted on OhioTennisZone. Schools often purchase these photos for other uses (such as for OTZ and the school's yearbook) so that is also an acceptable way to include the photos on OTZ. Please email a high resolution image (i.e. 1 MB file). Low resolution files may look fine on a cell phone but not on a web page. If a school purchases an OTZ Team Membership, the individual photos are gathered from this team photo.
Today's matches include: Notre Dame Academy (H) versus Sylvania Southview; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Strongsville; and Watkins Memorial (A) versus Jonathan Alder.
TUESDAY,
Magnificat Beats Sycamore and Indian Hill
There were more great matches among great teams yesterday. Rain impacted play in parts of the state. Today may be worse. There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by district was: Central - 5, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. Notable matches included: OTZ #5 Magnificat defeated D2 #1 Indian Hill and Sycamore. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Caty McNally- Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated Indian Hill's Morgan Coburn; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie beat Willoughby South's Loren Jevnikar; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek defeated Indian Hill's Jessica Budde and Sycamore’s Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan; Mayfield's Caitlyn Hsu beat Willoughby South's Ritika Chakraburty; and Indian Hill's Jessica August defeated Magnificat's Alexis Ospelt. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Western & Southern Open was busy with great matches yesterday. Unfortunately, the two remaining Ohio players in the singles bracket, Cincinnati's Caty McNally and Cleveland's Lauren Davis, were both beaten. Caty remains in doubles with her partner, Alison Riske.
There are more photos of the W&S Open tournament and other matches posted via @OhioTennisZone on Twitter. Of course, Twitter can be a major time drain. To help prevent single digit ACT scores, OTZ does not force you to become a Twitter member to see all of the OTZ Tweets. OTZ lists all of its most recent tweets on the Team Lookup page. Scroll down the page and look in the right-side navigation bar. If you have a 35 ACT and your room cleaned up, OK. Fine. Go ahead and signup for Twitter and follow OTZ via @OhioTennisZone.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus Notre Dame Academy; Mayfield (A) versus Perry; Notre Dame Academy (A) versus St. Ursula Academy; and St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Revere. Not many coaches have entered their schedules yet, but click to view all of the matches currently included at List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Mason Beats Magnificat and Hathaway Brown
One of the great things about high school tennis is that the best teams seek each other out at the beginning of the season to compete against each other. That was certainly the case yesterday as both OTZ #5 Magnificat and OTZ D2 #3 Hathaway Brown made the four hour trek from Cleveland to Mason to play against the OTZ #1 Comets. Mason won both contests, beating Magnificat 4-1 and Hathaway Brown 4-1. Click on Previous Day's Match Results for more information.
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Mason's Emma Kruse - Click to enlarge |
Today's matches include: Delaware Hayes (A) versus Bexley; Mayfield (H) versus South (Willoughby); and Watkins Memorial (A) versus Marysville.
The Western & Southern Open was already buzzing during the Saturday and Sunday qualifiers, and today the main draw kicks into full gear. In qualifiers yesterday, JJ Wolf had a great three-set match against Pablo Carreño Busta, losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Click for this article by Adam Baum of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati's Caty McNally starts things out on Center Court at 11am this morning.
I am already starting the season behind where I should be, and that will get worse as I zoom down to Mason to watch Caty play this morning. She is the only high-level Ohio player for whom I do not have an action photo. I was at the W&S Open on Saturday; Mason for high school tennis yesterday; and I'll watch Caty today.
SUNDAY,
It's High School Day at the Western & Southern Open
Today looks to be a great day to visit the Western & Southern Open. This is the tournament's high school day. Ohio State and Cincinnati Country Day's JJ Wolf won his first qualifying match yesterday and he will face Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta at 11am to determine who will make the main draw. Gilmour Academy's Lauren Davis is also in the qualifier. She faces Kristyna Pliskova from the Czech Republic at approximately noon. Click for the tournament's Order of Play for more information. Also in the qualifier tournament was John McNally. McNally was beat in a 3-setter.
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CCD's JJ Wolf - Click to enlarge |
There were numerous tournaments held yesterday. Seven Hills won the Chaminade-Julienne Invitational. Chaminade-Julienne placed second. Olentangy won the Delaware Hayes Invite. Marysville was the runner-up.
In dual match play, Upper Arlington defeated Sycamore; Sycamore beat New Albany; and Centerville defeated Seton. To view the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Olentangy's Nour Khayat won the first singles draw in the Delaware Hayes tournament and Olentangy's Priyanka Agochiya won second singles. Chaminade-Julienne’s Caroline Hinshaw defeated Beavercreek's Julia Bays; Upper Arlington's Ella Hazelbaker beat Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan; Seven Hills’ Gabriella Khaskelis defeated Chaminade-Julienne’s Patricia Estrada-Sanchez; Sycamore's Harsitha Kalaiarasan beat New Albany's Thalia Fuentes; Centerville’s Sydney Khosla defeated Seton’s Dee; Upper Arlington's Wendy Shi beat Sycamore's VandenBerg; Sycamore's VandenBerg defeated New Albany's Maya Klein; and Centerville’s Milena Alappatt beat Seton’s Tepe. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Mason faces Magnificat and Hathaway Brown today in dual matches at Mason. See you there.
SATURDAY,
Girls Complete Their First Day of Match Play
Ohio is one for one in terms of perfect weather. Let's see how long we can keep that string going.. There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Marion Harding defeated Big Walnut and Watterson beat Chaminade-Julienne. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. There were no prep scores reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer this morning. Hopefully they will be in tomorrow's edition.
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Big Walnut - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Big Walnut. They are coached by Ryan Balaz. They are led by Kina Ehlers, Lindsey Stevens, and Maddey Moroz.
Delaware Hayes hosts their tournament today.
Note that both JJ Wolf and John McNally will be playing in the Qualifiers at the Western & Southern Open today. McNally goes on court at 10am. There are still some "background" things that need to be done on OTZ but they will have to wait until we return from the W&S Open..
FRIDAY,
OHSAA Match Play Begins | State Team Draws | SW D1 Boys Gain Spot
While coaches could begin working with their teams on August 1, teams had to wait until today before they could begin their matches. There will be a few matches today but play is expected to be light.
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And away we go.. - Click to signup to OTZ |
The OTZ State Team Tournament Draws are now available. There are 124 teams competing this year versus 132 last year. The Northeast District has the most participants with 40 teams, followed by the Southwest with 38, Northwest with 25, and Central with 21. The draws will remain at the top of this page for the entire season. Note that the update date on the report changes each time that the report is modified. The "play by" dates vary slightly by District. OTZ is using the Southwest dates in this report.
The Southwest District Division I Boys teams will gain another "spot" for States next season. They will get five spots. The Northwest Boys will decrease from two State spots to just one spot. This is purely a numbers thing. The number of spots is computed by the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) and it is based on the number of teams that compete with four players or more in Sectionals. It is unknown if there is a correlation or if this was a leading indicator, but Northwest Ohio has always lagged the other districts in OTZ usage. Click for the boys season OTZ usage report.
Tomorrow's Order of Play has not yet been released by the Western & Southern Open. JJ Wolf is expected to compete in tomorrow's (Saturday) qualifying round. The qualifying-round tickets are extremely affordable so please consider attending the tournament to support JJ. Cincinnati's Caty McNally received a wild card into the main draw. Click for more information from the W&S Open.
