Ohio High School Tennis
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 Boys State Draws for 2019.
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) and Kate 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 |
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| 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 |
| Kate Mills - 2 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | |
| 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.
SATURDAY,
Northeast District Qualifiers
There are just a few more matches to go before all of the State Qualifiers have been determined. The Northeast Division II Qualifiers were decided yesterday. There are a few more Northwest and Northeast Qualifiers to be determined today.
There was another State Team Tournament played yesterday. Ottawa Hills defeated Ada, 4-1. Ottawa Hills' Matthew McGee defeated Ada's Isaac Spar; and Ottawa Hills' James Schwann beat Ada's Cade Mullins. To view the graph, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
For more information, click on the highlighted player names. They have OTZ Player Profiles.
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Hawken's Neil Tewari- Click to enlarge |
Northeast District Qualifiers
Division I:
Singles: University School's Chas Norman, Mayfield's Yukun Wang, Massillon Jackson's Cyprien Voisvenel, and Green's Logan Langovsky. (One spot TBD.)
Doubles: University School's Charlie Joranko - Ben Martin, Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes - Bobby Thomas, North Canton Hoover's Matt Warburton - Jacob Wood, and Walsh Jesuit's Ben Cors - Caleb Miller. (One spot TBD.)
Division II:
Singles: Ursuline's Greg Morgione, Chagrin Fall's Andrew Zimcosky, Bay's Jackson Quinn, and Warren John F Kennedy's Armand Nannicola.
Doubles: Ursuline's Austin Arfaras - Luke Tsudis, Hawken's Gabe Perla - Neil Tewari, Ursuline's Gavin Blacksher - Josh Khavari, and Geneva's Isaac Palinkas - Nathan Palinkas,
If you would like your District's State Qualifiers to be recognized, please take a group picture and email it to me. It works best to have the singles players kneeling and the doubles players standing as teams. Click to view previous year State qualifier photos.
I will be leaving for the Central District seeding round in Reynoldsburg in a few minutes.
Best of luck in today's seeding round.
FRIDAY,
State Qualifiers for Central and Southwest Districts
Most of the state's Districts have determined who their State Qualifiers will be. Congratulations to these players. The Northeast Division II will be determined today, and the remaining Northeast and Northwest qualifiers will be determined on Saturday.
Great job to the Columbus Dispatch and Cincinnati Enqurier for getting the District results into their newspapers today. These results are now online on OTZ.
The State Qualifiers for the Central and Southwest Districts are listed below. For more information, click on the highlighted player names. They have OTZ Player Profiles.
Central District Qualifiers
Division I:
Singles: St. Charles' Reece Yakubov, New Albany's Ryan Mudre, Dublin Jerome's Anish Patel, Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz.
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Mason's Sam King - Click to enlarge |
Division II:
Singles: Wellington's Trevor Ball and Columbus Academy's Drew Haffer
Doubles: Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Rhian Seneviratne and Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman - Jack Madison.
Soutwest District Qualifiers
Division I:
Singles: Mason's Niraj Komatineni, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur, Springboro's Sainandan Dore, St. Xavier's Max DeCurtins
Doubles: Mason's Vignesh Gogineni - Anish Gangavaram, St. Xavier's Charlie Temming - Preston Stearns, Sycamore's Samuel Marcus - Matt Bolger, Sycamore's Jacob Wittenbaum - Mark Karev
Division II:
Singles: Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha, Cincinnati Country Day's Neil Badlani, Miami Valley School's Niyanth Reddy, Preble Shawnee's Pierce Elliott
Doubles: Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati - Mack Ellis, Cincinnati Country Day's Ashutosh Annapantula - Sai Nalagatla, Wyoming's Joseph Kelly - Mark Keller, and Miami Valley's Amin Ahmed - Reece Quigley
The #1 Ohio State Men's Tennis Team was upset by #8 North Carolina yesterday by the score of 4-2.
Off to Akron for the Northeast D2 qualifier...
THURSDAY,
Districts
It is time for Districts. Not that you are Under Pressure but today is the day to earn a a spot for States.
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da
The Southwest, Central, Northeast (D1), and Northwest (D2) Districts take place today. The Northeast (D2) plays tomorrow. The Northwest (D1) took place yesterday.
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Hilliard Davidson - Click to team page |
In addition to this being a huge day for Ohio high school tennis, the Ohio State Men's Team competes against North Carolina in the Elite Eight. This is the year that OSU needs to get it done. Click to read the Columbus Dispatch article. Their match against North Carolina takes place at 5pm today and it will be available via video. (Check the Tennis Channel first.)
Today's featured team is Hilliard Davidson. They are coached by Steve DeDent. They are Team Members. They are led by Ethan Clark, Jack Kamnikar, and Hayes Houseworth.
Time to head down to the Southwest Districts.
Best of luck to all of the competitors today.
WEDNESDAY,
New Albany and Ursuline to the Final Four | Mason Beats St. Xavier | US Defeats St. Ignatius
A beautiful evening led to more great matches. Two more schools now have plans for Sunday, May 26. OTZ #1 New Albany defeated OTZ #6 Dublin Jerome and OTZ #4 Ursuline beat Lakeview for their Districts' spots in the State Tournament Final Four. In other huge State Team matches, OTZ #3 Mason defeated OTZ #2 St. Xavier; OTZ #5 University School beat St. Ignatius; and OTZ #3 Cincinnati Country Day defeated OTZ #8 Wyoming. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Columbus Academy - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Columbus Academy. They are coached by Marc Wurtzman. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Suriya Sundaram, Arie Tuckerman, Jack Madison, and Drew Haffer.
This is a not-so-friendly reminder that OTZ photos can never (ever) be used without the expressed written permission of OhioTennisZone. It takes a substantial amount of time, effort, and expensive photo gear to make these photos available. If you plan to use an OTZ photo anywhere (Tweet, web page, etc.), then you need to purchase it first. Stealing a photo (or a portion of an OTZ photo) is no different than "dining and dashing" from a restaurant or shoplifting from a store. To purchase an OTZ photo, click on Buy A Photo.
See you tomorrow in the McNasty Food Truck line at the Lindner Family Tennis Center for the Southwest District tournament. This venue is great because it brings both the Division I and Division II brackets together.
TUESDAY,
Wellington Beats Columbus Academy for First State Team Spot
The weather was "Ohio" (cold, damp, drizzling, and breezy) yesterday as Wellington clinched the first State Team Tournament spot by defeating Columbus Academy. In other matches, Massillon Jackson advanced in the tournament by beating Solon. Sycamore defeated Springboro and Jonathan Alder beat Urbana. To view the results in graphical form, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Olentangy. They are coached by Jeff Luxenburger. They are Team Members. They are led by Sam Routzahn, Omar Khayat, and Ayush Sunkad.
Rarely does OTZ go on the road overnight during the season because of the logistical issues of updating OhioTennisZone, but there was a great reason to do so over the weekend. Our son, Kyle, graduated from Emory with a PhD in drug research. A few of you may recognize Kyle from high school and college tennis. [Click for the family graduation photo.] He graduated from St. Charles Prep in '09 and from Case Western in '13. Our daughter, Lauren, is an engineer for GE Aviation in Cincinnati and played tennis for Columbus School for Girls ('12). If you need a researcher for your pharmaceutical firm, Kyle would like to talk with you. The 20 hours of driving over three days was not conducive to tennis updates so there is quite a bit of catching up to do.
Today's matches include: New Albany versus Dublin Jerome, St. Xavier versus Mason, and Ursuline versus Lakeview.
MONDAY,
Big Matches for Today: Wellington vs. Academy | CCD vs. Wyoming
Districts are starting to wrap up their Final Four representatives for the State Team Tournament. Tonight, OTZ #1 Wellington faces OTZ #2 Columbus Academy and OTZ #3 Cincinnati Country Day plays OTZ #8 Wyoming. Columbus Academy won earlier in the season when Wellington did not have its full line-up.
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Loveland - Click to team page |
Watch for more District Draws to appear above via the Sectional Draw links. In fact, the Northeast Draws were posted late last night.
My current plans are to go to the McNasty Food Truck at the Southwest District on Thursday (for both D1 and D2), the Dairy Queen near I-71 near Akron on Friday (for NE D2), and to the Central District competition on Saturday (for both D1 and D2).
Today's featured team is Loveland. They are coached by Jeff Sharpless. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Connor Ruble, Matt Huether, and Sam Greenberg.
More Sectional results will be included in tomorrow's update.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON,
Central District Draws Now Available
The Central District Draws are now available via the above links.
Absolutely no #1 seed wanted to face New Albany's doubles team of Nathan Jose and Devin Boyer, who are the defending State Doubles Champions and #2 seed. The Upper Arlington #1 seeds (Paige Kompa and Will Reynolds) will.
SUNDAY,
Sectional Seeding Rounds Completed
Sectionals are finished and now tennis fans await the all important District Draws, which should be released tomorrow.
There were over 200 match results added since the last OTZ update, but there are more to go. The results from the Columbus Dispatch and Cincinnati Enquirer are online. Note, however, that the Enquirer did not include all of the Cincinnati-area results. Also online are the results from the Oberlin, Medina, Canton, and Rocky River Sectionals. (The Northeast District has done an exceptional job in getting their completed draws online.) Refer to the Sectional Draw links above to see many of the results.
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Marion Harding - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Marion Harding. They are coached by Evan Geyer. They are Team Members. They are led by Hez Barron and Daniel Stimson.
SATURDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Sycamore
Most teams took the night off because of the Sectional seeding round today, but there was still one big match played. St. Xavier defeated Sycamore in their annual competition. Click to view the graphs via the Previous Day's Match Results.
The Northeast District's Solon Sectional Site completely finished their seeding round yesterday and their results are now online on OTZ.
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Bexley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Bexley. They are coached by Mark Liefeld. They are Team Members. They are led by Christian Roddy, Jordan Koppes, and Leo Schottenstein.
Remember that the Ohio State Men's team plays Columbia today in the Sweet 16 at OSU's outdoor courts. The match starts at 1pm and admission is free. Click to read today's Columbus Dispatch article.
Most Districts have their Sectional seeding round today. Good luck to all of the participants.
FRIDAY,
Ready for the Sectional Seeding Rounds (almost)
It was a good call to proceed with the Central District Sectionals but the rain did slow things down. There are also a few remaining matches to be played before all of the District players are determined. The good news is that all of the results from the Columbus Dispatch are now online on OhioTennisZone. Normally these matches are not online on OTZ until late morning. The bad news is that the Dispatch only included the second round matches and beyond.
The biggest news of the day took place off of the court. New Albany's Robert Cash will not be defending his OHSAA singles title this year. He will continue to play in the State Team Tournament matches. Cash wanted to attend his brother's college graduation and his own high school graduation, and the dates conflicted with the state tournament. His brother, CJ, is graduating from Loyola and he plays tennis on their team.
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Wyoming - Click to team page |
Even though there were a very large number of matches played in Sectionals, many were one-sided. Among the top players, Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz defeated New Albany's Alek Jacoby; Columbus Academy's Drew Haffer beat Watterson's Johnny DiOrio; and New Albany's Alek Jacoby defeated Olentangy's Ayush Sunkad. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Wyoming. They are coached by David Tanner. They are Team Members. They are led by Joseph Kelly, David Keller, and Mark Keller.
St. Xavier (A) plays Sycamore in a big dual match today.
THURSDAY,
Ada Beats Clyde
It is Sectional day for the Central District. The weather forecasts have been "on" and "off" all week for today. When considering the accuracy (actually "inaccuracy") of the weather forecasts lately, it was a good call to proceed.
Other Districts of the state are also having their Sectionals today as well.
There were six matches recorded from state-wide play. The matches included: Cincinnati Country Day defeated Mason-B; Ada defeated Clyde in the State Team Tournament; Jonathan Alder beat Kenton Ridge; Marion Harding defeated Buckeye Valley; and Big Walnut beat Westerville Central. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Beechcroft - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Beechcroft. They are coached by Daphne Hess. They are Team Members. They are led by Henry Bright, Ali Mojtabaei, and Sam Kyereh.
I will be at Central District D1 Reynoldsburg site this morning. Hope to see you there.
WEDNESDAY,
Ursuline Beats Hawken | Jerome Defeats Coffman
As in the past, OhioTennisZone will include Sectional scores posted in the Columbus Dispatch and the Cincinnati Enquirer. For districts outside of these newspapers' coverage areas, OTZ will go through the draws to retrieve the scores for OTZ Members. Obviously, this is a very time consuming process so please be patient. To help prevent duplicate scores from being entered, OTZ will wait until some Sectionals are completely finished and posted online by their respective Districts. The Sectional results account for 10 to 15% of all scores on OTZ.
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Ursuline - Click to team page |
Among the top players, New Albany's Robert Cash defeated Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie; Ursuline's Greg Morgione defeated Hawken's Ryan Levine; Delaware Hayes' Kyle Klumpp beat Marysville's Joel Sheeley; Ottawa Hills' Matthew McGee defeated Findlay's Drew Swisher; and Ursuline's Austin Arfaras beat Hawken's Nikhil Goel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Ursuline. They are coached by Kent Blacksher. They are Team Members. They are led by Greg Morgione, Austin Arfaras, and Luke Tsudis.
The Ohio State Men's Tennis Team is competing in their NCAAA Sweet 16 contest against Columbia this Saturday at 1pm. For those finished with Sectionals, check it out. OSU wants to get a large crowd to attend. If the weather is clear, the match will be played at the OSU outdoor facility on Olentangy River Road. OSU is #1 in the country. Admission is free.
Today's matches include: Ada (H) versus Clyde and Ottawa Hills (H) versus Maumee Valley Country Day. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Jerome > Upper Arlington | 7 Hills > Indian Hill | Mason > Sycamore
Some Sectionals begin today. From a weather perspective, today is a good day to start.
There were a several great State Team Tournament matches played last night. They included Dublin Jerome defeated Upper Arlington; Seven Hills beat Indian Hill; Olentangy defeated Marietta; and Solon beat North Canton Hoover. Click to view the updated OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
Overall, there were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hilliard Davidson defeated Watterson; Centerville-B beat Springboro-B; Teays Valley defeated Reynoldsburg; Pickerington North beat Dublin Scioto; Columbus Academy defeated Olentangy Orange; Newark beat Mount Vernon; Wyoming defeated Milton-Union; Mason beat Sycamore; Granville defeated Canal Winchester; and Whetstone beat Ready. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Marysville - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Marysville. They are coached by Brian Ash. They are Team Members. They are led by Joel Sheeley, Sam Balderson, and Sameer Parashar.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Ottawa Hills (H) versus Findlay; Â Marysville (H) versus Delaware Hayes; and Buckeye Valley (A) versus Shelby. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Improvements to OTZ Match Prep Report
One of the goals of OhioTennisZone is to help make tennis fans more informed. The Match Prep report was modified last week to better accomplish this.
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Match Prep Report - Click to enlarge |
This report was modeled after the information that Division 1 college teams (i.e. Ohio State) provide to their fans prior to each match, but this report is more "information rich". In one place, OTZ Members can quickly view the rosters of both teams, see the three most recent results of both teams, and view the individual player pictures (for those with OTZ Player Profiles).
So, print both pages (page 1 | page 2) of this report and share it with others at the match. You will be the favorite coach or parent.
This report was limited to coaches (because they are the only ones who know the line-ups), but now any OTZ member can retrieve this report for their team.
This report had previously been *very* s_l_o_w to retrieve. Now, it is lightning quick.
To view this report, sign-in first and then click Match Prep Report. This report is also available under the Coaches tab.
While OTZ tests these reports, bugs can occur. (Ok. Bugs do occur.) Please contact OTZ via Feedback if problems occur.
Additional changes were made to the OTZ Top Players and Watch Lists. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome versus Upper Arlington (H) ; Solon (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Olentangy (A) versus Wellington; Ottawa Hills (A) versus Maumee; and Ada (H) versus Upper Sandusky. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
University School Beats Columbus Academy
While numerous tournaments were canceled yesterday because of the impending rain, OTZ #5 University School sneaked in a dual match win against OTZ D2 #2 Columbus Academy before the rain hit central Ohio.
Tournaments that were completed included: St. Xavier won the GCL South Tournament; Marion Harding won the MOAC Tournament; and Lexington was the OCC Champion.
To view all of the dual match results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OSU's JJ Wolf - Click to enlarge |
The OTZ plans for yesterday were to go to the Wellington versus University School match for a few minutes and then go to the Ohio State versus Vanderbilt NCAA match. Both matches started at 1pm. When rain imminent, I switched things up and headed down to Ohio State. There was just enough time get doubles photos and a few photos of the singles players before the match was rained out and moved indoors. The Wellington versus University School match was canceled.
