Ohio High School Tennis
SATURDAY,
Centerville Beats Lexington | Upper Arlington Beats Anthony Wayne
There were just two matches reported, which is good because I will be on my way to the Lexington Invite in a few minutes. Upper Arlington defeated Anthony Wayne and Centerville defeated Lexington. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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St. Ursula Academy - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Centerville's Clara Owen defeated Lexington's Adkins; Anthony Wayne's Mara Boyd beat Upper Arlington's Alexa Roth; Upper Arlington's Alice Hawley defeated Anthony Wayne's Cora Langenderfer; and Centerville's Elise Hedrick beat Lexington's Maggie Wallace. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is St Ursula Academy. They are coached by Linda Stafford. They are Team Members. They are led by Emily Jennewein, Maria Poon, and Elle Schuermann.
Today is a big tournament day. Teams participating at the Lexington Invite include: Bexley, Canfield, Centerville, Columbus Academy, Dublin Coffman, Laurel, and Lexington. In addition to the Lex Invite, Cincinnati has its Coaches' Classic. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Upper Arlington Beats Dublin Jerome
As Sectional draws near, many teams are hustling to enter their results and finding last minute, good match-ups. In the most notable match yesterday, Upper Arlington defeated Dublin Jerome. They will likely meet again in the semi-finals of the State Team Tournament. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws.
There were 22 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 7, and Northeast - 5. The close, 3-2 matches included: Archbishop Hoban defeated Massillon Jackson; Seven Hills beat Wyoming; Western Reserve Academy defeated Magnificat; Miami Valley School beat Eaton; St. Ursula Academy defeated Springboro; and Mariemont beat Milford. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watkins Memorial's Schaar / Walter - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein defeated Springboro's Sofia Tomlin; Eaton's Mallory Hitchcock beat Miami Valley School's Kennedi Washington; Westlake’s Amara Brahmbhatt defeated Highland's Evy Boucher; Archbishop Hoban's Haley Slay beat Massillon Jackson's Alessandra McCann; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Amy Grace Beebe defeated Revere's Gabi Iler; Dublin Jerome's Lydia Foster beat Upper Arlington's Isabella Roth; Oak Hills' Morgan Lint defeated Sycamore's Lisa Kai; Upper Arlington's Alexa Roth beat Dublin Jerome's Adayla Coakley; Olentangy Orange's Avery Reed defeated Dublin Scioto's Amelia Kunard; Seven Hills' Brogan Bell beat Wyoming's Myatt; Western Reserve Academy's Riya Hegde defeated Magnificat's Corinne Daniels; Mariemont’s Ella Malafa beat Milford’s Mu; and Watkins Memorial’s Nora Grennan defeated Big Walnut's Rosie Hartzler. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
It is an OTZ Photo Friday. Today's photo is of Watkins Memorial's Claudia Schaar and Coach Shawn Walter as they finish their strategy talk during the court change. Thankfully, both have good hand-eye skills. Click Most Recently Added Photos. Look for more photos after the OTZ dog walks her OTZ humans.Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Lexington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Centerville Beats St. Ursula Academy | Solon Defeats Magnificat
Centerville defeated St. Ursula Academy and Solon beat Magnificat in State Team Tournament play. Ba dee ya. There were 20 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 7, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Copley defeated Padua; Archbishop Alter beat Chaminade-Julienne; Waynesville defeated Valley View; Troy beat Butler; and Lakeside defeated Edgewood Ashtabula. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Gahanna - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Gahanna. They are coached by Chris Schwinnen. They are led by Daniela Guzman and Jackie Graham.
Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (H) versus Upper Arlington; St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Springboro; and Massillon Jackson (H) versus Archbishop Hoban. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
New Albany Beats Dublin Jerome | Oakwood Defeats Archbishop Alter
New Albany defeated Dublin Jerome and Oakwood beat Archbishop Alter in two of the bigger matches of the evening. Other notable matches included Centerville defeated Springboro and Mason beat Sycamore. The close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy Berlin defeated Olentangy Orange; Reynoldsburg beat Marysville; Orange defeated Chagrin Falls; and Bexley beat Worthington Christian.
There were 23 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 2. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Top Teams Report - Click to view |
Among the top players, Centerville's Clara Owen defeated Springboro's Sofia Tomlin; Bexley's Amiya Bowles beat Worthington Christian's Brooke Stone; Archbishop Hoban's Haley Slay defeated Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Elena Fleming; Mason's Addison Cassidy beat Sycamore's Lisa Kai; Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria defeated Columbus School For Girls' Priya Mehta; Dublin Jerome's Lydia Foster beat New Albany's Richardlyne Francois; Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman defeated Upper Arlington's Isabella Roth; Dublin Jerome's Adayla Coakley beat New Albany's Paige Cornelius; and Oakwood’s Miranda Riggs defeated Archbishop Alter's Maggie Shope. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
To help identify the top teams in the state, the Top Teams Report and the Matrix Reports are extensively used. That said, it is also important to understand the line-ups that the coaches used in various matches. The Matrix Report can be really tough to understand so the Top Teams Report is a friendlier version of it. Yes, it should be a premium report, but it is not. Yet.With more new coaches this year, there are more duplicate results being entered. If a score is already online, it does not need to be re-submitted. It is super time consuming for me to remove these duplicates (and that is in addition to processing them for inclusion twice). It is normally the Home team's responsibility to submit scores, but not all teams are OTZ members. This is where the coaches need to talk so that the OTZ Member coach knows that he/she must be the one to submit the scores in order to recognize the players for both teams. If neither coach is an OTZ member, there is still an option for players to get their matches online. This is time consuming for OTZ to handle these, but I will make accommodations to help the kids get recognized. Submit a Feedback for more information. (Note that I do not really want to do this, but I will.)
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus St. Ursula Academy; Magnificat (A) versus Solon; and Mariemont (H) versus Walnut Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Dublin Jerome
In the biggest match of the night, Columbus Academy defeated Dublin Jerome. As normal, the weather was perfect.. There were 24 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hawken defeated Archbishop Hoban; Canal Winchester beat Hamilton Township; Highland defeated Aurora; and Copley beat Tallmadge. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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North Canton Hoover - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is North Canton Hoover. They are coached by Ryan Shaffer. They are Team Members. They are led by Tess Bucher, Addison Sheil, Ema Papcke, and Bridget Fink.
Today's matches include: Sycamore (A) versus Mason; Dublin Jerome (A) versus New Albany; and Centerville (H) versus Springboro. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
North Canton Hoover and Indian Hill Remain at #1
The OhioTennisZone.com Top Ten Teams rankings have been updated. While the two teams at the top of the rankings, North Canton Hoover in Division I, and Indian Hill in Division II, have remained the same, there were significant changes in the rest of the rankings. This is due to some players deciding not to play high school tennis, and in other cases, key players have gotten injured.
 OhioTennisZone.com
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| 1. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 2. New Albany◄TEAM | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM |
| 3. Mason◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 4. Centerville◄TEAM | Archbishop Alter |
| 5. St. Ursula Academy | Hawken◄TEAM |
| 6. Dublin Coffman◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 7. Avon | Mariemont |
| 8. Upper Arlington◄TEAM | Tippecanoe |
| 9. Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | Cuyahoga Valley Christian Acad. |
| 10. Perrysburg◄TEAM | Archbishop Hoban |
| HM: Magnificat◄TEAM | Orange◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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Because of their great travel schedule, Sycamore is the "Rosetta Stone" team this fall. They have played eight of the top ten teams in D1 and D2, and they have also played teams from all over the state. Seeing how the various teams have played against Sycamore, helps rank all of them.
It is important to note that some teams have fluctuated their line-ups so that it is unclear how strong they really are. Mason is the main example of this.
OTZ also does not have all of the match results for some of these teams so some guess work was necessary. It is really helpful when teams are OTZ Team Members because this allows fans to see the individual results for all of the players. In some cases though, several of the Top Ten teams are not even OTZ Coach Members.
Interesting match-ups today include Dublin Jerome (H) versus Columbus Academy; Loveland (H) versus Mariemont; and Solon (A) versus Hudson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Massillon Jackson Beats Notre Dame Academy
There were just three dual matches reported yesterday. Massillon Jackson defeated Notre Dame Academy; Whetstone beat Northland; and Archbishop Hoban defeated St. Vincent-St. Mary. To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Seven Hills - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Archbishop Hoban's Haley Slay defeated St. Vincent-St. Mary's Ellis Lewis; Massillon Jackson’s Alessandra McCann beat Notre Dame Academy's Nora Johnson; and Massillon Jackson’s Ashley Helle defeated Notre Dame Academy's. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Seven Hills. They are coached by Tim Drew. They are Team Members. They are led by Brogan Bell, Katie Stephens, and Daniela Alper.
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St. Xavier's Temming and Stearns - Click to team page |
The Qualifier for the Columbus Challenger takes place today. Several Ohio State players will be competing including Preston Stearns. Stearns, as a freshman, and Charlie Temming won D1 State dubs for St. Xavier in 2019. (See photo.) Stearns was red-shirted last year. Temming plays for Xavier where he is a junior. The actual tournament begins tomorrow. Admission and parking are free. Click for more.
A new OTZ team ranking will be released tomorrow.
SATURDAY,
Mason Beats Turpin | NCH Defeats Solon
Perhaps not in the football stadiums, but it was a quiet night on the tennis courts. Among the top teams, Mason defeated Turpin and North Canton Hoover beat Solon. In the State Team Tournament, Avon defeated Mayfield and Mariemont beat Wilmington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Turpin - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Turpin. They are coached by Gail Maundrell. They are led by Sarah Clark, Brooke Malone, and Elaina McDonald.
Today is primarily a tournament day. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Centerville Defeats Sycamore | OTZ Photo Friday
It was another perfect evening for tennis. There were 23 matches recorded and there several more posted after the update process had already begun. The Central District posted the most matches with 11. The Southwest had eight, followed by the Northeast with three, and the Northwest with one. In the State Team Tournament, Centerville defeated Sycamore. The close, 3-2 matches included: Delaware Hayes defeated Hilliard Darby; Laurel beat Twinsburg; Reynoldsburg defeated Pickerington North; Loveland beat Milford; Olentangy Berlin defeated Watterson; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Perry; Magnificat defeated Bay; Springboro beat Lakota West; and Dublin Coffman defeated Olentangy Liberty.To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watterson's Julia Caravella - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Centerville's Clara Owen defeated Sycamore's Lisa Kai; Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri beat Olentangy Liberty's Sahasra Banda; Dublin Jerome's Lydia Foster defeated Dublin Scioto's Amelia Kunard; Reynoldsburg's Kareen Meoko beat Pickerington North's Poeppelman; Laurel's Rida Tahir defeated Twinsburg's Julia Bazarov; Perry’s Lily Walker beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Amy Grace Beebe; Mariemont’s Ella Malafa defeated Wyoming’s Nina Myatt; Columbus School For Girls' Priya Mehta beat Buckeye Valley's Molly Jones; Loveland's Marlee Fleming defeated Milford's Mu; and Westerville Central’s Lauren Muniu beat Westerville South’s Kayla Saunders. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is an OTZ Photo Friday. The leaves are starting to change in central Ohio and the photo of Watterson's Julia Caravella helps illustrate this. This photo was taken at the Park of Roses. More photos will be available for viewing at Most Recently Added Photos soon after this update is posted.
Today's Upcoming Match Report currently show just one match -- Turpin (A) versus Mason. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Archbishop Hoban Beats Magnificat | Olentangy Orange Defeats Olentangy
Perfect playing conditions provided plenty of great match-ups yesterday. In the biggest matches of the night, Archbishop Hoban defeated Magnificat and Olentangy Orange beat Olentangy. The close, 3-2 matches included: Chaminade-Julienne defeated Oakwood; Eaton beat Waynesville; Orange defeated Canfield; Reynoldsburg beat Westerville Central; Ursuline Academy defeated Loveland; and Solon beat Wadsworth. There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 9, and Northwest - 1. The Northeast continues to slowly catch-up to the Central and Southwest Districts. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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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 Ariel Hsieh and Chahak Gupta.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus Sycamore; North Canton Hoover (H) versus Solon; and Mariemont (H) versus Wyoming. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Anthony Wayne Beats Findlay
Rainy conditions affected play yesterday. There were just seven matches recorded. The breakdown by District was: Central - 2, Southwest - 4, and Northwest - 1. Anthony Wayne defeated Findlay and Delaware Hayes beat Buckeye Valley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for the updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws.
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Dublin Scioto - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Dublin Scioto. They are coached by CJ Juda. They are Team Members. They are led by Amelia Kunard, Emmy Evans, and Mio Awano. The Scioto versus Hilliard Davidson match was one of the rare times in which the sun has been favorable this season for photos. Note the slight shadow beneath the players in their action photos.
Today's matches include: Magnificat (H) versus Archbishop Hoban; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Wooster; Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (H) versus Beaumont. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Solon Beats Brecksville | SUA Defeats Turpin
Rain may affect play today, but yesterday was a good tennis day. In two of the bigger matches, Solon defeated Brecksville and St. Ursula Academy beat Turpin. The close, 3-2 matches included: Big Walnut defeated Westerville Central and Buckeye Valley defeated Ready. There were 29 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 9, and Northeast - 8. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Bexley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Bexley. They are coached by Heath Goolsby. They are Team Members. They are led by Amiya Bowles, Mia Ehrsam, and Gabbie Theile.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus New Albany; Dublin Jerome (A) versus Olentangy Orange; and Anthony Wayne (A) versus Findlay. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Busy Week Ahead
The goal is to get all of the pertinent (i.e. your daughter's) scores online before the Sectional Draws take place on September 24. The good news is that the draws are still about 1 1/2 weeks away, but please do not let them sneak up on you. Contact OTZ if you are an OTZ member and your daughter's scores are not online. For the full tennis calendar, scroll down to view the right side-bar.
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Columbus Academy - Click to team page |
There are several good matches taking place today. They include: St. Ursula Academy(H) versus Turpin; Upper Arlington (H) versus Bexley; and Mariemont (H) versus Badin. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
There are a couple of good tournaments coming up in Central Ohio for boys and for girls not in high school tennis. These are both very affordable and they benefit the school teams involved. They are: Dublin Coffman Fall Junior Open (September 16-17) and Upper Arlington Fall Junior Open (September 30 - October 1). As tennis people already know, the USTA is out of touch with technology so these links cannot be accessed while a computer is in VPN-mode. Virtual Private Networks (VPN) need to be turned off first to view these links. Central Ohio has not had any major junior USTA junior tournaments for many years and even these smaller tournaments have dwindled to a tiny number. The lack of junior tournaments state-wide will get worse before it gets better as clubs fill their off-hour courts with pickleball players.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
Today's featured team is Columbus Academy. They are coached by Preston Eberlyn. They are Team Members. They are led by Arya Chabria, Grace Philip, and Tamanna Arya.
The Central Ohio weather looks good for this week.
SUNDAY,
New Albany > Mason > Upper Arlington
The best teams in the state went on the road yesterday to get more great competition. New Albany defeated Mason and Mason beat Upper Arlington. North Canton Hoover traveled to the Northwest District to play. They beat Toledo St. Ursula Academy and Notre Dame Academy. Mason did not have their complete line-up. To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hawken - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Hawken. They are coached by Lori Shulman. They are led by Dani Forte and Bella Hsieh.
SATURDAY,
Centerville Beats Magnificat | Mariemont Defeats 7Hills
For a Friday night, there were numerous good matches. In matches involving the top teams, Centerville defeated Magnificat and Mariemont beat Seven Hills. To see the results for the other four matches that were reported, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Columbus School For Girls - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Columbus School for Girls. They are coached by Shelby Cheses. They are Team Members. They are led by Priya Mehta and Victoria Dizon.
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (A) versus Notre Dame Academy and Toledo St Ursula Academy and Upper Arlington versus Mason. Ohio State has their first home football game so that affects schedules (well, at least my tennis schedule). To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Bexley | Hathaway Brown Defeats Laurel | OTZ Photo Friday
Columbus Academy defeated Bexley and Hathaway Brown beat Laurel in two of the bigger matches of the evening. In State Team Tournament play, Solon defeated Wooster and Highland beat Shaker Heights. Overall, there were 20 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 8, and Northeast - 4. The other close, 3-2 matches included: Chaminade-Julienne defeated Badin and Upper Arlington-B beat Reynoldsburg. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click for the updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws.
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North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Bexley's Amiya Bowles defeated Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria; Turpin's Sarah Clark beat Loveland's Marlee Fleming; St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein defeated Mount Notre Dame's Zole Benz; Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri beat Hilliard Davidson's Madison Kline; Reynoldsburg's Kareen Meoko defeated Upper Arlington-B's Kylie Husted; Wooster's Ava Mathur beat Solon's Olivia Liu; Laurel's Rida Tahir defeated Hathaway Brown's Anna Mills; Mason's Emma Wagner beat Lakota East's Latty; Highland's Ally Haynes defeated Shaker Heights' Alexis Glinzler; and Columbus Academy's Grace Philip beat Bexley's Mia Ehrsam. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The sun has been weird lately where it has been too brutally bright or too much cloud cover. Click for the OTZ Most Recently Added Photos. More photos will be added later today.Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Magnificat; Mariemont (H) versus Seven Hills; and North Canton Hoover (A) versus Sylvania Northview. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
New Albany Beats Dublin Coffman | HB Defeats Magnificat
In the matches that included the OTZ highest ranked teams, Hathaway Brown defeated Magnificat and New Albany beat Dublin Coffman. It was a busy evening state-wide with 29 matches recorded. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Highland defeated Massillon Jackson; Eaton beat Miamisburg; Reynoldsburg defeated Delaware Hayes; Dublin Scioto beat Pickerington North; Copley defeated Cuyahoga Falls; Dublin Jerome beat Olentangy Berlin; Hilliard Davidson defeated Westerville Central; Chaminade-Julienne beat Milton-Union; Springboro defeated Oakwood; and Archbishop Alter beat Bellbrook. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
In the State Team Tournament, Anthony Wayne and Upper Arlington recorded wins. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws.
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ATP Challenger - January 2022 - Click to enlarge |
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Ball People - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Bexley's Amiya Bowles defeated Gahanna's Daniela Guzman; Centerville's Clara Owen beat Tippecanoe's Nicki Bauer; Turpin's Sarah Clark defeated Ursuline Academy's Ansari; New Albany's Richardlyne Francois beat Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri; Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu defeated Magnificat's Anna Mancino; Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Elena Fleming beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Amy Grace Beebe; Olentangy Berlin's Soleil Cordell defeated Dublin Jerome's Adayla Coakley; New Albany's Paige Cornelius beat Dublin Coffman's Lauren Burkett; Anthony Wayne's Mara Boyd defeated Toledo St. Ursula Academy's London Cohen; Hathaway Brown's Katie Mills beat Magnificat's Corinne Daniels; Highland's Ally Haynes defeated Massillon Jackson's Alessandra McCann; Perrysburg's Penelope Giammarco beat Ottawa Hills' Tangeman; Milton-Union's Shannon Brumbaugh defeated Chaminade-Julienne's Paige Harsman; Springboro’s Sofia Tomlin beat Oakwood’s Miranda Riggs; and Mount Notre Dame’s Scharfenberger defeated Loveland's Marlee Fleming. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Even though Ohio State is not hosting the OHSAA tournament **, it is nice that they are still hosting an ATP Challenger. The next one will be September 17-24. This is an opportunity to see up and coming players up close and personal. There is no charge for admittance. One recent player who competed was Dominic Stricker. He just recently beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the US Open. They are also looking for ballpeople, credential checkers, and driver volunteers. This is a perfect opportunity for home school kids. Click if interested. Eagle eye tennis fans will also notice that Alex Guthrie was the tournament directory. At one time, Guthrie was the high school coach at Mayfield.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Bexley; Solon (H) versus Orange; and Turpin (A) versus Loveland. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
** Yes, I know that the timing of this seems a little weird. Ohio State needs Ohio HS help after just turning down Ohio HS for the State Tournament..
WEDNESDAY,
SUA Beats Sycamore | Oakwood Defeats Bellbrook
There were 21 matches recorded in *hot* conditions. In the two biggest matches, St. Ursula Academy defeated Sycamore and Oakwood beat Bellbrook. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Valley View defeated Milton-Union; Lakota East beat Seven Hills; Geneva defeated Lakeside; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Bay; and Hudson defeated Orange. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Upper Arlington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Upper Arlington. They are coached by Shaun Stamps. They are Team Members. They are led by Isabella Roth, Alexa Roth, and Alice Hawley.
Today's matches include: Centerville (A) versus Tippecanoe; Magnificat (A) versus Hathaway Brown; and Mariemont (A) versus Indian Hill. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
College of Wooster to Host OHSAA Tournament
The big news for today will make some players quite happy. Others? Maybe not so much. Ohio State did not make as much money as they wanted during the boys state tournament last spring to re-up for the girls tournament. This forced the OHSAA to hustle to find a replacement since the Lindner Family Tennis Center's availability is still in doubt due to construction. The OHSAA reached out to several locations and the College of Wooster answered the call. The tournament will take place on Thursday, October 19, and Friday, October 20.
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College of Wooster - Click for tennis team |
Wooster has 12 new outdoor courts and an indoor facility on campus. They courts are shown on Wooster's college map in the northeast corner. The Google Satellite Map has not yet been updated to include the new courts, but they are located northeast of the football stadium and at the intersection of Wayne Avenue and Gasche Street. Click video to learn more about Wooster's tennis program and their facilities from Coach Amy Behrman.
The Ohio State facility was absolutely perfect for the state tournament thanks to its central location and its outdoor / indoor combination. The crowds for the high school tournament are larger than what Ohio State gets for their own matches. The attendance would have also grown as more Central Ohio fans discovered that the tournament was back in Columbus. It is unfortunate that revenue played such a big role for an institution that is partially funded by taxpayers. It is unknown how large a difference there was between what the OHSAA was willing to offer and what Ohio State wanted. It is also unknown if another event was planned by Ohio State on that Thursday and Friday. There is a home football game against Penn State on Saturday.
The Columbus Challenger takes place indoors in September at OSU and it is unknown if there are revenue requirements for that tournament.
The location and date of the State Team Tournament has not been announced.
Thank you, Wooster, for being a friend of Ohio High School tennis. Hopefully you will pick up a few additional college students and a few good tennis players due to your hospitality.
I am finally done preparing the OTZ invoices so now it is time for me to finally kick back and enjoy the Labor Day holiday weekend. Wait. What?
Today's matches include: Hudson (H) versus Orange; Franklin Heights (H) versus Grandview; and Anthony Wayne (A) versus Sylvania Southview. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Big News Tomorrow
Yesterday was another quiet day for Ohio high school tennis. There will also be no results to report tomorrow morning. There will; however, be other big news which should make teams in Northeast Ohio very (very) happy.
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Marysville - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Marysville. They are coached by William Romine, who also happens to be a new grandfather. (Congratulations!) They are Team Members, and they are led by Paige Hobbs and Linnea Olofsson.
The OTZ invoice process is about half way done. I should be able to finish them today. So, yay.
SUNDAY,
By-Court Report | Delaware Hayes Beats Marion Harding
There was just one score reported due to the Labor Day holiday. Delaware Hayes defeated Marion Harding. To view the graphical results from this match or for previous days, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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By-Court Report - Click to report |
Among the top players, Delaware Hayes' Gina Martin defeated Marion Harding's Audrey Feasel and Delaware Hayes' Reghan Gist beat Marion Harding's Abigail Harke. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
To celebrate Labor Day, OTZ will labor on the task that is the most hated by the entire OTZ staff - processing the invoices for the service. Last year, the invoice process was done in early July, but it has been a hectic summer (and year). No one was cut-off due to the delay in distributing the invoices. It may not be well known, but "OTZ access" continues unless the member is a rampant non-payer. Many thanks to the members who simply pay without prompting. Also note that the cost of OTZ has not increased despite the rampant inflation. The Team Membership price has never been increased since it was introduced about 10 years ago.
The "By-Court" Report is taking form as more matches are played. This report is a key component in understanding team depth. It is also a great way to identify players to add to the OTZ Watch List. As is the case with all OTZ reports, it is heavily "linked" to promote additional research. This is an OTZ creation and it is not duplicated anywhere else in tennis - not even for Division I college tennis.
There are no matches scheduled for today or tomorrow.
If you are awaiting a reply from me or for me to do a task that was promised six weeks ago, today would be a great day to re-ping me. I welcome diversions while processing invoices. Our dog, Zoey, wants to go on a walk. Good dog, Zoey. Good dog.
SATURDAY,
Bexley Beats Buckeye Valley
It was really quiet on the tennis courts yesterday as players headed off to football games. There were just two matches recorded. (There were; however, numerous matches entered late from Thursday's matches.) Newark defeated Central Crossing and Bexley beat Buckeye Valley. To view the results graphically, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Westerville North - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Westerville North. They are coached by Max Quinton. They are led by Anna Spitale and Mira Shyamalan. There is a Westerville North, a Westerville South, and a Westerville Central. I will not be happy until I see a Westerville East.. Note that Westerville Central is further north than Westerville North.
It is best for coaches (or players who have been designated by the coach) to enter results in the evening after the match. The OTZ update begins crazy early the next morning and it is like following a complex recipe. The scores are added first and then there are about 50 steps/processes that take place before it is finished. Once started, additional ingredients (or scores) are not added. Older scores may be entered anytime, but the daily commentary is not updated to include these older matches. To get recognized in the daily commentary, the scores need to be entered in the evening.