OTZ was without Internet access for three days this week because of AT&T line problems. Somehow this has put OTZ behind about four days. Watch for last year's graduates and last year's results to be removed at some point today.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6
Ohio Players Compete on National Stage
The USTA National Championships are taking place this week. The USTA B16-18 Championships are at Kalamazoo, MI and the USTA G16-18 Championships are in San Diego. This is the big enchilada for United States junior tennis players and every high-end college coach is in attendance pursuing recruits. Click on the above links to view the draws.
The 'Zoo has a great history. The entire city of Kalamazoo comes together to support the tournament and volunteers play a huge role. Previous winners of the Boys 18 singles tournaments include: Stan Smith (the shoe guy), Larry Gotfried, Michael Chang, Justin Gimelstob, Donald Young, Chase Buchanan (Ohio), Jack Sock, and Frances Tiafoe. B18 doubles winners include: John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Luke Jensen, Bob and Mike Bryan, Rajeev Ram, Chase Buchanan, Jack Sock, Taylor Fritz, John McNally (Ohio), JJ Wolf (Ohio), and Danny Thomas (Ohio).
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Mason's Vignesh Gogineni - Click to enlarge |
Ohio boys competing in B16's are Mason's Vignesh Gogineni, St. Xavier's Preston Stearns, and St. Xavier's Charlie Temming.
B18's: New Albany's Robert Cash, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur, Mason's Niraj Komatineni, and Sai Goli.
G16's competing in San Diego: Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway, Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier, Nishi Gandra, West Geauga's Rylie Hanford, Nataly Kader, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff, and Eleana Yu.
G18's: Mason's Ananya Aggarwal, Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky, Gilmour Academy's Carly Cohen, Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov, Jamie Kim, and Orange's Bless Nwaozuzu.
Players still in the front draws of the tournaments include: Cannon Kingsley (Ohio State freshman in singles), Kingsley and Robert Cash (doubles), Sydni Ratliff (singles and doubles), Eleana Yu (singles and doubles), Elizabeth Fahrmeier (doubles), and Rylie Hanford (doubles). Note that some of the tournaments are further along than others.
Not to tout OhioTennisZone too much, but note that no other tennis tournament provides draws of the same caliber as OTZ does for the Ohio high school tennis.. Click for Girls State Draws for 2018.
Not that there is ever a good time for this, but our AT&T Internet connection and telephone have not worked since Sunday. Using a cell phone connection has been intermittent at best. This is not a good way to start the season..
TUESDAY, JULY 30
Indian Hill Starts Season as #1 in Division II (beta release)
Yesterday, the Top Teams in Division I were ranked. It is Division II's turn today.
The rankings and the rational behind the rankings are listed below. They are all subject to tweaking if players decide not to play (or to play) Ohio high school tennis this fall.
Note that the Division II rankings are more difficult to do because D2 teams do not travel as well as Division I teams do. Why they do not travel is a complete mystery because the same school will allow teams of other sports to travel. Plus, tennis players and parents are accustomed to traveling frequently to participate in USTA tournaments so they expect to do so in high school. Please remember - Columbus remains a perfect location for teams throughout the state to meet for dual matches. Schedule a match for 11:00, another match at 3:00pm, Cane's Chicken at 5:30pm, and Graeters at 6:15pm.
OhioTennisZone.com Pre-Season State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams Division II July 30, 2019 |
| Division II |
| 1. Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 2. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy◄TEAM |
| 3. Hathaway Brown◄TEAM |
| 4. Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 5. Oakwood |
| 6. Toledo Central Catholic |
| 7. Archbishop Alter◄TEAM |
| 8. Laurel◄TEAM |
| 9. Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 10. Eaton |
| HM: Wellington◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes Team Membership so extensive OTZ information is available |
The TennisRecruiting.net rankings for incoming freshman players are listed below in parentheses. Click on player names for their OTZ Player Profiles.
Division II
#1 Indian Hill starts the season in the top spot. They finished last year's season at #5. Returning players include Hayley Hirsch (Cincinnati commit), Samantha Pregel, Jessica Budde, and Jessica August. Morgan Coburn, a senior and Georgetown commit, will also play this season. In addition to the above players, IH also picks up Bella Kirby. They lost Nina Price and Madeline Major to graduation.
#2 Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy starts the season ranked second but they are essentially equal to Indian Hill. Returning players include: Lynn Kader, Kennedy Puryear, Sammie Nowitski, and Gashy Kim. They also pick up two strong freshman - Ananya Annapantula (5 star) and Payton Puryear (3 - star). They lost Leanne Yuan to graduation. Abby Nugent will be playing for Springboro this year.
#3 It seems weird to not have Hathaway Brown at number one, but they did lose three graduates to Division I college teams. Two-time state champion, Nicole Gillinov, will be returning and so will Isabella Godsick, the 2017 doubles champion and 2018 doubles finalist. Other contributors from last year include Alex Wolf and Olivia Gidlow. The graduates playing in college are Maddie Lynch (Wake Forest), Rebecca Wolf (Colgate), Isabella Daverio (George Mason), and Megan Qiang (Carnegie Mellon). They pick up Alexa Mills (2).
#4 Columbus Academy returns state singles finalist, Sydni Ratliff, plus Lauren Motta, Alex Graham, and Maddie Rosenberg. They lost numerous players to graduation including Himaja Reddy, Maddie Tuckerman, and Haylee White. Columbus Academy finished second last year in the State Team competition.
#5 Oakwood reached the State Team Final Four last year from the Southwest District, but this year will be far more challenging. Their top three singles players - Lily McCloskey, Sarah Hall, and Katie Ritschel - are returning as well as Natalie Connelly.
#6 Toledo Central Catholic returns Ava McQuillin, Isabella Spinazze, and Ellie Hire. They lost Maverick Delp and Rachel Gorman to graduation.
#7 Archbishop Alter keeps numerous strong players but they also lost a few key contributors. Returning for Alter are: Grace Lampman, Emily Pojman, Rachael Harker, and Mary Stier. They lost Rachel Hawley, Ashley Vosler, and Sara Yacoub.
#8 Laurel returns Rachel Buchinsky, Abby Knetig, and Elizabeth Sims, but they lost long time contributors, Ria Desai and Priya Khadilkar. They pick up, 3-star freshman Ellie Brotherton.
#9 Seven Hills lost their #1 singles player, Neda Tehrani, but they return the rest of their squad, including Annika Alper, Gabriella Khaskelis, Avital Isakov, and Anika Parameswaran.
#10 Eaton is new to the rankings. They are in the Southwest District, located on the border of Indiana and Ohio. The three Murphy sisters return: Sophia Murphy, Grace Murphy, and Tess Murphy, and they also pick up Macy Hitchcock who is a 5-star freshman player.
Another team on the radar is Wellington (Alexis Burkhalter, Akua Antwi-Woods, and Jordan Wurapa).
All of the Division I Top Ten Teams are OTZ Team Members. It would be nice to have the same in Division II. Tennis fans and college coaches like the additional information about players. It is also a great way to engage your middle school players as they try and determine where they might fit in with your team in the future. Please consider adding a $99 OTZ Team Membership to your budget.