Outdoor photos are far superior to photos taken indoors. Because their season wraps up early, it is very difficult to find a time to get Ohio State tennis team outdoor photos. With rain on Friday, yesterday was my only option this season and it was great to get at least a few photos. The Ohio State Men's Team is ranked #1 in the nation and Cincinnati Country Day's JJ Wolf is ranked #2 in singles. For more photos, check out the right-navigation bar on the Team Lookup page or see @OhioTennisZone on Twitter.
SATURDAY,
May the Fourth Be with You | Jackson > (Indian Hill + CCD)
Today is May 4th - as in "May the Fourth Be with You" (as in "May the Force Be with You") day. (At this point, if you are not a Star Wars fan, take the rest of the day off from reading OTZ..) To recognize this special day among Star Wars fans, OTZ recognizes the best Sky Walkers. Olentangy Liberty's Sidney Reineke automatically always won this award but she graduated in 2016. Reineke did not even need shoes, but since they looked good with the rest of her outfit, she wore them. Check out Twitter by clicking on the links below for the photos and for voting to help OTZ select this year's winners.
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Liberty grad Sidney Reineke - Click to enlarge |
The best traveling team in the state, Massillon Jackson, defeated Indian Hill and Cincinnati Country Day. Kings defeated Moeller and Tippecanoe beat Milton-Union. There were just seven matches recorded from yesterday since most of the state had rainy conditions. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Indian Hill's Tejas Pisati defeated Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes beat Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha; Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh defeated Tippecanoe's Colin Achterberg; Massillon Jackson's Cyprien Voisvenel beat Cincinnati Country Day's Neil Badlani; and Massillon Jackson's Arjun Shanmugam defeated Indian Hill's Nick Grossi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.The #1 ranked Ohio State Men's Tennis Team advanced to the second round of the NCAA's. They will be playing today at home at 1pm. The site is weather dependent. The OSU Women's team lost in the first round yesterday to Georgia Tech. To follow all of the NCAA action, click on Slam.Tennis.
All of today's high school matches would be influx unless there is an indoor option available. Check with a coach or player prior to going to a match.
FRIDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Bexley
More teams advanced in the State Team Tournament yesterday. Columbus Academy defeated Bexley; Mason beat Kings; and Massillon Jackson defeated Mayfield.
There were 16 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 4, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Westerville South defeated Beechcroft; Milton-Union beat Centerville-B; Teays Valley defeated Grandview; and Chagrin Falls beat Orange. 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 |
Among the top players, Mason's Niraj Komatineni defeated Kings' Josh Lee; St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur beat Seven Hills' Max Yuan; Chagrin Falls' Andrew Zimcosky defeated Orange's Rohit Kashyap; Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram beat Bexley's Christian Roddy; St. Xavier's Max DeCurtins defeated Seven Hills' Ajay Gupta; Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh beat Centerville-B's Kunal Panwar; Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark defeated Dublin Scioto's Santhusht Prasad; Columbus Academy's Jack Madison beat Bexley's Leo Schottenstein; St. Xavier's Tucker Berry defeated Seven Hills' Vito Zenezini; and Reynoldsburg's Boban Mihajlov beat Olentangy Berlin's Akhil Damarla. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There have been a few new adds made to the OTZ Top Players List and Watch List. The addition of players to the Watch List occurs rather quickly. The process of moving players to the Top Players List takes more time, especially when freshman are involved. It is also far more difficult to evaluate players when their team does not "travel". The addition of Northwest District players was on hold until the release of all of the Northwest Sectional draws (which finally occurred yesterday).
This will be a Photo Friday. Most of the photos are ready to roll. I need to upload the photos and place them in the database so that they appear with the team and Player Profiles. First though, I'm going to a coffee shop..
Today's featured team is Delaware Hayes. They are coached by Richard Hunt. They are led by
Kyle Klumpp and Sam Bonofiglio.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (A) versus Cincinnati Country Day; Solon (T) versus Shaker Heights; and St. Xavier (A) versus Sycamore. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Olentangy Orange Beats UA | Sycamore Defeats Springboro
Districts are getting ever closer to determining their State Tournament Final Four representatives. In the Southwest District, Sycamore reached the finals by beating Springboro, 4-1. Contact OTZ via Feedback or email if a result is not included in the OTZ State Team Tournament Draws. Remember - the most recent update date / time is listed at the top of the draws and the "DIV 1: CEN NE NW SW" links allow fans to quickly navigate the draws.
There were 28 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy Orange defeated OTZ #9 Upper Arlington; Beechcroft beat Whetstone; Mariemont defeated Milford; St. Charles beat Watterson for the Central Catholic League championship; Marysville defeated Westerville Central; OTZ #8 Olentangy beat OTZ D2 #5 Bexley; Hilliard Davidson defeated Pickerington North; and Teays Valley beat Grove City. In another noteworthy match, Columbus Academy defeated Thomas Worthington.To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Ada - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; St. Charles' Reece Yakubov beat Watterson's Chris Finissi; Springboro's Sainandan Dore defeated Sycamore's Chad Miller; Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz beat Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram; Olentangy's Ayush Sunkad defeated Bexley's Jordan Koppes; King’s Josh Lee beat Lakota West’s Nicholas Athans; Olentangy Orange's Soham Pradhan defeated Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds; Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark beat Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; and Columbus Academy's Drew Haffer defeated Thomas Worthington's Wil Newberry. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Ada. They are coached by Cody Hurley. They are Team Members. They are led by Cade Mullins, Isaac Spar, and Miranda Wills.
Today's matches include: Upper Arlington (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Chagrin Falls (H) versus University School; St. Xavier (H) versus Seven Hills; and Ottawa Hills (A) versus Perrysburg. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. As always, confirm with a coach or player before heading over to a match.
WEDNESDAY,
Wellington Beats Bexley | Centerville Defeats Beavercreek
There were several great, close matches yesterday. In one of the closest matches of the year, Solon defeated Shaker Heights. This 4-1 match included four 3-setters. See chart below. The Centerville 3-2 win over Beavercreek included three, 3-setters.
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Solon's Win over Shaker Heights - Click to team page |
There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 0. Other close, 3-2 matches included: Granville beat Reynoldsburg; Western Reserve Academy defeated Orange; Carroll beat Badin; Ready defeated West Jefferson; and Lakota East beat Oak Hills. In other noteworthy matches, Indian Hill beat Miami Valley School and OTZ D2 #1 Wellington defeated OTZ D2 #5 Bexley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. (This report was not working correctly for the past few days. It should be working now.)
In tournament play, Loveland won the Eastern Cincinnati Conference (ECC) Tournament and Turpin was second.
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Massillon Jackson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Massillon Jackson. The coach of the @PurpleCircus is Louis Thomas. They are Team Members. They are led by Alex Drewes, Cyprien Voisvenel, and Bobby Thomas. Note that Massillon Jackson's tweets are listed in the right-hand navigation bar of their OTZ team page.
All of the Sectional Draws are online except for the Northwest District. Many of the draws include the critically important graduation date, but unfortunately, some do not.
Work has been underway (on and off) for two to three years to streamline portions of the OTZ update process. This project was finally completed yesterday. If anything looks amiss, please contact OTZ via Feedback.
Today's matches include: Chagrin Falls (H) versus Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy; Beechcroft (A) versus Whetstone; Solon (A) versus Hudson; Teays Valley (A) versus Grove City; Thomas Worthington (A) versus Columbus Academy; and  Upper Arlington (A) versus Olentangy Orange. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Wellington Defeated Upper Arlington | Academy Beats Coffman
After a long weekend of tournaments and the sectional draw on Sunday, teams were back at work yesterday. There were 33 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Oakwood defeated Chaminade-Julienne; Centennial beat Whetstone; Eaton defeated Carroll; Sidney beat Greenville; OTZ #1 (d2) Wellington defeated OTZ #9 Upper Arlington; Franklin Heights beat Walnut Ridge; and Logan Elm defeated Worthington Christian. In other prominent matches, OTZ #2 (d2) Columbus Academy defeated OTZ #10 Dublin Coffman and Olentangy Orange beat St. Charles. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
The Northeast now has draws for all of its Sectional sites posted. The Southwest District has three of its four locations, but the Mason site is still missing.
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St. Charles - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is St. Charles. They are coached by Max Quinton. They are Team Members. They are led by Reece Yakubov and Brady Pema.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (A) versus New Albany; Centerville (A) versus Beavercreek; Watterson (A) versus St. Charles; Olentangy (H) versus Gahanna; and Solon (A) versus Canfield. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
More Info on Central District Division 1 Sectional Draws
The Central District draw process is a finely tuned machine. It not only efficiently creates great draws but it also best serves the team's goals.
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CDAB Sectionals - Click to enlarge |
This year, Reynoldsburg, was the toughest Sectional location for Division I. New Albany, Olentangy, Olentangy Orange, Thomas Worthington, and St. Charles all selected that site. Can players from other sites still reach "States"? Yes, but they better finish #1 in their Sectional, or they might face the defending State singles champion (New Albany's Robert Cash ) or defending State doubles champions (Nathan Jose / Devin Boyer) in Districts. If they avoid the state champions, they still face a gauntlet of other strong players from the Reynoldsburg Sectional.
This process does place most coaches in a dilemma. Most schools do not have a choice of maximizing what's best for all of their players. The "states or bust" approach may help a single player or doubles team reach States, but it also insures that the other players will not reach Districts.
Of course, another benefit from this process is that most of Central's most deserving players reach States. In other Districts, players who are third singles have reached States while the first and second singles players from that team have not.
As for the "machine", the process run by Kathy Kinnard and Mike O'Callaghan provides great draws (with names, schools, and grades) and they are promptly posted when fan interest is highest - on Sunday. The graduation year information is extremely important to college coaches and this is why the Central District provides it (and why all districts should). The draws were posted on OhioTennisZone at 5:20pm.
The Southwest District recently started this "choice" process for two of their four Sectionals.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Columbus Academy; Hilliard Davidson (A) versus Worthington Kilbourne; Solon (H) versus Shaker Heights; St. Xavier (H) versus Turpin; and University School (H) versus Copley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Sectional Draw Sheets
The Sectional Draws are starting to become available. All of the Central District draws were posted at 5:20pm. The Southwest District draws for the Cincinnati/ATP/LFTC and Troy sites are also posted. Links to the other District draws will be posted above as the draws become available.
SUNDAY,
Mason Wins Flight A of Coaches' Classic | Olentangy Orange Wins the Worthington Cup
The trek to States begins today. It is Sectional Draw day. Who's playing singles? Doubles? Tennis fans will know later today for the Central District and for some sites of the Southwest District. Links to the other District draws will be made as the draws become available.
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St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Mason's Niraj Komatineni defeated St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur;
Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden beat St. Charles' Reece Yakubov; St. Johns Jesuit's Aiden Williams defeated Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram; Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman beat St. Johns Jesuit's Allan; and Columbus Academy's Jack Madison defeated St. Johns Jesuit's Jonathon To. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
SATURDAY,
University School Beats Hawken | Ada Defeats Marysville
Many parts of the state were rained out but Cincinnati was able to play its early rounds of the Coaches' Classic. There were just four dual matches recorded from state-wide play, but there were many older scores posted, as coaches "caught up" prior to the Sectional draw. The results included: University School defeated Hawken; Ada beat Marysville; Eaton defeated Brookville; and Troy beat Tippecanoe. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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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 Gabe Mexicott and Grant Mudre.
Cincinnati completes its Coaches' Classic today and the Worthington Coaches' Cup takes place at Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne. OTZ is about to leave for the Coaches' Classic Flight A group which is being held at St. Xavier.
FRIDAY,
Hawken Defeats Geneva | Coaches' Classic Today?
The Coaches' Classic will hopefully begin today. Like much of the state, it was rained out yesterday.
There were seven matches recorded from state-wide play. They included: Hawken defeated Geneva; Ottawa Hills beat St Peter (State Team Tournament); and Chagrin Falls defeated Gilmour Academy. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Aware of State Team Tournament matches that have not been posted on OhioTennisZone? Please submit a Feedback. Click for the State Team Tournament Draws.
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Watterson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Watterson. They are coached by Ryan Schwieterman. They are Team Members. They are led by Chris Finissi, Nick Geelan, and Johnny DiOrio.
Unsure if there will be a Photo Friday today.. If there is, this paragraph will change. The Blue Jackets' game and nearby lightning curtailed last night's computer usage.
I attended the annual Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association meeting yesterday at the OHSAA headquarters. There were many familiar faces, and some familiar faces who will not be returning next year. Two of the association's officers have left or will be leaving their newspapers as the industry continues to decline. If you do not subscribe to (as in pay) your local newspaper, please consider doing so. Google and Facebook have gobbled up essentially all of the advertising dollars so content providers have to rely on member subscriptions to survive.
Today's matches include: Ada (H) versus Marysville; University School (H) versus Hawken; and Whetstone (A) versus Westerville South. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
7 Hills Beats CCD | Bexley Defeats Dublin Coffman | Jerome Beats Olentangy Orange
The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Classic begins today. Other than the state qualifying matches, this is the biggest and best tournament in the state. It includes 47 teams (both Division I and Division II) from throughout the Cincinnati-area and they are grouped by skill level. There are nine different flights. The locations for the flights (starting with the A flight) are: St. Xavier, Mason, Walnut Hills, Wilmington, Fairfield, La Salle, Madeira, Northwest, and Princeton. Another nice feature of this tournament is that includes five "B" teams, which basically makes this their sectional tournament. I always love to go to this tournament because it gives me an opportunity to watch a large number of players, take team and action photos, and to capture some video. Tomorrow (Friday) will not work for me so hopefully the weather cooperates today. The tournament finishes on Saturday.
There were 42 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 15, Southwest - 20, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy Liberty defeated St. Charles; Orange beat Geneva (with three, 3-setters); Ursuline defeated Louisville; Bexley beat Dublin Coffman; Central Crossing defeated Ready; Dublin Jerome beat Olentangy Orange; Wyoming defeated Loveland (with three, 3-setters); Delaware Hayes beat Watterson; Seven Hills defeated Cincinnati Country Day; Pickerington Central beat Logan Elm; Reynoldsburg defeated Big Walnut; Milton-Union beat Oakwood; and Centerville defeated Bellbrook. In another significant match, University School defeated Kenston. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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DeSales - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is DeSales. They are coached by Tom Snyder. They are led by Nate Stevens and Michael James.
Today's matches include: Olentangy (H) versus St. Charles; Thomas Worthington (H) versus New Albany; and Hilliard Davidson (A) versus Hilliard Bradley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Wellington, But | UA Defeats Coffman
The rain held off yesterday and 47 matches were recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 21, Southwest - 21, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Northwest defeated Little Miami; Ottawa Hills beat Bryan; Westerville South defeated Westerville Central; Circleville beat Hamilton Township; Olentangy defeated Olentangy Liberty; Lakota East beat Fairfield; Elder defeated Harrison; Teays Valley beat Fisher Catholic; Buckeye Valley defeated Ontario; Columbus Academy beat Wellington; and Middletown defeated Hamilton. In other big matches, Upper Arlington defeated Dublin Coffman and Sycamore beat Centerville in their State Team Tournament match. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click 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 by Brett Holcomb and Max Lauer. Coach Kinnard is the Central District Division I Tournament Manager.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Bellbrook; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Bexley; Milton-Union (A) versus Oakwood; Ottawa Hills (A) versus Sylvania Southview; and Loveland (A) versus Wyoming. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Columbus Academy Beat Olentangy | Hawken Defeated Chagrin Falls
The weather was perfect yesterday, but today looks like it could be damp for most of the state. There were 24 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 6, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Clear Fork defeated Buckeye Valley; Hawken beat Chagrin Falls; Walnut Hills defeated Anderson; Chaminade-Julienne beat Kettering Fairmont; and Ursuline defeated Austintown-Fitch. In other matches involving the OTZ Top Ten Teams, Columbus Academy defeated Olentangy. 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 |
Today's featured team is Lancaster. They are coached by Gary Elick. They are led by Chris Kirchgessner, Wyatt Watson, and Ben Lockhart.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (H) versus Wellington (This is not the State Team Tournament match.); Centerville (H) versus Sycamore; Chagrin Falls (H) versus Kenston; Loveland (A) versus Turpin; Milton-Union (H) versus Waynesville; and Dublin Coffman (A) versus Upper Arlington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Big Week for HS Tennis
This is a really important week in Ohio high school tennis. The Sectional Draw occurs on Sunday at precisely 2pm for all districts in the state. This means that coaches and players will need to determine who will play in the Sectionals and at what positions. Teams with two skilled players may opt for doubles while others may pin their hopes on a singles run to Districts (and maybe even to States).