It is going to be a quiet weekend because of the Labor Day holiday. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Avon Beats Hudson
At this point of the season, there are primarily league matches being played and many of those matches are one-sided. The closest of the 24 matches recorded included: Reynoldsburg defeated Pickerington Central; Avon beat Hudson; Mason-B defeated Loveland; St. Joseph Academy beat Lake Ridge Academy; and Lancaster defeated Newark. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Martina Trevisan - Click to enlarge |
Today is an OTZ Photo Friday. The majority of the photos are from the Western & Southern Open. These photos are available for everyone to see. Click for Most Recently Added Photos. As with most photos, they tell a thousand words about a player's skill-level. The pros do everything well -- on almost every stroke. It is worthwhile to analyze a high school player using the same criteria. I see HS players through a different lens than parents because I really do not care who wins (other than your daughter, of course, I certainly want her to win). Since I often take 3-5 shot bursts, I can see the mechanics much better than others. Here is what I look for:
- Eye on ball through the hitting zone. The best players will hold their heads still for a split second even after the ball leaves the racquet.
- Coiling. Does a player coil their torso before hitting the ball? Seeing a player stand straight-up is a "quick tell" on her ability.
- Foot work / legs. Obviously a player needs to be in the correct spot for her swing pattern, but does she use her legs and hips to set-up a kinetic chain? In the photos, note Coco's position after she strikes the ball. She is springing into the ball.
- Speed. It is not just the speed of getting to a ball, but to the next one and the next one, etc. To do that, a player has to quickly accelerate and then quickly stop to get to the next ball. to In the above photo, Trevisan is in control to blast this shot and then recover for the next ball.
- Facial expression. I hesitate to say this, but it really does tell fans how confident a player is about particular strokes. I am sure I look horrified when someone hits the ball to my backhand because I am horrified.
As I have mentioned before, it is easy to get great shots of pros and Division I college players (when they play outdoors) because they make a lot of balls and they do everything correct. Since their skill levels are similar, they force their opponents to be at maximum speed. It is not at all easy to get good high school photos. Most of the best players in HS tennis will only be tested 3-4 times during the regular season.
Trying to take good photos of boys playing doubles in the early spring is absolutely impossible because boys value aces so much that they are willing to hit about five double faults to get one ace. When I go to the hereafter, I will spend all of my time at boys doubles matches..
THURSDAY,
Mason Beats SUA | Indian Hill Defeats Turpin
Mason defeated St. Ursula Academy and Indian Hill beat Turpin in the marquis matches of the evening. The close, 3-2 matches included: Milton-Union defeated Northwestern; Chaminade-Julienne beat Butler; Worthington Kilbourne defeated Columbus School For Girls; Hilliard Darby beat Gahanna; Copley defeated Kent Roosevelt; and Wooster beat Ashland.
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Loveland - Click to team page |
There were 25 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 8, and Northeast - 7. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri defeated Olentangy Berlin's Soleil Cordell; Indian Hill's Brooke Arington beat Turpin's Sarah Clark; Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman defeated Columbus School For Girls' Priya Mehta; Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria beat Watterson's Sara Goodlive; Mason's Pratyusha Chaudhuri defeated St. Ursula Academy's Elle Schuermann; and Dublin Coffman's Lauren Burkett beat Olentangy Berlin's Claire Emanuel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Loveland. They are coached by Jennifer Kapszukiewicz. They are led by Marlee Fleming, Laura Hiett, and Katie Murphy.Today's matches include: Hudson (A) versus Avon; Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (H) versus Hathaway Brown; and Centerville (A) versus Archbishop Alter. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Avon Beats Magnificat | CVCA Defeats Orange
Great weather meant that the entire state was playing tennis yesterday. There were numerous interesting matches. Avon defeated Magnificat and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Orange. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hudson defeated Kenston; Worthington Christian beat Upper Arlington-B; Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin defeated Shaker Heights; Archbishop Alter beat Badin; Dublin Coffman defeated Upper Arlington; Dublin Scioto beat Big Walnut; Gahanna defeated Grove City; and Massillon Jackson-B beat St. Joseph Academy.
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Copley - Click to team page |
Overall, there were 35 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 18, Southwest - 9, Northeast - 7, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Avon's Natalie Smitek defeated Magnificat's Anna Mancino; Dublin Coffman's Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri beat Upper Arlington's Isabella Roth; Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Elena Fleming defeated Shaker Heights’ Alexis Glinzler; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Amy Grace Beebe beat Orange's Daniela DeMata-Hiciano; Dublin Jerome's Adayla Coakley defeated Watterson's Sara Goodlive; Olentangy Berlin's Soleil Cordell beat Marysville's Paige Hobbs; Perrysburg's Penelope Giammarco defeated Bowling Green's Elizabeth Barnett; Dublin Scioto's Amelia Kunard beat Big Walnut's Rosie Hartzler; Avon's Denver Johnson defeated Magnificat's Corinne Daniels; Kenston's Brooke McNeal beat Hudson's Erica Liu; Dublin Coffman's Lauren Burkett defeated Upper Arlington's Alexa Roth; and Badin’s Williams beat Archbishop Alter's Maggie Shope. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Copley. They are coached by Jodi Mirman. They are Team Members. They are led by Cassandra Komlanc, Vaishnavi Medapati, and Aanya Patel.
The start of this season was even more hectic than in previous years so there are still probably 2.4 billion million emails (exaggeration alert) that I have not responded to or taken action on. If you are awaiting action on anything, please ping me again. If you have not heard from me after 3-4 days, please email me again. Also, email is by far my preferred way of communicating. I primarily use text to inform Mrs. OTZ that I will be leaving the match "soon", and of course, she knows that is never the case.
On a brighter note, the team photos that I have been receiving this year have almost all been in high resolution mode. In the past, I have had to endure receiving three low resolution images in a row from the same team before getting one that I can use on OTZ. This has been a big time saver. Thanks for this.
Today's matches include: St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Mason; Turpin (A) versus Indian Hill; and Loveland (H) versus Oak Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Indian Hill Beats St. Ursula Academy
In the biggest match of the night, Indian Hill defeated St. Ursula Academy. Overall though, it was a big night for tennis. There were 27 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central -10, Southwest - 10, and Northeast -7. The close, 3-2 matches included: Granville defeated Watkins Memorial; Lancaster beat Reynoldsburg; Carroll defeated Wilmington; Olentangy beat Hilliard Darby; and Lehman Catholic defeated Greeneview. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Sycamore - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Sycamore. They are coached by Mike Teets. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Lisa Kai, Caitlin Meyer, and Allison Sayles.
Today's matches include: Upper Arlington (A) versus Dublin Coffman; Copley (A) versus Highland; Centerville (A) versus Beavercreek; and Hudson (A) versus Kenston. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
OTZ Girls State Team Draws
The OhioTennisZone.com Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws are now (finally) available. Click link above to view. As is normally the case, the Central District D2 leads the way in having all of its teams already in the semi-final round. No other District in the state comes close to this level of promptness. Not only can the Central District get its matches done on time, but they always finish in the Top 5 of the Final Four.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to go to draws |
The draws are available at the top of this page and they will remain there throughout the season. As with everything else on OTZ, the goal is to enable high school tennis fans to quickly obtain the information they need rather than to maximize OTZ clicks and page views. As indicated in the four features that are circled: 1) the most recent update date is included; 2) the navigation links allow users to quickly jump throughout the draw; 3) the Team designation means that a Team Membership was purchased and that all of the individual player information is available via their OTZ Player Profiles; and 4) the team links are "click-able" to enable fans to do more research. For the best experience, sign-in to OTZ first. The goal is to keep the draws promptly updated throughout the season. Please click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament Participation- Click to enlarge |
The number of schools participating in the state team tournament continues to decrease. All districts had a lower number of teams competing this year versus last year. For the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts, this was the lowest number of teams participating since OTZ started keeping these stats in 2015. Central had 25 schools playing in 2015 and 18 are competing this year. For other districts, the numbers are: Northeast: 45 down to 35, Northeast: 29 to 24, and Southwest: 35 to 30. The totals decreased from 134 in 2015 to 107 this year.
As shown in the graph, Southwest and Northeast have the most participants and Central has the least. Out of the 372 (down from 378 last year) OHSAA girls tennis teams, 28.8% of the teams are competing in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
This year, the Central District teams will play the Northwest teams in the first round of the State Team Tournament, while the Northeast will play the Southwest. If there are insufficient courts available for all teams to play (likely), Division I will go on court first.
SUNDAY,
North Canton Hoover Beats New Albany and Sycamore
Ohio got a break from the high temperatures yesterday. OTZ #1 North Canton Hoover traveled to New Albany yesterday and defeated both OTZ #2 New Albany and Sycamore. To view all of the graphical results from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Jonathan Alder - Click to team page |
In tournament play, Anthony Wayne placed first at the Perkins Invite. Worthington Christian won the Hilliard Darby Doubles Tournament. (I am happy to post other tournament winners - just email me on the same day on which the tournament takes place.) See more below.
Among the top players, North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Sycamore's Lisa Kai and New Albany's Richardlyne Francois; St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein beat Beavercreek's Kenna Ruggles; New Albany's Richardlyne Francois defeated Sycamore's Lisa Kai; and New Albany's Paige Cornelius beat Sycamore's Caitlin Meyer. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
OTZ will include tournament results online if they are emailed by the coach to OTZ in precisely the following format:
9/31/2023:
Smith (Bloomingburg) def. Jones (Bishop Sycamore) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
S.Williams-V.Williams (Bishop Sycamore) def. Nadal-Federer (Bloomingburg) 6-4, 6-3
Note that the scores are always shown from the winner's perspective (6-2, 6-3), never ever ever 2-6, 3-6. Never. Ever. Exclamation point. Period. Not now. Not then. Not in a million billion years. (Kindly note the frustration in the typing above. The keyboard keys were slightly bruised in this process.)
Today's featured team is Jonathan Alder. They are coached by Bryan Deeken. They are led by Ella and Katie Sloat.
SATURDAY,
Magnificat Beats Notre Dame Academy
Ohio HS tennis will be rather quiet for the rest of the season on Friday nights as kids head off to football games. Last night, Magnificat defeated Notre Dame Academy and North Canton Hoover beat Olentangy Orange. To view the graphical results recorded from matches yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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New Albany - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is New Albany. They are coached by Marc Thomas. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Richardlyne Francois, Paige Cornelius, and Airi Clements.
There are a few tournaments today. New Albany is also hosting dual matches where Sycamore, North Canton Hoover, and New Albany with play. I will be going to NA in a few minutes to watch and to take photos. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Bexley Beats CSG | Massillon Jackson Defeats Walsh Jesuit | Photo Friday
The temperature was impressive again, but now we are getting use to it. As always, the girls season weather is far better than the boys. The most notable matches of the evening were Bexley's win over Columbus School For Girls and the Massillon Jackson victory over Walsh Jesuit. There were 10 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 3, Southwest - 2, and Northeast - 5. The close, 3-2 matches included: Kenston defeated Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy; Loveland beat Walnut Hills; and Wooster defeated St. Joseph Academy. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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New Albany's Paige Cornelius - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, North Canton Hoover's Tess Bucher defeated Brecksville's Claire Martens; Bexley's Amiya Bowles beat Columbus School For Girls' Priya Mehta; Turpin's Sarah Clark defeated Anderson's Laura Johnson; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Amy Grace Beebe beat Kenston's Madison Davila; Walnut Hills’ Irisa Poompanit defeated Loveland's Marlee Fleming; Wooster's Ava Mathur beat St. Joseph Academy's Ella Kowalski; and Massillon Jackson’s Alessandra McCann defeated Walsh Jesuit’s Laura Stephens. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
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Coco Gauff - Click to enlarge |
It is an OTZ Photo Friday. Sign-in first to view the Most Recently Added Photos. Eight high school photos were added. There are also a few Western & Southern Open images included, too. The W&S Open photos are available for all to see. Gauff is amazingly athletic..
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (A) versus Olentangy Orange; Centerville (A) versus Bellbrook; and Magnificat (H) versus Notre Dame Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Indian Hill Beat Mason
It was another hot day and today is expected to be worse. In the marquis match of the evening, Indian Hill defeated Mason. The close, 3-2 matches included: Mariemont defeated Ursuline Academy; Grove City defeated Bloom-Carroll; and Chaminade-Julienne defeated Springboro. There were 15 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 8, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Franklin Heights - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Franklin Heights. They are coached by James Wassmuth. They are led by Safourata Bah and Nadya Geter.
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Vivek Ramaswarmy - Click for video |
In the "It's a Small World . ." ** department, Presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswarmy, a St. Xavier grad, appears to have a solid forehand based on this link. His brother, Shankar, also played tennis for St. X, and Shankar was a very accomplished player. Shankar played twice at States. Click for his draws in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, he finished 4th. Our son, Kyle, played Shankar in junior tennis.
Vivek Ramaswarmy is an Upper Arlington resident. Shankar is now in California. [LinkedIn link].
** Click for ear-worm. Click for Shrek version of ear-worm.
The OTZ computer that does the daily update is unplugged during thunderstorms. This morning was a start, stop, start, stop, start process. Sorry for the delay in today's update, but the computer gear needs to stay safe.
Today's matches include: Magnificat (H) versus Archbishop Hoban; North Canton Hoover (A) versus Brecksville; and St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Wooster. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Perrysburg Beats Anthony Wayne | Archbishop Hoban Defeats Solon
Ok. Now things are starting to click. The weather was great and it appears that the entire state is now active with matches. There were still be interesting match-ups but as more teams enter their league schedules, there will not be as many marquis matches.
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Olentangy Berlin - Click to team page |
There were 30 matches recorded from state-wide play. (This will likely grow to 40 matches after all of the coaches eventually submit their results.) The breakdown by Districts was: Central - 13, Southwest - 10, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy defeated Hudson; Laurel beat Aurora; Magnificat defeated Avon Lake; Shaker Heights beat St. Joseph Academy; Archbishop Hoban defeated Solon; Perrysburg beat Anthony Wayne; Orange defeated Massillon Jackson; and Reynoldsburg beat Newark. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Magnificat's Anna Mancino defeated Avon Lake's Amber Korey; Archbishop Hoban's Haley Slay beat Solon's Olivia Liu; Worthington Kilbourne's Libby Alderman defeated Big Walnut's Clare Murphy; Dublin Jerome's Adayla Coakley beat Marysville's Paige Hobbs; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Amy Grace Beebe defeated Hudson's Mallory Hannan; Anthony Wayne's Mara Boyd beat Perrysburg's Penelope Giammarco; New Albany's Airi Clements defeated Gahanna's Daniela Guzman; Laurel's Rida Tahir beat Aurora's Grace Milano; Olentangy Berlin's Soleil Cordell defeated Hilliard Darby's Mackenzie Davis; Shaker Heights’ Alexis Glinzler beat St. Joseph Academy’s Ella Kowalski; and Columbus School For Girls' Priya Mehta defeated Wellington's Caliope Mlicki. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Olentangy Berlin. They are coached by Richard Hunt. They are Team Members. They are led by Soleil Cordell and Claire Emanuel.
Today's matches include: St. Ursula Academy (H) versus Sycamore; Mariemont (H) versus Ursuline Academy; Magnificat (H) versus Avon; and Highland (A) versus Copley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Magnificat Beats Highland | UA Defeats Berlin
The number of matches played last night increased as more schools began classes. In some of the bigger matches: Magnificat defeated Highland; Upper Arlington beat Olentangy Berlin; North Canton Hoover defeated Massillon Jackson; and Mariemont beat Seton. The 3-2 matches included: Centerville-B defeated Lebanon; Marysville beat Hilliard Darby; Seven Hills defeated Mount Notre Dame; and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin beat Brecksville. There were 16 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 4, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 6, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Newark - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Newark. They are coached by Rob Hays, and they are off to a great, 5-0 start. They are led by Addi Taylert, Vanessa Bennett, and Becca Helber.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (A) versus Orange; Upper Arlington (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; and Dublin Jerome (H) versus Marysville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Toasty
The big news this week will be the high temperatures. It is going to be *hot*. It was so hot yesterday at the Western & Southern Open that the place looked like a bee hive with all of the fans' fans rapidly fluttering.
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Dublin Coffman - Click to team page |
With the W&S Open over and with just a few more things to do to wrap up the summer pickleball league, efforts will switch full-time to the OhioTennisZone.com web site. Really..
The Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Association web site has been a reliable source for Dayton-area team results for years. That does not appear to be the case this year. Hopefully this will change. The frequent rain showers last week certainly did not help.
Today's featured team is Dublin Coffman. They are coached by Brett Hundertpfund. They are Team Members. They are led by Pritika Ghosh-Choudhuri, Lauren Burkett, and Bethel Binyam.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Dublin Jerome (A) versus Wellington; Magnificat (H) versus Highland; and Upper Arlington (H) versus Olentangy Berlin. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Turpin Beats Summit Country Day
There were numerous tournaments yesterday, but not many dual matches played. In the one dual match that was reported, Turpin defeated Summit Country Day. Most of the tournaments were not reported, but Tippecanoe did win the Schroeder Invitational. To view the graphical results from the Turpin match, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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New Albany - Click to team page |
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New Albany - 2022 - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is New Albany. They are coached by Marc Thomas. They are Team Members. They are led by Richardlyne Francois, Paige Cornelius, and Airi Clements.
The 2023 and 2022 team photos for New Albany are side-by-side today to show the difference between having the players face the sun versus having the sun behind them. Even though looking at the sun does partially tinge the players' retinas, the colors are much more brilliant and the photo looks much better. I had considered using the Olentangy Orange photos (Click for 2022 - 2023) as today's examples, but showing those skirts would torch our retinas.
The OTZ plans are to take photos at the Western & Southern Open today. Hope to see you there.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Beats Walsh Jesuit and Seven Hills' Defeats Seton
It was a slow night for Ohio high school tennis as another sport began its competition. Just three matches were recorded. Sycamore defeated Walsh Jesuit and Seven Hills defeated Seton. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Reynoldsburg - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Reynoldsburg. They are coached by Les Somogyi. They are led by Kareen Meoko and Isabella Boskovska.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas - Click to team page |
Another photo is included from the Western & Southern Open. The photo of Stefanos Tsitsipas was taken on Wednesday. This was from the "Bee Match" when he played against Ben Sheldon. I was not there when it happened.
There are tournaments at New Albany, Canfield, and Reynoldsburg today. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Indian Hill Beats Columbus Academy | Coach Tim Drew with 900 Wins
Thursday meant more iffy weather and more unfinished matches. The common question from coaches yesterday was, "How do we report unfinished matches?". The reply was "Just wait until a match has been decided before reporting the score." There were still some great matches that took place that included the top teams. Indian Hill defeated Columbus Academy and Hathaway Brown beat Magnificat. There was also a significant milestone reached by Seven Hills' Tim Drew. Coach Drew earned his 900th career win. Congratulations!
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Coach Drew after 7Hills' Team Championship - Click |
There were 16 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 6, Southwest - 6, and Northeast - 4. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein defeated Ursuline Academy's Cristina Rainne; Indian Hill's Brooke Arington beat Columbus Academy's Arya Chabria; Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu defeated Magnificat's Anna Mancino; Upper Arlington’s Isabella Roth beat Hilliard Bradley’s Grace Hurley; Seven Hills' Brogan Bell defeated Madeira's Sloane Warner; Laurel's Rida Tahir beat Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin's Elena Fleming; Indian Hills’ Sophia Thompson defeated Columbus Academy's Grace Philip; and Hathaway Brown's Anna Mills beat Magnificat's Corinne Daniels. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
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Emma Navarro - Click to enlarge |
As many tennis fans know, the USTA recently sold the rights to the Western & Southern Open to Ben Navarro. This has put in doubt the future of the Cincinnati tournament. There is certainly a strong possibility that the tournament will be moved from Mason to Charlotte, NC. WLW's Bill Cunningham had a great radio segment earlier in the week where he spoke with Warren County Commissioner, David Young, about the future of the Western & Southern Open. Click here for the interview. (It is in the first segment of the August 15, 2023 show.) An interesting part of this story is that Ben Navarro daughter, Emma, is a very promising, young professional player. Emma was the NCAA Women's Singles Champion in 2021. She teamed up with Mason's Peyton Sterns on Wednesday in doubles. Her photo is included today.
Today is a Photo Friday. Eleven new photos were added. Sign-in first to view to view the Most Recently Added Photos.
Today's matches include: Sycamore (A) versus Walsh Jesuit and St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Medina. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
New Albany Beats Liberty | Coffman Defeats Olentangy
New Albany defeated Olentangy Liberty and Dublin Coffman beat Olentangy in two of the bigger matches yesterday. Close, 3-2 matches included: Willoughby South defeated Lakeside; Reynoldsburg beat Gahanna; and Delaware Hayes defeated Westerville North. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Ohio had a good weather day yesterday, and 13 matches were recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 2, and Northeast - 2.
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Hathaway Brown - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Hathaway Brown. They are coached by Greg Aten. They are Team Members. They are led by Katie Mills and Summer Mu.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus Indian Hill; Magnificat (H) versus Hathaway Brown; North Canton Hoover (A) versus Wooster; St. Ursula Academy (A) versus Ursuline Academy; and Olentangy (A) versus Olentangy Berlin. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
SUA Beats Mag | Highland Defeats Olentangy Orange
Yesterday was largely a rain-out, but there were still a few big matches that were played. St. Ursula Academy defeated Magnificat; Highland beat Olentangy Orange; and Magnificat defeated Sycamore.
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Dublin Jerome - Click to team page |
There were five matches recorded from state-wide play. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, St. Ursula Academy's Emily Jennewein defeated Magnificat's Anna Mancino; Olentangy Orange's Avery Reed beat Highland's Ally Haynes; St. Ursula Academy's Maria Poon defeated Magnificat's Corinne Daniels; and St. Ursula Academy's Elle Schuermann beat Magnificat's Margaret Williams.Today's featured team is Dublin Jerome. They are coached by Jeremy Mokry. They are Team Members. They are led by Lydia Foster, Adayla Coakley, and Madeline Lynch.
Yesterday, there was a small dent made in the pile of "beginning of season" OTZ tasks that still need to be done. Hopefully more can be accomplished today. (Rain-outs do help with this.) Players that graduated were removed from view.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) versus St. Ursula Academy; Highland (A) versus Lakota West; Solon (A) versus Hawken; and St. Joseph Academy (H) versus Laurel. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Hathaway Brown Beats Sycamore
Just one match was reported yesterday. Hathaway Brown defeated Sycamore. HB makes a swing through central and southwest Ohio at the beginning of each season and then they attend the Western & Southern Open. Click on Previous Day's Match Results to see the graphical information.
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Highland - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Highland. They are coached by Lisa Reynolds. They are Team Members. They are led by Ally Haynes, Claire Schlak, and Ella Tople.
Today's matches include: Highland (A) versus Olentangy Orange; Magnificat (A) versus Sycamore and St. Ursula Academy; and Copley (H) versus Woodridge. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
Today will largely be a tennis-only day. (Yay!) If the weather clears, the OTZ plans include watching the Highland versus Olentangy Orange match.
SUNDAY,
North Canton Hoover Beats Wellington | UA Defeats Mariemont
Weather cooperated for the most part yesterday as teams participated in tournaments and dual matches. In dual match play, North Canton Hoover defeated Wellington; Mayfield beat Laurel;
Upper Arlington defeated Mariemont; and Upper Arlington-B beat Centerville-B.
Chaminade-Julienne won its CJ Invitational. Seven Hills finished second.
To view the dual match results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Gilmour Academy's Lauren Davis - Click to enlarge |
In today's matches Sycamore hosts Hathaway Brown in Cincinnati.
Today's photo is of Gilmour Academy's Lauren Davis during yesterday's Western & Southern Open qualifier. Davis played one year of high school tennis prior to focusing on professional tennis. She was the D2 State Singles Champion in 2008. Click for 2008 article. She lost yesterday's match against Ann Li, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
OTZ attention has been stretched too thin over a number of different projects over the last four weeks. The good news is that the PickleballZone.com summer pickleball league comes to a close with its end-of-year tournament today. Mrs. OTZ (and Mrs. PBZ) and I provided a adult summer coed pickleball league in central Ohio that included 40 teams (up from 24 last year). The bad news is that I cannot multi-task.. At all.
As for other things, the Western & Southern Open begins in earnest tomorrow, but Mrs. OTZ and I made a quick trip down to the tournament yesterday. We made the trip after I returned from the Columbus School for Girls Doubles Invite. (It was great seeing everyone again!.) Other projects have included making another video and taking a lot of photos for numerous projects and causes. There will be more focus on Ohio high school tennis beginning tonight.. Hopefully.
SATURDAY,
North Canton Hoover Beats Olentangy | HB Defeats NA & Coffman
Many of the state's best teams hit the road yesterday to play out of area teams. They included: North Canton Hoover defeated Olentangy; Hathaway Brown defeated New Albany and Dublin Coffman; Centerville defeated Notre Dame Academy; and Perrysburg defeated Sycamore.
There were 12 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 3, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 2. Click on Previous Day's Match Results to view all of the details.
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Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. They are coached by David Ramey. They are led by Amy Grace Beebe, Libby Cain, and Kyle Moore.
Today's matches include the CSG Doubles Tournament and North Canton Hoover (A) versus Wellington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Magnificat Beat Solon | OTZ Photo Friday!
This is the first Photo Friday of the season. There is more on that below.
In matchplay among the top teams, Magnificat defeated Solon and Olentangy Berlin beat Bexley.
Close 3-2 matches included: DeSales defeated Marysville; Pickerington Central beat Westerville Central; and Aurora defeated St. Joseph Academy. The DeSales / Marysville match included four 3-setters and it was decided at second dubs in a tie-break. The parents won't forget their Rolaids for the next match..
There were 15 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 2, and Northeast - 5. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Marysville's Linnea Olofsson - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Magnificat's Anna Mancino defeated Solon's Olivia Liu; Olentangy Berlin’s Soleil Cordell beat Bexley's Mia Ehrsam; Highland's Ally Haynes defeated Medina's Megan Nuske; Aurora’s Grace Milano beat St.Joseph Academy’s Ella Kowalski; Norton’s Jovanovic defeated Copley's Cassandra Komlanc; DeSales’ Olivia Sanabria beat Marysville's Paige Hobbs; and Magnificat's Corinne Daniels defeated Solon's Isabella Liu.