Feel free to submit a Feedback if any obvious schools are missing from the rankings.
MONDAY, JULY 29
Mason Starts Season as #1 in Division I (beta release)
And away we go.. It is time for the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten lists. Today, the Division I teams are named. The Division II Top Ten Teams will be listed tomorrow.
The rankings and the rational behind the rankings are listed below. They are all subject to tweaking if players decide not to play (or to play) Ohio high school tennis this fall.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Division I |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM |
| 2. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM |
| 3. Olentangy Orange◄TEAM |
| 4. Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM |
| 5. Magnificat◄TEAM |
| 6. Pickerington North◄TEAM |
| 7. Ursuline Academy◄TEAM |
| 8. Mayfield◄TEAM |
| 9. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM |
| 10. Notre Dame Academy◄TEAM |
| HM: Solon◄TEAM |
| HM: St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM |
| HM: Upper Arlington◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes Team Membership so extensive OTZ information is available |
The TennisRecruiting.net star rankings for incoming freshman are listed below in parentheses. Click on player names for their OTZ Player Profiles.
Division I
#1 Mason is the defending Division I champion and they are clearly a notch above the other Division I teams. They will begin the season at number one. They lost no key players to graduation, and they picked up numerous strong freshman players. Returning players include: Ananya Aggarwal, Sanjana Reddy, Emma Kruse, and Annie Kruse. They also picked up Shyla Aggarwal (4 star) and Harshita Uppuganti (3 star).
#2 Dublin Jerome starts the season ranked second, but all of the teams in the Top 2-8 are beatable by the others. Returning players include: Katherine Wang, Lalasa Nagireddy, and Reagan Resor. Junior Arya Dudipala (3 star) is also expected to return to the team. Jerome lost no key players to graduation.
#3 Olentangy Orange is very similar to Jerome with its strong depth. Returning players include: Nikitha Bhimireddy, Erin Storrer, Caroline Sproule, Kortney Reed, and Tyler Reed. Orange lost Livie Mauger to graduation.
#4 Olentangy Liberty lost numerous players to graduation. Returning players include the two time defending doubles champions, Maddie Atway and Dani Schoenly, plus Cathy Zhu and Ananya Dhati also return. Lexie Brengartner, Ellie MacDowell, and Anna Gardner were part of the class of 2019.
#5 Magnificat finished last season as #2 in the state. They lost the 2x defending champion, Anna Roggenburk, to Xavier University. They still return great talent with Olivia Rondini, Audrey Smitek, and Alexis Ospelt. With Roggenburk's departure as well as Hannah Leszcz, Hannah Klubnik, and Emily Pallaki, it will be harder for them to return to Reynoldsburg.
#6 Pickerington North returns state finalist and Toledo commit, Cassie Alcala. Also returning are Rhyan Cook, Kim Nguyen, and Sophia Anderson.
#7 Ursuline Academy returns Nina Dhaliwal, Bridget Estes, Brigid Lynch, and Jane Kronenberger. They lost Gracie Estes and Annie Ha to graduation. Note that assistant coach, Steve Sutherland, is UA's new head coach this year.
#8 Mayfield returns their top three players, Hannah Kassaie, Caitlyn Hsu, and Katerina Ng, but they lost most of their top doubles players to graduation.
#9 North Canton Hoover lost Hallie Hunt and Katie Harcourt to graduation but they return Laurel Utterback, Lilly Altman, Abby Altman, and Izzy Warburton.
#10 Notre Dame Academy is back in the rankings thanks to two strong incoming freshman, Lilly Black (4) and Ellie Assenmacher (2). Returning players include Ciera Patton and Olivia Assenmacher. They lost Grace Bennett to graduation.
Other teams on the radar include Solon (Maggie Yang and Amanda Weiskind), St. Ursula Academy (Elizabeth Pendergast and Lucy Aberg), and Upper Arlington (Ella Hazelbaker, Wendy Shi, and Noah Mizer).
As stated in the past, if a lower ranked team plays great and beats a higher ranked team, that is not my fault. That is the lower ranked team's fault for playing too well.. Feel free to submit a Feedback if you mistakingly believe that a team was overlooked.. Please provide specific reasons why.
THURSDAY,
In One More Week..
The OHSAA Girls Season begins in just one more week. Today's posting includes a variety of items. It provides: the key dates for the season; OTZ member information; OTZ Top 10 team update; why Top 10 teams are expected to be OTZ Team Members; and why graduates are still included on team rosters.
OhioTennisZone.com
|
| Aug. 1 (R): First Day of Coaching |
| Aug. 3-11: USTA National Championships |
| Aug. 3-5: USTA MW Level 3's -- G14, G16, G18 |
| Aug. 9 (F): High School Match Play Begins |
| Aug. 11 (Su): W&S High School Day |
| Aug. 24 (Sa): SAT Date |
| Aug. 31-Sep. 2: USTA MW Level 3's -- G14, G16, G18 |
| Sep. 3 (Tu): Non-Interscholastic Date |
| Sep. 14 (Sa): ACT Test Date |
| Sep. 15 (Su): Waiver Extension Ends |
| Sep. 22 (Su): Sectional Draw |
| Sep. 29-30: Rosh Hashanah |
| Sep. 30-Oct. 6: Sectional Tournament |
| Oct. 5 (Sa): SAT Date |
| Oct. 7-12: District Tournament |
| Oct. 8-9: Yom Kippur |
| Oct. 18-19: State Tournament |
| Oct. 20 (Su): State Team Tournament |
| Oct. 26 (Sa): HS Season Ends |
The key dates for the season are included in the table. It also includes the dates of several high level USTA tournaments, key testing dates, holidays, and, of course, the key OHSAA dates. This calendar will remain in the right-side navigation bar during the entire season.
If you are currently an OTZ Member, there is no need to go through the sign-up process again for OhioTennisZone. Please just mail or PayPal your payment to OhioTennisZone.com.
OTZ will soon post its Pre-Season Top 10 Team lists after it is clear where players are going to attend school and which girls are playing high school tennis.
It is highly encouraged that the OTZ Top 10 teams become OTZ Team Members. OhioTennisZone provides the teams in the Top 10 with a great deal of recognition and coverage. This recognition is very helpful because many middle school kids follow OTZ and they want to be a part of a program which has a winning tradition. It is a complete no-brainer for private schools to be team members because attracting strong tennis players also means more tuition dollars for the school, but it also makes sense for public schools, too. Consider an OTZ Team Membership as the cheapest and most effective advertisement that you can buy, plus it is focused on the absolute perfect audience for your program. Click on Join OTZ for more information about being a team, coach, or individual OTZ member.
Note that graduates are still included on rosters. Many fans like to see which players have graduated. Note to coaches - OTZ will remove the graduates as match play begins. It is unnecessary for coaches to remove them.
SUNDAY,
USTA Midwest Closed Qualifier Matches [Updated June 11]
Updated: The champions and runner-ups of the USTA Qualifiers are listed below. When known (and when applicable), the players' schools are included. Click on the player names for the OTZ Player Profiles.
Many of the most skilled high school players are competing in the USTA Qualifier Matches this weekend. Those who do well will have an opportunity to compete at the Midwest Closed in Indianapolis BG16-18 and in Lansing, MI (BG12-14).