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OTZ Season-to-Date - Click to enlarge |
Of course, this report is most effective when it is accurate. Missing a key match? Please enter that score via OhioTennisZone's score entry system. Is a score incorrect? Please send OTZ an email. (This is for Coach Members only.) Also note that this needs to be for material errors. When two coaches report scores for the same match, there are commonly minor differences with scores. Also note that in order for this report to work correctly, player names in all of the scores need to be spelled correctly
Why doesn't OTZ accept scores from non-coach members? I made that mistake before and it resulted in a huge amount of work with no (zero, nada, none) additional sign-ups, and in this point of the season, I can barely keep up with the needs of paying customers. (This has always been the weird conundrum of the Internet. Some users simply think that despite the huge amount of effort that it takes to create good content, that content should be free.)
Of course, parents who are OTZ members can email changes to OTZ as well.
To access this report, coaches need to sign-in and click on the Coaches tab in the menu bar.
This report also makes great player mementos at the end of the season.
Today's matches include: Chagrin Falls (H) versus Hawken; Olentangy (H) versus Columbus Academy; University School (A) versus Orange; and Upper Arlington (A) versus Thomas Worthington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Massillon Jackson Wins Lexington Invite | Jerome Beats Hudson
The combination of the Easter weekend and a steady rain resulted in a low number of matches played. Massillon Jackson won the Lexington Invite which was held at the Lakewood Tennis Club. Lexington finished second, followed by Centerville, Dublin Coffman, and Perrysburg. There were just two dual matches recorded. They were: Wyoming defeated Oakwood and Dublin Jerome beat Hudson. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lexington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Lexington. Ron Schaub is the head coach and Rob Michels is the assistant coach. They are Team Members. They are led by Benton Drake, Blake Webster, and Brent Webster.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Beats Indian Hill | Lexington Defeats Centerville
There were four results from yesterday, which is four more than what was expected. It was a wet day throughout Ohio. Matches played included: Lexington defeated Centerville; Sycamore beat Indian Hill; and Dublin Coffman defeated Central Crossing. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Ottawa Hills - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Ottawa Hills. They are coached by Matt Gargas. They are led by Mike McGee and James Schwann.
The Lexington Invite is today so OTZ will be traveling north to eat donuts, take photos, and eat donuts. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Olentangy Beats Olentangy Orange | Photo Friday #3
The strong winds in the Central District led to some interesting points, but at least teams were able to play. Conditions will not be as good today, but many schools do not compete on Good Friday.
There were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Centennial defeated Beechcroft; Olentangy beat Olentangy Orange (with three, 3-setters); Dublin Scioto defeated Hilliard Bradley; Buckeye Valley beat River Valley; Anderson defeated Milford; Hawken beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy; and Lakota West beat Fairfield. In another significant, University School defeated Solon. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. The Olentangy versus Olentangy Orange match was a State Team Tournament Match and it is unfortunate that they had to play early in the draw.
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Orange's Alex Heiden - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated Olentangy's Sam Routzahn; University School's Chas Norman beat Solon's Thomas Liu; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Delaware Hayes' Kyle Klumpp; University School's Charlie Joranko beat Solon's Andy Lebowitz; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy’s Farren defeated Hawken’s Neil Tewari; Olentangy's Omar Khayat beat Olentangy Orange's Soham Pradhan; Olentangy Liberty's Vishnu Bodavula defeated Westerville Central's Corey Blankenship; and Pickerington North’s Cole Alcala beat Reynoldsburg’s Boban Mihajlov. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This will be the fourth Friday in a row with photos, but I am beyond overextended. Again.. If you have waited too long to hear from me, please ping me again. As of 2:20pm, the photos are now available. Click to view Most Recently Added Photos.
The #1 Ohio State Men's Tennis Team will have two home matches over the weekend. Ohio State will play Purdue today (Friday) at 6:00pm and Indiana on Easter Sunday at noon. To read more about OSU and the rankings, click on this link from Colette Lewis' Zootennis blog. (The OTZ photo of JJ Wolf was taken during the Columbus Challenger.)
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Lexington; Jonathan Alder (H) versus Kenton Ridge; Â Massillon Jackson (H) versus Hawken; Milton-Union (A) versus Northmont; and Sycamore (H) versus Indian Hill. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
St. X Beat CCD | OHSAA Girls State Spots
It was another great evening for tennis. For those keeping track, Ohio tennis has played 37% more dual matches than at the same time last year.
There were numerous matches among teams in the OTZ Top Ten. St. Xavier defeated Cincinnati Country Day; Mason beat Indian Hill; and Olentangy defeated Dublin Coffman. Overall, there were 32 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 14, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Mariemont defeated Oak Hills; Delaware Hayes beat Pickerington Central (big win for the Delaware program); Greenville defeated Chaminade-Julienne; and Olentangy Orange beat Worthington Kilbourne. In other significant matches, Granville defeated Pickerington North (with three, 3-setters); Centerville beat Loveland; Hawken defeated Orange; and Upper Arlington beat St. Charles. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Worthington Christian - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Worthington Christian. They are coached by Dino Tsibouris. They are Team Members. They are led by Peter Tsibouris and Benjy Homoelle.
The OHSAA released the new States representation numbers for the girls for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The Division I and Division II numbers did not change. This will be a disappointment for the Central Division II girls because they still only have one spot (which means for one singles and two doubles players) for States. The breakdowns by District for Division I are: Central - 4, Northeast - 6, Northwest - 2, and Southwest 4. In Division II, they are: Central - 1, East/Southeast - 2, Northeast - 5, Northwest - 4, and Soutwest - 4. It is simply all about the number of schools participating in Sectionals (with four or more players). Want more spots? Get more teams into the Sectional tournament.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Centerville (H) versus Springboro; University School (H) versus Solon; Olentangy (H) versus Olentangy Orange; and Teays Valley (A) versus Circleville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason Beats Sycamore | New Albany Defeated Wellington
There were several big, heavy-weight matches played yesterday. They included: Mason defeated Sycamore; St. Ignatius beat Hawken; St. Xavier defeated Indian Hill; and New Albany beat Wellington. There were 38 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 21, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. There was just one close, 3-2 match -- Newark defeated Big Walnut. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Marysville Joel Shelley - Click to enlarge |
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Indian Hill; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Solon; Olentangy (H) versus Dublin Coffman; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Wellington; and Centerville (A) versus Loveland. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Wyoming | Upper Arlington Defeats Pickerington North
Chilly weather prevailed yesterday, but today will be warmer. There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 13, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. There were only a small number of close, 3-2 matches. They included: Wilmington defeated Centerville-B and Kenton Ridge beat Jonathan Alder. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
In the team tournament, Centerville defeated Walnut Hills; Upper Arlington beat Pickerington North; and Springboro defeated Bellbrook. Click for updated OTZ State Team Tournament Draws.
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Thomas Worthington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Thomas Worthington. They are coached by Andrew Sinclair. They are led by Kai Britz, Wil Newberry, and Stephen Jackman.
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus Sycamore; St. Ignatius (H) versus Hawken; St. Xavier (H) versus Indian Hill; Beechcroft (A) versus Whetstone; Ottawa Hills (A) versus Ada; and Teays Valley (H) versus Logan Elm.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
New Albany and Wellington Still #1 in OTZ Rankings
This is a substantial update today. The OTZ Team Rankings were updated and the Top Players / Watch List were substantially changed.
OTZ uses the exceptionally confusing, Matrix Report, to help determine rankings. This report provides the total game winning percentages of the matches. St. Xavier is the Rosetta Stone team thus far in D1. They have played New Albany (49% winning percentage), University School (63%), Dublin Jerome (63%), Olentangy Orange (66%), and Massillon Jackson (73%) but not all teams have not used their strongest line-ups in each of these matches. Massillon Jackson is also a great "comparison team".
State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams April 15, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. New Albany◄TEAM | Wellington◄TEAM |
| 2. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 3. Mason◄TEAM | Cincinnati Country Day◄TEAM |
| 4. Sycamore | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 5. University◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 6. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 7. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 8. Olentangy◄TEAM | Wyoming◄TEAM |
| 9. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 10. Dublin Coffman◄TEAM | Orange |
| HM: Olentangy Orange | Hawken◄TEAM |
| HM: St. Ignatius | Ottawa Hills |
| HM: Solon◄TEAM | Granville |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
The Top Players / Watch Lists were updated yesterday. While coaches' feedback is always welcome with these lists, "help" from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and non-friends is not. It is also important to point out that if OTZ does not have a player's results, then the player cannot be ranked. Equate it to the USTA system. A player could be extremely good, but if he does not play USTA matches then his results will not be collected and entered into that system and the player will not be ranked by the USTA (or by TennisRecruiting.net or UTR). (A part of the tournament entry fee goes to the maintenance of the USTA ranking system.) It is time consuming and expensive to obtain the scores and to enter them into the OTZ system. Because of that, players (or teams) outside of the Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Springfield areas need to become OTZ members and provide results. OTZ memberships are extremely affordable. If a player can participate in USTA matches, go to clinics, etc., then he can afford OTZ. If a player is a hardship case, exceptions will be made.
This is the first update to the OTZ player ranking lists since the 2018 graduates were removed, and the lists will grow in size. Currently, only 11 players are on the Top Players list and 24 on the Watch List. The Top Players list will increase to approximately 25 players before the end of the season. The Watch List will remain in the 22-27 player range. Note that all players initially start on the Watch List. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
There are numerous schools in the Southwest District that should be reporting their scores into the Cincinnati Enquirer but they apparently are not. While the print version of the Enquirer is somewhat sporadic in score reporting, the Enquirer is doing a great job of posting scores to their online edition. OTZ pays for subscriptions to both the Cincinnati Enquirer and Columbus Dispatch for scores.
As the team results were reviewed, numerous duplicate results were found. These will get cleaned up.
Now that I am officially on the Blue Jackets' bandwagon, I found how difficult it is to get productive work done during hockey games.. It is fun to watch though.
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (A) versus Pickerington North; Upper Arlington (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; St. Ignatius (A) versus Kenston; and Ada (A) versus Elida. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
St. X Beats UA and Academy | Massillon Jackson Defeats Wellington
The perfect, sunny weather yesterday had mothers scrambling for sunscreen for their sons. There were numerous matches involving OTZ Top Ten teams. They included: Massillon Jackson defeated Wellington; St. Xavier beat Upper Arlington and Columbus Academy; Sycamore defeated St. John's Jesuit; and Ursuline beat Canton Central Catholic.To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Academy's Suriya Sundaram - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Charlie Temming defeated Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa and Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram; Wellington's Trevor Ball beat Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; St. Xavier's Preston Stearns defeated Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds and Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat St. Johns Jesuit's Aiden Williams; and Wellington's Milan Gonela defeated Massillon Jackson's Cyprien Voisvenel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The OTZ computer is turn off during thunderstorms, but the plans are to update the Top Ten Teams and the Top Players Lists today.
The OSU women's tennis team play against Indiana today at 11:00.
SATURDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Olentangy Orange | Massillon Jackson Defeats UA
Friday was a busy night with some of the strongest teams in the state competing against each other. There were 26 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Fenwick defeated Lebanon; St. Charles beat Watkins Memorial (with three 3-setters); Ada defeated Marion Harding; Badin beat Monroe; Marysville defeated Westerville North; and Solon beat Mayfield. In matches involving OTZ Top Ten teams, St. Xavier defeated Olentangy Orange; Massillon Jackson beat Upper Arlington (included three 3-setters); and Sycamore defeated Cincinnati Country Day. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Ballinger - Click to enlarge |
Wolf - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated St. Xavier's Charlie Temming; Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes beat Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; St. Xavier's Preston Stearns defeated Olentangy Orange's Soham Pradhan; Sycamore's Chad Miller beat Cincinnati Country Day's Ashutosh Annapantula; Orange's Ilon Goldberg defeated West Geauga's Kevin Wenger; Massillon Jackson's Cyprien Voisvenel beat Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds; and Mayfield’s Yukun Wang defeated Solon's Thomas Liu. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The college tennis season is winding down and the Ohio State Women's team has their last home match on Sunday. Since it is expected to rain on Sunday, I took photos outdoors yesterday at the Purdue match. Photos today are of Andrea Ballinger, who is a senior from Columbus Academy, and Danielle Wolf, who is a RS junior from Cincinnati Country Day. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Additional photos were posted on Twitter (@OhioTennisZone). Note that the OTZ Twitter feed is also listed in the right-side navigation bar on the Team Lookup page.The OTZ Pre-season draws were exemplary, but some teams simply are not paying attention to the ranking and they are winning when they are not allowed to do so.. The draws will be updated soon and so will the OTZ Top Players list.
St. Xavier (A) versus Columbus Academy and Upper Arlington; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Wellington; and Solon (T) versus Hawken. Reynoldsburg also has their doubles tournament. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday #3 | New Albany Beats St. X
Yes, photo fans, this is another OTZ Photo Friday. This is the third (3) week in a row. (Past performance is no guarantee of future results.) Twenty-two photos were added. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos. The OTZ Top Ten'ish photos were updated a few days ago (and do not include any of the most recently added photos). Click to view the OTZ Top Ten Photos, and yes, "Mad Max" Gerber made the list.. (See April 1's blog entry.)
Ohio high school tennis had quality and quantity matches yesterday as New Albany defeated St. Xavier and Solon beat Walsh Jesuit. The New Albany vs. St. X match is the "Who cares about homework? We don't need no education." match of the year thus far by having four 3-setters. How close was the match? The OTZ graph is shown above.
There were 46 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 23, Southwest - 19, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Bellefontaine defeated Jonathan Alder; Shekinah Christian beat Ready; Fenwick defeated Chaminade-Julienne; Buckeye Valley beat Shelby; Northwestern defeated Tecumseh; Covington Catholic beat Indian Hill; and Marysville defeated Central Crossing. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watkins Memorial's Simon Blum - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated New Albany's Robert Cash; New Albany's Nathan Jose beat St. Xavier's Charlie Temming; Ursuline's Greg Morgione defeated Warren John F Kennedy's Armand Nannicola; St. Xavier's Preston Stearns beat New Albany's Devin Boyer; Dublin Jerome's Anish Patel defeated Hilliard Darby's Noah Adams; Loveland's Connor Ruble beat Moeller's Sam Schwartz; Solon's Thomas Liu defeated Walsh Jesuit's Caleb Miller; Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa beat Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark; Seven Hills' Max Yuan defeated Oakwood's Sam Lahmon; and Gahanna’s Aoi Higuchi beat Pickerington North’s Cole Alcala. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Ohio State Women's team plays two matches at home this weekend. They play against Purdue today (Friday) and against Indiana on Sunday.
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (A) versus Olentangy Orange; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Upper Arlington; University School (H) versus St. Ignatius; Solon (H) versus Mayfield; and Ada (A) versus Marion Harding. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Dublin Jerome Beats Olentangy | Covington Catholic Defeats Centerville
There were a large number of close matches yesterday. It is disturbing to see a growing number of defaulted courts in varsity matches. It would be interesting to know how often that happens in other high school sports.
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Dublin Jerome - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Mason's Niraj Komatineni defeated Lakota West's Nicholas Athans; Wellington's Trevor Ball beat Thomas Worthington's Stephen Jackman; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas defeated Olentangy's Sam Routzahn; Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram beat Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Covington Catholic’s Evan Gardner defeated Centerville’s Grant Smith; Olentangy's Omar Khayat beat Dublin Jerome's Anish Patel; Hawken's Neil Tewari defeated Beachwood's Ryan Muencz; Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie beat Pickerington Central's Brady Phelps; Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark defeated Logan Elm's Avery Clouse; and Worthington Kilbourne’s Owen Alderman beat Watterson's Chris Finissi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Dublin Jerome. They are coached by Ken Berlin. They are Team Members. They are led by Max Fickas, Anish Patel, and Daniel Utkin.
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Fickas' Opponents - Click to profile |
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus New Albany; St. Ignatius (A) versus University School; Ottawa Hills (A) versus Maumee Valley Country Day; Solon (H) versus Walsh Jesuit; Massillon Jackson (H) versus Canton McKinley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Solon Beats Chagrin Falls | Pickerington North Defeats Pickerington Central
Yesterday's windy conditions probably led to some interesting shots. There were 43 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 23, Southwest - 16, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Kettering Fairmont defeated Lebanon; Archbishop Alter beat Badin; Mariemont defeated Fenwick; DeSales beat Centennial; Olentangy Orange defeated Olentangy Liberty; Harrison beat Ross; Urbana defeated Jonathan Alder; Lancaster beat Grove City; and Walsh Jesuit defeated Hawken. In other prominent matches, Solon defeated Chagrin Falls; St. Xavier beat Centerville; and Pickerington North defeated Pickerington Central in their Civil War. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
The State Team Tournament Draws are updated as scores are reported. Click the link to view.
