Following a chilly, damp but successful Saturday at the Lindner Tennis Center, Mason High School's girls tennis team continued their state team dominance Sunday in Columbus.
Forced indoors by the weather to Tennis Ohio in Columbus (formerly Ohio State's facility), coach Mike Reid's Comets continued their award-winning weekend. Mason swept Toledo Notre Dame Academy in the Division I state semifinal match 3-0 to advance to play Magnificat, the Cleveland suburb of Rocky River.
After a couple of lengthy tiebreakers, the Comets prevailed winning their fifth straight Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Division I title, 3-2.
"We won an incredible match," Reid said. "Two almost equal teams. Were down 2-0 and just had some miracle comebacks."
Leading the semifinal sweep to get to the championship were Harshita Uppuganti and Rashi Loni at second and third singles, respectively, and the doubles combo of Danielle Reid/Danielle Lebedev. Toledo Notre Dame only won a single game the entire match.
Against Magnificat, whom they had played close earlier in the season, the Comets found themselves in the hole 2-0.
In first singles, Shyla Aggarwal, the state Division I singles champ from Saturday, came through 4-6, 6-4, 10-4 (super tiebreakers were played because of the event being indoors). Aggarwal was actually down 4-1 in the second set.
"She really dug deep inside, having to win that set to get into a super tiebreaker," Reid said. "Again, she got down 4-1 but rallied to win 10-4."
Eventually, she recovered and defeated Magnificat's Audrey Smitek who had played doubles with her sister, Natalie Saturday, winning third place.
The doubles team of Anna Tonkal/Risha Chada then prevailed 7-6, 7-5. Tonkal/Chada had finished fourth in Division I doubles the day before outdoors in the OHSAA tournament.
That left senior Rashi Loni in third singles against Magnificat's Anna Mancino. Loni finished her high school career in high style winning the marathon super tiebreaker and taking the match 4-6, 7-5, 14-12.
"Rashi got out to an 8-4 lead (super tiebreaker is first to 10) and hung on to win 14-12," Reid said. "It doesn't get any more exciting than that."
Yet another happy bus ride south on Interstate 71 was secured.
When many teams switch players around in team tournaments, Mason's Reid stuck with his bread-and-butter rotation that he had used during the season.
"We really don't benefit by putting any singles players together," he said. "We just played it straight up the way you're supposed to. This was just two really good tennis teams. There wasn't any rock, paper, scissors involved in the lineup or anything like that. It was just great tennis on every court. Every match was close."
Seniors wrapping their careers Sunday in addition to Rashi Loni were the doubles team of Danielle Reid and Danielle Lebedev and Anna Tonkal part of Mason's other doubles squad.
"An unbelievable ending," Reid said of Loni's title-clinching performance. "She's just improved every year. She's such a fighter. She knows what her job is and her job is to hit one more ball over the net than the other girl and to have more guts and more heart. She showed it again today."
CHCA girls finish as DII state runner-up
CHCA's Eagles played indoors in Lexington, Ohio. After sweeping Bryan High School 3-0, the Eagles faced Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown. Hathaway Brown featured the Division II runner-up doubles team from the OHSAA tournament the day before.
Lynn Kader and Mika Morris recorded wins in second and third singles, respectively, but the Eagles fell short 3-2 to finish as the state team runner-up.
Source link