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Indian Hill's Hirsch - Click to enlarge |
Ursuline Acad.'s Dhaliwal |
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Eaton's Hitchcock - Click to enlarge |
CHCA's Annapantula - Click to enlarge |
The links to the various qualifier draws are as follows:
Ohio Valley (Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and parts of West Virginia and Kentucky):
Girls:
14 - Shyla Aggarwal d. Clara Owen
16 - Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway d. Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch
18 - Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff d. Springboro's Abby Nugent
Boys:
14 - WV's AJ Mercer d. St. Xavier's Drew Evans
16 - St. Xavier's Charlie Temming d. Mason's Vignesh Gogineni
18 - St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur d. WV's Samuel Haikal
Northeast Ohio:
Girls:
14 - Amara Brahmbhatt d. Alexis Nyborg
16 - Rylie Hanford d. North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback
18 - Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov d. Victoria Vaquez
Boys:
14 - Nikolas Romanov d. Elijah Hadler
16 - Jack Martuccio d. University School's Ben Martin
18 - C. Smarty d. University School's Chas Norman
Northwest Ohio:
Draws for All Genders and Age Groups
Boys:
14 - James Fortner d. Tyler Wood
16 - Perrysburg's Mason Deal d. Dublin Jerome's Tanish Pairu
18 - Ottawa Hill's Mike McGee d. SJJ's Aidan Williams
Girls:
14 - Marina Fuduric d. Notre Dame Academy's Ellie Assenmacher
16 - Notre Dame Academy's Lilly Black d. Dublin Jerome's Arya Dudipala
18 - Libbey Rhegness d. Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang
The Girls 16 qualifier is at the Upper Arlington High School so I dropped by to take photos and talk with the parents and players. The photos include Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; Ursuline Academy's Ursuline Academy's Nina Dhaliwal; Eaton's Macy Hitchcock (incoming freshman), and CHCA's Ananya Annapantula (Incoming freshman).
There is a Challenger taking place at the Ohio State University outdoor courts this week. Click on Challenger 2 for more information.
THURSDAY,
After 77 Straight Days..
This is the last regularly scheduled update of the boys season. It has been 77 straight days of updates and content creation (or every day since March 22). There will still be occasional updates, so feel free to check in from time to time.
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Amanda Anisimova @ W&S - Click to enlarge |
The plans are to watch a few local USTA matches and to hopefully attend the USTA Boys National Championships in Kalamazoo, MI. I missed the Ohio Valley G16 Girls Qualifier last year for the first time in many years because of a nasty summer flu / plague.
I have had media credentials for the last five years at the Western & Southern Open and hopefully that will continue this year. During the W&S Open, I go back and forth to high school matches at Mason and at the W&S Open. Today's photo of Amanda Anisimova was taken at last year's tournament (and it was already clear to me that she was going to be a great player).
There are many (many) things that happen in the background during the off-season to make things go better and faster during the season. During the longer break between the girls and boys season, the enhanced Player Profile report was created to better recognize players who have OTZ Player Profiles. As a result, far more profiles were viewed during this boys season. The enhanced profiles included the photos of singles opponents and links to their profiles. See Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa's OTZ Profile. There are photos and links to all but three of Kompa's opponents. See how this helps everyone? While there is a rather short break between the boys and the girls season, there are already a few improvements planned.
For those who have not yet paid for the boys season, please get those payments in asap. This is the worst part of OTZ for me, especially since I know who logs in to access OTZ. It is not as if users are fooling anyone when this is done. I also track where the logins occur.
I hope to see a few of you on the courts this summer. Feel free to give me a generous line call or two.
Have a great summer!
WEDNESDAY,
Pros with Ohio Connections | OTZ Email
There are a couple of items today. There is a quick update on how the professionals with Ohio ties are doing. An OTZ email will be sent tomorrow to summarize the season.
OhioTennisZone.com |
||
| Player | Rank |
Best Ranking |
| Lauren Davis OHSAA | 111 |
26 (5/22/17) |
| Nicole Gibbs | 115 |
68 (7/25/2016) |
| Francesca Di Lorenzo OHSAA | 154 |
150 (10/22/18) |
| Blaz Rola | 183 |
78 (1/5/15) |
| Caty McNally | 192 |
253 (2/4/19) |
| Mikael Torpegaard | 218 |
218 (5/27/2019) |
| JJ Wolf OHSAA | 270 |
268 (5/20/2019) |
| Kennedy Shaffer | 515 |
506 (4/22/19) |
| John McNally | 541 |
541 (4/15/19) |
| Jacob Dunbar OHSAA | 789 |
784 (5/6/19) |
| Peter Kobelt OHSAA | 638 |
332 (5/16/16) |
| Peyton Stearns | 753 |
731 (1/14/19) |
| Danny (DJ) Thomas | na |
541 (12/31/2018) |
| Maddie Kobelt OHSAA | na |
893 (11/7/16) |
An updated OTZ Rankings List is included today. The professional season never really ends. There is always a tournament taking place some where. Most of the players on the list are full-time professionals while others are still competing in college and juniors. Some of the players have not competed recently - likely because of injuries or college conflicts. This list is normally maintained in the right column on the College Report page. Is OTZ missing a professional player who has an ATP or WTA ranking? Please contact OTZ via Feedback to request inclusion. The links take fans to each player's ITFTennis.com information.
Players who competed in at least one year of Ohio High School tennis are indicated by the "OHSAA" abbreviation. Mikael Torpegaard and Blaz Rola were Ohio State players, and they are from Denmark and Slovenia, respectively.
OhioTennisZone occasionally sends monthly emails outside of the regular season to keep fans abreast of Ohio tennis news. Another email will be sent tomorrow. If you are interested in being included in this mailing list, please send a Feedback message. Fans who are signed up for OTZ automatically receive this email.
Along a similar note, I have been amazed how many emails that I am receiving from some companies. Some companies are sending five emails a week. I unsubscribed to many of those company emails yesterday.
TUESDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com Boys Season Usage Edition
What is accessed on OhioTennisZone and who accesses it? It is time for the seasonal usage edition. Read on to learn what areas of the nation access OTZ the most. Which players get the most views on their OTZ Player Profiles; and what team pages generate the most views. The usage covered is for the time period of March 4 to May 30, 2019.
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OTZ Team Pages - Click to enlarge |
The Mason team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top five were: New Albany, St. Xavier, Dublin Jerome, and Massillon Jackson. Note that bars on the chart are percentages based on that team's pageviews divided by Mason's usage. So, for example, Olentangy had approximately 57% of the usage that Mason's page generated. All of the teams in the Top Ten are OTZ Team Members.
While it is unknown who specifically accesses each OTZ Team page, note that middle school players and parents are certainly big users. Teams need to think of these OTZ Team pages as advertisements for potential future customers (and/or team players / students). For private schools, team pages are a complete no brainer. Tennis parents and players care about education and tennis. If a $99 OTZ Team Membership, enables a private school to attract more than one new tuition paying student every 300 years, it pays off. The math is as follows: (4 years * $15,000 tuition) / $99 per season * 2 seasons = 300 years. Your performance may vary, but yes, an OTZ Team Membership should really be closer to $1,000 a year for private schools.