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Solon - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Solon. They are coached by Fredrik Nyborg. They are Team Members. They are led by Thomas Liu and Andy Lebowitz.
Most OTZ Player Profiles have now been setup. Those teams with OTZ Team Membership should check to insure that their players are ready to roll. Note that OTZ is awaiting player names from a few coaches for several OTZ photos.
Today's matches include: Thomas Worthington (A) versus Wellington; Solon (H) versus Strongsville; Loveland (H) versus Talawanda; Buckeye Valley (H) versus Marysville; and Ada (A) versus Bellefontaine. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Upper Arlington Beats Olentangy | St. Ignatius Defeats Walsh Jesuit
It was another ideal night as Ohio tennis continues to crank through its matches. There were 37 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 17, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Wellington defeated Dublin Coffman; Colerain beat Harrison; Greenville defeated St. Marys Memorial; Upper Arlington defeated Olentangy; Bexley beat St. Charles; Loveland defeated St. Xavier-B; Watkins Memorial beat Mount Vernon; Watterson defeated Logan Elm; Cincinnati Country Day beat Turpin; and Sidney defeated Kettering Fairmont. In other prominent matches, St. Ignatius defeated Walsh Jesuit; Hilliard Davidson defeated Hilliard Darby. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy's Omar Khayat - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Charles' Reece Yakubov defeated Bexley's Christian Roddy; Olentangy's Sam Routzahn beat Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; Wellington's Griffin Biernat defeated Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie; St. Ignatius' Nathaniel Day beat Walsh Jesuit's Miller; Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha defeated Turpin's Patrick Wantz; Olentangy's Omar Khayat beat Upper Arlington's Will Reynolds; Reynoldsburg's Boban Mihajlov defeated Dublin Scioto's Santhusht Prasad; and Logan Elm's Avery Clouse beat Watterson's Chris Finissi. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Things are really behind in OTZ land. Today will be spent setting up OTZ Player Profiles.
Today's matches include: St. Ignatius (H) versus North Canton Hoover; Solon (H) versus Chagrin Falls; Centerville (H) versus St. Xavier; Hilliard Davidson (A) versus Dublin Coffman; and Mason (A) versus Lakota East. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview with New Albany's Nathan Jose
OhioTennisZone's second interview of the season is with senior Nathan Jose. Jose is the defending Division I State Doubles Champion (with Devin Boyer) and he plays for New Albany.
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Nathan Jose in OHSAA Finals - Click to enlarge |
Jose's whole family plays tennis and he started playing at age four. His parents are Joel and Judy and it is best to get to know them away from their office.. Both are endodontists (root canal specialists). His brother, Jacob, is an eighth grader and he plays both tennis and lacrosse.
Jose received his tennis training from a number of different sources including New Albany Tennis Club (Steve Miller) and the CBUS Club with Ohio State coaches, Ty Tucker and Justin Kronauge. He also works with Balazs Novak as a hitting partner and as a match strategist. Novak helps Jose in creating patterns that will take advantage of his strengths. Jose's main weapons are his serve (as high as 130mph) and forehand.
While Mason was formidable in the team tournament last year, Jose's future college rivalry matches will be at a completely different level as his team takes on a branch of the United States military, and more specifically, the U.S. Navy. The good news for Jose is that he also joined the U.S. military by signing with Army. "I have committed to play tennis and pursue my education at West Point. The opportunities at West Point and in the Army are endless which I believe will set me up for success. I feel like the opportunity to serve my country is a privilege and something I do not take lightly. Throughout the college recruiting process, I was considering Ohio State, Notre Dame, Air Force and Navy." Jose is also looking forward to playing Navy's Jack Dabek [OTZ Player Profile] who is a 2018 St. Charles graduate.
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Nathan Jose @ Kalamazoo - Click to enlarge |
Jose did not play as many USTA matches this past year as he focused more on fitness to prepare him for West Point. He has also concentrated on training that will make him faster and more explosive in his movement.
As for his goals this year, Jose responded, "First and foremost, my team has come very close to winning a team state title every year, so to do that would be a great accomplishment. As far as individual [goals], the competition is tough, but my goal would be to try to win another state title." Jose will consult with New Albany Coach Marc Thomas later in the season before he determines whether to compete in singles or try for a repeat in doubles. Jose has played doubles for the past three years. Click for the state draws for 2018, 2017, and 2016.
As for the OTZ math / science or humanities question, Jose stated, "I would consider myself a humanities student because I enjoy history and English, which I excel in. I enjoy history because I like learning about events that have led up to the present day and I enjoy English because it's a subject that I can be creative with." He has taken two AP classes (English and Psychology) and three College Credit Plus classes (English, Law, and History). Jose plans to major in business management and economics in college.
As for the mandatory "How do you use OhioTennisZone?" question, Jose likes using OTZ for the draws.
In addition to tennis, Jose shared, "I have played the violin and golf since I was four as well. I also enjoy fitness training and playing lacrosse with my brother." One of his favorite violin selections is the classic, Czardas, but he also enjoys playing popular music. He does not yet know OTZ favorite, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", but he should have ample time to learn it before States.
OTZ asked Coach Thomas to say a few words about Jose. He stated, "Nathan has been a huge part of our program over the last three and half years. He has proven to be one of the best players in the state but more importantly, he has shown that he is also one of the best competitors as well. That really showed last year in the DI state doubles tournament when he and then freshman, Devin Boyer, faced a great St. Charles team in the finals who they had lost to just the week before. Down a set and 5-2 in the second, many players would have been overwhelmed by the situation. It would have been easy to let frustration or disappointment take over but Nathan and Devin were able to battle their way back in one of the best comebacks in which I have been a part of. The way Nathan stepped up and managed the pressure throughout the match showed a lot about his character and created one of the biggest moments in New Albany Tennis history."
Outside of tennis, Jose shared, "I am a member of National Honors Society where we do many different service projects. In past years, I have volunteered for Buddy Up Tennis in my area." Buddy Up Tennis has been familiar service project for numerous high school players interviewed by OTZ. Jose does his service hours at Wickertree Tennis. A typical clinic runs for two hours and he works with players that range in age from 10 to 25.
In addition to this interview, Jose spoke with TennisRecruiting.com's Rhiannon Potkey in November. Click to read this excellent interview titled, "Salute to Service: Four Star Jose Pledges to Army".
SUNDAY,
Mason Beats New Albany and Upper Arlington | St. X Defeated Jerome
In early April, Ohio boys tennis is fortunate when Saturday matches can even be played at all. Yesterday's weather had people wondering where their sun block was. There were tournaments and great dual match-ups played.
In tournaments, Ottawa Hills won their invitational, followed by Sylvania Northview. Watkins Memorial won the Reynoldsburg Doubles Tournament and Newark was second.
There were 10 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 4, Northeast - 0, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Jerome defeated University School; Olentangy beat Massillon Jackson; and New Albany defeated Sycamore. In other prominent matches, St. Xavier defeated Dublin Jerome; University School beat Cincinnati Country Day; and Mason defeated New Albany and Upper Arlington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Mason's Niraj Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
OTZ traveled near and far and farther to watch and take photos yesterday. The day started at Reynoldsburg, followed by New Albany, and then Olentangy. And because this is what makes Ohio high school tennis so interesting, the Olentangy versus Massillon Jackson match was decided with a third set tiebreaker on 3rd singles.
The Ohio State Women play against Minnesota today. Dublin Jerome's Caitlyn Merzbacher is expected to play for Minnesota.
SATURDAY,
Mason Defeats Massillon Jackson | St. Xavier Beats University School
It was a busy Friday evening. There were 14 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Grove City defeated Marysville; DeSales beat Whetstone; Loveland defeated Seven Hills; Middletown beat Princeton; and Ada defeated Van Wert. In other prominent matches, Mason defeated Massillon Jackson; St. Xavier beat University School; and Ursuline defeated Lakeview. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jonathan Alder - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Jonathan Alder. They are coached by Ryan Swinehart. They are lead by Riley Woods, Dominic Gantz, and Jacob Zang.
There are USTA Level 3 tournaments taking place today in Wooster (B18) and Toledo (B16). (See OTZ calendar.) That will affect some line-ups.
There is quite a bit of tennis scheduled for today. New Albany, Mason, Sycamore, and Upper Arlington will be playing a quad match at New Albany. It looks like University School, Dublin Jerome, Cincinnati Country Day, and St. Xavier will be playing at St. Xavier. Other matches include: Ada (A) versus Lexington and Massillon Jackson (A) versus Olentangy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | Columbus Academy Beats Upper Arlington
It was another big night for matches despite the rain that was called for earlier in the week. And now, for perhaps the first time ever, there are two OTZ Photo Friday's in a row.
There were 41 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 22, Southwest - 17, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Goshen defeated Northwest; Granville beat Watkins Memorial; Bexley defeated Watterson; Ross beat Finneytown; Columbus Academy defeated Upper Arlington; Grandview beat Whetstone; Pleasant defeated Buckeye Valley; Marion Harding beat Shelby; and Delaware Hayes defeated Dublin Scioto. In other prominent matches, Dublin Jerome defeated Thomas Worthington and Cincinnati Country Day beat Seven Hills. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jerome's Max Fickas - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, New Albany's Nathan Jose defeated Pickerington Central's Brady Phelps; Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha beat Seven Hills' Max Yuan; Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman defeated Upper Arlington's Paige Kompa; Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz beat Dublin Jerome's Daniel Utkin; Olentangy's Sam Routzahn defeated Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark; Preble Shawnee’s Elliott beat Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh; Bexley's Christian Roddy defeated Watterson's Chris Finissi; Columbus Academy's Suriya Sundaram beat Upper Arlington's Emerson Dean; Hawken's Neil Tewari defeated Orange's Rahul Krishnan; and Logan Elm's Avery Clouse beat Bloom-Carroll's Logan Miller.Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
It is OTZ Photo Friday. There were 23 new photos added from matches that took place from Monday through Wednesday of this week. Click to view the Most Recently Added Photos. Now that there are a few more photos from which to choose, the OTZ Top Ten(ish) Photos will be updated soon.
The Ohio State Women's team is #21 in the nation and they will be playing at home this weekend. They have a match against Wisconsin today and against Minnesota on Sunday. Check first for the location before heading to the courts.
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus University School; Centerville (H) versus Miami Valley; Loveland (A) versus Seven Hills; Mason (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and Ursuline (H) versus Lakeview. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
University School Beats Massillon Jackson | Wellington Defeats Olentangy Orange
All of this great weather has gotten to be a bit ridiculous. If we wanted good weather all of the time, then we would move to San Diego. It is time to get back to Ohio weather. There have been almost 3x more matches played this year versus last year. OTZ needs rainy (or snowy) weather to catch-up..
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Hilliard Davidson's Jack Kamnikar - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Wellington's Trevor Ball defeated Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden; St. Charles' Reece Yakubov beat Thomas Worthington's Kai Britz; St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated Springboro's Sainandan Dore; University School's Chas Norman beat Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; Wellington's Griffin Biernat defeated Olentangy Orange's Siham Pradhan; University School's Charlie Joranko beat Massillon Jackson's Sam Yu; Olentangy's Sam Routzahn defeated Pickerington North's Cole Alcala; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Hilliard Davidson's Ethan Clark; and Ottawa Hills' Matthew McGee defeated Sylvania Northview's Anish Karnani. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's matches include: St. Ignatius (A) versus Copley; Thomas Worthington (H) versus Dublin Jerome; Centerville (H) versus Wayne; Milton-Union (A) versus Preble Shawnee; Ada (H) versus Wapakoneta; and Watterson (A) versus Bexley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Dublin Coffman Beats Olentangy Orange
Ok. Now we are firing on all eight cylinders. (At some point in the future, the previous sentence will be changed to "in Tesla's Ludicrous mode".) There were 45 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 22, Southwest - 18, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Dublin Coffman defeated OTZ #7 Olentangy Orange; Bloom-Carroll defeated Fisher Catholic; Worthington Christian defeated Grandview; Delaware Hayes defeated Hilliard Darby; Newark defeated Lancaster; and Lakota West defeated Oak Hills. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Worthington Christian's Peter Tsibouris - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, New Albany's Robert Cash defeated Gahanna's Aoi Higuchi; Mason's Niraj Komatineni beat Lakota West's Athans; Olentangy Orange's Alex Heiden defeated Dublin Coffman's Luke Ritchie; Ursuline's Greg Morgione beat Boardman's Olsen; Cincinnati Country Day's Manav Midha defeated Summit Country Day's Locke; Dublin Jerome's Max Fickas beat Worthington Kilbourne's Owen Alderman; and Reynoldsburg's Boban Mihajlov defeated Westerville South's Anthony Vilardo. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. Many rosters have not yet been updated so it has been difficult to find first names.
I'm now officially in bunker mode as I try to keep up with changes and catch-up on matches that were not entered previously. If you need something from me and it has been a couple of days, please ping me again. (This also applies to the OTZ wife and the OTZ dog but I don't think either reads this web site despite their free OTZ memberships.)
There are some major "heavy-hitter" matches tonight. Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Springboro; Upper Arlington (A) versus Columbus Academy; University School (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Thomas Worthington (A) versus St. Charles; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Dublin Jerome; and Centerville (H) versus Oakwood. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
New Albany Beat Olentangy | St. Ignatius Defeats Westlake
A perfect (but chilly) day allowed Ohio to record 39 matches from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Pickerington North defeated Logan Elm; Anderson beat Turpin; Thomas Worthington defeated Upper Arlington-B; Wilmington beat Lebanon; Talawanda defeated Oak Hills; Kenton Ridge beat Bellefontaine; and Ada defeated St. Marys Memorial. Among the OTZ Top Ten Teams, New Albany defeated Olentangy. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Wellington's Trevor Ball - Click to enlarge |
Hopefully everyone survived the day yesterday. It can be a difficult day for many. In the awkward timing department, the Columbus-area lacrosse team, Ohio Machine, announced that they would not be competing this year. Some thought that it was a poorly done April Fools' joke. Unfortunately, it was not.
Pickleball is absolutely becoming a major force in racquet sports. In an article in Tennis Industry News, it stated how growth in pickleball has increased over 30% over the last three years. The major racquet manufacturers have also taken note -- 132 new pickleball paddles were sent to pickleball's governing body (USAPA) for approval. Of the three racquet sports that I care about, tennis is by far the most difficult to learn, followed by platform tennis, and then pickleball. From a workout perspective, tennis and platform tennis are similar and both offer a much better workout than pickleball. From a social perspective, pickleball and platform tennis are similar and both are better than tennis. From an expense standpoint, pickleball is the most economical, followed by outdoor tennis, platform tennis, and then indoor tennis.
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Oak Hills; Hilliard Davidson (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; St. Ignatius (A) versus Avon Lake; Grandview (A) versus Worthington Christian; Centerville (H) versus Northmont. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
High School Tennis to Switch to High School Pickleball
It was going to happen eventually, but did it have to happen this soon? The OSHAA announced this morning that Ohio high school tennis will be switching to Ohio high school pickleball. A OSHAA spokesperson stated, "We tested the concept in the Northern Southern League and almost everyone was ecstatic." He added, "The cost of entry for players is lower thanks to the relatively low cost of a paddle. The paddle, which does not contain strings, will never need to be restrung, and the balls will last the entire season. While the sport will be played outdoors, school gyms can be used during inclement weather. The court itself is smaller so that may encourage some schools with insufficient land to build courts and start teams." The change will not occur until Fall 2019.
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Maxine Regal - Click to enlarge |
How do the players feel about the change. It has been somewhat mixed. On a positive note, Bloomingburg's Noah Storm commented, "My parents are millennials and they struggled to warm up Hot Pockets for us to eat for Thanksgiving dinner. Mad Max (actually Bloomingburg's Maxine Regal) makes real food for us to eat after the matches. We had lasagna, apple salad, and five different types of pie. She made enough food for both teams and the fans. She then helped us learn how to write in cursive."
It's not always positive though. One student, who wanted to remain anonymous, stated, "The older players stick together. I drop-shotted Ethel Graves from Liberty Burton and then I laughed about it. Max found out, and my plans to eat strawberry-rhubarb pie came to an abrupt end when she tossed a few carrots my way and told me to man-up."
Can the older generation play? Apparently yes. Many older players have upgraded their knee replacements to Gen 3 Turbo Knees. This gives them explosive movement to some of the shorter balls. John di Falt commented, "Some show up using walkers just to get in our heads and then they carry them back to their bus when they leave." He added, "Pandora's Mildred Graber sent a laser shot into my right hip. I couldn't get my paddle on it and I couldn't get out of the way. If a younger player did that to one of them, we would not get to eat pie for the rest of the season."