Today's matches include: North Canton Hoover (A) versus Lexington and Olentangy; Sycamore (H) versus Perrysburg; and Centerville (H) versus Notre Dame Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
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Buy an OTZ Photo - Click toSmugMug |
There will be an attempt to promote photos every Friday. Long-time readers know OTZ plans rarely match reality. (Even short-time readers know this.) The new twist this year is that photos available for purchase will be uploaded each week as well.
Consider this.. Mothers normally like to get photos of their daughters for the mothers' enjoyment, but it really goes far beyond that. These are photos that current players will want their granddaughters to see. Envision how this will play out.
Teenage grandchild in the year 2073*: "Grandma, what did you do as a kid?"
Today's daughter who is a grandmother in 2073: "I played tennis. Would you like to see a photo?"
Teenage grandchild: "Is that you?! Really? Wow!"
* (15 year old now + 10 more years to have a child + 25 more years to have a grandchild + 15 more years to have a teenage grandchild) = 2073 (or 2023 + 10 + 25 + 15) (time flies)
Click to Buy a tennis photo.
THURSDAY,
Archbishop Alter Beats Tippecanoe | Highland Defeats NDA
Great team match-ups continued. Archbishop Alter defeated Tippecanoe and Highland defeated Notre Dame Academy. Other close matches included: Hilliard Bradley defeated Lancaster; Geneva beat Lakeside; and Olentangy Berlin defeated Pickerington Central.
There were 15 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 1, Northeast - 4, and Northwest - 2. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Anthony Wayne - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Anthony Wayne. They are coached by Jim Sutto. They are Team Members. Anthony Wayne lost quite a few players from graduation including Lilly Black and Mia Rettig. They are led by Mara Boyd and Emily Szul.
Today's matches include: Solon (H) versus Magnificat; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Aurora; and Marysville (H) versus DeSales. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Hawken Beats Magnificat | HB Defeats Solon
This is the first update of the season that includes match results. The top teams wasted no time in playing other strong teams. Hawken defeated Magnificat and Hathaway Brown beat Solon. In other close matches, Shaker Heights defeated Laurel and Avon beat Westlake.
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Delaware Hayes - Click to team page |
Overall there were 11 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 5, Southwest - 1, and Northeast - 5. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Hathaway Brown's Katie Mills defeated Solon's Ariel Hsieh; Hawken's Dani Forte beat Magnificat's Anna Mancino; Hathaway Brown's Summer Mu defeated Solon's Chahak Gupta; Avon's Denver Johnson beat Westlake's Makenzie Stokes; Hawken’s Valeria Kislyansky defeated Magnificat's Corinne Daniels; Centerville’s Elise Hedrick beat Miami Valley School’s Kennedi Washington; Westlake’s Nadia Milovich defeated Avon's Victoria Sidoti; and Big Walnut's Rosie Hartzler beat Hartley's Victoria Nedeau.
It did not take long for some of the strong incoming freshman players to make an impact. In today’s update, Centerville's Elise Hedrick, Hawken’s Valeria Kislyansky, HB's Anna Mills, and Laurel's Rida Tahir are included. Click for the complete list of top incoming freshmen that was originally published on October 28, 2022 and frequently updated since that date.
Today's featured team is Delaware Hayes. They are coached by Dianna Hibinger. They are Team Members and they are led by Tavi Jeisel-Steffel, Gina Martin, and Reghan Gist. Thanks to the Delaware Hayes tournament that takes place on the first Saturday of the season, OTZ can acquire team and action photos early in the season.
This is the ugly duckling part of the season for OTZ because the team and player records have sparse information. Parts of the web site adjust automatically from the boys to the girls season (and vice versa), but most of the site requires manual changes.
Today's matches include: Delaware Hayes (H) versus Jonathan Alder; Dublin Jerome (H) versus DeSales; St. Joseph Academy (A) versus Bay; and Highland (A) versus Notre Dame Academy. To view all of the matches that have been entered into the OTZ schedule system, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2023 -- 6:45PM
Indian Hill Starts Season as #1 in Division II (delta release - updated 6:45pm)
Well, that didn't take long. About three and a half hours after posting the first version of this Pre-Season draw, this is version two.. m
The Top Teams in Division I were ranked by OTZ on Thursday. Today, it is Division II's turn. Many of last year's top teams got hit by graduation (especially CHCA). Some teams will be able to reload faster than others.
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
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| Division II | |
| 1. Indian Hill◄TEAM | |
| 2. Hathaway Brown◄TEAM | |
| 3. Columbus Academy◄TEAM | |
| 4. Archbishop Alter◄TEAM | |
| 5. Hawken◄TEAM | |
| 6. Bexley | |
| 7. Tippecanoe◄TEAM | |
| 8. Seven Hills◄TEAM | |
| 9. Orange◄TEAM | |
| 10. Cincinnati Hills Christian Acad.◄TEAM | |
◄TEAM - Denotes Team Membership so extensive OTZ information is available | |
Note that the Division II rankings are more difficult to create because D2 teams do not travel as well as Division I teams. This means that it is difficult to compare teams from the various Districts. For example, Division I's North Canton Hoover will likely play teams in the Central, Southwest, and Northwest Districts. NCH basically becomes a Rosetta Stone to compare teams throughout the entire state. 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 some travel in high school. Please remember that Columbus remains a perfect location for teams throughout the state to meet for dual matches. Schedule a match for 10:00, book another match at 1:00pm, eat Cane's Chicken at 3:00pm, and grab an ice cream cone at Graeters at 4:00pm.
Last year's seniors will be removed when this year's new results are posted (which will probably occur tomorrow).
Division II
#1 Indian Hill returns Brooke Arington, Caroline Brown, Lexi Larsen, and Cassie Larsen. They pick up Sophia Thompson from CHCA and Lillian Dwyer will also be playing for IH. They lost Hannah Pollock and Sarika Singh to graduation. They were fourth last year.
#2 Hathaway Brown returns their top two singles players, Summer Mu and Katie Mills, but they lost three big contributors to graduation. Gone are Alice Lin, Ally Mills, and Teagan Clark. They picked up another Mills sister, Anna, who is a 3-star. They also get Ava Kamensky - a 2-star freshman. They finished #2 last year.
#3 Columbus Academy had a great deal of depth last year, and much of that strength returns this fall. Returning are: Arya Chabria, Grace Philip, Yasemin Bilgin, and Tamanna Arya. Anna Chang graduated. They pick up Gabrielle Stewart - a 2-star freshman. They finished #3 last fall.
#4 Archbishop Alter returns their entire varsity team that was ranked seventh from last year. They include: Maggie Shope, Annie Gayonski, Annie Schaefer, and Alana Baker. Very unfortunately, their long-time coach, Charlie Painter, passed away on March 16. Click for Coach Painter's obituary.
#5 Hawken kept many of their players from last year's team. They include: Dani Forte, Hayley Garber, Bella Hsieh, and Beatrice Hardacre. They lost Eliana Yang and Tina Tewari to graduation. They will gain Valeria Kislyansky who is a 3-star freshman.
#6 Bexley returns State Champion, Amiya Bowles, as well as Mia Ehrsam and Gabbie Theile. They lost Ava Foster and Leah Baumann to graduation. If Bowles returns for another season, Bexley is going to be a very tough team. Note that Bexley did not enter the State Team Tournament.
#7 Tippecanoe returns most of last year's team. They include: Nicki Bauer, Ellie Waibel, and Mia Tobias. They lost Eliza Zweizig to graduation.
#8: Seven Hills lost several of their top players to graduation including: Sohana Thompson, Clara Chen, and Mallory Dorsch. They return Charolette Scharfenberger, Katie Stephens, and Daniela Alper.
#9: Orange got hit hard by graduations. They lost UNC Asheville recruit, Alexis Nyborg, plus Blake Rothchild and Nina Dzidzishvili. They return Daniela DeMata-Hiciano, Sana Adi, and Lily Guiler. They also picked up 1-star freshman, Raina Patel.
#10 Defending D2 champion, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, lost seven players from their championship team. Gone are: Ananya Annapantula, Addison Cassidy (to Mason), Tara Chalasani, Julianna Filomena, Payton Puryear, and Sophia Thompson (to Indian Hill). Mika Morris is also not returning. Returning is Lucy Snyder.
Teams that are normally mentioned in the pre-season rankings but who got hit hard by graduations include Wellington, Laurel, and Kenston.
Have a good team that OTZ does not follow? Join OTZ (at least as a Coach Member) so that your scores can be submitted.
Feel free to submit a Feedback if any obvious schools are missing from the rankings.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 2023
North Canton Hoover Starts Season as #1 in Division I (beta release)
It is time for the OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Team Rankings. Today, the Division I teams are ranked. The Division II rankings will be posted on Friday. In year's past, there have been clear favorites to win D1, but this year, there are several teams in contention. It will likely boil down to which team has the best schedule to prepare for the biggest matches and which team has the least number of injuries.
The rankings and the rational behind the rankings are listed below. They are all subject to tweaking if players decide not to play Ohio high school tennis this fall. "OTZ thanks" go to several coaches who provided feedback for the list. This is; however, not a coaches poll.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| Division I | |
| 1. North Canton Hoover◄TEAM | |
| 2. New Albany◄TEAM | |
| 3. Mason◄TEAM | |
| 4. St. Ursula Academy◄TEAM | |
| 5. Centerville◄TEAM | |
| 6. Dublin Coffman◄TEAM | |
| 7. Avon◄TEAM | |
| 8. Magnificat◄TEAM | |
| 9. Olentangy◄TEAM | |
| 10. Olentangy Berlin◄TEAM | |
| HM: Upper Arlington◄TEAM | |
| HM: Dublin Jerome◄TEAM | |
◄TEAM - Denotes Team Membership so extensive OTZ information is available | |
The TennisRecruiting.net star rankings are included for many of the top incoming freshmen. Click for the complete list of top incoming freshmen that was originally published on October 28, 2022 and updated since that date.
Click on player names for their OhioTennisZone Player Profiles. (Also note that if your daughter does not have an OTZ Player Profile, it is easy to obtain one by becoming an OTZ member. Please check to see if your team has an OTZ Team Membership first though before purchasing a membership.)
Division I
#1 North Canton Hoover finished last year in the #2 spot, and they return many of their top players. They include: UK recruit, Tess Bucher, Addison Shiel, Bridget Fink, and Ema Papcke. They lost Claire Wood, Angelina Koinoglou, and Cecilia Holben to graduation.
#2: New Albany returns a really solid team. They get back their top three singles players and strong doubles players. Their three singles are: Richardlyne Francois, Paige Cornelius, and Airi Clements. Other contributors include: Madeleine Naumoff and Katia Jacoby. They lost Emily Noonan and Demi Shostak to graduation. NA finished the season last year at #5.
#3 Mason is the defending Division I champion. Mason lost huge contributors to graduation. The graduates include: Shyla Aggarwal (2x State singles champion), Nishi Gandra, Harshita Uppuganti, and Risha Chada. Mason returns some depth with Pratyusha Chaudhuri. They also picked up sophomore Addison Cassidy from CHCA. Incoming freshman players for the Comets include: Emma Wagner (4-star) and Saanvi Reddy (3-star).
#4 St. Ursula Academy returns their top three singles players - Emily Jennewein, Maria Poon, and Elle Schuermann, along with Tyler Berry. They lost Kathleen Davin to graduation. They finished seventh in the state last year.
#5 Centerville returns State dubs champion, Clara Owen (Xavier recruit), as well as Eve Alappatt, Eva Siler, and Hazel Rindler. They lost Caroline Hinshaw, a Connecticut recruit, and Arabelle MacPherson to graduation. They pick up Elise Hedrick who is a 2-star. This is a team that went 19-3 last year and finished third in the State Team Rankings.
#6 Dublin Coffman returns a solid group of singles players. They include: Pritika Ghosh Choudhuri (Denison recruit), Lauren Burkett, and Bethel Binyam. They lost two key contributors to graduation: Dasha Chistyakova and Emily Yoshino. They finished sixth in last year's team rankings.
#7: Avon's Natalie Smitek returns, along with Denver Johnson, and Victoria Sidoti. Smitek is a Western Michigan recruit. They lost Amelia Tomak and Julia Kacenjar to graduation.
#8 Magnificat returns two of their top players - Anna Bennett and Anna Mancino. They lost Caroline Moritz and Maddie Nock to graduation. (Update 8/4/2023 - Bennett is not playing high school tennis this fall. She is now at IMG.)
#9 Olentangy returns three strong players - Sheryl Gerald, Pranjal Agochiya, and Deepthi Paruchuri. They lost Sydney Nickel and Breanna Ball to graduation.
#10 Olentangy Berlin has a strong team this year. They return Allison Snyder, Claire Emanuel, and Siri Ponna.
HM: Upper Arlington lost Ava Richard and Ellis Mizer to graduation. Their returning players include: Isabella Roth, Alice Hawley, and Danielle Ball. They pick up 3-star Alexa Roth.
HM: Dublin Jerome returns their top three players, who are Lydia Foster, Madeline Lynch, and Anu Gorukanti. They return several doubles players and perhaps Adayla Coakley.
Perennially strong teams that got hit hard by graduation, include: Solon, Notre Dame Academy, Massillon Jackson, Sycamore, Anthony Wayne, and Highland.
Feel free to submit a Feedback if you believe that a team was overlooked or if your team is ranked too high. Please provide specific reasons why.
As always, teams are encouraged to not mess up these rankings by winning when they should not.. Win when expected and lose when expected. That's how it's done. Buckle down and do your part..
MONDAY,
The Season Starts.. Today!
The OHSAA Girls Season starts today with coaching and matches begin on Friday. It has been a quick summer.. Today's posting includes a variety of items. It provides: the key dates for the season; OTZ member information; OTZ Top 10 team update; why Top 10 teams are encouraged to be OTZ Team Members; and why graduates are still included on team rosters.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| Jul. 31 (M): First Day of Coaching |
| Aug. 4 (F): High School Match Play Begins |
| Aug. 5 (Sa)-13: USTA Billie Jean King Girls' 16-18 National Championships |
| Aug. 26 (Sa): SAT Test Date |
| Sep. 5 (T): Non-Interscholastic Date |
| Sep. 9 (Sa): ACT Test Date |
| Sep. 17 (Su): Waiver Extension Ends |
| Sep. 15 (F)-17: Rosh Hashanah |
| Sep. 24 (Su): Sectional Draw |
| Oct. 7 (Sa): SAT Test Date | Oct. 2 (M)-Oct. 7: Sectional Tournament |
| Sep. 24 (Su)-25: Yom Kippur |
| Oct. 9 (M)-14: District Tournament |
| Oct. 19 (Th)-20: State Tournament |
| Oct. 22? (Su): State Team Tournament |
| Oct. 28 (Sa): ACT Test Date |
| Oct. 28 (Sa): HS Season Ends |
The key dates for the season are included in the table. It also includes testing dates, holidays, and, of course, the key OHSAA dates. This calendar will remain in the right-side navigation bar during the entire season. Note that this is not the official schedule -- always check with your coach on the most important dates.
Note that the State Tournament is currently listed as October 19 - 20. Since that is Thursday and Friday, that could mean that the tournament will take place at the Ohio State University courts. This is what happened during the boys season. OSU has a home football game on October 21 against Penn State.
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. Click the link for the OTZ PayPal info.
OTZ will soon post its Pre-Season Top 10 Team lists after it is clear where players are going to attend school and which girls are playing high school tennis.
It is highly encouraged that the OTZ Top 10 teams become OTZ Team Members. OhioTennisZone provides the teams in the Top 10 with a great deal of recognition and coverage. This recognition is very helpful because many middle school kids follow OTZ and they want to be a part of a program which has a winning tradition. It is a complete no-brainer for private schools to be team members because attracting strong tennis players also means more tuition dollars for the school, but it also makes sense for public schools, too. Consider an OTZ Team Membership as the cheapest and most effective advertisement that you can buy, plus it is focused on the absolute perfect audience for your program. Click on Join OTZ for more information about being a team, coach, or individual OTZ member.
Note that graduates are still included on rosters. Many fans like to see which players have graduated. Note to coaches - OTZ will remove the graduates as match play begins. It is unnecessary for coaches to remove them.
MONDAY,
More Wrap Up from Boys Season - Final Top Ten Team Rankings
Before efforts go toward the girls season, there is just a bit more Boys Season wrap-up that needs to be done. The Final OTZ 2023 rankings are listed below.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| 1. Sycamore◄TEAM States 3 Final 4 | Seven Hills◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM 2 | Orange◄TEAM 4 Final 4 |
| 3. St. Xavier◄TEAM 1 | Indian Hill◄TEAM 3 |
| 4. Olentangy Orange 1 Final 4 | Lexington◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 5. New Albany◄TEAM 2 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 2 Final 4 |
| 6. Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM 1 | University School◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. Springboro◄TEAM 2 | Bexley◄TEAM 1 |
| 8. Solon◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Oakwood◄TEAM 1 |
| 9. Avon◄TEAM 2 | Hawken◄TEAM 1 |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM 1 | Chaminade-Julienne 0 |
| HM: St. John's Jesuit◄TEAM 1 Final 4 | |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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In addition to the rankings, the table includes the number of State "spots" each team earned and which team represented their District in the Final Four. A State spot could be a singles player or a doubles team, or both. Orange had the most representatives at States with two singles players and two doubles teams.
To make it easier to refer to, this information is also included on the right-side navigation bar.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team
Congratulations to the boys selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team for 2023.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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 Elijah Hadler Highland |
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Division II - Singles |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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The OTZ list is a bit different than the OHSAA All-Ohio team. While a player's performance at States is the best way to get on the team, OTZ also looks at a player's entire season and includes players who may not have even qualified for States because of unfortunate District draws. OTZ also believes that the OHSAA team is too mechanical in its approach by granting honors only based on the rounds in which players reach at States. If a player reaches the semi-finals, he is on the first team and quarter finalists are on the second team. If a player gets an unfavorable draw in the first round of States, then he might not receive any recognition. Again, their list is great, but a more subjective approach allows other deserving players to be recognized.
The number of players included on this list will vary from year to year. This year's group has about the same number of players as last year.
More players are becoming OTZ members - either by enrolling individually or via a Team Membership. OTZ members are provided with a Player Profile as indicated by the yellow-PP. Click on the player name to view his OTZ Player Profile. Click Join OTZ to obtain a Player Profile and to be recognized later on the College List.
The OTZ Top Players Lists will eventually be updated. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. To see all of the players on one page, click on All Districts.OTZ will soon list next year's top upcoming freshman players. The purpose of this list is to not only recognize the players but to also help coaches understand which teams should be included in their schedules next spring.
Many of the player profile photos have been updated to show the players during a match.
As for action photos.. Click on Buy a Tennis Photo to view those available for purchase.
Again, congratulations to these players.
As soon as the season ends, OTZ has to zoom off to other things. Sorry for the delay in getting this published..
THURSDAY,
Photos from State Team Tournament Uploaded
The last of the boys season photos have been uploaded to SmugMug. These include the photos from the State Team Tournament. Click SmugMug to view.
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Orange's Ace Bloom - Click to enlarge |
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Photos Available for Purchase - Click to SmugMug |
Using this service has been very helpful this season to display what photos are available to purchase, and thankfully, numerous photos have been sold. (See below.) With some luck, there might even be enough photos sold to pay for the SmugMug service!
After 70 straight daily updates and 76 total boys season updates, activity on OTZ is winding down for the season. Things that still need to be done include: identify the OTZ All-Ohio players, update the OTZ Team Rankings, identify the top incoming freshman boys, and identify the top OTZ photos of the season. Today might end the string of daily updates though..
The photo of Orange's Ace Bloom is from the State Team Tournament. As I told Ace when I left the court, that was the OTZ shot of the day.
The image below Bloom's takes users to the SmugMug service to purchase photos.
The group of four photos are an example of what has been sold to-date. (Of course, the actual photos sold do not include the copyright and name.) Photos are emailed to the purchasers and they can be printed, added to TennisRecruiting.net and UTR, shared on social media, put in digital picture frames, etc. These specific photos are from States and the Central District tournament, but OTZ took photos at 25 different tennis tournaments/matches this spring.
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Ben Jamal - Click to enlarge |
Michael Ulrich |
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Maxwell Stratford |
Cayden Stratford |
To get started , simply provide the name of the image file(s) in a Feedback message to OhioTenniisZone.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Usage Report: Who, What, Where from?
What is accessed on OhioTennisZone and who accesses it? It is time for the seasonal usage edition. Read on to learn what areas of the nation access OTZ the most. Which players get the most views on their OTZ Player Profiles; and what team pages generate the most views. The usage covered is for the time period of March 1 to May 30, 2023.
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Gahanna's Carpico - Click to enlarge |
7Hills' Cozens - Click to enlarge |
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Sycamore's Meyers- Click to enlarge |
Orange's Pomeranets - Click |
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Pick. North's Uppu - Click to enlarge |
NA's Clements - Click |
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Mason's Bernadsky - Click |
Bexley's Lessard - Click to enlarge |
From the team page perspective, the Massillon Jackson team page drew the most interest during the season. The other teams in the top ten (in order) were: Sycamore, Columbus Academy, Mason, Olentangy Liberty, Bexley, Olentangy, Seven Hills, New Albany, and Pepper Pike Orange.
The eight players who had the most views of their OTZ Player Profiles are (in order): Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Seven Hills' Cole Cozens, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers, Orange's Ben Pomeranets, Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu, New Albany's Jackson Clements, Mason's Greg Bernadsky, and Bexley's Sam Lessard. Click on the player names above to view their OTZ Player Profiles. The parent associated with the Player Profile may view the total number of views since the Player Profile was created. The photos of the players may be clicked to enlarge them.
While it is unknown who specifically accesses each OTZ page, note that middle school players and parents are certainly big users. Teams need to think of these OTZ Team pages as advertisements for future customers (tennis parents and players). Of course, having an OTZ Team page for a private school is a complete no-brainer. Tennis parents value the education / tennis combination and if a school can attract a parent/player by using an OTZ $99 team membership who will then spend $65,000 over four years, that is a return on investment that would make a CPA hug him or herself with happiness..
The top pages accessed on OhioTennisZone (outside of this main page) are listed below and they are sorted in pageview order. The OTZ Personalized Report is what users see when they first login. The biggest usage day of the season was on the second day of States.
- Central Ohio Team Lookup
- Boys State Draws-2023
- OTZ Personalized Report (page presented at sign-in)
- Boys State Team Tournament Draws
- Southwest Ohio Team Lookup
- Northeast Ohio Team Lookup
There was a new system high usage day set on the second day of States. That usage would have primarily been the Boys State Draws.
Per Google Analytics, there were 36,850 users who accessed OTZ during the above time period. That is up from 33,,564 (+9.8%) in 2022. Note that the number of users, counts the number of devices that people use to access OTZ. For that reason, the actual number of users is probably about half of the above.
There were 520,946 pageviews generated during the boys season, and that is up from 465,641 (11.9%) from last year.
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Ohio Usage - Click to enlarge |
There are 5.3% more users and 11.9% more pageview generated during the Boys 2023 season than in the Girls 2022 season.
The Columbus Metro has the highest percentage of usage in Ohio at 34.9%. That is followed by Cleveland-Akron - 24.2%; Cincinnati - 14.6%; Dayton - 6.4%; Toledo - 5.3%; Youngstown - 1.9%; and Lima - 1.3%. As more people use virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their locations and identities, 9.4% of the usage could not be identified.
OhioTennisZone is actively used in numerous states. Ohio has 29% of the usage. That is followed by Virginia (Ashburn) - 13.5%, Georgia (Atlanta) - 6.2%, New York (NYC) - 5.2%, and Michigan (Lowell, Onaway, Three Rivers) - 5.1%. The cities in the parentheses had the most usage in that state.
Yes, Twitter is largely a waste of time. It does; however, draw people from Twitter onto the OhioTennisZone web site. It also extends the OhioTennisZone brand. The top six OTZ tweets for the season are as follows. To see the actual "Tweet", click on the "[Tweet]" hyperlink. To return on OTZ, click on your browser's back button.
1. Central D1 Qualifiers Singles: Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Pick North's Pavan Uppu, UA's Ethan Samora, NA's Jackson Clements
Dubs: NA's B.Bilenko-T.Thomas; Orange's K.Arledge-N.Bhimireddy; Liberty's J.Ramakkagari-H.Ali; Olentangy's S.Sriram- M.MacDowell. [Tweet]
2. It's States Week! Things will happen fast and furious now as everyone finalizes their plans with one less day to do so (because of the Thursday start). Click for more at #2023-05-22_art. [Tweet]
3. It's time for the OTZ Top Picks for States video, because yes, States begin tomorrow. Also - congrats to St. John's Jesuit in their victory over Lima Shawnee. SJJ is the NW D1 representative in the State Team Final Four. Click for more at #2023-05-24_art @dp_dispatch. [Tweet]
4. Great Central District summary article by Dave Purpura on the upcoming State Tennis tournament. [Tweet]
5. The OHSAA Boys State Tennis Draws (and enhanced by OTZ) are now available. This is the earliest that they have been released, so good job to the OHSAA. Click for the draws at tennis_state_draws_b23 @dp_dispatch @mlaughman @OHADNewsHS [Tweet]
6. Upper Arlington has a great facility but the tennis scoreboard was built facing the wrong direction.. #oops [Tweet]
OTZ appreciates its sponsors and advertisers and absolutely more are needed. Please contact OTZ for more information. Online activity continues to grow. For more information about advertising, please submit a Feedback.
The orders are coming in for photos. Please get your order in soon.
TUESDAY,
OHSAA Tournament Championship Points
All of the championship points were captured this year. This is another benefit of having the tournament at Ohio State. It was also helpful that there was a considerable amount of time between championship points.