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Usage by Metro Area - Click to enlarge |
The top Metro Areas that access OTZ may surprise a few people. While Ohio's metro areas dominate, Nashville, Detroit, Washington DC, and New York City make up a significant percentage of the pageviews. All of the numbers were divided by Columbus' usage. For example, Cincinnati had 63% of Columbus' usage and Cleveland-Akron had 43%. Believe it or not, this is the first season where the Toledo market has had more accesses than Detroit.
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St. X's Hiryur - Click to enlarge |
Mason's Komatineni |
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NA's Cash - Click to enlarge |
UA's Kompa |
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Jerome's Fickas - Click to enlarge |
Wellington's Ball |
The six players who had the most views of their player profiles during the boys season are (in number order): St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur, Mason's Niraj Komatineni, New Albany's Robert Cash, Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa, Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas, and Wellington's Trevor Ball. Click on the player names above to view their OTZ Player Profiles. The parent associated with the Player Profile may view the total number of views since the Player Profile was created. The photos of the players to the right may be clicked to enlarge them.
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and it can always use more. Please contact OTZ for more information. This was a breakout season for OTZ in terms of usage. The number of OTZ users increased 14.5% versus last year and the number of pageviews increased 30.5%.
MONDAY,
OTZ Top Ten Photos for the 2019 Boys Season
Photos for the 2019 season have (finally) been processed. It seemed to take longer to get this done this season, but more action photos were posted this year versus last year (197 versus 176 in 2018). Throughout the season, approximately 4,400 action and team photos were taken from 32 dual matches or tournaments.
Click to view the OTZ Top Ten Boys Photos for 2019.
Great photos almost always require great competition between the players and the photos tend to be taken in groups when the sun is optimal. Three of the top photos were taken at the Lindner Family Tennis Center this year during the Southwest Districts and State competition. All but one were taken during singles matches.
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Davidson's Jack Kamnikar - Click to enlarge |
It is obviously a subjective process to select these photos, but the criteria are:
- Movement - As reflected by stretching for a ball, athleticism, flowing hair, moving clothing. (The hair and clothing aspects are especially applicable for the girls.)
- Lighting - Sun lit face with gradual, non-severe shadows. Note: It is really hard to get great photos with players wearing hats or visors unless the sun is low in the sky.
- Sharpness - Photo is highly focused and clear.
- Background - As in "not at Upper Arlington" or places with extremely distracting backgrounds, such as port-a-johns and rusty fences. Note: Recognizable venues, such as States, are a plus. Also note that the background influences the camera's ability to focus. The camera can get confused with the UA sign-age.
- Great form - Player is the correct distance from the ball (i.e. arms aren't tied up like pretzels).
- Eye-on-ball - Includes concentration. Blinking is not so good..
- Portrait-like - Shot looks like it was taken at a studio.
The State and OTCA Tournament photos are now online at Most Recently Added Photos. Please sign-in to view.
All of the photos are for sale. As you consider the pricing, please keep in mind the time and effort that it took to travel to those 32 different locations and take those 4,400 photos to recognize your sons (and several of your daughters).
SUNDAY,
Incoming Freshman Girls
The top incoming boys were listed yesterday. Now it is the girls' turn. Providing this information is especially useful for the coaches so that they know which schools should be considered for scheduling purposes. As with the boys, TennisRecruiting.net was used to identify the top players. The list below includes the Ohio girls who are in the Top 850 in the nation.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Shyla Aggarwal - 4 | Mason (SW) | Mason ◄TEAM |
| Ananya Annapantula - 5 | Mason (SW) | CHCA ◄TEAM |
| Ellie Assenmacher - 2 | Sylvania (NW) | Notre Dame Aca. |
| Lilly Black - 4 | Whitehouse (NW) | Notre Dame Aca. |
| Angela Britton - 4 | Cincinnati (SW) | Walnut Hills |
| Ellie Brotherton - 3 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Laurel ◄TEAM |
| Risha Chada - 2 | Mason (SW) | Mason ◄TEAM |
| Dasha Chistyakova - 2 | Dublin (C) | |
| Polina Chvalyuk - 2 | West Chester (SW) | Loveland |
| Sarah Clark - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Tia Clemens - 2 | Cleveland (NE) | St. Joseph Academy |
| Niya Fried - 3 | Peninsula (NE) | Solon |
| Nishi Gandra - Blue Chip | Mason (SW) | Mason ◄TEAM |
| Caroline Hinshaw - 2 | Dayton (SW) | Chaminade-Julienne |
| Macy Hitchcock - 5 | Eaton (SW) | Eaton |
| Catherina Iltchev - 3 | Brecksville (NE) | Brecksville |
| Alexa Mills - 2 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | H. Brown ◄TEAM |
| Alexis Nyborg - 4 | Moreland Hills (NE) | Orange |
| Payton Puryear - 3 | West Chester (SW) | CHCA ◄TEAM |
| Samantha Robertson - 2 | Rocky River (NE) | Rocky River |
| Anh Thi Thai - 2 | Columbus (C) | |
| Harshita Uppuganti - 3 | Mason (SW) | Mason ◄TEAM |
| Eleana Yu - Blue Chip | Mason (SW) | Cin Hill Ch Aca ◄TEAM |
Broken down by District, the Southwest leads the rest with 12 players. Northeast has ten. Central and the Northwest have just two.
The top players in this group are Eleana Yu, Nishi Gandra, Ananya Annapantula, and Macy Hitchcock.
In the past, some players may not have played high school tennis. The new OHSAA rules make it easier to do so since players can still participate in USTA tournaments after receiving a waiver.
If you have inside knowledge of which school a player plans to attend, please submit a Feedback.
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending a school or feedback received from coaches and fans.
The TennisRecruiting.net star ratings are included beside the player names.
Based on where some of these players are competing in tournaments, some are likely no longer living in Ohio.
SATURDAY,
Incoming Freshman Boys
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. This is especially helpful for the coaches because it helps with scheduling. Using TennisRecruiting.net, OTZ identifies the players who are in the Top 1000 in the nation (or top 20 in Ohio). After that, it is time to determine which schools they plan to attend. Your help is needed with this.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Alvin Altman - 2 | Canton (NE) | Massillon Jackson◄TEAM |
| Brandon Carpico - 2 | Blacklick (C) | Gahanna |
| Drew Evans - 4 | West Chester (SW) | St. Xavier◄TEAM |
| Dugan Fowler - 1 | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Nicholas Godsick - Blue Chip | Chagrin Falls (NE) | |
| Elijah Hadler - 3 | Medina (NE) | |
| Shreyas Kode - 2 | Springboro (SW) | |
| Max McCloskey - 2 | Springboro (SW) | Oakwood |
| Reece Page - 2 | Dublin (C) | Dublin Scioto |
| Benjamin Pomeranets - 5 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | |
| Jayanth Ramakkagari - 1 | Powell (C) | |
| Nikolas Romanov - 3 | Solon (NE) | |
| Ethan Samora - 1 | Columbus (C) | U. Arl. ◄TEAM |
| Anthony Shalakov - 5 | West Chester (SW) | Lakota West |
| Pavan Uppu - 4 | Pickerington (C) | Pickerington North |
| Merit Wagstaff - 2 | Akron (NE) | |
| Tyler Wood - 0 | Ottawa Hills (NW) | |
| Eric Xu - 2 | Mason (SW) | |
| Alex Zhu - 2 | Solon (NE) | Solon ◄TEAM |
Broken down by District, the Northeast leads the pack with seven players, followed by the Southwest with six. Central has five, and the Northwest District has one.