The wide disparity in ages does lead to some laughs though. di Falt shared, "Max suggested that we move team communications from Twitter to something called Facebook because that's what her generation uses. Even the coach joined in the laughter about that." Max still had the last laugh when she took home five uneaten pies.
While the workout level of pickleball is lower than tennis, it is still infinitely more strenuous than a round of golf. While this is likely to change around this time next year, golf is still considered a high school sport in Ohio.
Nearby airports and passing jets have complained about the noise that pickleball matches make, but advances in technology are expected to drop the decibel level to just triple the threshold of pain. Many golf clubs are also now planning to place pickleball courts in the middle of golf courses so that they do not bother those playing sports, such as tennis.
Just to get everyone into the swing of things, OhioTennisZone will be now be renamed to OhioPickleZone.
Will all tennis courts be eliminated and/or switched to pickleball courts? Big Pickle will make that decision soon.
Happy Holiday.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore Beats Massillon Jackson | UA Defeats CCD
Yesterday was a rain-out but there were still a couple of scores reported. Sycamore defeated Massillon Jackson, and in a match actually played on Friday night, Upper Arlington defeated Cincinnati Country Day. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
There will be a big announcement made tomorrow so please make sure that you tune-in..
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Upper Arlington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Upper Arlington. They are coached by Will Thieman. They are Team Members, and they are led by Will Reynolds and Paige Kompa.
In addition to a bunch of basketball today, Roger Federer plays John Isner at the Miami Open; Francesca Di Lorenzo plays Kayla Day in the Volvo Car Open; the OSU Men play Minnesota; and the OSU Women play UM.
SATURDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Massillon Jackson | 7 Hills Defeats MVS
Wet weather, plus a Friday schedule, led to a small number of matches recorded yesterday. There were nine matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4 and Southwest - 4. The close, 3-2 matches included: Walnut Hills defeated Talawanda; Pickerington Central beat Waverly; and Seven Hills defeated Miami Valley School. In other OTZ Top Ten Team competition, Xavier defeated Massillon Jackson. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy Liberty - Click to team page |
Among the top players,St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes; Miami Valley School's Niyanth Reddy beat Seven Hills' Max Yuan; Bolles School’s Louis Ballantyne defeated Columbus Academy's Arie Tuckerman; and Waverly's Branden Nibert beat Pickerington Central's Stang. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Olentangy Liberty. They are coached by Josh Matusky. They are led by Vishnu Bodavula and Marcelo Aguilar.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Miamisburg and Upper Arlington (A) versus Indian Hill.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday | Kilbourne Beats Pickerington North
Yesterday was another nice tennis day and today is the first OTZ Photo Friday of the 2019 Boys Tennis Season.
Today may be damper, but yesterday was great (again). For those who like comparisons, Ohio high school tennis has played almost double (93%) the number of matches this year versus last year. Of course, last year was the wettest on record for the Columbus-area so hopefully this comparson only gets better.
There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 10, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lakota East defeated Lakota West in an unholy civil war of a tennis match; Worthington Kilbourne beat Pickerington North; Pickerington Central defeated Watkins Memorial; Badin beat Northwest; and Moeller defeated La Salle. In the State Team Tournament, Chaminade-Julienne defeated Monroe. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Bexley's Leo Schottenstein - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated Elder's Matthew Meade; Bexley's Christian Roddy beat Lancaster's Chris Kirchgessner; Sycamore's Samuel Marcus defeated Colerain's Kadin Rioux; St. Xavier's Charlie Temming beat Elder's Andrew Meade; Milton-Union's Nathan Brumbaugh defeated Kettering Fairmont's Dotsenko; and Milton-Union's Nick Brumbaugh beat Kettering Fairmont's Fantaci. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is the first photo Friday of the boys season. You can count on seeing the latest and greatest OTZ photos every single Friday taken during the week. [Seriously? Really? This is what's promised every single season and then it rarely happens.] So you can set your watch [but don't hold your breath] that OTZ will deliver these photos for your viewing pleasure every Friday.. Sign-in and click on Most Recently Added Photos.
Stay tuned for a big [Ok. This actually is big.] announcement on Monday.
The #1 D1 Men's tennis team in the nation, Ohio State, will have two home matches this weekend. OSU plays Wisconsin today (Friday) at 6pm and on Sunday at noon against Minnesota. Both matches are scheduled to take place outdoors, but double check before you go to a match. Admission is free.
Several teams in the OTZ Top Ten will be competing today. Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Upper Arlington (A) versus Cincinnati Country Day; Ada (A) versus Ottawa-Glandorf; and Milton-Union (A) versus Kenton Ridge. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Upper Arlington Beats Bexley
It was another perfect weather night (and this sentence will never get old).. There were 19 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 0. The close, 3-2 matches included: Anderson defeated Lakota East; Fairborn beat Middletown; Watkins Memorial defeated Centennial; Tecumseh beat Greenville; Lehman Catholic defeated Lima Central Catholic; and Upper Arlington beat Bexley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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UA's Paige Kompa - Click to enlarge |
Even though I am not a fan of the Upper Arlington sign-age*, this time the sign-age saved me time. I did not have to type Paige's name on today's photo.. (Paige and her sister, Olivia, won the State Girls D1 Doubles championship in 2015.)
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Elder; Milton-Union (H) versus Kettering Fairmont; Centerville (H) versus Troy; and Ursuline (H) versus Cardinal Mooney. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
*It is a very distracting background, plus my camera's auto-focus occasionally locks onto the lettering, which makes the lettering clear and the players blurry.
WEDNESDAY,
Worthington Kilbourne Beats Olentangy Liberty
The season is revving up quickly now. There were 23 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Fenwick defeated Carroll; Worthington Kilbourne beat Olentangy Liberty; Wapakoneta defeated Lehman Catholic; River Valley beat Buckeye Valley; and Ada defeated Shawnee. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Liberty's Vishnu Bodavula - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Xavier's Ronit Hiryur defeated La Salle's Nolan Blessing and Ursuline's Greg Morgione beat Salem's Matheus Andrades. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
News articles are starting to come online. Here's an article from the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jon Richardson about the top teams in Cincinnati.
Today's matches include: Upper Arlington (H) versus Bexley; Ursuline (A) versus Warren G Harding; Beechcroft (A) versus Mifflin; Bloom-Carroll (A) versus Pickerington Central; Grandview (H) versus Hamilton Township; Newark (A) versus Teays Valley; and Teays Valley (H) versus Newark. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Wet Day to Start the Week
Wet weather in much of Ohio limited the number of matches played yesterday. The Central District was completely rained out and the Cincinnati Enquirer posted no scores. Of the three matches recorded, Lehman Catholic defeated Kenton Ridge; Poland Seminary beat Warren Harding; and Greenville defeated Wapakoneta. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Upcoming Matches - Click to report |
Things are s_l_o_w_l_y getting started in high school tennis. The combination of wet weather and spring breaks means that the amount of new information is lacking. With the weather clearing, hopefully things will pick up today.
OTZ Member Coaches are encouraged to include their schedules online on OTZ so that fans know when matches are to take place. These matches will be presented via List of Upcoming Matches in the "Tennis Statistics / Info" drop-down menu.
Today's matches include: Milton-Union (A) versus Beavercreek; Ada (A) versus Shawnee (Lima); Beechcroft (A) versus London; Buckeye Valley (A) versus River Valley (Caledonia); Newark (A) versus Zanesville; and Teays Valley (A) versus Logan.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone's Twitter Feed | Massillon Jackson Beats St. John's Jesuit
While the OhioTennisZone web site is where most of the emphasis is placed during the tennis season, the @OhioTennisZone Twitter account is another major source of information and photos. This is especially the case during this time of the year when there is interesting information to share (i.e. college matches) but no place on OTZ for it to reside. (For example, there is not a good place on OTZ to include University of Iowa's player photos.)
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OTZ Twitter Posts - Click to report |
As with any form of social media, Twitter can be very time consuming. Normally, adults (other than me) can manage this, but it may consume too much of a teenager's time. To enable tennis fans to view OTZ posts without joining Twitter, OTZ is experimenting with sharing a feed of its postings in the right-hand navigation bar of the Team Lookup Page. Click to view.
If your team has an OTZ Team Membership, OTZ is also experimenting with including the team's Twitter feed on its team page. For example, click to view Mason's Twitter feed in its right-hand navigation bar. Contact OTZ via Feedback or email if your team is interested in including its Twitter feed.
There was one high school match played yesterday. Massillon Jackson defeated St. John's Jesuit, 4-1. In that match, St. Johns Jesuit's Aiden Williams defeated Massillon Jackson's Arjun Shanmugam and Massillon Jackson's Alex Drewes beat St. John's Jesuit's Drew Allen.
Just two matches are scheduled for today. St. Xavier (A) will play LaSalle and Teays Valley (H) plays Whetstone.
SUNDAY,
Centerville-B Defeats Ada
While the box scores in the newspapers were full of baseball and softball results, there was just one tennis score from yesterday. That was too bad, too, because it was a perfect day for tennis. (Well, at least for a March day, it was perfect.) There was just one match recorded - Centerville-B defeated Ada. To view the results in graphical form, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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OSU Softball - Click to enlarge |
In that match, Ada's Cade Mullins defeated Centerville-B's Kunal Panwar and Ada's Isaac Spar beat Centerville-B's Mir Ali.
With no local tennis matches to attend, OTZ shifted to OSU Softball where OSU beat Indiana 5-3. It was a fun game and kids were everywhere. While there was certainly intensity, it was a much different vibe [photo] than with college tennis.
The OSU Women's tennis team faces Iowa today at home at noon. It is expected to be played outside, but please double check before you leave for the match.
SATURDAY,
Off to a Slow Start
The good news is that the Ohio high school tennis season is underway. The bad news is that cold, windy, wet weather (or spring in Ohio) resulted in just four matches being recorded. All of the matches were played in the Southwest District. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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MSU's Nicholas Williams - Click to enlarge |
The Top Players and those on the Watch List remain the same as they ended last spring. The lists look really sparse because 22 players graduated in 2018. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The first State Team Tennis match was played yesterday. The State Team Tournament Draws will be at the top of this page throughout the season. To save fans with lookup time, any time the draws are updated, the date and time of the change will be included at the top of the page (i.e. March 23, 2019 9:30am). Yesterday, Turpin beat Wilmington.As mentioned yesterday, OTZ looks awful as the season begins. There are a large number of changes that take place as the data from the 2017-2018 season is shifted into the background. Things will quickly look better as more matches are played.
Seven Hills' and Michigan State's Nicholas Williams was in Columbus yesterday as the Buckeyes took on the Spartans. Nick was the D2 State Singles Champion in 2017. (Click for draw.) While normally in the line-up, Williams could not compete against Ohio State yesterday because of a muscle strain. Because Williams was in town, yesterday was "Who's from Cincinnati?" Day. Cincinnati's and OSU's JJ Wolf [photo] and John McNally [photo] competed on courts 1 and 2, respectively. OSU won the match 7-0. The OSU Men travel to play the University of Michigan on Sunday.
The Ohio State Women's team takes on Iowa at home on Sunday (March 24) at noon. If you have a young daughter interested in tennis (or you are interested in having her start tennis), take her to the match tomorrow. It is free and you can come and go when you wish. It will either be at the indoor courts on Henderson Road or at the outdoor courts on Olentangy River Road. While their concession stand is inferior to Mason's, they do offer food. Did you notice the word, free?
There was just one match on the schedule today. Ada (A) will play against Centerville-B. OTZ Coach Members are encouraged to enter their schedules online.
FRIDAY,
OHSAA Match Play Begins Today
OHSAA match play begins today in Ohio. Unlike the girls season when all of the teams begin at the same time, the boys season is a bit chaotic due to the timing of the spring breaks and the inclement weather. So far this season, the weather has been cooperative (for Ohio) and many teams have been able to play outdoors.
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Watterson's Chris Finissi - Click to enlarge |
OhioTennisZone.com will be in ugly duckling mode for a few days as last year's results roll off and this year's information is slowly added. If you encounter anything that looks crazy bad, please submit a Feedback.
The photo of Watterson's Chris Finissi was taken during Watterson's practice earlier this week.
Today's matches include: Solon (H) versus Green and Teays Valley (H) versus Whetstone.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ Interview with Mason's Niraj Komatineni
At the beginning of each boys season OhioTennisZone interviews Ohio's top senior players. The first interview this year is with Mason's Niraj Komatineni.
Komatineni has excelled in the Southwest District for the last three years and this year should be no exception. When asked about his team goals, he stated, "The goals for this season are sky high. As defending team state champions, I am hoping we can make it out of the southwest, back to the final four, and become back to back state champions. Before that however, we want to win the coaches classic and then the GMC. Our team is young, but I think we have the leadership and the talent to give us a shot at it."
For his personal goals, "My goals are to push everyone on my team to keep improving and hopefully help the underclassmen grow as people and tennis players. I also hope to win the Coaches Classic and the GMC tournament at first singles, as well as making it back to the OHSAA Singles State Tournament. There are a lot of great players in the state, especially Robert Cash from New Albany, but my goal is still to win the state tournament."
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Mason's Niraj Komatineni - Click to enlarge |
Komatineni has been a fixture at States. As a freshman (2016), he teamed up with Sean Reid to place fourth in doubles. He reached the second round in singles in 2017, and he was a finalist in singles last year (2018). Each run at States has been thwarted by that same player mentioned above. Click on the above years for the draws.
Tennis is a family thing for the Komatineni's. "I've been playing tennis since I was really young. My dad, brother, and I would go to our neighborhood court or a nearby park and hit a few balls. However, I didn't start actually practicing till I was 8 or 9 when I started taking private lessons with Lynn Nabors McNally. My dad plays tennis about twice a week and he loves to watch the game. My brother played two years of high school tennis and retired as captain of the JV team." His father, Venkat Komatineni, is with GE Power and his mother is Mona Bhatia. She works with Cintas. His brother, Suraj, is a freshman at Ohio State, pursuing a degree in biomedical science. Komatineni trains at Harper's Point and he regularly hits with Lynn's daughter, Caty McNally, when she is in Cincinnati.He considered a number of schools prior to selecting Brown University. "I chose to play tennis there because when I visited I really loved the coaches and the team. They were really accommodating, and they were people I could see myself being around and being happy with for the next four years. I was looking for a competitive academic school where I could get both a world class education as well as continuing to play tennis at a high level. I looked at other schools in the Ivy league like University of Pennsylvania and Columbia as well as some Big Ten schools like Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan State, and Indiana. Part of my college selection process was realizing that I probably only have four years of tennis left and I wanted to go somewhere I could make an impact in the lineup almost right away." His plans to play early-on in Brown's line-up certainly look achievable. Komatineni is ranked 46th in the nation on TennisRecruiting.net and he currently has a UTR of 12.45. Just three players on the current Brown roster, sport higher UTR's. Click for the current Brown roster and their UTR's.
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Komatineni @Zoo '17- Click to enlarge |
As for the OTZ question "Are you a math/science or humanities guy?" Komatineni answered the question correctly. "I am definitely more of a math and sciences guy. At Brown I plan on doing Applied Math - Economics. It's one major that is towards mathematical finance. In high school I have enjoyed the math and sciences classes a lot more. I have taken 12 AP Courses throughout high school with five of them being math/science. My favorite AP's were AP Chem, AP Calculus and AP Micro and Macroeconomics. To me, math and sciences have just come more natural to me and I like looking at numbers and stats when it comes to sports and maybe that's rubbed off on me a little."
While using OhioTennisZone, he said, "I like to see the top players results you put on OTZ after every match day. I think its neat that you rank all the players and if I'm being honest I looked at the rankings every week my freshman year to see if I moved up or not."
As for tennis shots that we are likely to see from Komatineni this year, he's been working on attacking more with his forehand and following it into the net. When asked about his weapons, he replied "I would say my biggest weapons are my speed and my serve. I also feel like my composure on court has helped me a lot over the years. Rather than getting mad after missing a few balls I like to think that I can regroup and make adjustments." His serve speed clocks in at approximately 100-110mph.
For service-related activities, "I volunteer regularly with Buddy Up Tennis, an organization that assists people with down syndrome in physical fitness and learning tennis. I've been volunteering with them for three years now and its been a life changing experience. I have been able to watch the kids grow and develop their coordination and fitness." He does this volunteer work at Harper's Point.
Mason coach, Mike Reid, offered this about Komatineni. "Great kid. Hard worker. Always striving to improve. Makes everyone around him better. He really gets high school tennis."
Following their spring break, the Mason team starts their season on April 2 against Oak Hills.
TUESDAY,
Outside!
It was only a matter of time, but the weather is finally starting to improve and teams have officially "gone outside". Most teams will be able to practice outdoors from now until the first matches take place on March 22.