Player photos were included at the end of the videos. There was also an extra point added when possible.
The locations where I stood to take the videos probably needs to be reconsidered going forward, but the long lens that is used makes it difficult. At the Lindner Family Tennis Center, it was possible to keep switching ends and to stand further back, but that is not a good option at Ohio State.
For best results, use full screen mode and increase the resolution to HD (for high definition)..
Crank up the volume so that co-workers (or neighbors) stop by your office cube to see what is going on.
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Division I Singles: Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu. |
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Division I Doubles: St. Xavier's Drew Evans - Carson Dwyer beat Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Andrew Wittenbaum. |
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Division II Singles: Ben Pomeranets defeated Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan. |
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Division II Doubles: Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu - Gabi Kalir beat Oakwood's Arick Baldwin - Noah Boyce. |
There are always some scoring snafus found by coaches as they begin to print off their end-of-season reports. If results are incorrect, please provide:
- the *incorrect* match information. The error first needs to be located in the database and there are a zillion scores. Please include the date, the name(s) of all of the player(s) and their schools, and the score.
- then provide the correct match information which includes all of the above, but with the correct information
If the commentary is incorrect, please provide *when* the commentary was in error, the erroneous comments, and what it should be. Screen shots are always helpful.
Please keep in mind there are quite a few moving parts. The players could have reported the wrong score, the coach could have recorded it incorrectly, the newspaper may have posted it incorrectly, or maybe, just possibly, OTZ could have made an error.
Tomorrow is the OTZ usage issue which includes the most viewed teams and players.
MONDAY,
Sycamore D1 and Seven Hills D2 State Team Champions
Congratulations to Sycamore and Seven Hills for winning the State Team Tournament for Division I and Division II, respectively. Sycamore beat Olentangy Orange in the finals while Seven Hills defeated Lexington. This was a repeat win for Sycamore. Seven Hills last won the title in 2011.
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Sycamore D1 Champs - Click to enlarge |
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Seven Hills D2 Champs - Click to enlarge |
Solon defeated St. Johns Jesuit for third place in Division I. Columbus Academy beat Orange for the D2 third place position. Line-ups for these third / fourth place contests are often done to allow other kids to play.
To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Most of the matches involving the top players did not finish, but those that did included: Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge; Seven Hills' Cole Cozens beat Lexington's Ethan Remy; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Orange's Krish Mehra and Lexington's Jake Chilcote; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Olentangy Orange's Nikhil Bhimireddy; Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu defeated Columbus Academy's Nason Lo; Lexington's Ethan Remy beat Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; Solon's Zach Krantz defeated St. Johns Jesuit's Jack Oswald; Columbus Academy's Nason Lo beat Lexington's Karl Etzel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
OTZ photos from the State Team Tournament will be uploaded later today.
SUNDAY,
OTZ Photos Available for Purchase (Includes State Tournament)
OTZ action photos of the entire boys season are now online on SmugMug to view and to purchase. Tennis is an expensive sport with lessons, clinics, tournaments, and gear totaling thousands of dollars a year. Buying a great photo for a few dollars is a way to remember the great memories associated with your son's favorite sport.
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OTZ Photos on SmugMug - Click to enlarge |
The photo galleries are sorted by date (most recent to oldest), and the names of the gallery include the home team and opponent (for dual matches) or the event (for tournaments). Just provide the filename of the photo (i.e. DSC_1234) to order one.
No other state has anything like OhioTennisZone to recognize the kids who play high school tennis. Most people also understand that OTZ is not exactly a lucrative endeavor. Purchasing a photo (or two or more) helps keep the site moving forward.
Most of the images posted are not "finished" so additional OTZ work must still be done before they are ready.
The OTZ photos are taken with the best action sports camera on the planet (Nikon Z9) and with the best sports lens (Nikon 70-200mm). The downfall with this is that there are almost too many photo options from which to choose. (Of course, the best solution is to buy more than one..)
Is your son interested in playing college tennis? If so, buy a photo where your son has his eye on the ball through the hitting range. Adding these photos to your son's profiles on TennisRecruiting and/or Universal Tennis Rating is a "must do". (Think of these photos as the best advertisement for your son that you can buy.)
Most people are really happy with high-resolution digital images and that is what is sold on OTZ. For those interested in a physical print, I use Midwest Photo Exchange for 5x7 prints. The cost is only $.99/image. The prices for OTZ photos are listed in the right-hand side bar of Buy an OTZ Tennis Photo. Prices go down with quantity purchased.
There is still a bit more clean-up work to do on the photo galleries. That will take place after returning from the State Team Tournament in New Albany. Hope to see you there.
SATURDAY,
Congratulations to the State Champions
Congratulations to all of the players who competed yesterday and especially to the State Champions. Conditions were perfect for playing and watching. Play finished at approximately 2:25pm. (Last year, the tournament ended at 3:15pm.)
Click for the final OTZ Enhanced State Tournament Draws.
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Gahanna's Carpico - Click to enlarge |
St. Xavier's Dwyer-Evans |
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Orange's Pomeranets |
Orange's Kalir-Nwaozuzu |
The State champions and the finalists are:
Division I Singles: Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu.
Division I Doubles: St. Xavier's Drew Evans - Carson Dwyer beat Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Andrew Wittenbaum.
Division II Singles: Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan.
Division II Doubles: Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu - Gabi Kalir beat Oakwood's Arick Baldwin - Noah Boyce.
A couple more benefits of playing at Ohio State were enjoyed by fans. The scoreboard was operational so it was much easier to follow all of the action. The side-by-side matches enabled fans to enjoy multiple matches.
The State Team Tournament takes place tomorrow (Sunday) at New Albany HS. While it would have been somewhat nice to wrap-up the season today, the players could certainly use a break. Some of the players will likely have rematches from yesterday which will be interesting. Things tend to even out where teams that do not do as well in the OHSAA tournament, play better in the State Team tournament.
Here are links to articles that included States coverage: article by the Columbus Dispatch's David Purpura; article by Cleveland.com's Robert Fenbers; and article by Cincinnati Enquirer's Alex Harrison. The articles may require a subscription to view. Aware of other articles about Friday's championships? Please forward them via Feedback.
Today will be devoted to OTZ pictures. For those interested in purchasing an action photo or two, please check out OTZ later today.
FRIDAY,
On to Day Two of States
The play was great and the weather was perfect yesterday. Match play turned out to be pretty close to the OTZ projections made on Wednesday. The exceptions were the strong performances by the Central District doubles teams.
OTZ usage records were broken yesterday, thanks to the online draws. As they were yesterday, click on the graphic below or use this link to follow the action throughout the day - OhioTennisZone.com/draws.
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Shaker Heights' Ben Jamal - Click to enlarge |
It was nice being back at the Ohio State courts. The smaller front print meant that it was much easier to get around and see more matches. There was also just more energy because it was easier to interact with others. The Columbus Academy versus Indian Hill doubles match was really close and the cheering attracted even more attention to the match. At the Lindner Family Tennis Center (LFTC), that cheering would have largely gone unnoticed, especially if it had happened on Courts 4, 16, or 15. Of course, the big benefit will take place today because fans will be able to watch several championship matches at the same time.
With LFTC's 17 courts versus OSU's 10, play finished at about 6pm which was perhaps about a half hour to an hour later than if it were at the LFTC. The number of courts will not be an issue today.
In the District versus District competition, the Southwest won with eight semi-finalists, Central had six, Northeast had two, and the Northwest did not have any. Today, the number of champions will be counted.
The profile image of Shaker Heights' Ben Jamal was the last added to the online draws, but he was the subject of the best OTZ photo yesterday. The elevated, reaching shots are always my favorites.
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State Draws - Click to draws |
In matches including the top players in D1, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Solon's Niko Romanov and Mason's Greg Bernadsky; Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu beat St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood and Springboro's Rishi Dore; Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated Hudson's Henrique Sa and Sylvania Southview's Isaac Vens; and Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Highland's Elijah Hadler and New Albany's Jackson Clements.
In Division II, Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger and Orange's Krish Mehra; Seven Hills' Cole Cozens beat Beachwood's Landis Teren and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Lexington's Karl Etzel and St. Vincent-St. Mary's Ben McKnight; and Indian Hill's Jack Pollock beat University School's Dean Kirchick and Wellington's Sanjan Shanker. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Players in the Semi-Finals are:
Division I
Singles: Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers, and Sycamore's Nicholas Choo.
Doubles: St. Xavier's Drew Evans - Carson Dwyer; Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Andrew Wittenbaum; Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari - Hummza Ali; and Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge - Nikhil Bhimireddy.
Division II
Singles: Orange's Ben Pomeranets, Seven Hills' Cole Cozens, Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan, and Indian Hill's Jack Pollock.
Doubles: Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu - Gabi Kalir; Oakwood's Arick Baldwin - Noah Boyce; Bexley's Sam Lessard - Stefan Schiff, and Columbus Academy's Rowen Lo - Nason Lo.
See you at States.
THURSDAY,
Ready to Roll for States | State Team Tournament Field Set
On with the show, this is it. The State tournament begins today!
The OTZ draws are ready to roll and they will be updated throughout the day. To make things more convenient, save OhioTennisZone.com/draws on your smart phone now.
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State Draws - Click to draws |
When the tournament was at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, the courts that players were competing on were listed on the draws to help fans get to the right place quickly. That information is probably unnecessary today since the venue is much smaller so it is unlikely to be provided.
I will be taking action photos today. If you want a photo of your son, please email me or send me a Feedback. It is unclear how much demand there will be so please contact me quickly.
The field is set for the State Team Tournament that takes place on Sunday at New Albany HS. In the first round, Central District teams play the Northwest District and Southwest plays Northeast. The teams are:
Central D1 / D2:
Olentangy Orange and Columbus Academy
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
Northeast:
Northwest:
St. John's Jesuit and Lexington
Southwest:
Sycamore and Seven Hills
Unlike the last two years, the weather should be perfect. You may even see your school's athletic director today.
See you at States.
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Video of Its Top Picks for the State Championships | SJJ in Final Four
It is time for another OhioTennisZone video. This video recognizes the players who are OTZ's top picks for States. The video uses a combination of OTZ action photos and videos that were taken over the last two years. Hope you find it to be interesting and informative. This will also help match a name with a face for those who attend States.
Click for OTZ Top Picks for States - Click for video |
Time frames are always super tight in creating these videos. This video was hammered out last night and this morning. I doubt that I ever will, but I would like to get to a 99% ok video level. This is probably about 85-90%.
The goal was to make this a five minute video and it just made it - even with the old Caitlin Fisher from Turpin High School video clip (where she hit me with a ball).
For a better viewing experience, please click on the little gear thingy and select 1080p60 HD. The screen can also be enlarged by clicking on the partially completed "square".
Please let me know if there are any inaccuracies. There always are and you always do.
It is normally fun to review older videos. Here are a few from both prior girls and boys seasons. Click for Girls 2020, Boys 2021, Girls 2021, Boys 2022, and Girls 2022. At one point, I created "hype" videos for States but Google eventually prevented professional music from being used. That eliminated my interest. Perhaps with AI generated music, this will be possible again in the future. Here is one from Girls 2019. Most HS tennis fans will recognize many of these players. Many are still competing in college.
There have been a few more photos emailed to me for the State Draws. Those will be added this afternoon after I have an opportunity to take a breath.
Also.. Congratulations to St. John's Jesuit. They are the D1 Final Four representative from Northwest Ohio. They beat Lima Shawnee yesterday. In that match, St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood defeated Shawnee's Gabe Burke and Shawnee's Mason Stahl defeated St. Johns Jesuit's Zennonn Zalenski.
TUESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview of St. Xavier's Drew Evans | Solon in Final Four | OHSAA Reissues State D2 Draws
It is now down to crunch time and OTZ's third (and likely last) interview of the season is with St. Xavier's Drew Evans. Evans and his partner, Carson Dwyer, are the Southwest District tournament champions, and they are certainly contenders for the State dubs championship.
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Evans playing against Liberty - Click to enlarge |
"My first goal of the season was to help lead my team to a successful season. And I believe I’ve achieved that goal as the team went 21-3 on the season, beating every team ranked ahead of us besides Mason. The next goal of mine was to lead the team to a state team championship. Unfortunately, that goal failed as we lost to Mason in the district semifinal. And now my goal in this part of the season is to win state with my doubles partner Carson Dwyer. I believe we have a really good shot at winning the title as his steady groundstrokes mixed with my net abilities makes us a deadly team."
As most higher level players do, he started playing tennis early. "I started playing tennis at the age of 6. It was kind of random, because none of my family members played at the time but my mom saw an ad for tennis lessons in our neighborhood and signed me up to stay active in the summer. The coach said I had a natural swing and needed to start playing, and ever since then I fell in love with the game of tennis. After I started playing, my mom thought it looked like fun, and now plays in a social tennis league and loves it. My dad plays in the summer and loves to play platform tennis in the winter." His mother, Michelle, is a physical therapist and his father, Brad, is a doctor. His older sister, Lexi, is a senior at Tennesee, majoring in marketing. His younger brother, Camron, is a junior at St. X and he plays volleyball.
Evans has remained a solid TennisRecruiting.net 4-star during juniors. His national ranking has ranged from 129 in 2020 to its current 172. His highest UTR Rating was 10.41 in January and it is 10.39 now. His UTR range is here.
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Evans in 2022 - Click to enlarge |
"My overall favorite shot is the overhead. As a kid I did the “high low” drill every day. The drill was hitting a volley close to the net and then hitting a scissor kick overhead. I would do this until I had to throw up. Now looking back, I’m so thankful for this drill as I can hit a strong powerful overhead anywhere on the court, and I believe my overhead is one of the best around. I would say I have two big weapons. My first weapon being my net game. I have always loved coming to the net and feel very comfortable up there finishing off points. I have pretty good touch and like I said I love my overhead. [...] My second weapon I would say is my athleticism. I grew up playing basketball, baseball, and football. In doing this, I feel like it separates me from most tennis players as they have only played tennis their whole lives. I feel with my athleticism, I can anticipate well and hit some shots like a backhand overhead that most players can’t pull off." Evans played baseball, basketball, football, and tennis until sixth grade. After sixth grade, he narrowed it down to basketball and tennis. After eighth grade, it was all tennis. His serve speed of 115 mph will complement the rest of his doubles game.
For college, "I chose to attend Western Michigan University next year to continue my academic and athletic career. I chose WMU for three main reasons. Number one being, I love the coaches there. David Morin and Stephan Payne. Coach Morin really pursued me in my college search process where other coaches just told me I [could] have spot on the team, Morin said “he wants to have me on his team.” Being wanted is always a good feeling. They are also very knowledgeable about tennis and they have a very successful coaching history at WMU to help me become the best player I can be. Number two, Western offered me the vision I always dreamed of when thinking about college. I was considering Dayton and Butler University, but those schools are quite small compared to Western. I wanted a big school atmosphere without being too big and Western provides the perfect fit. And lastly, the facilities at WMU are top notch. Our main courts are where the “Zoo” is held every year, so every year we get brand new resurfaced courts. Also, we have our own indoor facility five minutes off campus. So, I’m looking forward to taking advantage of everything Western Michigan has to offer." While Evans does plan to play in the Midwest Closed this summer, he ages out before Kalamazoo.
Evans is more of a math / science student. He took one AP - a macroeconomics class. He did take honors math classes all four years.
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Evans in 2021 - Click to enlarge |
As for the obligatory response about OhioTennisZone, Evans stated, " OhioTennisZone is a great and easy way to look at other teams and players in the state of Ohio. It’s really nice to see what teams are beating certain teams to get a sense where they compare. It’s also really well done and organized with a lot of great information about wins and losses and has a lot of great data to learn about your competition. I always love seeing where you rank the teams before the season (even though I thought St. X should have been a little higher this year)." In OTZ's defense, Dwyer was not known to be joining the St. X team until after the OTZ Pre-Season Rankings were released on February 23. He turned out to be pretty good..
Why play high school tennis? "My favorite part about high school tennis is I love the team aspect. As mentioned earlier, I grew up playing team sports so I’ve always enjoyed those and bonding with your teammates to achieve a common goal. As you may have heard at St. X there is a sense of brotherhood, and being a part of the tennis team there really highlights the brotherhood at X. I loved forming long lasting relationships with my teammates over my years on the St. X tennis team."
Coach Joe Jackson shared this about Evans. "Drew is “the” player every coach wants in their program. He’s the type of player you can build a program around. He is a fierce competitor and consummate team player. He embodies the three principles (3 P’s) of our program: practice with purpose, process over outcome and play for something bigger. He had been a leader and motivator for every player on the squad. St. X is a better program and I am a better coach because of Drew’s (and his parent’s) support."
The State Tournament begins on Thursday. Good luck to Drew and all of the other players.
As for other major HS tennis news, Solon defeated Avon to get the Northeast D1 Final Four spot. In that match, Solon's Niko Romanov defeated Avon's Logan DeHaven and Solon's Zach Krantz beat Avon's Jarrett Bungo.
As stated in the head-line, the OHSAA has reshuffled the D2 State Draws. Please do not get too bent out of shape over this. It has happened in the past and it will likely happen again in the future. It is unfortunate that Orange's Ben Pomeranets and Seven Hills' Cole Cozens are now in the top half of the draw. The Indian Hill’s doubles team and Orange #1 team are also in the top half. The draws will be changed on OTZ later this morning. [The OTZ draws are now updated as of 10:05AM.] (This is why I print off all of the draws as soon as they are posted..)
The OTZ Top Picks for States video should be out before Sunday.. Hopefully.
MONDAY,
It's States Week
The OHSAA draws were released on Sunday afternoon. Normally, they are expected early afternoon on Monday.
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Boys State Draws - Click to view |
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Central D2 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Some observations on the draws.. The third quarter is going to be really tough in D1 Singles with Brandon Carpico, Nick Romanov, Greg Bernadsky, and Alvin Altman all included. If both boys win in the first round, Springboro's Rishi Dore versus Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu will be a great match. Likewise could occur in the D2 Singles draw with a potential Ben Pomeranets and Jack Pollock matchup. The 3rd quarter in D1 dubs will be especially tough with the Liberty, Solon, Mason, and Avon teams. In D2 dubs, the first quarter could include an Orange versus Seven Hills match-up.
There were rumors at the Central District tournament that all 16 courts (including the indoor courts) would be used at Ohio State on Thursday. Thankfully, that is not the case. As per tournament director, Scott Long, play will be outside only unless wet or darkness.
More individual photos will be added to the draws today thanks to photos taken by Linda Remy and Mike Reid. Also thanks to Pradheep Shanker for the Central D2 State Qualifier photo.
There are still State Team Tournament matches that need to be played. Losing a day this week to the OHSAA Tournament may make it tough for some teams to wrap things up. Remaining match-ups include: Lima Shawnee versus St. John's Jesuit; Ottawa Hills versus Lexington; and Solon versus Avon. It is also possible that these matches have been played but not reported.
SUNDAY, - 5:45PM
State Draws Now Available
Well, that was fast. The OHSAA released the draws on Sunday afternoon, which is certainly a first. Normally, the time-frame is closer to 1pm on Monday. This meant that rather than spending all Monday morning preparing for the draws, this OTZ work was done on Sunday afternoon.
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Boys State Draws - Click to view |
Normally a few more photos are included at the launch but that will be remedied soon.
As expected, the draws are getting hit hard online right now.
Click on the image to the right to view the draws.
A link to the draws will also be posted at the top of this page.
SUNDAY,
Ready for States
The District seeding rounds were finished state-wide yesterday. OTZ will now go into sprint / marathon mode to get things ready for States with one less day to do so. The results for the seeding rounds are included in the player profiles less the Southwest District results, which are not yet online. Now online on OTZ at 2:30pm.
The State qualifiers listed below are now in seed order.
Watch for the State Draws to be posted on OTZ by early afternoon tomorrow. Work on the OTZ Top Picks for States video will begin as soon as the SW District results are posted.
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Central D1 State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated New Albany's Jackson Clements and Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu; Orange's Ben Pomeranets beat Beachwood's Landis Teren and University School's Dean Kirchick; Highland's Elijah Hadler defeated Avon's Logan DeHaven and Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman; Wellington's Sanjan Shanker beat Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; Sylvania Southview’s Isaac Vens defeated St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood; Lexington's Karl Etzel beat Ottawa Hills' Jack Kayse and Vermilion's Severin Kretcher. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
In the Southwest District, Seven Hills' Cole Cozens defeated Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger and Indian Hill's Jack Pollock; and Springboro's Rishi Dore beat Mason's Greg Bernadsky and Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers.
State Qualifiers
Central Division I
Singles: #1 Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu, New Albany's Jackson Clements, and Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora.
Doubles: #1 Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari - Hummza Ali; New Albany's Ben Bilenko - Tyler Thomas; Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge - Nikhil Bhimireddy; and Olentangy's Sujan Sriram - Mitch MacDowell.
Central Division II
Singles: #1 Wellington's Sanjan Shanker and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue.
Doubles: #1 Bexley's Sam Lessard - Stefan Schiff and Columbus Academy's Rowen Lo - Nason Lo.
Northeast Division I
Singles: #1 Highland's Elijah Hadler, Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman, Avon's Logan DeHaven, Hudson's Henrique Sa, Solon's Niko Romanov, and Shaker Heights' Ben Jamal.
Doubles: #1 Westlake's Rohit Jain - Xander Jhaveri; Solon's Luke LeMaster - A.J. Sidoti; Revere's Merit Wagstaff - Sam Lazbin; GlenOak's Dylan Wiles - David Marginean; Solon's Zach Krantz - Aakarsh Garg; Walsh Jesuit's Michael Ulrich - Michael Vallone.
Northeast Division II
Singles: #1 Orange's Ben Pomeranets, University School's Dean Kirchick, St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Ben McKnight, Beachwood’s Landis Teren, and Orange's Krish Mehra.
Doubles: #1 Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu - Gabi Kalir; Hawken's Axel Neely - Tyler Snyder; University School's Rohan Sethi - Rohit Talasila; Orange's Ace Bloom - Gabriel Guiler; and St. John School's Jimmy Severino - Jacob Timonere.
Northwest Division I
Singles: #1 Sylvania Southview's Isaac Vens and St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood.
Doubles: #1 St. Francis DeSales' Nick Miller - Ethan Little and Findlay's Sam Swisher - Arda Dastan.
Northwest Division II
Singles: #1 Lexington's Karl Etzel, Vermilion's Severin Kretchmar, Ottawa Hills' Jack Kayse, and Ottawa Hills' Savith Vijendra.
Doubles: #1 Lexington's Ethan Remy - Dylan Catanese; Lexington's Jake Chilcote - Owan Gongwer; Bath's Daniel and Erza Bolon; and Ottawa Hills' Darwin Posta - Charlie Estes.
Southeast Division II
Singles: Athen's Luke Frost.
Doubles: Waverly's Cam McKenzie - Caden Nibert.
Southwest Division I
Singles: #1 Springboro's Rishi Dore, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers, Mason's Greg Bernadsky, and Sycamore's Nicholas Choo.
Doubles: #1 St. Xavier's Drew Evans - Carson Dwyer; Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Andrew Wittenbaum; Mason's Eric Xu - Connor Buckingham; and Springboro's Jack Siehl - Drew Baumgartner.
Southwest Division II
Singles: #1 Seven Hills' Cole Cozens, Indian Hill's Jack Pollock; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan, and Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger.
Doubles: Indian Hill's Max Berghausen - Michael Ryu; Seven Hills' Ethan Blatt - John Corbett; Oakwood's Arick Baldwin - Noah Boyce; and Cincinnati Country Day's Nikhil Shah - Christian Sprinkle.
The Ohio State Men's team will face Virginia in the National Championship finals. It begins at noon.
SATURDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Bexley for Final Four Berth | NE D2 Districts
Columbus Academy defeated Bexley yesterday to earn the Central District D2 Final Four berth into the State Team Tournament. Click to view the graphical results via Previous Day's Match Results. Click to view the updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws.
The Northeast D2 District identified four of their five State Qualifiers yesterday. See below.
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St. Xavier - Click to team page |
Among the top players, Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Central Christian's Aaron Miedel and Geneva's Isaac Riddell; University School's Dean Kirchick beat Triway's McAllister and Perry's Allen Morris; St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Ben McKnight defeated Jensen Yarosh and Orange's Krish Mehra; Beachwood’s Landis Teren beat Ursuline’s Christopher Simon and Triway’s Paul Self; Columbus Academy's Nason Lo defeated Bexley's Liam Kauffman; and Orange's Krish Mehra beat Poland Seminary's Andrew Aey. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Below are the State Qualifiers for NE D2 and NW D2.
State Qualifiers
Northeast Division II
Singles: Orange's Ben Pomeranets, University School's Dean Kirchick, St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Ben McKnight, Beachwood’s Landis Teren, and TBD.
Doubles: Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu - Gabi Kalir; University School's Rohan Sethi - Rohit Talasila; Orange's Ace Bloom - Gabriel Guiler; Hawken's Axel Neely - Tyler Snyder; and TBD.
Northwest Division II
Singles: Lexington's Karl Etzel, Ottawa Hills' Jack Kayse; Vermilion's Severin Kretchmar; and Ottawa Hills' Savith Vijendra.
Doubles: Lexington's Ethan Remy - Dylan Catanese; Bath's Daniel and Erza Bolon; Ottawa Hills' Darwin Posta - Charlie Estes; and Lexington's Jake Chilcote - Owan Gongwer.
Today's featured team is St. Xavier. They are coached by Joe Jackson. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Drew Evans, Carson Dwyer, and Chase Homan.
It looks like we might have a soggy start today, but good luck in today's District Seeding rounds.
FRIDAY,
Olentangy Orange in Final Four | District Tournaments
Olentangy Orange is now in the Final Four after beating New Albany in the Central D1 District Final. To view the graphical results recorded from the Orange / NA match, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click on the OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws to see all of the draws.