The top players in this group are Nicholas Godsick, Benjamin Pomeranets, and Anthony Shalakov.
If you have inside knowledge of which school a player plans to attend, please submit a Feedback.
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending a school or feedback received from coaches and fans.
The TennisRecruiting.net star ratings are included beside the player names.
Based on where some of these players are competing in tournaments, some are likely no longer living in Ohio.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday
There were 52 additional photos added today, but there are quite a few more to go. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos to view.
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Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh - Click to enlarge |
Yet to be processed are the first and second days of States and the State Team Tournament.
Please provide a "heads-up" if any of the names are incorrect on the photos. Educated guesses were used on a few of the photos.
All of these photos are available for sale. As normal, you need to purchase (or absolutely positively agree to purchase) at least one photo before more photos are presented to you for consideration. These photos would be sent to you via an email using a PDF file.
THURSDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team
Congratulations to the boys selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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Division II - Singles |
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 Pierce Elliott Preble Shawnee |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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The OTZ All-Ohio team list is different than others because it is a combination of how players performed at States and how well they played during the entire year. It also includes players who would have played and excelled at States had they played in the State tournament.
The number of players included on this list will vary from year to year. This year's group has a few less players than last year because this year's group has fewer D1 recruits.
The OTCA/OHSAA All-Ohio list is certainly a high honor, but it is too mechanical in how it is done. 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.
More players are becoming OTZ members - either by enrolling individually or via a team. 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 have been 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 fall.
Again, congratulations to these players.
WEDNESDAY,
Championship Point Videos of the Boys 2019 State Tournament
The championship points (plus another point or two) of the Division I singles, D1 doubles and Division II doubles are posted today. No video was obtained for the Division II singles championship match because it was not played. Because of the wide variety of match start times, it was easier to obtain the videos this year.
For best results, select the high definition and full-screen modes.
It is photo processing time for OTZ. If you have requested photos, please get back to me on when you need the photos. I do not want to miss any graduation-related party plans for their use. As stated before, if you have requested that I provide numerous photos for you to review, then you need to buy at least one. It is time consuming when I travel to the events, take photos, process photos, and then prepare them for your review. A plumber, doctor, electrician, or surgeon would not do that much work without payment, neither will I. Of course, when considering the cost of our last 15 minute Roto-Rooter appointment, the cost of an OTZ photo should probably be $150 more than what it is.. For photo pricing, please click on Buy-An-OTZ-Photo.
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Division I Singles: Mason's Niraj Komatineni defeated St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur. |
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Division 1 Doubles:
St. Xavier's Charlie Temming - Preston Stearns defeated Mason's Anish Gangavaram - Vignesh Gogineni. |
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Division II Doubles: Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Rhian Seneviratne defeated their teammates, Jack Madison - Arie Tuckerman. |
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TUESDAY,
Final OhioTennisZone Team Rankings - Mason and Wellington are #1's
It is time for the final OhioTennisZone.com team rankings. Mason ends the season at #1 in Division I and Wellington is #1 in D2.
New Albany started the season as the #1 OTZ Team in Division 1 because it was not clear if Mason's two strong freshman players, Vignesh Gogineni and Anish Gangavaram, would get up to speed before the end of the season. Well - they did. Both players performed well at States and in their matches against New Albany and University School. Mason ends the season at #1, followed by New Albany, St. Xavier, University School, and Sycamore. (Click to view the the OTZ Pre-Season Rankings that were released on February 22.)
State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams Final Rankings - May 28, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM 2 State Spots | Wellington◄TEAM 1 |
| 2. New Albany◄TEAM 2 | Columbus Academy◄TEAM 2 |
| 3. St. Xavier◄TEAM 3 | Cinc. Country Day◄TEAM 3 |
| 4. University◄TEAM 2 | Ursuline◄TEAM 3 |
| 5. Sycamore 2 | Bexley◄TEAM 0 |
| 6. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 1 | Seven Hills◄TEAM 0 |
| 7. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM 2 | Indian Hill◄TEAM 1 |
| 8. Olentangy◄TEAM 1 | Wyoming◄TEAM 1 |
| 9. Upper Arlington◄TEAM 0 | Chagrin Falls 2 |
| 10. Dublin Coffman◄TEAM 0 | Hawken◄TEAM 1 |
| HM: Olentangy Orange 1 | Ottawa Hills 1 |
| HM: Findlay 1 | Lexington◄TEAM 1 |
| HM: Centerville 0 | Orange 0 |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. # of State Spots are indicated in gray. | |
Massillon Jackson and St. Xavier were the Rosetta Stone teams this year that helped determine the placement of the other teams because they played a wide variety of the strongest teams in both divisions. And often, those teams used their strongest line-ups against St. X and Jackson. The OTZ Matrix Report was helpful in comparing the game winning percentages of the teams.
In Division I, the top teams were a couple of steps above the others. In Division II, there was not a significant fall-off from the top teams (but Wellington was a step above the others).
As is always the case, the OTZ Rankings only really care how teams compete when they are at full-strength. A win here or there when a key player is missing does matter a little but not that much. (It can be very helpful to fine-tune the Top Players / Watch Lists though.)
Going into next season, St. Xavier, University School, and Mason will be the top contenders in Division I. St. Xavier keeps their top three players (Ronit Hiryur, Charlie Temming, and Preston Stearns). University School keeps their top three (Chas Norman, Charlie Joranko, and Ben Martin), plus they may pick up Nicholas Godsick [click for TRN profile], who is a Tennis Recruiting Network Blue-Chip player. Mason loses Niraj Komatineni (a 5-star, Brown recruit) but keeps Vignesh Gogineni and Anish Gangavaram. New Albany loses Robert Cash (a blue-chip, Ohio State recruit) and Nathan Jose (a four-star, Army recruit).
In D2, Wellington returns their top three players: Trevor Ball, Milan Gonela, and Griffin Biernat. Arie Tuckerman, Jack Madison, and Rhian Seneviratne return for Columbus Academy. CCD returns Ashutosh Annapantula, Neil Badlani, and Sai Nalagatla. Ursuline keeps Greg Morgione, Josh Khavari, and Gavin Blacksher.
There may be some confusions with the rankings. These are the OhioTennisZone Rankings. While I do consult with some coaches about the rankings from time-to-time, these rankings are not part of any coaches' poll. When discussing the rankings, it is best to refer to these as the OTZ Rankings, as Mason is the OTZ #1 team.
Whoops. Made an error with yesterday's update. (Actually there were several.) The box score results for the State Team Tournament are included in the Same Day Match Results report. For those not familiar with this premium report, it includes the scores in real-time that coaches submit via the OTZ score reporting system. Before the error was caught, the Previous Day Match Results report had been included twice.
MONDAY,
Mason and Wellington Are State Team Champions
Well, that was fun. The State Team Final Four matches were hot, loud, and exciting.
In the first contest of the day, Weather stopped Tennis from playing outside at Reynoldsburg. Tennis switched strategies by moving indoors to Elysium. Sensing and preempting that move, Weather knocked out the power at Elysium. Tennis prevailed, power was restored, and the players finally got started a few minutes after 9am. Weather still made it miserable for everyone because it was *hot* indoors, but the superior viewing and other amenities made Elysium a great choice.