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Click for Sale |
The "15% off clearance items sale" ended on March 15, but the 10% off clearance sale continues on OhioTennisZone.com. (Midwest Sports is the official source of OTZ's eclectic tennis shoe collection.) Make sure that you use the code GERBER when making the order. OTZ benefits from each sale.
The 2018 graduates have been removed from the team rosters. Fans like to see which players have graduated from their teams, especially as past records are reviewed, but it is time for moving on.. Over 500 players were removed from the rosters. If a player has graduated but they are still displayed in the roster, please contact OTZ via Feedback. Last year's results will continue to be included until immediately before 2019 matches begin.
MONDAY,
And Away We Go Wait...
It is no big surprise but the weather will be cold for the first week of the high school boys tennis season. Most teams will have to wait it out until conditions improve. Others will do conditioning drills in the gym. A few teams with ample budgets will go indoors (if they can find an indoor facility that has available courts).
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UA Courts on 3/3/2019 - Click to enlarge |
The high temperatures for the next five days in Columbus are: Monday - 25, Tuesday - 22, Wednesday - 24, Thursday - 30, Friday - 36. Temperatures are expected to increase into the 40's beginning on Saturday and into next week.
This photo was taken yesterday afternoon at the Upper Arlington courts.
WEDNESDAY,
Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The State Team Draws were determined on Sunday at the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Meeting. The top four teams in each district were seeded by the coaches.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to to draws |
The draws are available at the top of this page and they will remain there throughout the season. As with everything else on OTZ, the goal is to enable high school tennis fans to quickly obtain the information they need rather than to maximize OTZ clicks and page views. As indicated in the four features that are circled: 1) the most recent update date is included; 2) the navigation links allow users to quickly jump throughout the draw; 3) the Team designation means that a Team Membership was purchased and that all of the individual player information is available via their OTZ Player Profiles; and 4) the team links are "click-able" to enable fans to do more research. For the best experience, sign-in to OTZ first. The goal is to keep the draws rigorously updated throughout the season. Click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament - Click to enlarge |
The number of boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year but there has been a steady decline over the last five years. This season, there were 119 teams. The number of boys teams participating by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; and 2019 - 119. As is shown in the graph, the Northwest District has had the most stable number of participants, and the Northeast has the most teams competing. There are approximately 411 OHSAA boys tennis teams which means that 29% of the teams are competing in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
TUESDAY,
USTA Midwest Level 2 at Wickertree
It was a rare occurrence but Columbus juniors finally got to play a "home" match in a USTA Midwest Level 2 tournament. Columbus-area players normally go hither and yon to Wisconsin, Chicago, Cincinnati, Michigan, and everywhere other than Columbus to compete in these high-level tournaments. These tournaments are already expensive ($123 entry fee), but Columbus-area players must also incur additional hotel, travel, restaurant, and "time" expenses whenever they want to compete, unlike players who live in other areas of the Midwest. Overall, USTA Midwest holds about 150 of these high level tournaments. Columbus needs at least four or five each year. The Toledo-area fields ten of them. The Cincinnati-area offers 13. Columbus has one (1). That's right. One.
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St. Xavier's Preston Stearns- Click to enlarge |
Columbus-area clubs that have active and lucrative adult and junior tennis programs are not eager to offer these tournaments because they make less money on these junior tournaments and because it can irritate their normal clientele. But other clubs in the Midwest have obviously found a way to deal with this. Clubs that provide these tournaments in Cincinnati include Five Seasons (2 tournaments), Queen City (3), Western Tennis & Fitness (6), and Riverside (2). Toledo-area clubs include: The Twos (4), Shadow Valley (3), and Perrysburg (3). Sometimes clubs will split the load by having portions of the draws at more than one club. Just as tennis fans travel to the Western & Southern Open and to the Ohio State University matches to watch great tennis, I saw older folks (who were probably some of the regular Wickertree clientele) enjoying high-level junior tennis at Wickertree yesterday.
The USTA also needs to recognize how Columbus juniors (and their parents) are at a significant disadvantage to other areas of the Midwest and they need to work with the clubs to find a solution. Perhaps clubs in other areas of the Midwest that are less active can be used for tournaments in the winter, and clubs with thriving, active memberships can be used in the spring and summer when there is less demand for indoor courts? If Columbus-area clubs are being penalized for some reason by the USTA, then the USTA needs to understand that they are actually penalizing the parents and players. And while it may take a while, parents and juniors in Columbus will eventually gravitate to other sports and activities as they slowly realize that they are being slighted.
There were seven Columbus-area players competing versus four last year when this tournament was held in Cincinnati. There were a total of 17 Ohio players included in the draw this year versus 14 last year. The locations, number of participants, and costs for 2019 and previous years for this B16 event are included in the table. There was no similar tournament held in 2014.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Year | Location | # Ohio Players (Total) | # of Columbus-Area Players | Cost | Link |
| 2019 | Columbus (Wickertree) | 17 |
7 |
$123.05 |
Tournament |
| 2018 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 14 |
4 |
$106.93 |
Tournament |
| 2017 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 13 |
2 |
$90.80 |
Tournament |
| 2016 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 16 |
4 |
$90.80 |
Tournament |
| 2015 | Cincinnati (Queen City) | 24 |
9 |
$90.80 |
Tournament |
Players from Ohio who competed in the Wickertree Tournament include: Devin Boyer (Columbus-area), Sainandan Dore, Max Fickas (Columbus-area), Anish Gangavaram, Akshay Joshi, Mark Karev, Vincent Knott, Benjamin Martin, Chad Miller (photo), Ryan Mudre (Columbus-area), Soham Pradhan, Sam Routzahn (Columbus-area), Preston Stearns (champion), Charlie Temming (finalist) (photo), Pavan Uppu (Columbus-area), Reece Yakubov (Columbus-area) (photo), and Andrew Zimcosky. Stearns is a freshman and Temming is a sophomore at St. Xavier. (Look below for the team rankings.) For players with OTZ player profiles, click on their links. Click on photo links to view an action photos from the Wickertree tournament.
There are two more major (Level 3) tournaments coming up prior to the OHSAA Non-Interscholastic Date. The next B16 is being held on March 9-10 in Grandville, MI (Northern Michigan) and another one on April 6-7 in Toledo. (See OTZ calendar.)
Tennis is already an expensive sport, both in terms of money and time, and there are more and more alternatives and activities from which kids and parents can choose. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. Columbus-area parents and players need a solution for this.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams (beta release)
It is time for another edition of the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams lists. As is often the case, there are several top level teams that are clearly in contention for State Team Champion. The rankings and the rational behind the rankings are listed below. They are all subject to tweaking if players decide not to play (or to play) Ohio high school tennis this spring. The OTCA meetings which are being held on Sunday and Monday (February 24-25) normally reveal some surprises.
OhioTennisZone.com Pre-Season State Top Ten Boys Tennis Teams February 22, 2019 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. New Albany◄TEAM | Wellington School◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Col. Academy◄TEAM |
| 3. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Cin. Country Day◄TEAM |
| 4. Sycamore◄TEAM | Ursuline◄TEAM |
| 5. University School◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 6. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 7. Olentangy Orange | Wyoming◄TEAM |
| 8. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Lexington |
| 9. Olentangy◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Miami Valley School |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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In D1, New Albany, Mason, St. Xavier, and Sycamore will be the four toughest teams to beat. Other teams will need to rely on their depth or freshman to win.
Division I
#1 New Albany starts at the #1 position. They will have a super strong 1-2-3-4 as they return State Singles Champion, Robert Cash, and State Doubles Champions, Joel Jose - Devin Boyer. They also have Ryan Mudre returning who was a state singles qualifier.
#2 The defending State Team champion, Mason, is shnuless this year, losing Vishnu Srinath to graduation (as well as Shashank Reddy and Diego Cepeda), but all is not lost.. They do return State Singles Finalist, Niraj Komatineni as well as Pranav Viswanathan, Aneesh Zutshi, and Sam King. Mason also picks up three highly ranked freshman, Vignesh Gogineni, Anish Gangavaram, and Akshay Joshi. Mason is expected to re-re-infinity-peat as the top tennis concession stand provider in Ohio.
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New Albany's 2018 Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#3 Could this be St. Xavier's year to win the Southwest District? They return Ronit Hiryur, Max DeCurtins, Charlie Temming, and Nicholas Aronoff. They pick up 4-star freshman Preston Stearns and 2-star Tucker Berry. They lost Joe Beischel to graduation. Who would win the Peyton versus Preston Stearns tennis battle? It might be inappropriate for OTZ to ask via a Feedback message..
#4 Sycamore lost Nathan Zhang and Nikhil Sekar to graduation. Returning players include Samuel Marcus, Alex Karev, and Jacob Wittenbaum. They pick up two highly touted 4-star freshman Chad Miller and 3-star Mark Karev.
#5 University School returns its top three players. Chas Norman, Charlie Joranko, and Max Borsch. They pick up 2-star Nathan Mu. University lost just one player to graduation.
#6 Dublin Jerome returns a solid team, including their top three players: Anish Patel, Daniel Utkin, and Andrew Dvorkin. They pick up 3-star Max Fickas and 2-star Tanish Pairu.
#7 Olentangy Orange returns Alex Heiden and Zach Shaver. They gain 3-star Soham Pradhan and 2-star Parth Patel. They lost Jordan Phelps to graduation.
#8 Upper Arlington lost Josh Cole to graduation. Returning players include: Paige Kompa, Will Reynolds, Lance Li, and Nathan Yu.
#9 Olentangy lost Stu Brdicka to graduation. Sam Routzahn and Ayush Sunkad return. They gain 2-star Omar Khayat.
#10 Massillon Jackson lost Danny Thomas to graduation. They return Arjun Shanmugam, Bobby Thomas, Alex Drewes, and Sam Yu.
Teams that were decimated by graduation include: St. John's Jesuit, Solon, St. Charles, and Canfield.
D2 is tough to determine because many of the teams do not travel outside of their district. Please consider scheduling more out-of-town matches. Columbus remains the perfect place to meet to hold dual matches among Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest District teams. Many of the top players are accustomed to going out-of-state for matches once or twice a month so traveling is not an issue for them.
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Wellington 2018 Boys Team - Click to enlarge |
#2 Columbus Academy returns Arie Tuckerman, Jack Madison, Drew Haffer, Rhian Seneviratne, and Suriya Sundaram. The only graduate last year was Sam Vogel.
#3 Cincinnati Country Day returns its line-up from last year and they will be very solid. Players returning include: Sai Nalagatla, Manav Midha, Herschel Albert, Neil Badlani, and Ashutosh Annapantula.
#4 Ursuline returns a deep squad. They include: Austin Arfaras, State qualifier Greg Morgione, Luke Tsudis, and Gavin Blacksher.
#5 Seven Hills returns Max Yuan, Kevin Wang, and Ajay Gupta. They lost Curtis Sun and John Stewart. to graduation.
#6 Indian Hill lost D2 Singles champion, Andrew Pregel, and Maanas Pisati. Returning are Anay Gautham, Mack Ellis, Jasper Bennett, and Coleman Warstler. They gain freshman 2-star Tejas Pisati.
#7 Wyoming returns Joseph Kelly, Jonathan Klein , and David Keller. They lost George Arenas and Kyle Demers to graduation.
#8 Blake and Brent Webster return for Lexington and so does Benton Drake. They lost Luke Webster to graduation.
#9 Bexley lost Max Meyer to graduation but they return an experienced group of seniors. They include: Leo Schottenstein, Christian Roddy, and Jordan Koppes.
#10 It is not clear who is still playing for Miami Valley School but they are normally in the mix. Reece Quigley and Niyanth Reddy are seniors. They lost Colton Morehart and Makul Sharma to graduation.
Other well-followed teams that were hurt by graduation include Ottawa Hills and Hawken.
Note that there is additional detail for players with high-lighted links. Teams with the green "team" designation will include information (or they soon will have) about all of their players.
As is always the case, the OTZ rankings are correct. Lesser ranked teams should not defy the rankings by attempting to beat higher ranked teams. At the end of the season, OTZ would simply like to replace, "Pre-Season" with "Final Season" rankings. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.. Anyone with strong, misguided feelings are welcome to submit a Feedback. Specific reasons on why teams should be ranked higher are required.
MONDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Miscellaneous
The OHSAA Boys Season Calendar is listed below. The boys season calendar is normally chaotic because of the weather and because of the timing of Spring Breaks. Normally, the Catholic schools have their spring breaks after Easter. Thankfully, that is not the case this year for many of the Catholic schools because Easter is much later than normal.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Feb. 23-25: USTA MW Lev 2's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Feb. 24-25: OTCA Coach Clin. |
| Mar. 4: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 9-10: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Mar. 9: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 22: HS Season Begins |
| Mar. 24-30: Easter Bowl |
| Apr. 4-7: USTA MW Lev 3's - - B14, B16, B18 |
| Apr. 8: Non-Interscholas. Date |
| Apr. 13: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 21: Easter |
| Apr. 21: Waiver Ext. Ends |
| Apr. 28: Sectional Tourn. Draw |
| May 4: SAT Test Date |
| May 6-11: Sectional Tourn. |
| May 13-18: District Tourn. |
| May 24-25: State Tournament |
| May 26: State Team Tourn. |
| June 1: Season Ends |
When traveling to matches to take photos, especially at the beginning of the season, I find that several key players are not competing because of date conflicts. To increase awareness of some of these conflicts, the OTZ calendar includes a few additional dates that are important to tennis players, such as the dates of several major USTA tournaments and the ACT / SAT test dates. While these dates are believed to be correct, always check with other sources before planning the rest of your future. The rest of the tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
While the girls benefited from the OHSAA Waivers last season, this will be the first season for the boys to use the waivers. The waivers should enable most boys to start the season on time. The process worked extremely well for the girls. For more information, click OHSAA Waivers. Always (always, always) work with your coach, athletic director, and the OHSAA to insure that this waiver is completed way in advance and is done absolutely correctly.
The Ohio Girls Season 2019 Calendar is also included in the right-side navigation bar. Again these dates are believed to be correct, but please, do not make this your next (or first) tattoo.
The links are click-able.
Several USTA tournaments that are taking place this past weekend were not included on the calendar, but links to these tournaments are as follows. Clicking on the draws to see how players did will help you get into the high school tennis mood.
- USTA B14 Midwest Level 3 in Streetsboro, OH
- USTA B16 Midwest Level 3 in Okemos, MI
- USTA B18 Midwest Level 3 in Cincinnati, OH
OhioTennisZone will be removing last year's graduates from the rosters. This will happen near the beginning of the season. Coaches, please do not remove graduated players from your roster. This will be done by OTZ.
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With tie - Click to enlarge |
At Case - Click to enlarge |
OTZ will now kick into another gear as the season nears.
This week will include the publication of the Pre-Season OTZ Top Ten Boys Teams for Division I and Division II.
SATURDAY,
More OTZ Recognition for Coaches
The team look-up lists are some of the most popular reports on OhioTennisZone. These reports have now been enhanced to further recognize the Ohio high school tennis coaches. Those coaches with OTZ coach membership now have their photos listed and these photos link to their OTZ Coach Profiles. Click to view these changes to the OTZ Team Lookup Report.
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Team Lookup - Click to report |
In addition to this change, the OTZ Coach Directory has been updated to include recent coaching changes. Click to view the OTZ Coach Directory. Sign-in first (with coaching privileges) to see email addresses for all of the coaches.
Are there other coaching changes that have not been included? Click on Feedback to share these changes with OhioTennisZone.Interested in having your coaching background information or LinkedIn profile included on your Coach Profile? Please send an email to Scott Gerber of OhioTennisZone.com. For examples, click on Marysville's Brian Ash, Hoover's Ryan Shaffer, and ZZZ Test School's Scott Gerber.
TUESDAY,
Improvements to Player Profile Report
OTZ is always looking for new ways to recognize players, and changes were made to the OTZ Player Profile report recently to help with this.
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Player Profile Report - Click to go to Player Profile |
Fans who are more visually-oriented may find it to be faster to digest the information by quickly scanning the photos rather than by reading the names.
To obtain more information about each of Komatineni's opponents, click on the player links.
Players who do not yet have a Player Profile are simply listed by their last names.
SATURDAY, JANUARY
Top OTZ Photos of 2018
The OTZ camera shutter clicked around 2,500 times last year at professional, college, USTA, and high school tennis events as well as a few platform tennis matches. The Central Ohio area (and perhaps other areas of the state) broke all-time precipitation records last year so that reduced the opportunities to get photos at many high school tennis matches but I still found a few good photos to include. The video slide-show below provides fans with my top 80 photos (or top 3%) of the year.