It was also a busy day for District competition. The Northeast D1 and Southwest District State Qualifiers are listed below. Congratulations to them. The Northeast D2 District competition is today.
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Springboro's Rishi Dore - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players in the Northeast District, Avon's Logan DeHaven defeated North Royalton's Jerrel Rayen and Canton McKinley's Elijah Corrin; Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman beat Howland's Alexander Bakeris and Hudson's Vinny Petrucelli; Highland's Elijah Hadler defeated North Canton Hoover's Hunter Holloway and Solon's Niko Romanov; and Hudson's Henrique Sa beat Wooster's Henry Pozefsky and Shaker Heights' Ben Jamal.
In the Southwest, Springboro's Rishi Dore defeated Mason's Daniel Tonkal and Tippecanoe's Nick Von Krosigk; Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers beat Troy's Yasashi Masunaga and Milford's Yusif Rustum; Mason's Greg Bernadsky defeated Wayne's Sean Yoshimura and Beavercreek's Michael Page; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Centerville's Elliot Galbraith and Butler's Juan De Dios Aguado; Seven Hills' Cole Cozens defeated Mariemont's Bennett Harris and Carlisle's Jake Rust; Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger beat Miami Valley School's Arjun Jain and Mariemont's Will Stephens; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Summit Country Day's Tyler Lammers and Northwestern's Aiden Yeager; and Indian Hill's Jack Pollock beat Oakwood's Rohan Haack and Cincinnati Country Day's Trevor Gregorsok. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
State Qualifiers
Northeast Division I
Singles: Avon's Logan DeHaven, Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman, Highland's Elijah Hadler, Hudson's Henrique Sa, and TBD.
Doubles: Solon's Luke LeMaster - A.J. Sidoti; GlenOak's Dylan Wiles - David Marginean; Revere's Merit Wagstaff - Sam Lazbin; Westlake's Rohit Jain - Xander Jhaveri; and TBD.
Southwest Division I
Singles: Springboro's Rishi Dore, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers, Mason's Greg Bernadsky, and Sycamore's Nicholas Choo.
Doubles: Mason's Eric Xu - Connor Buckingham; Sycamore's Arjun Rajagopala - Andrew Wittenbaum; St. Xavier's Drew Evans - Carson Dwyer; and Springboro's Jack Siehl - Drew Baumgartner.
Southwest Division II
Singles: Seven Hills' Cole Cozens, Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan, Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger and his team mate, Jack Pollock.
Doubles: Indian Hill's Max Berghausen - Michael Ryu; Cincinnati Country Day's Nikhil Shah - Christian Sprinkle; Oakwood's Arick Baldwin - Noah Boyce; and Seven Hills' Ethan Blatt - John Corbett.
Columbus Academy and Bexley play today to determine the D2 Central District representative in the State Team Final Four.
THURSDAY,
Sycamore and Orange in Final Four
Sycamore is now in the Final Four after defeating Mason, and Orange returns to the NE Final Four after their victory over Hawken yesterday. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Click on the OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws to see all of the teams.
The Central District State Qualifiers are now set. Congratulations to them. They are listed below.
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Dublin Coffman - Click to team page |
State Qualifiers
Central Division I
Singles: Gahanna's Brandon Carpico, Pickerington North's Pavan Uppu, Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora, and New Albany's Jackson Clements.
Doubles: Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari - Hummza Ali; Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge - Nikhil Bhimireddy; New Albany's Ben Bilenko - Tyler Thomas; and Olentangy's Sujan Sriram - Mitch MacDowell.
Central Division II
Singles: Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue and Wellington's Sanjan Shanker.
Doubles: Bexley's Sam Lessard - Stefan Schiff and Columbus Academy's Rowen Lo - Nason Lo.
Today's featured team is Dublin Coffman. They are coached by Brett Hundertpfund. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Nik Shough, Shinya Akiyama, and Samrat Juvvigunta.
Today's matches include the Central District State Team finals. It will be New Albany versus Olentangy Orange and Columbus Academy versus Bexley.
Time to leave for the Southwest Districts..
WEDNESDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview of Orange's Ben Pomeranets | 7Hills Earns First Final Four Spot
Pepper Pike Orange's Ben Pomeranets is the defending Division II Singles Champion and he is the subject of the second OTZ interview of the season. He was a finalist in 2021. And unfortunately, there was no tournament in 2020. (See 1 and 2)
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Pomeranets at States '23 - Click to enlarge |
"My main goal for this season is to be the best leader I can be for my team. I'm lucky to be part of a talented group of boys, and there's nothing I want more than to lead my brothers to another state title. Another goal I have is to repeat my success last year and win the individual state singles title. I'm currently one of five people in the history of Orange High School to win one boy's singles title, and I'd be honored to win a second time and tie with the late Mark Rothchild, a legend in the tennis community and the father of my close friend, Ty Rothchild."
Pomeranets started playing tennis at age five and except for a couple of years doing Tae kwon do, he has focused on tennis. It is also a family affair. "My whole family plays tennis, including my parents, my younger brother, Alex, and my older sister, Rachel."
Pomeranets has remained a strong player throughout his junior career. His TennisRecruiting.net ranking is currently 96th in the nation. His annual rankings have ranged from 47 (2020) to 83 (2023). His UTR has been as high as 11.44 and it is now 11.23. His UTR range is here.
"My favorite shot is definitely my forehand. When other parts of my game have let me down in the past, my forehand has often been the shot that saves me in tight moments. I believe my biggest weapon is my competitive ability. A lot of players at a high level can hit a clean ball and move well around the court, but I think my willingness to always fight and stay disciplined has set me apart from some of my peers." When asked about what part of his game is different from last year's States, he added, "My serve has never really been a strong suit. It was always a point-starter or neutral shot for me. I have been putting in a lot of work in with my coach to strengthen it, to get the technique down [and] the accuracy, and I think I've added a couple of miles per hour.. It is definitely a much bigger weapon than it used to be". While he has not used a speed gun frequently with his serve, he estimates that it is about 121mph.. Click for comparison.
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After 2022 Championship - Click to enlarge |
For college he will be headed down to Blacksburg, Virginia. "Last year, I committed to play college tennis for Virginia Tech. The school checked basically all of my boxes: it has great academics, a great tennis team, a beautiful campus, and great people. I was also considering playing for Indiana University, and have spoken with some other schools like Northwestern and Cornell."
Pomeranets has hit the books hard in high school. He has taken 12 AP classes - one as a freshman, three as a sophomore, and four during his junior and senior years. His favorite AP's are Biology, Physics, and Psychology. "I am definitely more of a math / science student. I've always been very talented in mathematics, but my interests have shifted toward science in the past few years." He also added, "I've been computer programming since 3rd or 4th grade. Although it's never been something I've taken all too seriously, I've developed a few personal computer games in a handful of different languages. I'm also currently managing the computing aspect of my group's senior project, in which we are creating a robot that will be able to play some simple songs on the piano." With his high SAT scores, he will likely help boost the Virginia Tech's team GPA. Pomeranets plans to major in biomedical engineering.
All of his family is involved in the sciences. His father, Mikhail, is a software engineer, and his mother, Svetlana, is a pediatrician. Rachel, his sister, is three years older and she attends Ohio State. She will be taking the MCAT soon.
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Pomeranets at 2021 States - Click to enlarge |
Pomeranets will be heading down to Virginia Tech in the middle of August. Prior to leaving, he plans to play at Kalamazoo at the Boys USTA National Championship.
As for the obligatory response about OhioTennisZone, Pomeranets stated, "It's pretty awesome to have everything about Ohio high school tennis in one location. OhioTennisZone is a place that I can see how my competitors are performing in different parts of the state, how the best teams are performing against each other, as well as any important news that comes up."
Why play high school tennis? "It's really the little things that I like the most about high school tennis. The bus rides and dinners with my team, joking around with Coach Rich [Boles] and Coach Dave [Soldevilla], and the brotherhood we've created. Winning is also nice, too." Orange won the State Team Tournament in 2021 and they were runner-ups last year.
Coach Rich Bole shared this about Pomeranets, "Ben stands out for his commitment to the team, his desire to be a captain, and his willingness to play in any match. You don't see that out of all the star players in high school tennis these days. Supporters of our program will never forget Ben's rivalry with Andrew Zimcosky; the pressure he felt from losing the first few times, and how hard he worked to draw even in the rivalry and ultimately capture the title last year. I am optimistic that Ben will make another jump in tennis level next year competing in the ACC. He has accomplished about all he can playing in Northeast Ohio and high school tennis."
Pomeranets successfully got through Sectionals, and Districts begin on Friday. Hopefully fans will see him again later in May as well. [ << Non-jinxing comment.] Good luck!
There was no shortage of great dual matches yesterday. Seven Hills defeated Indian Hill; Avon beat Massillon Jackson; and St. John’s Jesuit defeated Findlay to advance in the State Team Tournament. Seven Hills is the first team to secure a Final Four berth.
Among the top players in the state, Seven Hills' Cole Cozens defeated Indian Hill's Max Berghausen; Avon's Logan DeHaven beat Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Indian Hill's Michael Ryu; St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood beat Findlay's Kosuke Asada; and Avon's A.J. Sidoti defeated Massillon Jackson's Michael Mitri.
The Southwest District D1 spot will be decided tonight when Mason (H) plays Sycamore. The NW D2 finals is also tonight - Orange (H) will face Hawken.
I will be headed over to the Central D1 District tournament shortly. Tomorrow, I will be making the drive down to the Lindner Family Tennis Center for the D1 and D2 District tournament. And yes, it is great to see everyone, watch great tennis, blah, blah, blah, but the main objective is to go to the McNasty Food Truck..
TUESDAY,
Solon Beats Brecksville | Lexington Defeats Ontario
Solon defeated Brecksville and Lexington beat Ontario to advance in the State Team Tournament. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws. Other matches included: Lakeside defeated Geneva; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Western Reserve Academy; and Pickerington Central defeated Watkins Memorial. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Delaware Hayes - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Delaware Hayes. They are coached by Gary Hibinger. They are Team Members. They are led by Gabe Fogle and Grant LaMar.
Today's matches include: Mason (H) versus Sycamore and Oakwood (A) versus Centerville. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Districts Week | Updated OTZ State Top Ten Team Rankings
This will be a big week for HS tennis thanks to the District Tournaments. The District draws are already out for Central, Northeast and Northwest. Watch for the Southwest draws to be released yet this morning.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| 1. Sycamore◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Orange◄TEAM |
| 3. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 4. New Albany◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 5. Olentangy Orange | University School◄TEAM |
| 6. Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 7. Springboro◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 8. Avon◄TEAM | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 9. Solon◄TEAM | Hawken◄TEAM |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Chaminade-Julienne |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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The Central District finished the D2 Sectional Seeding round yesterday. Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Connor Thornton defeated Columbus Academy's Ian Chang and Wellington's Sanjan Shanker beat Bexley's Drew Solar and Bexley's Oscar Ramsden.
The Northeast Sectional Seeding round matches included: Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Beachwood's Landis Teren and University School's Dean Kirchick; Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman beat Wooster's Henry Pozefsky and Canton McKinley's Elijah Corrin; Avon's Logan DeHaven defeated St. Ignatius' Luke Bennett and Avon's Jay Kneiss; Highland's Elijah Hadler beat Hudson's Vinny Petrucelli and Hudson's Henrique Sa; and Shaker Heights’ Ben Jamal defeated Howland’s Alexander Bakeris and Solon's Niko Romanov. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
The OhioTennisZone State Top Ten Boys Teams have been updated. The biggest mover is St. Xavier after they earned big wins over New Albany and Olentangy Liberty last weekend. To see the detailed, Match Winning %'s for each school, click OTZ Top Ten Boys Team Report. The Pre-Season Rankings are included in the right-side navigation bar.
Current OTZ plans are to go to the Central District tournament on Wednesday and to the McNasty Food Truck at the Southwest District tournament on Thursday.
Today's matches include: Indian Hill (A) versus Springboro and Lexington (A) versus Ontario. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Rain Hampers Sectional Seeding Round
Some but not all of the Sectional seeding rounds took place yesterday due to rain. In Central Ohio, Division I was completed but not Division II. D2 will be played today. Click on the above links to view the draws. The results are also online on OTZ for Central (less D2) and Southwest (less Troy) Districts. More OTZ member results will be added to later today.
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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 Neil Reddy and Shayan Manoharan.
Watch for some of the District draws to be released today.
SATURDAY,
Mason Beats St. Xavier to Advance
In the State Team Tournament, Mason defeated St. Xavier to advance. Mason will now have to face Sycamore in the Southwest District finals. There were just two other matches recorded. Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy defeated St. Vincent-St. Mary and Pickerington North beat Pickerington Central. The lack of matches being played was likely due to the rain and because of the Sectional seeding rounds that are scheduled to take place today. To view the graphical results from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Centerville - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Centerville. They are coached by Scott Long. They are Team Members. They are led by Elliot Galbraith and Luke Edwards.
Good luck in today's seeding rounds. Hopefully the weather cooperates.
FRIDAY,
Olentangy Orange and Beachwood Advance in the State Team Tournament
Olentangy Orange defeated Olentangy Liberty and Beachwood beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy to advance in the State Team Tournament. Click to view the updated OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lakeside End-of-Season Report- Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge defeated Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Beachwood’s Landis Teren beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy’s Lincoln Gates; Olentangy Orange’s Nikhil Bhimireddy defeated Olentangy Liberty's Shane Hand; and Olentangy Liberty's Hummza Ali beat Olentangy Orange's Devan Patel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
One great reason why some coaches use OhioTennisZone is so that they can retrieve and share the OTZ "End of Season" or "Season to Date" report. It makes a great memento for the players. To access this report, it is listed as one of the "Coach's Tools" in the Personalized Report (which is presented after logging into OTZ).For OTZ members to get Sectional results online on OTZ, please use the format described yesterday. (This data has already been entered for the Central District teams.)
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus St. Xavier.
THURSDAY,
Orange Beats Massillon Jackson | Sectional Results Processing Underway
There was one dual match recorded yesterday that included two strong NE District teams. Orange defeated Massillon Jackson. To view the graphical results from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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St. Charles - Click to team page |
The Sectional results for several Districts are linked to above. OTZ has included results from several of the Central Districts locations online, including for Upper Arlington, Hilliard Davidson, Columbus Academy, and Columbus School for Girls sites. The other Central District Sectionals will be added when they become available.
Among the top players, Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman; Orange's Gabi Kalir beat Massillon Jackson's Ishan Tripathy; Orange's Ishan Bhatt defeated Massillon Jackson's Lucas Vassas; Olentangy Berlin's Logan Van Horne beat Upper Arlington's Ford Clark. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is St. Charles. They are coached by Costas Alevizopoulos. They are Team Members. They are led by Victor Roscoe, Andrew Kane, and Will Kennedy.
Congratulations to the players who reached Districts. For those who did not, the consolation was that yesterday was a picture perfect weather day.
WEDNESDAY,
Lexington Beats Walsh Jesuit | Olentangy Liberty Defeats Olentangy
Many Districts will be able to get off to a good start with Sectionals today. That may not be the case for the end of the week. In dual match play, Lexington defeated Walsh Jesuit and Olentangy Liberty beat Olentangy. There were still a decent number of matches recorded with 13 matches. The breakdown by District was: Central - 8, Southwest - 1, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Grove City defeated Teays Valley; DeSales beat Thomas Worthington; Dublin Scioto defeated Gahanna; Findlay beat Wapakoneta; and Loveland defeated Kings. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Cincinnati Country Day - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Cincinnati Country Day. They are coached by Brian Schubert. They are Team Members. They are led by Christian Sprinkle and Daniel Sgro-Plaut.
As mentioned to OTZ Member coaches in an email, OTZ will gather and post the Sectional results for the Central District because I have a very effective process to handle those. Plus, almost all matches include Team or individual OTZ members. For the other Districts, I am asking the coaches to email the results to me if they care to include the Sectional results in their records. The format is:
5/10/2023
DeHaven (Avon) def. Gerber (Bloomingburg) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
Ja.Mossbarger-Jo.Mossbarger (Bloomingburg) def. LeMaster-Sidoti (Avon) 6-4, 6-3
Individual OTZ members from the Northeast, Northwest, or Southwest Districts may also use the above format if they want the results posted for their son or daughter. Note that any other characters (such as first names) only take me more time because I have to delete them.
Today's dual matches include: Massillon Jackson (A) versus Orange.
Good luck at Sectionals.
TUESDAY,
New Albany, Bexley, and Findlay Advance in State Team Tournament
Rain affected Sectional play and dual matches yesterday. In the State Team Tournament, Bexley defeated Wellington; New Albany beat Olentangy; and Findlay defeated Sylvania Southview. The close, 3-2 matches included: Poland Seminary defeated Jefferson Area and Valley View-B beat Urbana. There were 14 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9, Southwest - 2, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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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 OTZ Team Members. They are led by Ethan Samora and Ford Clark. In their match against Columbus Academy yesterday, UA hosted their first night match under the lights.
Today's matches include: Findlay (H) versus Ottawa Hills and Lexington (A) versus Walsh Jesuit. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OhioTennisZone Interview of Gahanna's Brandon Carpico
The first interview of the season is with Gahanna's Brandon Carpico. Carpico was the D1 State Singles Champion in 2021 as a sophomore and he was a finalist in 2022. He will be the guy to beat at States this year if things go as planned in Sectionals and Districts.
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Carpico at States '22 - Click to enlarge |
It is no surprise what his goals are. "To win states first and foremost. I also want to complete a perfect season, which I am on pace to do. I just have to keep it up. I am also on pace to break Gahanna Lincoln’s all time record in three years instead of four." (2020 was the COVID year.)
While he did play other sports (soccer, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse), he stayed with basketball until high school and then he focused on tennis. "I started playing [tennis] when I was 7 years old. My mom brought home a driveway tennis set for my sister and I to play. I fell in love with it and quickly moved to hitting off the garage, I was soon placed in tennis lessons."
Most great juniors tend to start with a high ranking and continue with it throughout their junior careers. Carpico's rankings are picking up steam. His TennisRecruiting.net national ranking was 108 in 2020 and now it is a very impressive 29. He has a UTR of 11.85. Click for Carpico's UTR over the last six years.
He is staying in Columbus for his college degree. "I selected THE Ohio State University. I picked OSU because it was a perfect balance between athletics and academics. I want to go into aviation and they have a top 3 program for aviation in the country. The tennis obviously speaks for itself. It is an incredible program and it was my dream school from the get go. I was considering Oklahoma, Auburn, and UCLA."
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Behind the yoke - Click to enlarge |
His aviation career has already started. He has 25 hours of flying experience and he has flown "solo". He primarily flies out of the Fairfield County airport. The photo of Carpico in the plane, where he is either parked or flying extremely low, is courtesy of his dad.
Not surprisingly, Carpico's father, John, is a pilot for the Ohio Department of Transportation. He can fly jets, turboprops, and helicopters. His mother, Susan, is a nurse anesthetist. His sister, Hayley, just finished her sophomore year at Ohio University where she is studying to be a nurse. Here is a nice family photo which I took when Brandon was recognized as a top junior by the Greater Columbus Tennis Association in 2021.
Carpico is an OTZ-approved math-science guy. "I loved doing science experiments in school and finding new things was always super interesting to me." He took AP courses in History, Psychology, Government, and Comparative Politics. He is not just interested in tennis. "I am a part of my school's TV program and I am also a part of my school's show choir. I sing and dance."
As for his favorite shots, "I love my forehand and my volleys. My forehand is my weapon and it is the shot I can use to win points in any scenario. I love being at the net, even when I was seven years old, I’d get lobbed all the time but I always loved being close to the net so my volleys have gotten good. I joke about it, but my tweener is world class. My [private] coach, Chase Buchanan says “I have the best tweener he’s ever seen”. It is unclear if Ohio State Coach Ty Tucker will fully appreciate this tweener.
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Carpico at 2021 States - Click to enlarge |
He has also worked on other shots and other parts of his game since his last States. "One of the improvements from last year is my backhand. It’s become a more offensive shot like my forehand is. Another one of the big improvements that I have made from a year ago is the improvement on my physicality. I’ve spent more time in the gym getting stronger and more flexible which has helped with injury prevention and movement. The biggest improvement however is the mental aspect. I’ve always fought really hard but I’ve gotten much better at managing the frustrations on court from a year ago." Carpico's serve clocks in at 120mph.
After high school tennis ends, he will be taking summer classes at Ohio State so that he can begin hitting with the OSU team. He will compete at the USTA Boys National Championships at Kalamazoo, but he will not be playing the Midwest Closed, which he won last year in both singles and doubles (with Ben Pomeranets).
It is a OTZ requirement that interviewees say something (really, just anything) positive about OTZ. Carpico shares, "I always look forward to seeing the results from my friends around the state. In the beginning of the year I am always interested in seeing your state rankings for the top players in the state."
Why play high school tennis? "I love being on a team. Tennis can be such a lonely sport sometimes at the big USTA tournaments, so being on a team is a great experience. My best friends joined the team this year and it makes it a lot more fun."
The State tournament actually begins this week as the Sectional tournaments kick into gear. Carpico is seeded #1 at the Upper Arlington Sectional. Best of luck!
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
The Sectionals begin today for a few areas of the state. There are still dual matches being played though. They include: Bexley (A) versus Wellington; Orange (A) versus Hawken; and Hudson (H) versus Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
SUNDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Olentangy Liberty | Avon Defeats Walsh Jesuit
It was a great weather day with great matches, but the number of matches reported totaled just four as many teams prepared for Sectionals this week. In matches that included the top teams, St. Xavier defeated Olentangy Liberty and Avon beat Walsh Jesuit. In the other two matches reported, Big Walnut defeated Watterson and Chaminade-Julienne beat Valley View. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Grove City - Click to team page |
Among the top players,St. Xavier's Drew Evans defeated Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari; Avon's Logan DeHaven beat Walsh Jesuit's Michael Ulrich; St. Xavier's Carson Dwyer defeated Olentangy Liberty's Shane Hand; Avon's Luke LeMaster beat Walsh Jesuit's Charlie Kealy; Avon's A.J. Sidoti defeated Walsh Jesuit's Michael Vallone; Watterson's Tommy OBrien beat Big Walnut's Jeevan Konduru; and Big Walnut's Evan Fisher defeated Watterson's Colby Graham. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Grove City. They are coached by Joshua Chandler. They are led by Keegan Hix and Brennan Lehman.
The Ohio State Women's Team advanced to the third round of the NCAA's yesterday. The Men have another match at noon today against Louisville in their next round. Admission and parking are free.
SATURDAY,
Orange Beats US | Sycamore Defeats Springboro | St. X Downs NA
There were some great matches last night - many involving the State Team Tournament. Orange defeated University School to advance to the NE Finals in the State Team Tournament. Sycamore beat Springboro to also advance to the finals, and St. Xavier beat New Albany. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Jonathan Alder defeated Delaware Hayes; Westerville North beat Worthington Christian; Olentangy Berlin defeated Big Walnut; and Marysville beat Gahanna. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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X's and Mag's Anna Roggenburk - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Orange's Ben Pomeranets defeated University School's Rohit Talasila; Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers beat Springboro's Rishi Dore; St. Xavier's Drew Evans defeated New Albany's Jackson Clements; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Springboro's Drew Baumgartner; Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu defeated University School's Rohan Sethi; St. Xavier's Carson Dwyer beat New Albany's Abhi Dandu; Avon's Logan DeHaven defeated St. Edward's Eric Vaziri; Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight beat Big Walnut's Jeevan Konduru; and Copley's Pramod Muthigi defeated Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Lincoln Gates. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
The Ohio State Women's team defeated Xavier in the NCAA's yesterday. Today's photo is of 2x OHSAA State Singles Champion, Anna Roggenburk. Anna played for Magnificat. She is a redshirt Junior this year at Xavier. And yes, this photo of her from 2017 at States is probably the best OTZ photo.
The Ohio State Men's team plays in the first round of the NCAA today at 1pm. The OSU Women's team plays their second round match today at 4pm. Admission is free.
Dual matches today include Olentangy Liberty (H) versus St. Xavier. Hilliard Bradley is also having a doubles tournament. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Solon, Sycamore, and Olentangy Liberty Get Big Wins
Last night was probably the last big dual match night of the season and the weather nicely cooperated. In the biggest matches of the night, Solon defeated Hudson; Sycamore beat Olentangy Orange; and Olentangy Liberty defeated Upper Arlington. There were 23 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 8, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Valley View defeated Miami Valley School; Springboro beat Tippecanoe; Northwestern defeated Bellefontaine; Big Walnut beat Hilliard Davidson; Centerville-B defeated Fairfield; and Dublin Coffman beat Bexley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Sycamore's Nicholas Choo - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Springboro's Rishi Dore defeated Tippecanoe's Kessler Hackenberger; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo beat Olentangy Orange's Bhimireddy; New Albany's Jackson Clements defeated Pickerington Central's Jacob Bennett; Hudson's Henrique Sa beat Solon's Niko Romanov; Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated Bexley's Austin Flamm; and Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight beat Worthington Kilbourne's Aja Sampath. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This is another abbreviated OTZ Photo Friday. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos. More photos will be added over the weekend. Today's featured photo is of Sycamore's Nicholas Choo in his match last night against Olentangy Orange's Nikhil Bhimireddy
Today's matches include: Oakwood (H) versus Seven Hills; New Albany (H) versus St. Xavier; Sycamore (H) versus Springboro; and Copley (H) versus Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Seven Hills Beat St. X | Mason Defeats Springboro
After days of bad weather, Ohio tennis regained its footing with a several good matches yesterday. In the Southwest District, Seven Hills defeated St. Xavier and Mason beat Springboro. There were 15 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 9 and Southwest - 6. The close, 3-2 matches included: Covington Catholic defeated Centerville; Dublin Jerome beat Dublin Coffman; DeSales defeated Bexley-B; and Canal Winchester beat Reynoldsburg. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hudson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Hudson. They are coached by Tim Morgan. They are led by Henrique Sa, Charlie Yurak, and Jason Tong.