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Mason - OTCA Champs - Click to enlarge |
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Wellington - OTCA Champs - Click to enlarge |
To view the detailed results, the Same Day Match Results report is now "open" for viewing for a few days. This report normally requires that fans sign in to access it. To view all of the results in graphical form, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
The Division I final of Mason versus University School was almost as exciting because of University School's great play, a Mason line-up with a bit less oomph, and tired players after three long hot days of tennis. Mason zoomed off to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to victories by Mason's Niraj Komatineni over University School's Charlie Joranko and Mason's Akshay Joshi win over Max Borsch.. After that, things got tense. Real tense. University School's second doubles team grabbed a first set lead over Mason's team and University School's Ben Martin got off to a first set lead on second singles. University School's Ben Martin then prevailed on court 2 singles with a win over Mason's Anish Gangavaram. Mason's second doubles won the second set to give their first doubles team some breathing room. After a really long, two set battle, Mason's first doubles team of Aneesh Zutshi - Vignesh Gogineni clinched the victory over University School's Chas Norman - Spencer Krantz in a tie-break. Mason won 3-1.
While there was still exciting play, Wellington was decisive throughout the day in Division II. Wellington won both of their matches 3-0. They had first set leads in all of their matches, except for first doubles against Ursuline, but the championship match was quickly clinched by Wellington with their strong 1-2-3 singles players. Trevor Ball got a win over Ursuline's Austin Arfaras. Milan Gonela had wins over Ursuline's Sean O'Connor and Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha; and Griffin Biernat earned wins over Ursuline's Glenn Christopher and Cincinnati Country Day's Sai Nalagatla. The Cincinnati Country Day match was closer for Wellington, but it was decided with straight set wins on courts 2, 3, and 2nd doubles.
Again, click on the above links for the details of all of the matches.
In the consolation matches, New Albany defeated Findlay and Cincinnati Country Day beat Ottawa Hills.
SUNDAY,
State Champs: Komatineni, Zimcosky, St. Xavier, Columbus Academy
There was some great tennis yesterday, but the high temperatures also led to medical issues as the boys tried to cope with the heat. Mason's Niraj Komatineni won the State D1 Singles Championship in a great match against St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur. Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky got the D2 singles crown after a heat-related walkover by Ursuline's Greg Morgione. St. Xavier's Charlie Temming - Preston Stearns beat Mason's Anish Gangavaram - Vignesh Gogineni to get the D1 doubles championship, and Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Rhian Seneviratne defeated their teammates, Jack Madison - Arie Tuckerman, to earn the D2 doubles crown.
In the battle between the Districts, Southwest had the most number of State semi-finalists with ten. Central was second with four spots and the Northeast had two. The Southwest had two State champions, Central had one, and the Northeast had one.
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Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
Zimcosky - Click to enlarge |
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St. X - Click to enlarge |
CA - Click to enlarge |
Obviously many ideas are needed to find solutions for these heat-related problems, but here are a few suggestions:
- During high temperature matches, extend the changeover times and make sure that the boys have iced towels and shade. Observe what the pros are provided for doing their hot-heat matches and do the same.
- Encourage the players to wear white or light-colored clothing.
- Change the order of States Saturday to Singles Semi's, Doubles Semi's, Doubles Championships (not to begin prior to 1pm), Singles Championships (not to begin prior to 2pm).
- Hold the State Team Tournament the following Saturday or on Memorial Day Monday. The boys season does not technically end until June 1.
Click to read "St. Xavier, Mason boys split in the Division I singles, doubles state finals" by the Cincinnati Enqurier's Jon Richardson. There is also an article in today's Columbus Dispatch by Jarrod Ulrey titled, "Academy doubles team tops teammates for title", but there is currently no link.
Because of rain, the State Team Tournament begins at 9am today at Elysium for the Division I teams. DII will start at roughly 10:30. Parking is limited at Elysium. It is encouraged that you arrive after I arrive. Bring a lawn-chair or two as well.
SATURDAY,
Day One in the Books | Another Hot Day of Tennis (and Weather) Today
The Lindner Family Tennis Center was all decked out for the 100th Anniversary of OHSAA Boys Tennis yesterday, and great tennis matched the great facility. For all of the results from yesterday (and for today), click here:
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University School's Chas Norman - Click to enlarge |
The boys in today's semi-finals are:
Division I Singles: Mason's Niraj Komatineni, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur, University School's Chas Norman, and Springboro's Sainandan Dore.
Division I Doubles: New Albany's Nathan Jose - Devin Boyer, St. Xavier's Charlie Temming - Preston Stearns, Anish Gangavaram - Vignesh Gogineni, and Sycamore's Samuel Marcus - Matt Bolger.
Division II Singles: Wellington's Trevor Ball, Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky, Ursuline's Greg Morgione, and Preble Shawnee's Pierce Elliott.
Division II Doubles: Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Rhian Seneviratne, Columbus Academy's Jack Madison - Arie Tuckerman, Cincinnati Country Day's Ashutosh Annapantula - Sai Nalagatla, Indian Hills' Tejas Pisati - Mack Ellis.
Click on the player links above for those who have OTZ Player Profiles.
Getting ready to leave Columbus now.. See you at Mason.
FRIDAY,
This Is It
Ok. Here we go. On with the show, this is it.
Here's a good checklist.- Wear your tennis shoes. There is substantial walking involved.
- Put www.ohiotenniszone.com/draws on your smartphone.
- Put www.ohiotenniszone.com/draws on everyone else in your family's smart phones so they do not bother you.
- Review the site layout. Hint - it is on the OTZ online draw sheet in the upper right hand corner. Be aware that you may click on the map to get a bifocal-less-friendly view that you can refer to regularly.
- The OTZ Online Draws have an update date/time in the upper left-hand corner. The draws will not be updated at specific times. I will watch for significant activity at the scorer's table and then make changes. If the time is the same as when you last viewed the draw sheet, no changes have been made to it.
- Bring water. Drinking fountains are few and far between. Also, do not throw away your water container - you may want to refill it from a restroom sink.
- Do not drink too much water. Not all of the restrooms are open. If you have younger or older people with you, know which restrooms are open before they need it. The word "before" is the key here. That is why it is emphasized.
- Bring some snacks just in case the McNasty's line is too long.
- Remind me to put on sun block (again).
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OTZ Enhanced Draws - Click to enlarge |
A few performance improvements were found and made to the online draws yesterday. The draws should now "load" faster. These were considered "safe" changes, and let's hope that they were, since today is the most critical day of the season. (You have to be either really sharp or really crazy to do software changes prior to a big activity day. We'll find out today which of the two I am.)
Click to read this great article titled, "2018 finalists back for crack at title" from the Columbus Dispatch's Richie Mulhall. It provides a summary of the Central Ohio players competing today.
I think that I will have time to take a few more photos today, but ask me when you see me. Note that if you ask for me to take a photo of your son, I expect you to buy at least one photo. Taking photos of doubles players is far more time consuming.
See you at Mason!