For best results, please use High Definition (Auto 1080P) and use full screen modes. Names are included on almost all of the photos but you will need a quick hand-eye reaction time to stop the video in order to see them. It is advisable that fans watch the entire video first and then rewatch the video to stop it to view the names.
It might be counterintuitive, but the easiest place to get great photos is at a professional tennis match (i.e. Western & Southern Open), followed by college, USTA, and high school (in that order). The Western & Southern Open provides: the best vantage points because I can sit beside the courts; the pros hit a zillion balls for each point; the pros almost always have perfect footwork and eye-on-ball expressions; and the backgrounds are great. College tennis shares many of the same aspects as the professionals. High school tennis is by far the hardest place to get great photos until the players reach the State tournament.It becomes increasingly challenging to find music that is permitted to be used by the artists. In fact, I had planned to use the same music as was used in 2016, but that artist (Moby) now prevents it. This year, I selected Boston's "More than a Feeling". OTZ does not benefit from ads on the video but the artist and Google do.
The platform tennis image at the end of the video is not an advertisement, but my first cover page photo. It was used for the American Platform Tennis Magazine.
This video also includes the happiest baby photo since babies were invented.
Click to view the Top Photos for 2017 and 2016. Click to view the Girls States Preview for 2018 and the Boys State Preview for 2017.
Not all of these images are for sale but the high school and some of the college photos are. Please contact OTZ via Feedback with any questions.
THURSDAY,
New Career Highs for Many Ohio Players
The major professional tournaments are starting to crank up for 2019 after their brief holiday break while many of the lower level tournaments have continued. These lower level tournaments and changes in the point systems have led to rather dramatic changes in the rankings for some players who have Ohio ties.
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Ohio Pros - Click to College Page |
Players with new high rankings include: JJ Wolf, Caty McNally, Kennedy Shaffer, DJ Thomas, John McNally, Peyton Stearns, and Jacob Dunbar.
This list is updated more frequently on the College Page where it is on the right-side navigational bar. The player links are also active on that page. Those links take fans to each player's profile on ITFTennis.com. Click the image to go to the College Page.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER
Ohio Players in the Pros
There are numerous players with Ohio ties who have professional ranking points. Many of these players are "full-time" in the professional ranks while others are still juggling classes with tennis.
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Ohio Pros - Click to College Page |
This list is updated more frequently on the College Page where it is on the right-side navigational bar. The player links are also active on that page. Those links take fans to each player's profile on ITFTennis.com. Click the image to go to the College Page.
TUESDAY,
College Tennis Commitments
The number of Ohio high school tennis players who have committed to colleges is starting to grow. The list below will continue to be updated to reflect this.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player | High School / College |
| Madison Arquette | Clay / Findlay |
| Abby Kushner Benson | Our Lady of the Elms / College of Wooster |
| Robert Cash | New Albany / Ohio State |
| Sydney Cianciola | Canfield / Denison |
| Kristyn Conrad | Mt. Vernon / Ashland |
| Isabella Daverio | Hath. Brown / George Mason |
| Max DeCurtins | St. Xavier / University of Dayton |
| Caitlin Fisher | Turpin / Villanova |
| Hannah Fugate | Milton-Union / Mt. Vernon Naz. |
| Kayley Gimbel | Galion / Findlay |
| Sylvia Goldsmith | Lexington / Belmont Abbey |
| Kyleigh Henthorn | Perrysburg / Walsh University |
| Alex Heiden | Olen. Orange / St. Louis Univ. |
| Sarah Hinshaw | Miami Valley / Goshen |
| Demi Jhaveri | Westlake / Valparaiso |
| Nathan Jose | New Albany / Army |
| Niraj Komatineni | Mason / Brown |
| Paige Kompa | Upper Arlington / Dayton |
| Maddie Lynch | Hath. Brown / Wake Forest |
| Kaytlin Marlatt | Warren JFK / Notre Dame (OH) |
| Paige Meyers | Strongsville / Wittenberg |
| Boban Mihajlov | Reynoldsburg / Otterbein |
| Kelli Niehaus | Mt. Notre Dame / Univ. Cincinnati |
| Emma Peeler | Westlake / Ball State |
| Jack Rardon | Upper Arlington / Wittenberg |
| Shashank Reddy | Mason / Xavier |
| Sarah Robertson | Rocky River / Denison |
| Anna Roggenburk | Magnificat / Xavier |
| Stephanie Shulman | Hawken / Emory |
| Rachel Terbovich | Pickerington Central / Heidelberg |
| Faith Triplett | Watkins Memorial / Cedarville |
| Hayliegh Tucker | Lexington / Notre Dame (OH) |
| Zoey Weil | Centennial / Univ. Washington |
| Jacob Wittenbaum | Sycamore / Marian (IN) |
| Rebecca Wolf | Hath. Brown / Colgate |
Last year, there were at least 31 players who committed. So far this year, there are 34.
To see the complete list of Ohio players competing in college, click on College Players from Ohio or by using the drop-down above.
Please send a Feedback or email if you are aware of changes to this list.
Click on the player names (when applicable) to view their OTZ Player Profiles.
This information was sourced by TennisRecruiting.net and OhioTennisZone.
FRIDAY,
End-of-Season Report | Former Canfield Coach Larry Davis Passes
There are just a couple more days of coverage until OhioTennisZone goes into hibernation mode (or more accurately, switches into platform tennis mode full-time). There will be no updates over the weekend. Twitter comments will continue via the handle, @OhioTennisZone.
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Revere End-of-Season Report - Click to enlarge |
There is some sad news in the tennis community. Long-time and former Canfield coach, Larry Davis, died on October 13. Prior to retiring, Coach Davis led the Canfield boys team for 37 years, accumulating 595 wins and 27 league championships. He was inducted into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame in 2017. Click to read an article about Coach Davis from the Youngstown Vindicator and his obituary.
OTZ is in the process of gathering photos of players so that they can be reviewed by parents prior to purchase. This process should be finished by the end of the weekend.
THURSDAY,
Incoming Freshman Boys
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Just as was done for the incoming freshman girls, below is the list of the top freshman boys who will be playing in the spring and the schools in which they are attending. This list of 25 boys was identified using TennisRecruiting.net. Identifying the player schools should be rather easy because these players are already in the school.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City | Incoming School |
| Tucker Berry - 2 | Cincinnati | St. Xavier |
| Mason Deal - 2 | Perrysburg | Perrysburg |
| Sainandan Dore - 4 | Springboro | Springboro |
| Maxwell Fickas - 3 | Powell | Dublin Jerome |
| Anish Gangavaram - 4 | Mason | Mason |
| Vignesh Gogineni - 5 | Mason | Mason |
| Akshay Joshi - 4 | Mason | Mason |
| Mark Karev - 3 | Cincinnati | Sycamore |
| Omar Khayat - 2 | Powell | Olentangy |
| Jack Martuccio - 4 | Warren | |
| Chad Miller - 4 | Cincinnati | Sycamore |
| Nathan Mu - 2 | Solon | University School |
| Joshua Nwaozuzu - 3 | Woodmere | Orange |
| Tanish Pairu - 2 | Columbus | Dublin Jerome |
| Parth Patel - 2 | Lewis Center | Olen. Orange |
| Anthony Payiavlas - 3 | Warren | Warren G Harding |
| Tejas Pisati - 2 | Cincinnati | Indian Hill |
| Soham Pradhan - 3 | Lewis Center | Olen. Orange |
| Vamshidhar Singidi - 2 | Cincinnati | |
| Preston Stearns - 4 | Mason | St. Xavier |
| Peter Tracy - 2 | Toledo | St. John`s Jesuit |
| Alan Xie - 2 | Beavercreek | |
| Andrew Zimcosky - 4 | Chagrin Falls | Chagrin Falls |
The TRN star ratings are included beside all of the players. The player links takes readers to their TRN player profiles
If you have inside knowledge of which school a player attends, please submit a Feedback.
This is an updated list from what was released in June. Several players have had improvements in their TRN Star Rating.
Of the 25 players on the list, the Central District has five, Northeast - two, Northwest - 6, and Southwest - 12.
The skill-level of the Ohio boys is not as deep as for the girls. This list includes the Top 800 boys in the nation (with 25 listed) while the girls list (with 23 players) included the Top 600.
WEDNESDAY,
OTZ's Top Ten'ish Girls Photos for the 2018 Season
The OhioTennisZone.com's Top Ten Photos have been selected and are available for everyone to view by clicking on Top Ten Girls Photos for 2018. The photos within this grouping are not ranked.
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Centerville's Sydney Khosla - Click to enlarge |
Great photos almost always require great competition between the players. For this reason, it is relatively simple to get great photos of the professional players at the Western & Southern Open and of college players when the matches are held outside.
Great photos also tend to be taken in groups when the sun is optimal. Conditions were close to ideal at the State Team Tournament and at Mason in August.
Getting great photos from doubles is always challenging and only one of these photos were taken during doubles matches.
It is obviously a subjective process to select these photos, but the criteria include:
- Movement - As reflected by stretching for a ball, athleticism, flowing hair, moving clothing, and "coiling" before striking the ball.
- Lighting - Sun lit face with gradual, non-severe shadows. Note: It is really hard to get great photos with players wearing hats or visors unless the sun is low in the sky.
- Sharpness - Photo is highly focused and clear.
- Background - The background needs to be pleasing or interesting. Recognizable venues, such as States, are a plus. Having cars in the background is a big minus and so is the sign-age at Upper Arlington. Unfortunately at UA, shooting from one side means sign-age and shooting from the other side places a parking lot in the background.
- Great form - Player is the correct distance from the ball (i.e. arms are not tied up like pretzels).
- Eye-on-ball - Includes concentration. Those who blink during ball contact need not apply...
- Portrait-like - The photo looks like it was taken at a studio using studio lighting.
- Emotion or jubilation - I am taking a few more of these types of photos.
- Clothing - This is where the professionals almost always have the advantage because the colors are so vibrant. Click to view the photos of Sloane Stephens, Petra Kvitova, and Ana Bogdan from this year's Western & Southern. Black outfits and white outfits are the worst. This year, Magnificat had the nicest uniforms for photos.
Click to view the Top Girls Photos in 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014. Click to view Top Photos for the Boys for the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014 seasons.
Interested in getting more tennis gear and clothes? Midwest Sports is a valued advertiser on and sponsor of OhioTennisZone.com. Each item that you purchase using this link benefits OhioTennisZone.com. There is also an added benefit to you. For those items on clearance, you'll get an additional 10% off. That's what I do to get all of the weird colored tennis shoes.
TUESDAY,
Top Incoming Freshman Girls
Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Using TennisRecruiting.net, OTZ identifies the current eighth graders who are in the Top 600 in the nation. This information should be especially helpful to the coaches who want to schedule strong opponents. Of course, it is also important to know which school these players are attending. I will need your help with this. If you have inside knowledge of which school a player plans to attend, please submit a Feedback.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City | Incoming School |
| Shyla Aggarwal - 4 | Mason | Mason |
| Ananya Annapantula - 5 | Mason | CHCA |
| Ellie Assenmacher - 2 | Sylvania | |
| Angela Britton - 4 | Cincinnati | |
| Ellie Brotherton - 3 | Chagrin Falls | Laurel |
| Dasha Chistyakova - 2 | Dublin | |
| Polina Chvalyuk - 2 | W. Chester | |
| Sarah Clark - 2 | Cincinnati | |
| Tia Clemens - 2 | Cleveland | St. Jos. Acad. |
| Niya Fried - 3 | Peninsula | |
| Nishi Gandra - Blue Chip | Mason | |
| Caroline Hinshaw - 2 | Dayton | |
| Macy Hitchcock - 4 | Eaton | |
| Catherina Iltchev - 3 | Brecksville | |
| Alexis Nyborg - 4 | Solon | Orange |
| Clara Owen - 2 | Dayton | |
| Payton Puryear - 2 | W. Chester | CHCA |
| Samantha Robertson - 2 | Rocky River | Rocky River |
| Blake Rothchild - 4 | Beachwood | |
| Anh Thi Thai - 2 | Columbus | Hilliard Bradley |
| Harshita Uppuganti - 3 | Mason | |
| Grace Vaughn - 2 | Gates Mills | |
| Eleana Yu - Blue Chip | Mason | CHCA |
Some of the schools listed are educated guesses based on players of the same last name who are currently attending the school.
The TennisRecruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to TennisRecruiting.net.
Based on where some of these players are competing in tournaments, some are likely no longer living in Ohio.
Of the 23 players on the list, the Central District has two, Northeast - one, Northwest - eight, and Southwest - 12.
Speaking of TennisRecruiting.net, now is the perfect time for upper classmen to insure that their player contact information is up-to-date on TRN. This is a common way for college coaches to reach out to prospective recruits.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team
Congratulations to the girls selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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 Kelli Niehaus Mount Notre Dame |
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Division II - Singles |
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 Rylie Hanford West Geauga |
 Blessing Nwaozuzu Orange |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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The OTZ list is a bit different than the OHSAA All-Ohio team. While a player's performance at States is the best way to get on the team, OTZ also looks at a player's entire season and includes worthy players who did not qualify for States because of unfortunate District draws. OTZ also believes that the OHSAA team is too mechanical in its approach by granting honors only based on the round in which the player reached at States.
The number of players on the OTZ All-Ohio Team can vary from year to year based on the skill levels of the players. As per TennisRecruiting.net's analysis, this year's group of players is exceptionally talented, especially those from the Northeast District. This is also the first year in which the number of Division II players exceeds those from Division I. Last year's singles list had seven in Division I and six in Division II. The 2016 teams had six in each divisions.
Note that players with the yellow PP tennis balls next to their names have Player Profiles and that more information is available for them by clicking on their names. Click to sign-up to get your own Player Profile.
The OTZ Top Players Lists will be updated later today. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. To see all of the players on one page, click on All Districts.
OTZ will soon list next year's top upcoming freshmen. The purpose of this list is to not only recognize the players but to also help coaches understand which teams should be included in their schedules next fall.
FRIDAY,
Photo Friday
The final group of photos were added. About 140 new photos are included. They are sorted by date beginning with the most recent matches (State Team Tournament). This group of photos were taken at 20 tournaments and/or dual matches. Sign-in first and click on Most Recently Added Photos to view them.
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Mag's Hannah Klubnik - Click to enlarge |
All of these photos are for sale and there may be others that you may like, but you need to purchase at least one online photo first. Obviously it takes time and money to travel to these events; take these photos; process them; and then get them online. It also takes a considerable amount of time to gather the additional photos and present them to you. I am not going to go through all of this additional effort unless I receive some money first. Think of it as a photo sitting fee (where I am traveling to your location). Photos in the States Preview video are also for sale.
Photos that are purchased will also appear in the player's OTZ Player Profile.
Prices start at $19.99 (plus sales tax, or $21.49) and the prices per photo decline as more are purchased.
The Top 10 Girls Photos have also been updated, but these will likely change as I review them a few more times.
There will not be any updates over the weekend. I need to catch up with things associated with the Columbus, Ohio platform tennis league first. There will be another update on Monday morning. The All-Ohio OTZ team is still being review.
THURSDAY,
Videos of Championship Points
It is time for the OHSAA championship point videos. Since several of the match start times varied substantially, it did not appear that there would be any problem getting videos for all four championship points this season. That did not turn out to be the case. OTZ captured just two of the videos (D2 singles and doubles) and Olentangy Liberty's Assistant Coach Geoff Bibo provided the video for D1 doubles and Magnificat's AD Paul Barlow provided the D1 singles video.
Note that YouTube.com provides a choice of three different screenshots as the "intro photo" for the video. If the choices are really bad, OTZ can create a custom "intro" view. This year, the "intro's" were great for D2 singles and doubles.
OTZ has used a video camera for the last few years and it may be time to switch to an iPhone. I preferred the wider screen video view that Geoff Bibo provided. It is better to include all of the players in the video.
For best results, please use HD (High Definition) and expand to full screen mode.
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Division I Singles: Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk |
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Division 1 Doubles:
Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly defeated Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu. [Click image to play.] |
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Division II Singles: Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff. [Click image to play.] |
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Division II Doubles: Hathaway Brown's Isabella Daverio - Rebecca Wolf defeated teammates Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang. [Click image to play.] |
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WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com Usage Edition
What is accessed on OhioTennisZone and who accesses it? It is time for the seasonal usage edition. Read on to learn what areas of the nation access OTZ the most. Which players get the most views on their OTZ Player Profiles; and what team pages generate the most views. The usage covered is for the time period of August 1 to October 22.