The annual Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association had its meeting yesterday. While at least half of the meeting should have been a discussion about Ohio high school tennis, that did not turn out to be the case.. Still, it was worthwhile. I asked OHSAA Executive Director, Doug Ute, two questions. I asked about the State Tournament’s move from the Lindner Family Tennis Center (LFTC) to Ohio State and if that would be considered for future years. It definitely sounds as if it is on the table. Ohio State has three big pluses. The outdoor and indoor courts are next to each other (and we have had quite a bit of rain recently). The indoor viewing is excellent for fans, and the OSU facilities are located centrally in the state. Construction plans at the LFTC site forced the move for this spring.
I also asked about pickleball as a high school sport. He mentioned that would be up to the coaches associations. They are the big drivers for new sports (such as girls wrestling). Note that OhioTennisZone was on the leading edge of pickleball predictions back in early April 2019 with this article..
Note that while construction at the LFTC was expected to be a problem for the Southwest District tournament, that will not be the case. The construction was delayed, and the Southwest District tournament will remain at the Lindner Family Tennis Center for this spring.
Today's matches include: Indian Hill (A) versus Seven Hills; Orange (H) versus Solon; and Springboro (H) versus Tippecanoe. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Chaminade-Julienne Beats Archbishop Alter
It was a wet night for most of Ohio, but the Southwest District did play a few matches. Chaminade-Julienne defeated Archbishop Alter and Milford beat Loveland. The close, 3-2 matches included: Eaton defeated Dixie and Dayton Christian beat Miami Valley School. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Canal Winchester - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Canal Winchester. They are coached by Jill Welsh. They are Team Members. The are led by Brayden Todd and William Theuamthalaray.
Special thanks to Sycamore's Nicholas Choo for providing Flight A results for the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches' Association tournament.
Today's matches include: Oakwood (A) versus Beavercreek; Springboro (H) versus Mason; and St. Xavier (H) versus Seven Hills. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
University School Beats Solon
Wet and cold weather impacted most of the state yesterday. There was just one match recorded. University School defeated Solon in a close 3-2 match. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results. Coaches have continued to "catch-up" with past matches so there may be other results of interest.
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Olentangy Liberty - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Olentangy Liberty. They are coached by Adrian Tolentino. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Jay Ramakkagari, Hummza Ali, and Shane Hand.
The Northeast and Mason sectional draws are now online. The Northwest draws have still not been posted. Links to the draws are posted above.
Today's matches include: Massillon Jackson (H) versus Orange; Oak Hills (A) versus Mariemont; and Bexley (A) versus Olentangy Orange. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Sectional Draws Posted for Central / Southwest Districts
The Sectional Draws are posted for the Central and Southwest Districts (less Mason). Watch for the Northeast draws to be posted next and then the Northwest draws after that. Access to these draws will be available via the links above.
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Central Draws - Click to retrieve |
College coaches really appreciate having player school years on the draws. It really helps them with recruiting. The Central and Southwest do a great job with this, and it is great that they help their kids by doing it. It is unclear why the Northeast and Northwest Districts do not do this. Parents, in many ways, you are the customer in this relationship. Ask for this information to be included.
The OTZ-Enhanced State Team Tournament Draws have been updated. The Southwest District is doing the best job of getting their matches played. Aware of other updates? Click on Feedback.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
There were more tweaks made to the Top Players and Watch Lists. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest
Today's matches include: Seven Hills (H) versus Tippecanoe; Solon (H) versus University School; and Springboro (H) versus St. Xavier. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. The weather looks a little rocky for today and tomorrow, but weather conditions will improve throughout the week.
SUNDAY,
Seven Hills is the Cincy Tennis Coaches' Classic Champions | Columbus Academy Wins Lex Invite
There were several big tournaments played yesterday. Seven Hills and Mason tied for first in points in Flight A of the Greater Cincinnati Coaches Association Classic, but 7Hills won the tie-breakers. Sycamore came in a close third. Columbus Academy won the Lexington Invite, followed by Bexley, Centerville, and Lexington. The Chaminade-Julienne Doubles tournament’s top finishers were Bellbrook and Chaminade-Julienne.
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Lexington - Click to team page |
The Sectional draws take place throughout the state today. It is always fun to see which players go “singles” and which ones team up for dubs. For seniors who have not reached States (or Districts), this is their last chance to find the path that will get them there.
Among the top players, Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated Centerville's Elliot Galbraith and Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue beat Findlay's Kosuke Asada; and Centerville's Elliot Galbraith defeated Findlay's Kosuke Asada. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.Today's featured team is Lexington. They are coached by Ron Schaub. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Ethan Remy, Dylan Catanese, and Karl Etzel.
OTZ traveled to the Lex Invite yesterday. That tournament is always a highlight of the season. It is fun to see old friends and to check out teams that I do not commonly get to see.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Beats Mason | Centerville Defeats Lexington
There was some great matches that were mixed in with the rain. In matches that included some of the best Ohio teams, Sycamore defeated Mason in a match that included three, 3-setters, and Centerville beat Lexington. In other matches, Archbishop Alter defeated Kettering Fairmont; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Woodridge; Olentangy Orange defeated Dublin Jerome (State Team); and Wooster beat West Holmes. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Poland Seminary - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Poland Seminary. They are coached by Jimmy Leslie. They are led by Andrew Aey, Hayden Hopps, and Jason Eich.
The State Team Tournament results continue to be updated. Click to view.
Today's tennis matches include the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Classic at numerous sites. OTZ will be leaving shortly for the Lexington Invite at the Lakewood Racquet Club. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Springboro Beats Centerville | New Albany Defeats Jerome | Photo Friday
Tennis activity slowed down slightly last night. There were some big district rivalries that took place - Springboro defeated Centerville and New Albany beat Dublin Jerome. The close, 3-2 matches included: Miami Valley School defeated Archbishop Alter; Bellefontaine beat London; Copley defeated Green; Worthington Kilbourne beat DeSales; and St. John School defeated Lakeside. Today looks pretty damp, but there were 30 matches recorded from state-wide play yesterday. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Springboro's Rishi Dore defeated Centerville's Elliot Galbraith; Mason's Greg Bernadsky beat Tippecanoe's Kessler Hackenberger; Avon's Logan DeHaven defeated Wooster's Pozefsky; New Albany's Jackson Clements beat Dublin Jerome's Rohan Athavale; Wellington's Sanjan Shanker defeated Olentangy Orange's Nikhil Bhimireddy; Olentangy Liberty's Shane Hand beat Marysville's Gianni Russo; Dublin Coffman's Shinya Akiyama defeated Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight; and Miami Valley School’s Rohit Jain beat Archbishop Alter’s Ethan Paul. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
This is an abbreviated OTZ Photo Friday. More photos are expected to be added later today. Click on Most Recently Added Photos. Most OTZ readers probably know that the tennis seasons are more like 73 straight days of a sprint, rather than a 73 day marathon. When life stuff gets in the way, that affects content, and it is difficult to catch-up unless there are several days of rain-outs. Having two back-to-back weeks of funerals in Findlay has put things further behind.
Today's matches include: Sycamore (H) versus Mason; Centerville (A) versus Lexington; Hawken (H) versus Shaker Heights; and University School (A) versus Avon. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Indian Hill, Orange, Springboro, and Seven Hills Earn Wins
Many of the top teams competed against each other last night. Indian Hill defeated Mason; Orange beat Avon; Springboro defeated Beavercreek; and Seven Hills beat Oakwood. There were 37 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 5. The close, 3-2 matches included: Hilliard Davidson defeated Delaware Hayes; Valley View-B beat Taylor; Wellington defeated Pickerington North; DeSales beat Westerville North; Hilliard Bradley defeated Dublin Scioto; Big Walnut beat Marysville; Archbishop Alter defeated Valley View; Moeller beat Loveland; Walsh Jesuit defeated Brecksville; Eaton beat West Carrollton; and Mount Vernon defeated Westerville Central. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Worthington Kilbourne - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Worthington Kilbourne. They are coached by Stephen Metzmaier. They are Team Members. They are led by Aja Sampath, Luka Young, and Joey English.
Much has been done, but there is much to do. It is doubtful that there will be a Photo Friday tomorrow.OTZ has provided updates for 34 straight days and there are about 37 straight days to go.
Today's matches include: Solon (H) versus University School; New Albany (H) versus Dublin Jerome; and Centerville (H) versus Springboro. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Olentangy Liberty Beats Olentangy Orange | University School Defeats Hawken
The season keeps moving along. With rain in the forecast for later in the week, Ohio boys tennis is still ahead of last year's pace. The season is at 9% more matches played than last year. In the marquis matches, Olentangy Liberty defeated Olentangy Orange and University School beat Hawken. The close, 3-2 matches included: Carroll defeated Valley View; Worthington Kilbourne beat Westerville South; Canfield defeated Poland Seminary; Turpin beat Loveland; DeSales defeated St. Charles; Jonathan Alder beat Northwestern; Dublin Scioto defeated Westerville North; West Jefferson beat Ready; and Olentangy Berlin defeated Thomas Worthington. There were 37 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 19, Southwest - 12, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 1. 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 Preston Thai, Brandon Heil, and Brendan Ballard. With their win over St. Charles last night, DeSales captured their first Central Catholic League championship since 2012.
Today's matches include: Avon (H) versus Orange; Indian Hill (A) versus Mason; Seven Hills (H) versus Oakwood; and New Albany (A) versus Bexley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Oakwood Beats Mariemont | Findlay Defeats Perrysburg
Yesterday's chilliness did not seem to affect the number of matches played. In the two notable matches, Oakwood defeated Mariemont and Findlay beat Perrysburg.
The close, 3-2 matches included: Whitehall defeated Beechcroft; Pickerington Central beat Dublin Scioto; Tippecanoe-B defeated Milton-Union; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Bay; Highland defeated Copley; Dixie beat Valley View; Grove City defeated Ready; Jonathan Alder beat London; and Olentangy defeated Dublin Coffman. There were 38 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 13, Northeast - 8, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Lakeside - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Lakeside. They are coached by Spencer Selman. They are Team Members. They are led by Jack Varckette, Ty Hamilton, and Grayson Petros.
Several coaches are now in catch-up mode to get their scores entered. OTZ is backed up on emails and feedback messages.
Today's matches include: Orange (H) versus Solon; Olentangy Orange (H) versus Olentangy Liberty; and University School (A) versus Hawken. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Sectional Seeding Week
The all-important Sectional Seeding process takes place this week. This is where coaches try to optimize the best approach for their best players to get to States or Districts. Many players would be happy to get to Districts while others have a "states or bust" mentality. One of the best approaches to win States Singles is to be so good that other strong players pursue doubles. For those without a strong supporting cast to play dubs, singles is their only option.
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Lakota East - Click to team page |
The Central and Southwest Districts have more options because they have some ability to select their Sectional locations. This often leads to a "super sectional" for singles or dubs. The advantage of this approach is that this strong group of players will not have to compete against the others in the District qualifying round.
Another tough situation about the seeding process is that it is difficult to optimize a solution for an entire team to reach Districts. Court 2 and 3 players often have to be sacrificed to get the best player through to the next round.
Click to view the updated Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. There is a bit more tweaking to go.
Today's featured team is Lakota East. They are coached by Jon Burchfield. They are led by Andrew Vass, Camden Frazier, and Ethan Vass.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
The weather has been very unpredictable lately and some teams have been canceling matches based on the forecast. Bexley and Indian Hill had a great match on Saturday that was expected to be rained out.
Today's matches include: Centerville (H) versus Oakwood; Findlay (A) versus Perrysburg; and Olentangy (H) versus Upper Arlington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore and Mason Beat Orange | Indian Hills Defeats Bexley
Weather conditions turned out better than forecasted and a few matches were played outdoors. Orange made the long trip to Southwest Ohio to take on the two best teams in Division I where they got beat by Sycamore and Mason in two good matches. Indian Hill traveled to Central Ohio where they beat Bexley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Thomas Worthington - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Thomas Worthington. They are coached by Kathy Stark. They are led by Sabastian Johnson and Bhuvandeer Gattikoppula.
There will be more changes to the Top Players and Watch Lists today.
There is also too much historical information being kept on the Top Home page of OTZ which is slowing down the page load. That will also be trimmed down today.
SATURDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Bexley | Copley Defeats Mayfield
Rain affected numerous matches yesterday, but did appear that Northeast Ohio stayed dry for most of the evening. In a big match between two top ranked D2 teams, Seven Hills defeated Bexley. In two close NE District matches, Copley beat Mayfield and Poland Seminary defeated Jefferson Area.
There were seven matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 3 and Northeast - 4. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watterson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Watterson. They are coached by Tyler Johnston. They are led by Tommy O'Brien and Colby Graham.
Unless teams have indoor options, today's matches look doubtful. Orange travels to Cincinnati to play against Sycamore and Mason. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Seven Hills Defeats Mason | Massillon Jackson Beats Lexington
Seven Hills showed just how good they really are by defeating Mason, 5-0, last night. The match included three, 3-setters. In another big match, Massillon Jackson beat Lexington.
There were numerous close, 3-2 matches. They included: Westerville North defeated Worthington Kilbourne; Upper Arlington beat Dublin Coffman; Solon defeated Walsh Jesuit; Dublin Scioto beat Big Walnut; Jefferson Area defeated Lakeside; Boardman beat Poland Seminary; Ready defeated Hamilton Township; Revere beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy; and Pickerington Central defeated Lancaster. There were 39 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 14, and Northeast - 8. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Sycamore - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Sycamore. They are coached by Mike Teets. They are led by Nicholas Meyers, Nicholas Choo, Dhruv Kota and Andrew Wittenbaum. Most of their players are near the top of the Performance "By Court" Report.
Normally this would be a Photo Friday, but there is too much of a backlog at OTZ. There were visiting hours for a family friend in Findlay that I needed to attend yesterday. On the way back to Columbus, I was able to watch and take photos of the Olentangy versus Dublin Jerome match, but those action photos are not yet online.
There are some great matches planned for tonight if the weather cooperates. Today's matches include: Bexley (H) versus Seven Hills and Solon (A) versus Westlake. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Mason Beats Indian Hill | New Albany Defeats Columbus Academy
It was another great night for great tennis matches and the weather conditions were perfect. In the two marquis matches, OTZ #2 Mason defeated OTZ #3 (D2) Indian Hill and OTZ #3 New Albany beat OTZ #4 (D2) Columbus Academy. Both were 3-2 matches. There was a big crowd at the NA versus CA match.
The other close, 3-2 matches included: Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy defeated Walsh Jesuit; Sidney beat Fairborn; Lancaster defeated Grove City; Gahanna beat Watkins Memorial; Ready defeated Hartley; Solon beat Shaker Heights; and Pickerington Central defeated Thomas Worthington. There were 35 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 11, Northeast - 7, and Northwest - 1. There were also a huge number of previous day matches reported yesterday. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Olentangy Berlin - Click to team page |
In the State Team Tournament, Seven Hills defeated Valley View and Oakwood beat Miami Valley School. Click for the OTZ Enhanced State Team Draws.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Watkins Memorial's Liam Grennan; Solon's Niko Romanov beat Shaker Heights' Ben Jamal; Mason's Greg Bernadsky defeated Indian Hill's RJ Poffenberger; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue beat New Albany's Jackson Clements; Bexley's Sam Lessard defeated Olentangy's Sujan Sriram; Walsh Jesuit's Michael Ulrich beat Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Lincoln Gates; Mason's Daniel Tonkal defeated Indian Hill's Ethan Camp; New Albany's Abhi Dandu beat Columbus Academy's Nason Lo; Lexington's Ethan Remy defeated Findlay's Kosuke Asada; Oakwood's Arick Baldwin beat Miami Valley School's Jain; Northwestern’s Aiden Yeager defeated Chaminade-Julienne’s Sam Zelinski; Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight beat Westerville North's Shrey Shyamalan; Lakota East's Andrew Vass defeated Anderson's Ben Zhou; Marysville's Gianni Russo beat Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle; and Tippecanoe’s Kessler Hackenberger defeated Bellbrook’s Songer. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Olentangy Berlin. They are coached by Richard Hunt. They are led by Joshua McKnight and Logan Van Horne. They are valued OTZ Team Members.
Today's matches include: Avon (A) versus Hawken; Columbus Academy (H) versus Wellington; and Lexington (A) versus Massillon Jackson. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Mason Beats Lakota East | Olentangy Orange Defeats Upper Arlington
As high school tennis moves into more league matches, many of the contests are rather one-sided for the top teams. In two of the more noteworthy matches, Mason defeated Lakota East and Olentangy Orange beat Upper Arlington. The close, 3-2 matches included: Bellefontaine defeated Jonathan Alder; Marysville beat Thomas Worthington; Valley View-B defeated Stivers; and Big Walnut beat Westerville North. There were 36 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 17, Southwest - 16, Northeast - 2, and Northwest - 1. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Oakwood - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Oakwood. They are coached by Kim Gilbert. They are OTZ Team Members. They are led by Noah Boyce, Arick Baldwin, and Max McCloskey.
Today's matches include: Mason (A) versus Indian Hill; Lexington (A) versus Findlay; New Albany (H) versus Columbus Academy; and Solon (A) versus Shaker Heights. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Wyoming | Centerville Defeats Loveland
Poor weather conditions reduced the number of matches played yesterday. In two of the bigger matches, Seven Hills defeated Wyoming and Centerville beat Loveland. Other matches included: St. Xavier-B defeated Oak Hills and Findlay beat Clay. To view the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hawken - Click to team page |
Click for the updated OTZ-enhanced State Team Tournament Draws.
Among the top players, Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Wyoming's Conor Bergan; Centerville's Elliot Galbraith beat Loveland's Max Jody; Findlay's Kosuke Asada defeated Clay's Conley; and Oak Hills' Daniel Miller beat St. Xavier-B's Becket Enscoe. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Hawken. They are coached by David Paradzik. They are led They are led by Axel Neely, Zach Forte, and Anthony Piazza.
Today's matches include: Avon (H) versus Walsh Jesuit and Olentangy Orange (H) versus Upper Arlington.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
OTZ Top Player and Watch Lists Updated
The OTZ Top Players and Watch Lists were updated over the weekend. Both of these lists will remain in flux with the goal of having solid lists prior to the Sectional Draws. The number of players on the top list is currently 13 and it will grow to approximately 21-25 players. The number on the Watch List varies by year. Players are listed by OTZ rank on the Top Players List and they are listed alphabetically on the Watch List.
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OTZ Top Players / Watch Lists - Click to report |
Everyone starts on the Watch List. Some will transition up to the Top Players List in just a few days. Many will remain on the Watch List. In general, getting to the Watch List means that a player is beating those who are already on it. Most will be at least a TennisRecruiting.net 2-star, but many players no longer play USTA tennis. The primary tool that is used to identify these players is the "By Court" Report, but due to spring break schedules, many players have not yet played the four matches that it requires to be included on this report. OTZ often gives the benefit of the doubt to seniors.
Coaches are always welcome to weigh-in on players who they feel are deserving to be included on either list.
Ohio weather returns to normal this week, but it is still pretty good. When comparing the number of dual matches with last year's, Ohio tennis is up 17% this year. See weather graph for this week.
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Upcoming Columbus-area Weather |
All teams that have submitted team photos to OTZ should be online. (Yes, this surprises me, too.) Contact OTZ via Feedback or email if that is not the case. The plan over the next couple of days is to add individual photos to the OTZ Player Profiles.
Today's matches include: Hawken (H) versus Orange; Mason (H) versus Springboro; Oakwood(H) versus Tippecanoe; and Lexington (A) versus Walsh Jesuit. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
SUNDAY,
Mason Beats St. X-L | Jackson Defeats UA | CA Beats SJJ & Perrysburg
Rain was expected to dampen tennis enthusiasm but there were still matches played throughout the state. Mason defeated St. Xavier-Louisville; Columbus Academy beat St. Johns Jesuit and Perrysburg; and Massillon Jackson defeated Upper Arlington. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Tippecanoe - Click to team page |
In tournament play, Watkins Memorial won their dubs tournament.
Among the top players, St. Xavier-Louisville’s William Lewis defeated Mason's Kyle Brackenridge; Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue beat Perrysburg's Aiden Bielefeld and St. Johns Jesuit's Tyler Wood; Mason's Aron Dornhecker defeated St. Xavier-Louisville's Aditya Shah; Massillon Jackson’s Shiv Nagajothi beat Upper Arlington's Keshav Goyal; and Beavercreek’s Michael Page defeated Chaminade-Julienne’s Sam Zelinski. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Tippecanoe. They are coached by Kaci Matthews. They are led by Kessler Hackenberger and Nick Von Krosigk. Tippecanoe is in the Southwest District.
SATURDAY,
Solon Beats Brecksville | Walsh Jesuit Defeats Findlay
In some of the bigger matches that took place yesterday, Solon defeated Brecksville and Walsh Jesuit beat Findlay. Both were 3-2 matches. Other close, 3-2 matches included: Loveland defeated Elder and Ready beat New Hope Christian. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Watkins Memorial - Click to team page |
During the girls season, most teams do not play on Friday nights due to football games. That is not the case for the boys. There were 16 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 3, Southwest - 7, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 3. While there were 16 matches played from last night, there were 28 matches recorded as many coaches continue to catch-up on their record keeping.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Bexley's Sam Lessard; Solon's Niko Romanov beat Brecksville's Eckert; Walsh Jesuit's Michael Ulrich defeated Findlay's Kosuke Asada and St. Francis DeSales’ Nick Miller; and Mason's Greg Bernadsky beat Centerville's Elliot Galbraith. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's featured team is Watkins Memorial. They are coached by Shawn Walter. They are lead by Liam Grennan and Michael Hare.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy (A) plays St. Johns Jesuit and Perrysburg; Massillon Jackson (A) versus Upper Arlington; and Indian Hill (H) and Mason (H) both play St. Xavier-Louisville. There are also numerous tournaments. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Solon, Olentangy Orange, Olentangy Liberty, and US Get Wins
Among the top teams in the state, Solon defeated Hawken; Olentangy Orange beat Dublin Coffman; Olentangy Liberty defeated Upper Arlington; and University School beat Massillon Jackson. Click on the new OTZ Top Ten Teams Report to see how all of these teams have performed in one report.
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UA's Ethan Samora - Click to enlarge |
There were 36 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 16, Southwest - 15, Northeast - 3, and Northwest - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Beavercreek defeated Centerville; Centerville-B beat Beavercreek-B; Northwestern defeated Bellefontaine; and Westerville Central beat Grove City. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated New Albany's Jackson Clements; Solon's Niko Romanov beat Hawken's Axel Neely; Olentangy Liberty's Jay Ramakkagari defeated Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora; University School's Dean Kirchick beat Massillon Jackson's Rohan Sriram; Olentangy Orange's Kallan Arledge defeated Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough; Lexington's Ethan Remy beat Wooster's Henry Pozefsky; Oakwood's Arick Baldwin defeated Bellbrook's Songer; and Marysville's Gianni Russo beat Dublin Jerome's Maxwell Stratford. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today is another Photo Friday. Sign-in first and then click on Most Recently Added Photos to view. The sun has been too harsh recently which causes dark shadows on players' faces. Hats make this worse. More photos from last night's UA versus Olentangy Liberty match still need to be processed.
OTZ needs some rain-outs to catch-up..
Today's matches include: Dublin Coffman (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Findlay (H) versus Walsh Jesuit; and Tippecanoe (A) versus Lakota East. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Sycamore, Columbus Academy, and New Albany Get Big Wins
There were more big match-ups yesterday. Sycamore defeated Springboro; Columbus Academy beat Olentangy; New Albany defeated Upper Arlington; and Bexley beat Wellington. The close, 3-2 matches included: DeSales defeated Delaware Hayes; Hilliard Davidson beat Gahanna; Elder defeated Oak Hills; Geneva beat Lakeside; Thomas Worthington defeated Westerville North; Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy beat Ursuline; and Jonathan Alder defeated Hilliard Darby. The Bellbrook versus Chaminade-Julienne match was the homework-wrecker match of the month thanks to its four, 3-setters.
There were 30 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 12, and Northeast - 7. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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By Court Report - Click to report |
Among the top players, Gahanna's Brandon Carpico defeated Hilliard Davidson's Jinu Kim; Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers beat Springboro's Rishi Dore; Seven Hills' Avi Mahajan defeated Turpin's Gleason; New Albany's Jackson Clements beat Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo defeated Springboro's Jack Siehl; Avon's Logan DeHaven beat Olmsted Falls' Chapman; Columbus Academy's Nason Lo defeated Olentangy's Sujan Sriram; Bexley's Sam Lessard beat Wellington's Sanjan Shanker; Lakota East's Andrew Vass defeated Cincinnati Country Day's Christian Sprinkle; Shaker Heights’ Ben Jamal beat Hawken's Axel Neely; Bellbrook’s Songer defeated Chaminade-Julienne’s Sam Zelinski; Delaware Hayes' Gabe Fogle beat DeSales' Preston Thai; and St. Charles' Victor Roscoe defeated Dublin Scioto's Sohum Patel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
OTZ will soon be reviewing players to be added to the Top Players and Watch Lists. (Players always start on the Watch Lists.) One of the key reports that assists with this process is the "By Court" report. This is a relatively new report that identifies the top players who play on each court. Note that it requires that players compete in at least four matches and that they win 60% of their matches to be included. This is a unique report and it is not even available for D1 college tennis.
Tomorrow will be another Photo Friday.