THURSDAY,
States / Team Tournament Preview Video
States is tomorrow.. There is nothing else that will get you into the State Championship mood more than by watching the OhioTennisZone Video/Slideshow of the State and State Team Tournament competitors. This year's video includes 59 action photos of the 96 players who are competing at States. It also includes 18 additional photos of players who will be competing in the State Team Tournament. For best viewing of the video, please use high resolution mode. Any of the action photos in the video may be purchased.
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The OTZ State Draws will include the first round court assignments later today. This should be helpful to get the older tennis fans to their seats. Note that a good site map, that is enlargeable, is included on the draw sheet.
It is best to include the draw sheet on your smart phone now using:
Remember - restrooms are far away and so is the drinking water. It is best to bring water or save your cup for water. The restrooms near courts 11 and 3/4 will be open. The restrooms near Center court will not be open.
The line at McNasty's Food Truck can get long at times. This photo is from the Southwest District Tournament. Here's the secret on how to deal with it. Wait until you see me get my McNasty's food and then get in line.. There will also be other food vendors if you cannot wait in the McNasty line.
If you see me at States, please say hello. I looked like this photo a few years ago when I had more hair under my hat. I will also be wearing OHSAA credentials with this photo.
Only three more photos of the 96 competitors are needed for the OTZ Enhanced Draws -- one for St. Ignatius and two for Clyde. All of the player photos are now included on the online draws.
WEDNESDAY,
University School, Findlay, and Ottawa Hills to the Final Four
The last three spots in the State Team Tournament were determined last night. University School defeated Massillon Jackson to earn the Northeast D1 spot. In the Northwest District, Findlay defeated St. John's Jesuit and Ottawa Hills beat Lexington to get the Northwest D1 and D2 spots, respectively. Findlay has had great players in the past (i.e. Reid Teatsorth and Kyle Collette), but this is their first trip to the Final Four. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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New Albany - Click to team page |
Among the top players, University School's Chas Norman defeated Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; University School's Charlie Joranko beat Massillon Jackson's Arjun Shanmugam;
St. John's Jesuit's Aiden Williams defeated Findlay's Drew Swisher; Ottawa Hills' Matthew McGee beat Lexington's Benton Drake; Findlay's Max Hosey defeated St. Johns Jesuit's George Saad; and Ottawa Hills' James Schwann beat Lexington's Brent Webster.
Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The answer to the most closely held secret in sports is that New Albany will play Mason and Findlay will play University School first in the State Team Tournament on Sunday. In Division II, Wellington plays Cincinnati Country Day and Ottawa Hills will play Ursuline. During the girls season, the temperature was 37 degrees at the beginning of the tournament and it may have warmed up to 38 degrees. That will not be the case this Sunday. Bring plenty of water. Division I will start things out at 8am. Click on OTZ State Team Tournament Draws to view the brackets. The rain location will be at the Racquet Club. The admission cost is $10 for the tournament.
Today's featured team is New Albany. They are coached by Marc Thomas. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Robert Cash, Nathan Jose, Devin Boyer, and Ryan Mudre.Photos for the OTZ State Draws are almost complete. All of the photos are set for the singles draws. I am awaiting photos from St. Ignatius, Wauseon, North Canton Hoover, and Clyde who have doubles players.
TUESDAY,
Mason and CCD Secured Southwest's Final Four Spots
Mason and Cincinnati Country Day earned their Final Four spots last night with wins over Sycamore and Seven Hills, respectively. There are two more matches scheduled for tonight. Ottawa Hills (H) takes on Lexington and Findlay plays St. John`s Jesuit. To view last night's results, 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 OTZ Team Members. They are led by Niraj Komatineni, Anish Gangavaram, and Akshay Joshi.
Work on the OTZ States / State Team Tournament video / slideshow has begun. For a trip down memory lane, click for the 2016 (includes this year's seniors), 2017, and 2018 videos. Use high resolution for best results. Watch it all of the way through first and then use the pause button to view the names on the photos.
For those interested in getting photos of their sons at States or the State Team Tournament, please contact me asap via Feedback. Also let me know when the photo is needed. If you have not purchased photos from OTZ in the past, then you must first provide a $19.99 pre-payment for one photo. If I cannot get a photo of your son or it does not come out well, the money will be refunded.
Ohio State's JJ Wolf and Kyle Seelig advanced to the round of 32 in yesterday's NCAA Singles matches.
MONDAY,
Hypothetical OTZ State Seeds
[Notice: The State Draws are now available. Click the button above or click OTZ Enhanced State Draws.]
Watch for the State draws to appear on OhioTennisZone at some point later this morning. These enhanced OTZ draws will include photos of most of the competitors and their season-long results (for those who have OTZ Player Profiles). The rest of the images will be gathered throughout the week. There are still a few player photos needed for the Northeast, Northwest, and East/Southeast Districts.
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Southwest D1 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
The final District results are still not posted for all of the District sites (Northwest and East / Southeast). Making this information available soon would be greeeaaat.
Of course, States are not seeded. If they were, the OTZ seeds would be as follows (not necessarily in order):
Division I Singles: Mason's Niraj Komatineni, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur, St. Charles' Reece Yakubov, University School's Chas Norman.
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Southwest D2 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Division I Doubles: New Albany's Nathan Jose - Devin Boyer, Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden - Soham Pradhan, St. Xavier's Charlie Temming - Preston Stearns, Mason's Vignesh Gogineni - Anish Gangavaram, University School's Charlie Joranko - Ben Martin.
Division II Doubles: Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Rhian Seneviratne, Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman - Jack Madison, Cincinnati Country Day's Ashutosh Annapantula - Sai Nalagatla, Lexington's Benton Drake - Blake Webster.
Thanks go to Mason Coach Mike Reid who took group photos of the Southwest District State Qualifiers. Have a group photo of all of the State qualifiers in your District? Forward it to OTZ for posting.
There will be a more State Team Tournament matches played today. Mason plays Sycamore for the Southwest D1 State Tournament spot today. Mason will be calling upon their inner #Shnu to get them to Reynoldsburg. Cincinnati Country Day plays Seven Hills for the SW D2 spot. Lexington competes against Ottawa Hills tomorrow for the NW D2 spot.
SUNDAY,
Field Set for States
The seeding round for the state qualifiers and the final state qualifiers were determined yesterday. The results are now online on OTZ for the Central, Northeast, and Southwest players. OTZ is awaiting results for the East, Southeast, and Northwest Districts.
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Central D1 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
There are still a few player photos needed for the Northeast, Northwest, and East/Southeast Districts for the OTZ draws.
Mason's Mike Reid took group photos of the Southwest District State Qualifiers. Those will be included tomorrow.
The #1 Seeds from the various Districts are:
Central D1: Singles: St. Charles' Reece Yakubov. Doubles: Olentangy Orange's Soham Pradhan - Alex Heiden
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Central D2 Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Northeast D1 Singles: University School's Chas Norman. Doubles: University School's Charlie Joranko - Ben Martin
Northeast D2 Singles: Chagrin Fall's Andrew Zimcosky. Doubles: Ursuline's Austin Arfaras - Luke Tsudis
Southwest D1: Singles: Mason's Niraj Komatineni. Doubles: St. Xavier's Charlie Temming - Preston Stearns
Southwest D2: Singles: Preble Shawnee's Pierce Elliott. Doubles: Cincinnati Country Day's Ashutosh Annapantula - Sai Nalagatla.