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OTZ Team Pages - Click to enlarge |
The Dublin Jerome team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top five were: Olentangy Orange; Hathaway Brown; Magnificat; and Mason. Note that bars on the chart are percentages based on that team's pageviews divided by Dublin Jerome's usage. So for example, Indian Hill had approximately one-half (51%) of the usage that Dublin Jerome's page generated. All of the teams in the Top Ten are OTZ Team Members. While it is unknown who specifically accesses each OTZ page, note that middle school players and parents are certainly big users. Teams need to think of these OTZ Team pages as advertisements for potential future customers (and/or team players / students).
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Usage by Metro Area - Click to enlarge |
The top Metro Areas that access OTZ may surprise a few people. While Ohio's metro areas dominate, Detroit, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, and Boston make up a significant percentage of the pageviews. All of the numbers were divided by Columbus' usage. For example, Cincinnati and Cleveland-Akron had approximately half of Columbus' usage while Dayton had 11% and Toledo had 10%. For Detroit to have more accesses than Toledo is still mind-boggling. OTZ only has information on Ohio high school players. For the Detroit area to have more than twice the interest in Ohio high school tennis than Toledo, should be a big concern to Toledo tennis (or maybe we need to invite the Detroit area to play Ohio high school tennis?).
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Pick North's Alcala - Click to enlarge |
Liberty's Atway |
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HB's Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
HB's Godsick |
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CA's Ratliff - Click to enlarge |
Mag's Roggenburk |
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and it can always use more. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity remains solid. The number of OTZ users increased 11.2% versus last year and the number of pageviews increased 14.9%.
TUESDAY,
Final 2018 OTZ State Team Rankings - Mason and Hathaway Brown #1
The final 2018 OTZ State Top 10 Team Rankings are listed below. Congratulations to all of the teams that made the list.
State Top Ten Girls Tennis Teams Final 2018 Rankings October 23, 2018 |
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM St Sp 3 Final 4 | Hath. Brown◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 2. Magnificat◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 2 Final 4 |
| 3. Perrysburg 2 Final 4 | Tol. Central Catholic 3 Final 4 |
| 4. Ol. Orange◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Oakwood 1 Final 4 |
| 5. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM 3 | Indian Hill◄TEAM 3 |
| 6. Olen. Liberty◄TEAM 2 | Laurel◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. Pick. North◄TEAM 1 | Summit Country Day◄TEAM 2 |
| 8. Ursuline Acad. ◄TEAM 1 | Cin. Hills Chr. Acad. ◄TEAM 1 |
| 9. N Canton Hoover◄TEAM 2 | Lexington◄TEAM 1 |
| 10. Solon◄TEAM 1 | Hawken◄TEAM 1 |
| Hon. Men.: Mayfield◄TEAM 1 Upper Arlington◄TEAM 1 | Seven Hills◄TEAM Archbishop Alter◄TEAM Wellington◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. | |
The State Team Tournament yielded some surprises. In Division I, Perrysburg had been in the top ten prior to the tournament, but not high enough. Their team, consisting of eight seniors, surprised many with their 3-2 win over Olentangy Orange. Both of Perrysburg's doubles teams also performed well at States. Perrysburg moved all of the way up from ninth to third. When the close match between Olentangy Orange and Magnificat is considered, it is apparent that these four teams belong at the top of the rankings.
In Division II, the four Final Four teams were in the top six in the OTZ pre-season rankings. The order was shuffled a bit during the season, but these teams did well all season.
This is the first time where the Team State Final Four teams were in the top four positions in the OTZ Top Ten Rankings.
Now is a good time for teams to start making scheduling connections for next season. OTZ would be happy to help OTZ coach members make introductions. Several of the Division I teams do a great job of having weekend quad matches in Columbus where teams from the other Districts meet in Columbus to play two dual matches. It would be great to see Division II teams do more of that.
For some odd reason, many of the top Division II teams do not travel well. Tennis budgets should not be an issue because parents are almost always happy to drive, making a bus unnecessary. Plus, everything can start and finish on a Saturday. Quad dual matches typically start at 10am and the next match begins at 1:30pm(ish). Throw in a visit to an ice cream shop or a pizza parlor (or both) on the way home and teams get a great early-season bonding experience.
Note that the Western & Southern Open will take place from August 10-18 and that is a perfect opportunity for teams to play matches in the Cincinnati-area and then go on to the tournament.
Note that upcoming ACT tests dates are April 13, 2018 and September 14, 2019. There will also be a major USTA tournament which the best teams may want to avoid. This year, the USTA Midwest Level 3 took place over Labor Day so there were no team conflicts.
Still to come this week on OTZ are: videos of championship points (only got two this year - D2 singles and D2 doubles); the usage issue which includes the areas of the state that use OTZ the most; the OTZ All-Ohio Team; and the Top Ten(ish) action photos of the year.
MONDAY,
Mason | Hathaway Brown Are State Team Champs
The 2018 tennis season came to a close on what turned out to be a great fall day. The championships were delayed by an hour to allow temperatures to warm but the temperatures still hovered at 37 degrees at the beginning of the day.
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Mason - D1 Champs - Click to enlarge |
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Hathaway Brown - D2 Champs - Click to enlarge |
Mason repeated for their second consecutive championship. Mason played Perrysburg in the semis and Magnificat in the finals. Mason won 3-0 in both of their matches. The Mason versus Magnificat match was much tighter than the score indicated. Mason clinched the win on second singles. [Click for Mason's 2017 championship photo.]
While the anticipated final match was always expected to be Mason and Magnificat, Olentangy Orange almost ruined that match-up in the semifinals. Magnificat narrowly won that match, 3-2, by clinching the win on second dubs with the score 6-7, 6-2, 7-5. In the final match of the day, Perrysburg eked out a win over Olentangy Orange for third place. That match ended at 6:40pm. Perrysburg won 50 games to Orange's 51.
To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Conditions for taking photos progressed throughout the day. At one point, the sun was perfect. It will take several days to process the best photos. There were 422 photos taken. Just in case you are interested, when the camera rapid fires five team photos, the camera is using a slightly different exposure level for each of those photos. Using this approach also provides more latitude with blinkers.
OTZ updates will continue for a few more days until the OTZ wife (Kathy) figures out that I am just prolonging the tennis season to avoid stuff that she has wanted me to do for the last three months..
SUNDAY,
States - Day Two Results
Damp chilly conditions finally gave way to windy chilly conditions yesterday, but the matches were great the entire day at States.
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Mag's Roggenburk - Click to enlarge |
Liberty's Schoenly|Atway |
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HB's Gillinov - Click to enlarge |
HB's Daverio|Wolf |
Interestingly, three of the champions (Roggenburk, Gillinov, and Atway-Schoenly) were rererepeats from last year, and the Division II championship match was very close to a repeat.
After having ten players in the semi-finals, the Northeast District earned three of the State championships.
After daily tennis coverage for 72 straight days, OTZ takes a breather from tennis after next week. Instead, I will be blasting into the PlatformTennisZone.com and bnbBlight.com web sites.
OTZ will continue to tweet during the off-season via @OhioTennisZone. You may find it to be worthwhile to follow me. Note that Twitter is not for everyone and it can be a time drain. If you are an adult and you are already caught up on those pesky household chores or if you are a student and you already have straight-A's, then you might be allowed to join. Kids must always ask their most lenient parent first before they sign-up. I also get a slice of CheeseCake Factory cheesecake every time I get another 100 followers and I am just 15 followers away from 800 followers so there's also that. (I will only continue this practice up to 1 million followers..)
Today is the State Team Tournament at Reynoldsburg Summit Station and I will be leaving in a few minutes for that. This tournament will provide quite a few photos for next year's OTZ State Preview Video / Slideshow as the whole process begins again.. If you see me and if would like me to take an action photo of your daughter, please let me know.
SATURDAY,
States - First Day Results
Players and fans started the day with chilly but perfect weather. The temperature was 37 degrees as the players were called onto the courts. There was little to no wind.
It did not take long to see competitive matches. First round matches included: North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback defeated Pickerington North's Cassie Alcala (3-sets); Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu beat Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier; and Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated Mason's Emma Kruse (3-sets).
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West Geauga's Rylie Hanford - Click to enlarge |
Among the top singles players, Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk defeated Beavercreek's Julia Bays and Dublin Jerome's Katherine Wang; Westlake's Emma Peeler beat Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor and Turpin's Caitlin Fisher; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini defeated Mason's Emma Kruse and North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback; Mount Notre Dame’s Kelli Niehaus beat Dublin Jerome's Lalasa Nagireddy and Riverside Painesville's Angelica Ross; Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff defeated Ottawa Hills' Priya Bhatt and Indian Hill's Hayley Hirsch; West Geauga’s Rylie Hanford beat Oakwood’s Lily McCloskey and Laurel's Rachel Buchinsky; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Nugent (by default) and Napoleon's Aliza Lankenau; Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu beat Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier and Hawken's Stephanie Shulman.
To see all of the results, click:The State semi-finalists in each draw are as follows:
Division I Singles:Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk; Westlake's Emma Peeler; Magnificat's Olivia Rondini; and Mount Notre Dame's Kelli Niehaus.
Division I Doubles:
Olentangy Liberty's Maddie Atway - Dani Schoenly; Mayfield's Hannah Kassaie - Caitlyn Hsu; Mason's Ananya Aggarwal - Sanjana Reddy; and Mason's Annie Kruse - Raina Chada.
Division II Singles:
Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff; Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov; West Geauga's Rylie Hanford; and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu.
Division II Doubles:
Hathaway Brown's Isabella Godsick - Megan Qiang; Hathaway Brown's Isabella Daverio - Rebecca Wolf; Toledo Central Catholic's Ava McQuillin - Maverick Delp; and Revere's Amy Lazbin - Morgan Dobos.
From a bragging rights perspective, the number of players / teams playing tomorrow from each District are: Northeast - just 10; Southwest - 3; Central - 2; and Northwest - 1.
It was great to see and to talk with Jerry Snodgrass at States today. Mr. Snodgrass is the new Executive Director of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. He replaced Dr. Daniel Ross this summer.
The day got off to a great start when Maddie Taphorn of Kettering Fairmont's tennis team did a terrific job of singing the Star Spangled Banner. After that, the day plunged into a dark abyss of despair as news circulated that the McNasty's Food Truck had broken down on the way to States. But then it happened.. An angel in a tow truck promptly delivered the McNasty's Food Truck to the hungry masses before lunch. States was saved. Hopefully today will have less drama - at least in the food court area.
FRIDAY,
It Is Time for States
It is time to zoom off to States so today's update will be brief.
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Click for Draws - Click to enlarge |
A number of newspapers are reviewed to see if they contain articles that highlight players who will be competing at States. Click to read this article from Steve Blackledge of the Columbus Dispatch. It is titled, "High school tennis | Success motivates Pickerington's Cassie Alcala, Columbus Academy's Sydni Ratliff". Steve Junga of the Toledo Blade also wrote an article. It is titled, "Delp family caps remarkable run of state tennis tournaments".
I will be updating the draws online throughout the day. The draws will largely not change for the first hour of the tournament, after that, the scores and court locations will be updated. Note that there is a time stamp at the top left side of the page so that it is clear when it was last updated. I normally watch matches and take photos and then I swoop over and update everything at one time.
Remember to click on player names to see their OTZ Player Profiles. It contains their detailed results from throughout the season. Note that these Player Profiles will not be updated with today's results until tomorrow morning.
Click on image to the right to access the draws or simply enter:
As mentioned yesterday, the State Team Rankings were updated. The new rankings are in the right-side navigation bar.
Hope to see you at States.
THURSDAY,
States Preview Video | Updated Team Rankings (soon)
There are 24 hours to go.. Today will be a travel day for many schools as they motor down I-71 and I-75 to States.
The OTZ video / slide-show was released last night. The video recognizes the players who are competing at States and at the State Team Tournament in Reynoldsburg on Sunday. There are 113 photos included this year and 100 were action photos. All of the action photos include player names, but viewers either have to be quick to stop the video or have good eyes to view them. Using "high-definition" and full-screen modes are recommended. I finally warmed up to the music once it was in-sync with the photos, but many (many) songs were reviewed. Songs that pass the "beat", lyric (can't freak out the parents too much), and popularity hurdles are often restricted by YouTube because the artists do not wish to make them available for YouTube videos. For compensation, the artists and YouTube benefit from the advertisements in the video - OTZ does not. All of the action photos are available for sale.
This is also a great time to recognize OhioTennisZone.com sponsors and advertisers. Special thanks to Elysium Tennis, The Players Club, Olympic Indoor, Greater Columbus Tennis Association, and Midwest Sports for their support. If you enjoy high school tennis, please frequent these great supporters of the sport.It is best to put a link to the draw sheet on your smart phone now using:
The OTZ Team rankings will be updated this morning. As long as everyone cooperates on Sunday, this might also be the final rankings. All teams are encouraged to do their part.. Note that the team rankings will include the number of State Spots that each team has (again, not players - but spots) . The State Final Four Teams will also be identified.
Please say "hi" if you see me running around tomorrow. I will likely start out the day watching D2 singles matches. There are some brutal first round matches. They include Hathaway Brown's Nicole Gillinov versus Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Abby Nugent and Orange's Blessing Nwaozuzu versus Summit Country Day's Elizabeth Fahrmeier.
WEDNESDAY,
Final Four Teams Sets | Mag Beat Hoover | Orange Defeated Jerome
There are 48 hours to go.. The final Final Four spots for the State Team Tournament were finally secured by Magnificat and Olentangy Orange last night. Mag beat North Canton Hoover and Orange defeated Dublin Jerome. Both teams won by 3-0 scores. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the State Team Tournament Draw.
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OTZ State Draws - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Magnificat's Anna Roggenburk defeated North Canton Hoover's Laurel Utterback; Magnificat's Audrey Smitek beat North Canton Hoover's Lilly Altman; and Olentangy Orange's Caroline Sproule defeated Dublin Jerome's Reagan Resor. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The OTZ State Draws are now "open" so that all of the photos can be viewed. For extra, super-duper player recognition, player photos are now included for all 96 players. While all player photos were eventually obtained for the boys last spring, this is the first time that it has occurred prior to States. Also note how the draws have several features that add to the States experience by providing additional information about OTZ member players, navigational links to rapidly move throughout the draws, update times so that users know when the draw was last updated, and an enlargeable site map for people who should be wearing bifocals.
States are a complete mad-house for taking photos because of updating the draws and traveling from court to court. If you want a picture of your daughter (or granddaughter or niece), let me know asap via email. I also need your absolute commitment that you will purchase at least one photo and possibly numerous photos. Click for the price of photos. At some point, I will need to start charging the same hourly rate as what a plumber, lawyer, electrician, or surgeon charges..
Work on the slide show / video begins now.
TUESDAY,
Mason Beat Ursuline Academy | TCC Defeated Lex | State Draws Available
Two more State Tournament Final Four spots were determined last night. The Southwest District D1 Final Four spot was claimed by Mason. Mason beat Ursuline Academy 3-0. Toledo Central Catholic defeated Lexington, 3-2, to earn their Northwest D2 spot. The Central and Northeast D1 Final Four spots will be determined tonight.
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Southwest District Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
The Top Players and Watch Lists were reconfigured yesterday to reflect the District results. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Northwest District results were evidently updated at some point late yesterday. Those results will be added to OTZ during tomorrow morning's update.
Today's Southwest District Qualifier group photos was courtesy of Mason coach, Mike Reid. No group photos were received from the Northeast and Northwest Districts this year.
The last two remaining final Final Four State Team spots will finally be determined tonight. Today's matches include Magnificat versus North Canton Hoover and Dublin Jerome and Olentangy Orange.
MONDAY,
Central District State Qualifiers
It is now official "draw watch" time. OTZ will post the State draws when they become available. [Now available via the link above.] The OTZ State Draws will include photos of many of the competitors and links to player information. OTZ will also tweet the draws when they become available.
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Central District Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Speaking of photos, please get your player photos into OTZ asap to be included in the OTZ State Draws. Photos of all of last year's boys were included, but several had to be taken at States. The plan is to get all of the girls' photos online by Tuesday. OTZ already has all of the girls' photos for the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts.
The Top Players and Watch Lists will be reviewed again today based on last week's results. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Group photos of the Southwest District Qualifiers will be posted tomorrow. Kudos to Mason coach, Mike Reid, for taking their photos.
More Final Four State Team spots will be determined tonight. They include Mason versus Ursuline Academy and Magnificat versus North Canton Hoover. Dublin Jerome and Olentangy Orange will play tomorrow night.
As soon as the OTCA Final Four teams are determined, work on the OTZ State / Team Tournament Video / Slideshow can begin. Google / YouTube has arrangements with many artists to allow their music to be used in videos, but it appears that many groups are now prohibiting this. The music is a really important part of these videos so when quality music can no longer be obtained, then the video will not be created. YouTube does have "free" music available but it simply is not usable.