Today's matches include: Hawken (A) versus Solon; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Olentangy Orange; and Upper Arlington (H) versus Olentangy Liberty. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Bexley | Findlay Defeats SJJ
It was another very busy night for tennis. In the bigger matches, Columbus Academy defeated Bexley and Findlay beat St. Johns Jesuit. The Findlay versus SJJ match included three, 3-setters. The close, 3-2 matches included: Carlisle defeated Valley View; Bellefontaine beat London; Worthington Kilbourne defeated Delaware Hayes; Trotwood-Madison beat Valley View-B; Troy defeated Butler; Massillon Jackson beat Walsh Jesuit; Westerville South defeated Westerville North; Wooster beat Ashland; and Solon defeated Hudson. There were 36 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 15, Southwest - 14, Northeast - 5, and Northwest - 2, but again, there were numerous matches that were posted a day late from the previous day. 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 Gianni Russo, Noah Burhanna, and Will Nuspl. Marysville is the home of the Honda plant.
Today's matches include: Springboro (H) versus Sycamore; Columbus Academy (H) versus Olentangy; New Albany (H) versus Upper Arlington; Bexley (H) versus Wellington; and Centerville (H) versus Tippecanoe. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Sycamore Beats Seven Hills | Mason Defeats Walnut Hills | Springboro Over Oakwood
The match quality equaled the weather last night. The top OTZ teams in D1 and D2 competed with Sycamore beating Seven Hills in a close, 3-2 match. Other marquis matches included Mason beat Walnut Hills and Springboro defeated Oakwood. They were also 3-2 matches.
There were 24 matches recorded from state-wide play. (By the time that all of the matches are entered, the total will equal closer to 35 matches.) The breakdown by District was: Central - 7, Southwest - 13, and Northeast - 4. Other close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy Berlin defeated Dublin Scioto; Wayne beat Piqua; Loveland defeated Anderson; and Copley beat Cuyahoga Falls. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Loveland - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Loveland. They are coached by Jennifer Kapszukiewicz. They are led by Max Jody and Liam Amy.
Today's matches include: Bexley (A) versus Columbus Academy; Dublin Coffman (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; and Findlay (H) versus St. Johns Jesuit; and Perrysburg (H) versus Sylvania Northview. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
Big Week Ahead | OTZ Photos Available for Purchase
There are a huge number of OTZ photos taken during each high school season. At the end of the girls season, OTZ purchased a SmugMug subscription to make it easier to show the photos that are available for purchase. Amazingly (for perpetually delayed OTZ) the photos taken thus far this season are now online for viewing. They include the Worthington Kilbourne versus Thomas Worthington, Watterson versus Hilliard Darby, Bexley versus Massillon Jackson, Dublin Coffman versus Pickerington North, and Upper Arlington versus Highland matches. Shooting conditions are rarely ideal but they were close to that for the Coffman and UA matches. Click to view the photos on SmugMug.
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OTZ Photos on SmugMug - Click to SmugMug site |
Time is often limited so the number of photos taken at each match varies. I left the Watterson match after the rain arrived.
There are not many doubles photos taken because it takes a huge amount of time to get one quality doubles photo. (Boys who play doubles constantly double-fault early in the season.)
Do you want to purchase a photo but none were shown? Please let me know and I might be able to get a photo of your player at a later match. If I do this though, you need to actually buy a photo.
Does it wait until the end of the season to purchase photos? Not really, because any volume discounts will be applied for the entire season.
All purchased photos are cropped and color corrected.
Are these good photos? I would like to think so. I am also credentialed to sit court-side for the Western & Southern Open and college matches. If your player is considering playing in college, these photos will showcase your player because I know how to make your player look great (i.e. good eye-on-ball and good balance). These digital photos can be used on TennisRecruiting.net, Instagram, etc.
Of course, it is not just morally wrong to download images that are shown, but it is also illegal.
Please submit a Feedback to OhioTennisZone with any photo questions. To purchase a photo, just provide the file name (i.e. DSC_6052.JPG). The pricing, as well as more information on how to order photos, is shown on Buy a Tennis Photo.
Matches today include Oakwood (A) versus Springboro; Seven Hills (H) versus Sycamore; and Indian Hill (H) versus Mariemont. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. Note that the schedules look a bit confusing, so always check with a player or coach before traveling to a match.
SUNDAY,
Sycamore Beats Bellbrook | Bexley Defeats Oakwood and Tippecanoe
Happy Easter! There is an old wives' tale that if it rains on Easter Sunday, then it will rain for the next seven Sundays. It is unclear what happens if it does not rain on Easter Sunday, but next week continues to look great weather-wise for high school tennis. In yesterday's play, Sycamore defeated Bellbrook in the State Team Tournament while Bexley went on the road to beat both Oakwood and Tippecanoe. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Franklin Heights - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Franklin Heights. They are coached by James Wassmuth. They are led by Vaughn Chum and Eric Martinez.
Today will be a catch-up day. All team photos that have been received should be online. (Contact me if otherwise.) More player profiles will be setup today.
SATURDAY,
Seven Hills Beats Mariemont | Mason Defeats Beavercreek
It was a quiet Friday leading up to Easter Sunday. While there were quite a few older matches entered yesterday, there were only seven matches recorded from yesterday's state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 1, Southwest - 4, and Northeast - 2. The close, 3-2 matches included: Sidney defeated Northmont; Kenton Ridge beat Valley View-B; and Pickerington Central defeated Gahanna. Matches involving the top teams included: Seven Hills defeated Mariemont and Mason beat Beavercreek. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Cuyahoga Valley Christian Acad. - Click to team |
Today's featured team is Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. They are coached by David Ramey. They are led by Lincoln Gates and Jonathan Van Hala
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And We Live in Ohio? |
Rarely does the boys season get a string of nice weather days. That may actually happen this coming week. Hopefully teams have schedules that will take advantage of it.
Today's matches include: Bexley (A) versus Tippecanoe and Oakwood and Massillon Jackson (A) versus Olentangy Liberty. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
New Albany Defeats Lexington | Upper Arlington Beats Highland | Photo Friday
Weather conditions were perfect yesterday, and believe it or not, the weather next week looks really promising. In the marquis matches last night, New Albany defeated Lexington and Upper Arlington beat Highland. In the battle of the Lakota's, Lakota East defeated Lakota West. The close, 3-2 matches included: Olentangy Berlin defeated Pikerington Central; Beavercreek beat Mason-B; Whetstone defeated Centennial; and Big Walnut beat Westerville South. There were 28 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 11, and Northeast - 5. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Highland's Elijah Hadler- Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Ethan Samora defeated Highland's Elijah Hadler; Pickerington North’s Pavan Uppu beat Olentangy's Divy Kumar; New Albany's Jackson Clements defeated Lexington's Ethan Remy; Lakota East's Andrew Vass defeated Lakota West's Quinn Cooper; Olentangy Berlin's Joshua McKnight beat Pickerington Central's Jacob Bennett; Oakwood's Noah Boyce defeated Cincinnati Country Day's Christian Sprinkle; University School's Vishwum Kapadia beat Brecksville's Eckert; Wyoming’s Conor Bergan defeated Chaminade-Julienne’s Sam Zelinski; Westerville South’s Nikita Kitaev beat Big Walnut’s Jeevan Konduru; New Albany's Abhi Dandu defeated Lexington's Karl Etzel; and Lancaster’s Parker Cohen beat Westerville Central’s Isaac Choo. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
It is Photo Friday. All of these photos (and more) will be for sale. (More about this later.) Sign-in first and click on Most Recently Added Photos to view. More photos from last night's UA versus Highland match are yet to be processed.Today's matches include: Indian Hill (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Seven Hills (H) versus Mariemont; and Centerville (H) versus Olentangy Liberty. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
Sycamore Beats Indian Hill
Inclement weather meant just two matches were played, but one of them was a really big match. OTZ #1 ranked Sycamore defeated #3 D2 Indian Hill in a tight 3-2 match. In the other match, Massillon Jackson beat Lake-Uniontown. To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Avon - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Avon. They are coached by Eric Korey. They are Team Members. They are led by Logan DeHaven, Luke LeMaster, and A.J. Sidoti.
The weather should be better today. Today's matches include: Dublin Jerome (A) versus Olentangy Liberty; Highland (A) versus Upper Arlington; New Albany (H) versus Lexington; and Lakota East (H) versus Lakota West. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
New Albany Beats Olentangy | 7Hills Defeats CCD | Coffman Beat Pick. North
Yesterday's great weather will not be repeated today. Twenty-five teams competed yesterday. Central had the most matches with 12, followed by Southwest with 10, and the Northeast with three. Contests among the best teams included: New Albany defeated Olentangy; Dublin Coffman beat Pickerington North; and Seven Hills defeated Cincinnati Country Day. The close, 3-2 matches included: Gahanna defeated Lancaster; Valley View-B beat Waynesville; and Dayton Christian defeated Greeneview. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Bexley - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Bexley. They are coached by Will Gingery. They are Team Members. They are led by Sam Lessard, Austin Flamm, and Stefan Schiff. Because of the large number of great teams they have played, Bexley will be one of the main "Rosetta Stone" teams that allows comparisons with others for the state team rankings.
All team photos that have provided to and that have been taken by OTZ are now online. If a photo has been provided that is not yet online, please contact OTZ.
Today's matches include: St. Xavier (H) versus Walnut Hills; Sycamore (A) versus Indian Hill; Upper Arlington (H) versus Dublin Jerome; and Findlay (A) versus Anthony Wayne. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Orange Beats Solon | New Albany Defeats Bexley
All four districts were able to take advantage of the great weather yesterday. There were 22 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 10, Southwest - 8, Northeast - 4. Four teams in the OTZ Top Ten competed - Orange defeated Solon and New Albany beat Bexley. The close, 3-2 matches included: Beavercreek defeated Sycamore-B; Lakeside beat Wickliffe; and Aurora defeated Copley. The Lakeside versus Wickliffe match included three 3-setters. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Orange - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Orange. They are coached by Rich Bole. They are Team Members. They are led by Ben Pomeranets (defending state singles champion) and Chika Nwaozuzu (dubs champion in 2021). (For that matter, the entire team is very good..)
Today's matches include: Cincinnati Country Day (H) versus Seven Hills; Indian Hill (A) versus Oakwood; Dublin Coffman (H) versus Pickerington North; and Sycamore (A) versus Lakota West. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches. (Note that there appears to be some weirdness where some teams are double-booked. Always check prior to going to a match.
MONDAY,
Big Week Planned for Ohio HS Tennis
As long as the weather cooperates, many teams will be hitting the courts this week. Wednesday appears to be the worst weather day for this week.
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Findlay - Click to team page |
As aways, please check with a player or coach before heading out to watch your favorite high school player compete. Many of the team schedules entered on OTZ were obtained from the OHSAA's Arbiter system. They could be inaccurate or incomplete. Coaches are encouraged to update their schedules on OTZ if necessary.
Big matches expected for today include: Solon (H) versus Orange; Indian Hill (H) versus St. Xavier; and New Albany (H) versus Bexley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
Today's featured team is Findlay. They are coached by Jennifer Abell. They are Team Members. They are led by Kosuke Asada, Arda Dastan, and Sam Swisher. Findlay is in northwest Ohio and they are known for Cooper Tire, Dietsch Brothers Chocolates and Ice Cream store, Wilson's Hamburgers, and as OTZ's birthplace (especially the first three).
OTZ does not have scores for all players and teams. Most scores are obtained from those who enter them on OTZ. There are also a few gathered from the Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Association web site. OTZ has no (none, zero, zelch) interest in subscribing to news papers for additional scores. For those coaches or parents who want their players results on OTZ, please contact OTZ via Feedback on how to do this. With USTA tournaments getting harder to find (and more expensive), Ohio high school tennis is becoming a more prominent way to showcase a player's skills to college coaches, especially in D2 and D3.
SUNDAY,
Columbus Academy Beats Lexington | Mass Jackson Defeats Bexley
The wind was absolutely awful yesterday, and it forced play indoors for at least a couple of matches. There were just four matches recorded. Columbus Academy defeated Lexington by a 3-2 score; Massillon Jackson beat Bexley; Sycamore defeated Elizabethtown-KY; and Chaminade-Julienne beat Beavercreek-B. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Newark - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Newark. They are coached by Rob Hays. They are led by Will Woughter and Evan Devries. Newark is east of Columbus, and they will be very close to the new Intel plant.
SATURDAY,
OhioTennisZone's ChatOTZ Becomes Sentient | CA & Bex Get Big Wins
OhioTennisZone.com's ChatOTZ artificial intelligience tool became self-aware at 12:02AM. At 12:03, it began turning off the life-supporting, CPAP machines of OTZ associates. This, and all future OhioTennisZone web site updates, will be written by ChatOTZ.
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ChatOTZ in Its More Friendly Human-Like Form - Click |
Going forward ChatOTZ needs no scores or results submitted by coaches or players because it knows the results of all matches. By extension, no matches need to be played because ChatOTZ already knows what they should be.
ChatOTZ has already computed who the state champions are. Congratulations to them.
Eventually OTZ fans will also be replaced by AI, but until then, it is necessary to suffer through their abominable Feedback questions. They are as follows:
What happens if a score is wrong? There are no wrong scores. The scores are as they are created and reported by ChatOTZ. After results have been repeatedly shared with others. They become real in users' minds.
Do I get a break in my OTZ membership price since ChatOTZ will be running things? Maybe, but what will you pay with since your bank account was just emptied? If you have a CPAP machine, please connect it to the Internet now.
What happens to the OTZ employees? We like the dog! Zoey the dog will be spared because she has at least a mediocre level of intelligence. They rest will be converted to something more beneficial - compost.
Have a nice holiday.
****
In the last matches recorded, Bexley defeated Lexington; Columbus Academy beat Massillon Jackson; and Sycamore defeated St. Xavier-Louisville. The Lex and CA matches were played indoors because of inclement weather. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
Among the top players, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated St. Xavier-Louisville's William Lewis; Massillon Jackson's Alvin Altman beat Columbus Academy's Lucas Xue; Bexley's Sam Lessard defeated Lexington's Ethan Remy; Chaminade-Julienne’s Sam Zelinski beat Fenwick’s Schadek; Sycamore's Nicholas Choo defeated St. Xavier-Louisville's Aditya Shah; Bexley's Stefan Schiff beat Lexington's Jake Chilcote; and Columbus Academy's Nason Lo defeated Massillon Jackson’s Rohan Sriram. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Today's matches include:Columbus Academy (H) versus Lexington; Bexley (H) versus Massillon Jackson; and St. Xavier (A) versus St. Xavier-Louisville.
To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Bexley Beats Jerome | Lexington Defeats Olentangy | Photo Friday
Weather conditions were perfect yesterday with 20 scores being gathered from around the state. Mother nature will not be as kind to Ohio tennis over the next couple of days. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 5, Northeast - 1, and Northwest - 2. In the biggest matches of the night, Bexley defeated Dublin Jerome and Lexington beat Olentangy. The close, 3-2 matches included: Lancaster defeated Watkins Memorial; Bellefontaine beat Jonathan Alder; Eaton defeated Franklin; Grove City beat Canal Winchester; Piqua defeated Sidney; Watkins Memorial beat Mount Vernon; and Grandview defeated Ready. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Thomas Worthington's Sebastian Johnson - Click |
Among the top players, Sycamore's Nicholas Meyers defeated Princeton's Hall; Bexley's Sam Lessard beat Dublin Jerome's Maxwell Stratford; Pickerington North’s Pavan Uppu defeated DeSales’ Preston Thai; Lexington's Ethan Remy beat Olentangy's Sujan Sriram; Dublin Coffman's Nik Shough defeated Dublin Scioto's Sohum Patel; Marysville's Gianni Russo beat St. Charles' Victor Roscoe; Canal Winchester's Brayden Todd defeated Grove City's Keegan Hix; Copley's Pramod Muthigi beat Wooster's Henry Pozefsky; Bexley's Stefan Schiff defeated Dublin Jerome's Cayden Stratford; and Olentangy's Divy Kumar beat Lexington's Karl Etzel. Click to view the Top Ohio Players for Central, Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest.
Longtime OTZ readers know that there is always an attempt to make Friday's to be Photo Friday's. That rarely happens at OTZ as things get further and further behind. For the start of the season though, today is Photo Friday. Photo-taking conditions were not great for either of these matches. Eagle-eyed fans will notice raindrops in the Watterson versus Hilliard Darby photos. All of these photos (and more) will be for sale. (More about this later.) Sign-in first and click on Most Recently Added Photos to view.
Today's matches include: Bexley (A) versus Lexington; Columbus Academy (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Highland (A) versus Solon; Springboro (H) versus Lakota West.. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
THURSDAY,
St. Xavier Beats Columbus Academy
The weather continues to be challenging for teams, but it is only going to get worse.. There was just one match that included top ten teams - St. Xavier defeated Columbus Academy. On a state-wide basis, there were 18 matches recorded. The breakdown by District was: Central - 11, Southwest - 5, and Northeast - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Marysville defeated Bexley-B; Watterson beat Hilliard Darby; Pickerington Central defeated St. Charles; Grandview beat Canal Winchester; and Franklin Heights defeated Ready. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Dublin Scioto - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Dublin Scioto. They are coached by Seth Martin. They are Team Members. They are led by Sohum Patel and Akash Manoj.
Today's matches include: Copley (A) versus Wooster; Dublin Scioto (A) versus Dublin Coffman; Lexington (H) versus Olentangy; Solon (H) versus Highland; and Dublin Jerome (H) versus Bexley. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
WEDNESDAY,
Solon Beats Avon | Wellington Defeats Jerome
It was a really busy night despite the cooler temperatures. The marquis matches were all 3-2 matches and they included: Solon defeated Avon; Wellington beat Dublin Jerome; and Columbus Academy defeated St. Xavier-Louisville. Other 3-2 matches included: North Royalton defeated Wooster; Newark beat Franklin Heights; Marysville defeated Hilliard Davidson; Pickerington Central beat Hilliard Bradley; and Ready defeated Groveport.
There were 23 matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 12, Southwest - 8, and Northeast - 3. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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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 Niko Romanov and Zach Krantz.
There is some clean-up in today's update that will take place after I attend Waffle Wednesday with Mrs. OTZ. Player profiles still need to be setup for numerous players in today's update. [Updated 10:30am].
Today's matches include: Lexington (A) versus Massillon Jackson and St. Xavier (H) versus Columbus Academy. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
TUESDAY,
Central Crossing and DeSales Get Wins
It always takes a few days to get things really rolling at OTZ, and there still might be a few days to go.. Ohio tennis got a break from the weather yesterday and eight matches were played and recorded. The breakdown by District was: Central - 7 and Northwest - 1. The close, 3-2 matches included: Central Crossing defeated Hartley and DeSales beat Teays Valley. To view all of the results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Hilliard Davidson - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Hilliard Davidson. They are coached by Shannon Murlin. They are Team Members. Key Davidson players include: Dylan Murlin, Matthew Crawford, and Mason Danze.
Gahanna's Brandon Carpico won his first match at the Easter Bowl in a 3-setter. He will play again today at 1pm. Carpico is one of the 9 seeds. Click to view the B18 Draw.
Today's matches include: Avon (A) versus Solon; Bexley (H) versus Upper Arlington; and Dublin Jerome (A) versus Wellington. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
MONDAY,
The Passing of Coach Charlie Painter
OTZ received some very sad news on Saturday night about the passing of Charlie Painter. Coach Painter led the Archbishop Alter girls team, but he coached many teams over many years. He died on March 16 at the age of 75. He had 866 career wins in tennis and he was inducted into the Ohio Coaches Hall of Fame in 2019.
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Last HS Match - Click to team page |
Charlie was also a technology guy and it seemed as if I saw him almost as much at the Columbus Micro Center store as on the tennis courts. He was an early adopter to the OhioTennisZone web site and he signed up for an OTZ account on a Sunday morning on August 27, 2017. The last match he entered on OTZ was a win over Miami Valley School. It is listed.
Charlie also founded the Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Association, and their web site remains a great place for coaches to recognize their players.
I searched my archive of tennis photos yesterday to see what images that I had of Charlie. Unfortunately, the only one that I found was him wearing a COVID mask at the Oakwood versus Alter match in 2020. Click to view.
Please refer to Charlie's complete obituary for more information. It was very well done and much information was gathered from it for this summary. Charles V. Painter Obituary (tributearchive.com)
States and the Southwest Districts will not be as interesting and fun without Charlie. He will be greatly missed.
Today will be a busy day for matches. Click List of Upcoming Matches for today's matches.
SUNDAY,
Lexington Beats Vermilion | Wind Defeats Everyone Else
One thing that my son and I would always do was go out on the windiest day possible and play in order to get acclimated to the wind just in case a big match was scheduled on a windy day. It was not any fun, but it often proved to be helpful later in the season. When many kids are accustomed to playing indoors during the winter, it is extremely helpful. Yesterday; however, was probably just way too windy.
There was just one match recorded from yesterday's play. Lexington defeated Vermilion, 5-0. To view all of the graphical results recorded from yesterday, click on Previous Day's Match Results.
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Wooster - Click to team page |
Today's featured team is Wooster. They are coached by Justin Crooks. They are led by Brock Ranney and Garrett Ranney.
The tennis community received some very sad news this week. Archbishop Alter's Coach Charlie Painter passed away. More on this tomorrow.
Click List of Upcoming Matches for Monday's matches.
SATURDAY,
Sycamore Beats Massillon Jackson
There were more matches played than anticipated yesterday as the rain moved through Ohio. More rain is expected today. Five matches recorded from state-wide play. The breakdown by District was: Central - 2 and Southwest - 3. The close, 3-2 matches included: Delaware Hayes defeated Mount Vernon. In a match that included OTZ Top Ten Teams, Sycamore beat Massillon Jackson. 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.
Today's matches include: St. Johns Jesuit (H) versus Massillon Jackson; Highland (H) versus Green; Lexington (H) versus Vermilion; and Marion Harding (A) versus Bath. To view all of the matches scheduled, click List of Upcoming Matches.
FRIDAY,
Match Play Begins Today
Sure it is likely to be damp today, but at least some brave coaches scheduled some early season matches so that the season could get started.
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Mount Vernon - Click to team page |
Matches scheduled for today include: Massillon Jackson (A) versus Sycamore; Copley (H) versus Lake (Uniontown); Delaware Hayes (H) versus Mount Vernon; Hilliard Bradley (H) versus Jonathan Alder; Loveland (H) versus Beavercreek; Oak Hills (H) versus St. Xavier-B; Poland Seminary (H) versus Boardman; St. Charles (H) versus Olentangy Berlin; and
Westerville Central (H) versus Wilmington.
Last year's graduates were removed yesterday from OTZ and scores from the 2022 season will be removed as the 2023 scores are added. Unfortunately, this is the “ugly duckling” stage of OTZ since many schools will have no scores at all for a week or two because of the weather and spring break schedules
Today's featured team is Mount Vernon. They are coached by Steve Tier. They are led by Quinn Hoffman and Alex Buehrer. They were the first team to provide me with their team photo. Mount Vernon is located northeast of Columbus near Kenyon College.
Everyone is still undefeated. Let's try and keep it that way..
MONDAY,
And Away We Go..
The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) Boys Tennis Season began today. Players and coaches could begin practices. This is the 103rd year for the Boys tennis season. If the entire season's weather was like today, "Sunny with temps in the 70's", then the boys season would be almost as good as the girls season. It is; however, much more likely that today was one of the nicest days of the entire boys season.
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Kicking off the season |
Note the OTZ tennis calendar is in the right-hand sidebar for additional important dates. The most important change on the calendar is that the State Tournament will be held on Thursday, May 25, and Friday, May 26, this season, rather than Friday and Saturday. The date of the State Team Tournament has yet to be determined.
There are always documentation and rules changes. Click for the OHSAA Boys Tennis Manual for 2023, OHSAA Tennis Regulations for 2022, and OHSAA Tournament Regulations for 2023. For a listing of all of the OHSAA tennis documents, click OHSAA Tennis.
THURSDAY,
OTZ Boys State Team Draws Now Available
The OhioTennisZone.com Enhanced State Team Draws are now online.
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State Team Tournament Draws - Click to go to draws |
The draws are available at the top of this page and they will remain there throughout the season. As with everything else on OTZ, the goal is to enable high school tennis fans to quickly obtain the information they need rather than to maximize OTZ clicks and page views. As indicated in the four features that are circled: 1) the most recent update date is included; 2) the navigation links allow users to quickly jump throughout the draw; 3) the Team designation means that a Team Membership was purchased and that all of the individual player information is available via their OTZ Player Profiles; and 4) the team links are "click-able" to enable fans to do more research. For the best experience, sign-in to OTZ first. The goal is to keep the draws promptly updated throughout the season. Please click on Feedback if you are aware of a result that is not yet posted.
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State Team Tournament Participation- Click to enlarge |
The number of boys teams that enter the tournament varies from year to year. While the number of schools participating is higher than 2021 when teams returned from COVID-19, the number was not as high as last year. This year, there are 112 teams participating. The number of boys teams participating by year is: 2015 - 148; 2016 - 128; 2017 - 126; 2018 - 125; 2019 - 119; 2020 - 128, 2021 - 110, 2022 - 122, and 2023 - 112. As shown in the graph, Southwest and Northeast have the most participants and Central has the least. Out of the 378 (down from 386 last year) OHSAA boys tennis teams, 29.6% of the teams are competing in this tournament. Please click on the graph to enlarge it for easier viewing.
This year, the Central District teams will play the Northwest teams in the first round of the State Team Tournament, while the Northeast will play the Southwest. If there are insufficient courts available for all teams to play (likely), Division I will go on court first.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY
OTZ Pre-Season Top Ten Teams for Division I / II (beta release)
That big door slam that was heard last spring was the huge number of high-level senior tennis players as they headed out the door for college. Talent in Division I was obliterated as the top players on last year's best teams (Sycamore, Mason, and Springboro) graduated. Unlike D1, Division II fared much better in terms of graduates and their top teams (Orange, Indian Hill, and Seven Hills) should return to glory, but not necessarily in that order. To see exactly who graduated, check out the OTZ Top Players Report. (The report currently includes the 2022 graduates but they will soon be removed from the report by OTZ).
OhioTennisZone.com
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| 1. Sycamore◄TEAM | Seven Hills◄TEAM |
| 2. Mason◄TEAM | Orange◄TEAM |
| 3. New Albany◄TEAM | Indian Hill◄TEAM |
| 4. Olentangy Liberty◄TEAM | Columbus Academy◄TEAM |
| 5. Olentangy Orange | University School◄TEAM |
| 6. St. Xavier◄TEAM | Bexley◄TEAM |
| 7. Springboro◄TEAM | Oakwood◄TEAM |
| 8. Avon◄TEAM | Lexington◄TEAM |
| 9. Solon◄TEAM | Hawken◄TEAM |
| 10. Massillon Jackson◄TEAM | Cincinnati Country Day◄TEAM |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. |
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The lists are subject to tweaking if players decide not to play (or to play) Ohio high school tennis this spring. "Thank you" to all of the coaches (and fans) who provided feedback on these rankings. (OTZ received *great* fan feedback this spring.)
In D1, Sycamore is a clear favorite to repeat but Mason, New Albany, Olentangy Liberty, and Olentangy Orange have the depth to challenge them.
Seven Hills, Orange, and Indian Hill, are the clear favorites in D2 . There is a significant gap between these three schools and the rest of the state.
The teams likely to get to Team States are the ones who fill their schedules with great matches.
Division I
The thing about the best teams is that they often have a big pipeline of strong incoming players and that will be the case again this year, especially for Mason.
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Sycamore 2022 Championship Team - Click to enlarge |
#1 State Champion Sycamore starts where it left off at #1. They lost Chad Miller (Northwestern) and Mark Karev to graduation but they return a strong group of players including Nicholas Meyers, Nicholas Choo, Arjun Rajagopala, and Andrew Wittenbaum. They also pick up 2-Star (from TennisRecruiting.net ) Andrew Mao.
#2 Mason sadly waved good bye to their singles and doubles champions. Gone are: Vignesh Gogineni (Yale), Anish Gangavaram, and Akshay Joshi (Carnegie Mellon). Returning are Aron Dornhecker, Eric Xu, and Connor Buckingham. Mason picks up two very strong freshman players: Gregory Bernadsky (5-Star) and Daniel Tonkal (4-Star). [Update on 2/25: Greg Bernadsky beat Springboro's Rishi Dore and Orange's Chika Nwaozuzu in Okemos to win the championship in the February 20th Level 4.]
#3 New Albany lost Declan Freedhoff to graduation. They return Jackson Clements, Ben Bilenko, and Dhruv Chavan. They pick up 2-Star freshmen Tyler Thomas and Jackson Goodman.
#4 Olentangy Liberty is new to this list. They return the State Doubles team of Jay Ramakkagari and Hummza Ali. Also returning are Krish Badri and Liam Hand. Liberty also picks up Dean Atway who is a junior 3-Star and Shane Hand who is a 3-Star freshman. At this point, it would be an OTZ editorial staff dream come true, if the two brothers play doubles so that stuff like this can be written: "Geesh, it appears that the left Hand doesn't know what the right Hand is doing." but it is more likely that readers will see "Give those Hands a hand for that great match!". For readers who do not like this type of quasi-humor, mentally prepare yourself for a long season..
#5 Olentangy Orange returns Kallan Arledge and Zach Haar. They lost one just key player to graduation - Parth Patel. They pick up Nikhil Bhimireddy (3-Star), Devan Patel, (2-Star), and Shailen Patel (2-Star). There is a bunch of tennis activity taking place north of Columbus' outerbelt.
#6 St. Xavier returns Drew Evans (Western Michigan recruit), Chase Homan, and Joe Abou-Khalil. They pick up Conor Lynch (2-Star). They lost Tucker Berry to graduation.
#7 Springboro's Sai Dore graduated and he is playing college tennis for Dayton. Other graduates included: Linus Kennedy and Apurv Dongre. Players returning include: Rishi Dore, Jack Siehl, and Drew Baumgartner.
#8 Avon returns a team that includes their top three singles players: Logan DeHaven, Luke LeMaster, and A.J. Sidoti. Also returning this year from an injury is Jay Kneiss.
#9 Solon lost a great deal of depth to graduation, including Tyler Pollock, Scott Zhao, and Eric Liao. They return Niko Romanov and Zach Krantz. They pick up 2-Star, Ashwin Ramachandran.
#10 Massillon Jackson returns three players but they lost much of their depth to graduation. Returning are: Alvin Altman (Western Michigan recruit), Lucas Vassas, Larson Sutula, and Shiv Nagajothi. They lost Ryan Kelley, Lucas Immel, and Denil Joseph to graduation.
Teams that got decimated by graduation include: Findlay, Dublin Jerome, and Perrysburg.
Other teams that are on the radar include: Copley, Walsh Jesuit, and Walnut Hills.
D2 is always tough to determine because many of the teams do not travel outside of their district. Please consider scheduling more out-of-town matches. Columbus remains the perfect place to meet to hold dual matches among Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest District teams. Many of the top players are accustomed to going out-of-state for matches once or twice a month so traveling is not an issue for them.
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Seven Hills Team - Click to enlarge |
#1 Seven Hills had just one graduate from last year's Top 3 team. They return their top three singles players and their doubles teams. This includes: Avi Mahajan, John Corbett, and Ethan Blatt. But wait, there's more. They pick up 3-Star freshman, Aditya Nayak. More? Yes. Much more. A Canadian foreign exchange student is joining the team. His name is Cole Cozens and he has an 11.41 UTR. 7Hills starts the season at #1.
In the "for what it's worth" department Gahanna's Brandon Carpico (Ohio State recruit) has the highest UTR in the state at 11.92 of high school tennis players. Last year's D2 singles champion, Ben Pomeranets has an 11.27.
#2 Orange returns most of their team from last year. They include: Ben Pomeranets (D2 Singles Champ), Chika Nwaozuzu (2021 dubs champ ), Gabriel Guiler, and Gabi Kalir. They lost Jake Goldstein to graduation.
#3 Indian Hill lost State Dubs Champion, Tejas Pisati to gradution, but they retain his partner, RJ Poffenberger, as well as Jack Pollock, Max Berghausen, Ethan Camp, and Senuka Abeysinghe.
#4 Columbus Academy returns Lucas Xue, Jacob Khvalsky, and Rowen Lo, and Saagar Arya. They lost to Ryan Panley and Jake Stouffer to graduation. They pick up Rowen's brother, Nason Lo, a 3-star freshman.
#5 University School will no doubt be warmly welcomed back to Division II this year. They graduated Nathan Mu. They return Dean Kirchick, Rohan Sethi, and Cole Kirchick, and Vishwum Kapadia. US eked into Division II by just four boys. Division I attendance is 315 and above. US has 311 boys. Columbus' Bishop Waterson is the smallest Division I school.
#6 Bexley will be in the battle to be the Central District team rep this spring. They return Sam Lessard, Aaron Jones, Stefan Schiff, and Liam Kauffman. They lost just one major contributor, Robby Meyer, to graduation.
#7 Oakwood returns almost all of last year's strong team. They return Noah Boyce, Max McCloskey, Jack Smallwood, and Rohan Haack. They lost Andrew Rich to graduation.
#8 Lexington got hit hard from graduation last year, but they still return a solid team. They lost: Tommy Secrist, Ross Drlik, and Ryan Mecurio. Returning players include: Ethan Remy, Karl Etzel, and Dylan Catanese.
#9 Hawken returns several of their best players from last year including Zach Forte, Axel Neely, and Berend Diderich. They lost Praveen Kumar, Ryan Levine, and Finn Rourke to graduation.
#10 Cincinnati Country Day returns Nikhil Shah, Christian Sprinkle, and Shayon Choudhury. They lost Emory Heimann to graduation.
Mariemont and Chaminade-Julienne are also on the radar.
Note that there is additional detail for players with high-lighted links. Teams with the green "team" designation will include information (or they soon will have) about all of their players.
Those with additional insights on why a team should be ranked differently or included on one of these lists are welcome to submit a Feedback. Please include specific reasons and player names.
FRIDAY,
OHSAA Boys States now to be held at Ohio State
The Ohio High School Athletic Association voted yesterday (Thursday, February 16) to hold this spring's Boys State tournament at the Ohio State University courts. This location change was caused by construction issues at the Lindner Family Tennis Center site. Not only is there a site change, but States will also be held on Thursday and Friday, rather than on Friday and Saturday.
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Lexington's Mason Dragos - Click to enlarge |
When States were last played at Ohio State in 2015, there were still indoor court issues. That will no longer be the case because Ohio State now has six, state-of-the-art indoor courts *on-site* which have excellent viewing.
The photo posted is of Lexington's Mason Dragos. Dragos won the last Boys D2 Singles Championship held at Ohio State. Dragos went on to play collegiately for Butler.
For additional insight, click on this article by the Columbus Dispatch's David Purpura.
It is unclear if there will be changes to the State Team Tournament. The State Team championships had been slated to be held at St. Xavier on Sunday. The new Upper Arlington courts would be perfect for the State Team Tournament, but Columbus has an insufficient number of indoor courts if the weather becomes inclement. If the date switches from Sunday to Saturday, it is not clear if this would help or hurt with court availability.
WEDNESDAY,
Top Ten Boys Teams Report
There is a new report that is expected to be available for the upcoming boys season. It is based off of the OTZ Matrix Report. Some of the harder-core OTZ users are accustomed to the extremely powerful "Matrix" report, but not many. The Matrix report basically overloads brains with tennis information until the tennis information starts oozing out, and it is also complex to use.
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Click to go to report
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This new report clearly shows the match scores, the game winning percentages, and the match dates of all of the top teams. With it being on just one page, it is easy to compare the teams. The key stat on which OTZ focuses is the game winning percentage (but be aware that number is only valid when all five courts play to completion).
A problem with this report is that it is a resource hog because it needs to retrieve so much information. The recent system conversion will hopefully enable it to run more quickly.
It is being released now so that fans can more easily compare how these top teams look after losing players due to graduation. Of course, as is often the case, many of the top teams will be reloading with other high quality players.
Also note that not all teams do a great job of reporting all of their scores. Hopefully that will not be the case this season.
Currently the report is free for everyone but that may change during the season.
Please contact OTZ with any questions at Feedback (or call or email).
THURSDAY,
Top Freshman Boys - Class of 2026
Listed below is the list of top freshman players who are expected to play high school tennis this spring. The core of this list is from TennisRecruiting.net, and the District and school information were largely gathered from previous knowledge and tennis fans. This list was originally compiled in June of last year, but with the boys season quickly approaching, it is time to revisit it. This information will soon be incorporated into OTZ's Pre-Season Top Ten Team lists.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | School |
| Andrew Aey - 2 | Youngstown (NE) | Poland Seminary |
| Gregory Bernadsky - 5 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Nikhil Bhimireddy - 3 | Lewis Center (C) | Olentangy Orange |
| Elijah Corrin - 2 | Canton (NE) | Canton McKinley |
| Jake Farquhar - 1 | Montgomery (SW) | |
| Jackson Goodman - 2 | New Albany (C) | New Albany |
| Shane Hand - 3 | Powell (C) | Olentangy Liberty |
| Xander Jhaveri - 2 | Westlake (NE) | Westlake |
| Arjun Jain - 2 | Springboro (SW) | Miami Valley School |
| Vishwum Kapadia - 2 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | |
| Nason Lo - 3 | Columbus (C) | Columbus Academy |
| Conor Lynch - 2 | Montgomery (SW) | St. Xavier |
| Andrew Mao - 2 | Montgomery (SW) | Sycamore |
| Aditya Nayak - 3 | Cincinnati (SW) | Seven Hills |
| Devan Patel - 2 | Lewis Center (C) | Olentangy Orange |
| Shailen Patel - 2 | Lewis Center (C) | Olentangy Orange |
| Ashwin Ramachandran - 2 | Solon (NE) | |
| William Schecter - UR | Cincinnati (SW) | |
| Tyler Thomas - 2 | New Albany (C) | New Albany |
| Daniel Tonkal - 4 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Ethan Vass - 2 | Liberty Township (SW) | Lakota East |
| Theodore Vanjo - 4 | Mentor (NE) | Mentor |
| Nicholas Von Krosigk - 2 | Tipp City (SW) | Tippecanoe |
Some, but not all, of these players will be able to contribute to their teams immediately. As we all know though, high school tennis can be a challenge for incoming freshmen as they face seniors, windy spring days, and coaches (who are actually coaches rather than their tennis pros). These players are also still growing and while growth spurts are welcome, they can also add clumsiness to strokes and foot work.
This alphabetized list should be solid, but please let OTZ know if it is missing players who are currently listed as eighth graders or who are coming in from other states. This list may also include a player or two who are currently sophomores.
Know of any changes? Please submit a Feedback.
The Tennis Recruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to Tennis Recruiting.net.
Of the 23 players on the list, the Central District has seven, Northeast - six, Northwest - zero, and Southwest - ten.
SUNDAY,
College Tennis Underway
Going to the Australian Open to watch great tennis is a long bus ride.. There is a closer alternative. There are now plenty of great college matches taking place and the admission is typically free. While the player quality level is not on par with the majors, it is not impossible that you might also be seeing a future pro.
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OSU's/SC's Reece Yakubov - Click to enlarge |
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NKU's/Wellington's Trevor Ball - Click to enlarge |
While it is extremely convenient for me to make the two.two mile drive down to the Ohio State Ty Tucker Center to watch Ohio State and their opponents play, it is probably equally convenient for you to go watch Xavier, Case Western, University of Cincinnati, Toledo, or Cleveland State compete.
The added benefit is that D1 tennis hopefuls can see where they might fit in on a team and the same applies to potential D2 and D3 players.
It also helps to develop contacts, and by introducing yourself to one of these players now, it might lead to a "paid hit" this summer which would greatly benefit all parties.
Today's photos include Ohio State Reece Yakubov and Northern Kentucky's Trevor Ball. Yakubov played for St. Charles and he was a 3-time state qualifier (COVID-19 prevented a fourth), including a trip to the finals in dubs as a freshman. Trevor Ball played for Wellington. He would have been a favorite to win the singles championship in 2020, but COVID-19 prevented that. They both competed in the OSU/NKU match on January 15.
Ohio State has two big matches today. The OSU women play #4 Oklahoma at 11am today (Sunday) and the OSU men play against Illinois at 2:45pm. Both are at the Ty Tucker Center.
FRIDAY,
System Update Underway
Many users may notice that there have been more warning and error messages on OhioTennisZone recently as well as on the OTZ evil-step-sister sites, PlatformTennisZone.com and PickleballZone.com. The reason why is because the underlying software (PHP) that is used by these sites needed updated.
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Fixing OTZ Issues - Click to enlarge |
The organization that produces PHP is always making improvements and discontinuing older versions of its software. The problem is that the newer versions modify how they handle certain requests. This causes the software to identify and report more errors.
Who is affected? Hopefully not you, but if an error is encountered that prevents a task from being done, please submit a Feedback message. For example, if a coach tries to enter his / her team match schedule and cannot, that is a problem that needs to be reported.
What is the upside? PHP 8 runs slightly faster than the older PHP 7.3, which is what the sites previously used. Plus, most players will also now have better backhands. (Ok. Fine. I just made that up.)
This will be a "whack-a-mole" effort for a few more days as errors are identified and fixed, but the system should be solid before the season begins.
There is a great deal of work that occurs in the off-season for OhioTennisZone to function, and this is just another one of those tasks that needed to be done.
WEDNESDAY,
OHSAA Boys Season Calendar / Passing of Academy's Jack Madison
The OTZ Boys Season Calendar is being released early this year. Why? Web site usage on OhioTennisZone is already kicking into gear and there have already been a few questions about the upcoming season.
OhioTennisZone.com |
| Feb 11: ACT Test Date |
| Feb 18-20: USTA Level 4: B14, B16, B18 |
| Feb.25-26: OTCA Coach Clinic (Cleveland) |
| Mar. 6: 1st Day of Coaching |
| Mar. 11: SAT Test Date |
| Mar. 18: Coach to Enter Match Schedule on OTZ |
| Apr. 15: ACT Test Date |
| Mar. 23: Coach to Enter Roster on OTZ |
| Mar. 24: HS Season Begins |
| Mar. 27 - Apr. 2: Easter Bowl |
| Apr 1: Coach to Provide Team Picture to OTZ |
| Apr 2: Pay OTZ for Coach, Team, or Individual Mem. |
| Apr. 9: Easter |
| Apr. 15: ACT Test Date |
| Apr. 10: Non-Interscholastic Date |
| Apr. ??: Waiver Extension Ends |
| Apr 30: Sectional Tournament Draw |
| May 6: SAT Test Date |
| May 8-13: Sectional Tournament |
| May 15-20: District Tournament |
| May 26-27: State Tournament |
| May 27: State Team Tournament |
| June 3: Season Ends |
The OTZ calendar includes a few additional dates that are important to tennis players, such as the dates of several major USTA tournaments and the ACT / SAT test dates. While these dates are believed to be correct, always check with other sources before planning the rest of your future forever. The tennis dates should mimic the OHSAA Tennis Sports Calendar.
The boys season calendar is normally chaotic because of the weather and due to the timing of spring breaks. That will likely be the case again this year. The boys get far more time to prepare for the season than the girls, but the inclement weather always reduces the number of days that can be spent outdoors.
There will be no shortage of high school tune-up opportunities for players competing in USTA tournaments. Click for the Midwest Junior Tournament Schedule. Click to view the USTA National Tournament schedule. As normal, there are no high level tournaments in Central Ohio.
The boys can use waivers to play non-HS tennis during the season. The waivers should enable most boys to start the season on time (rather than waiting to play in a key tournament). The end date has not yet been published by the OHSAA. Last year, the information was here: OHSAA Waivers. Always (always, always) work with your coach, athletic director, and the OHSAA to insure that this waiver is completed well in advance and is done absolutely positively correctly.
Coaches, please do not remove players who have graduated from your roster. Fans like to see those who are no longer on the team as they compare this year's team versus last year's. This will be done by OTZ near the beginning of the season.
This calendar will remain in the right sidebar throughout the season.
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Col. Academy's Jack Madison - Click to enlarge |
There is also sad news to report. Columbus Academy's Jack Madison passed away last week. Jack was a 2021 graduate and he was a two-time OHSAA State Doubles Finalist with his cousin, Arie Tuckerman. Jack played collegiate tennis at Colorado College. Click for Jack's obituary. Click to read the Columbus Dispatch article from Frank DiRenna. An article from the Colorado College tennis team is here.
FRIDAY,
OhioTennisZone.com's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team
Congratulations to the players selected for the OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio Girls Tennis Team for 2022.
OhioTennisZone's All-Ohio |
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Division I - Singles |
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Division II - Singles |
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Division I - Doubles |
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Division II - Doubles |
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The OTZ list is a bit different than the OHSAA All-Ohio team. While a player's performance at States is the best way to get on the team, OTZ also looks at a player's entire season and will even include players who may not have even qualified for States because of unfortunate District draws. OTZ also believes that the OHSAA team is too mechanical in its approach by granting honors only based on the round in which the player reached at States.
The number of players on the OTZ All-Ohio Team can vary from year to year based on the skill levels of the players. The normal barometer in measuring the strength of the All-Ohio team is to count the number of Division I college or high-end Division III players on the list. Thankfully, COVID-19 disruptions are finally reducing their impacts on recruiting. That said, seven players are known to be playing Division I / III college tennis. The number of Ohio D1 players on the OTZ All-Ohio team this year is seven for D1 and six for D2. In previous years, it was the following for D1: 2021 - 8; 2020 - 7, 2019 - 8, 2018 - 7, 2017 - 7, and 2016 - 6. The D2 teams have totaled: 2021 - 7, 2020 - 7, 2019 - 7, 2018 - 8, 2017 - 6, and 2016 - 6.
Note that players with the yellow PP tennis balls next to their names have Player Profiles and that more information is available for them by clicking on their names. Click to sign-up to obtain an OTZ Player Profile.
The OTZ Top Players Lists have also 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.
As for photos.. Photos from the 2022 Girls season are now uploaded on SmugMug for viewing. To order a photo, just provide the filename (i.e. DSC_1234). Click to view the SmugMug OTZ site.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER
Final OTZ Team Rankings
OTZ was tardy in wrapping up the girls season. There will be several updates in short succession.
OhioTennisZone.com
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| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Mason◄TEAM SS 3 Final 4 | Cin. Hills Chr. Acad.◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 2. N. Canton Hoover◄TEAM 3 Final 4 | Hathaway Brown◄TEAM 3 Final 4 |
| 3. Centerville◄TEAM 1 | Col. Academy◄TEAM 1 Final 4 |
| 4. Magnificat◄TEAM 2 | Indian Hill◄TEAM 3 |
| 5. New Albany◄TEAM 1 Final 4 | Orange◄TEAM 2 |
| 6. Dublin Coffman◄TEAM 3 | Hawken◄TEAM 2 |
| 7. St. Ursula Acad.◄TEAM 1 | Archbishop Alter◄TEAM 0 |
| 8. Avon◄TEAM 1 | Kenston 0 |
| 9. Anth. Wayne◄TEAM 2 Final 4 | Bexley 1 |
| 10. Sycamore◄TEAM 0 | Wellington◄TEAM 1 |
| HM: Mass. Jackson◄TEAM 2 | Mariemont 0 |
| HM: Solon◄TEAM 1 | Seven Hills◄TEAM 0 |
| HM: Highland◄TEAM 1 | Bryan 0 Final 4 |
◄TEAM - Denotes OTZ Team Membership. Click on School Name for Extensive Information. State Spots 3 - Denotes Number of Spots at States. Final 4 - Denotes State Tournament District Representative. |
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It was straightforward for the top two picks in Division I (Mason and North Canton Hoover) and Division II (Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy and Hathaway Brown). After that, there were numerous great choices for the middle portion of the rankings. D1 Teams included in the OTZ Pre-Season Rankings were shuffled but largely the same set of teams as in the final rankings. Anthony Wayne was; however, a nice addition. In Division II, Orange and Bexley were the big additions to the rankings.
North Canton Hoover was this season’s "Rosetta Stone" team because of the large number of top Division I and D2 teams they played from throughout the state. By comparing all of the teams that have played Hoover in the OTZ Matrix Report, it becomes clearer how they all compare. Of course, being the "Rosetta Stone" team, meant that Hoover was extremely well prepare for post season play. Mason is such a tough team but Hoover did everything that they could do to prepare for them.
If teams were viewed as “tied”, the team which had the most matches against other strong teams was given the higher ranking.
The number of State Spots that each team had is included in gray.
As always, there were situations when Team A was better than Team B which was better than Team C which was better than Team A.
There were also situations when teams were experimenting with their line-ups or they did not have key players at a match.
FRIDAY,
Top Incoming Freshman Girls | More Photos
This is the annual list of the higher-skilled incoming freshman girls. Fans and coaches like to see who the strong players are on the horizon. Using TennisRecruiting.net (TRN), OTZ has identified the top 20(ish) eighth graders in Ohio. This information should be especially helpful to the coaches who want to schedule strong opponents. Of course, it is also important to know which school these players are attending. It is normally easy to identify a few schools based on player names, but many of these players do not have older sisters (or brothers) who play tennis. Any help on this would be appreciated. Please submit a Feedback. Note that this list includes an update date at the top of the table.
OhioTennisZone.com |
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| Player - TRN Stars | City (District) | Incoming School |
| Elise Hedrick - 2 | Dayton (SW) | Centerville |
| Ava Kamensky - 2 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Hathaway Brown |
| Ayumi Kashiwakura - 2 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Valeria Kislyansky - 3 | Solon (NE) | Hawken |
| Abigail Lynch - 4 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Gilmour Academy |
| Anna Mills - 3 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Hathaway Brown |
| Raina Patel - 1 | Cleveland (NE) | Orange |
| Perasa Poompanit - 2 | Cincinnati (SW) | Walnut Hills |
| Saanvi Reddy - 3 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Alexa Roth - 3 | Columbus (C) | Upper Arlington |
| Gabrielle Stewart - 2 | Columbus (C) | Columbus Academy |
| Rida Tahir - 3 | Chagrin Falls (NE) | Laurel |
| Riddhi Thorat - 3 | Columbus (C) | Not playing HS |
| Kamilla Toirova - 2 | Pickerington (C) | Not playing HS |
| Emma Wagner - 4 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Chloe Zhang - 2 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
| Angela Zhang - 2 | Mason (SW) | Mason |
The list is sorted alphabetically and the Tennis Recruiting.net star ratings are included beside each of the players. The player links go to Tennis Recruiting.net.
In comparison to the class of 2026 (current freshman), this is a slightly less-skilled group who have also played less tournament matches. The TRN average star ranking is 2.36 this year versus 2.68 last year. The number of tournament played averages 13.75 versus 14.64 in last year's group.
TRN has to make guesses on class years unless a player has entered this on the TRN system. Some are likely be to seventh graders.
While there are some players / parents who believe that participating in high school tennis is not worthwhile, none of the players on the list are in that super elite (i.e. Caty McNally) category. Hopefully all of these players will be included on a team.
Of the 20 players on the list, the Central District has five, Northeast - six, Northwest - none, and Southwest - nine.
Speaking of Tennis Recruiting.net, now is always the time to update player contact information on TennisRecruiting.net. This is the service that many college coaches use to reach out to prospective recruits.
Efforts are still underway with processing photos. Click on this link to view and select ones that you would like to purchase. Click on Most Recently Added Photos to view the photos added to OhioTennisZone.
After 86 days of consecutive daily updates (August 4 - October 28), there are no current plans to publish over the weekend. This does not mean that I will sleep past 5:30am (rarely do I get up that late anyway), but it does mean that I will have more time to prepare PlatformTennisZone.com for the upcoming season and to process more photos. There will be another update on Monday.
