Bexley, New Albany boys tennis squads finish third in OTCA state team tournament
As Stefan Schiff looked up, he saw a yellow ball in contrast to the blue sky sailing out of bounds, clinching third place for the Bexley boys tennis team in the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Division II state tournament May 29 at Upper Arlington.
Schiff outlasted Lexington’s Ethan Remy 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) at second singles, giving the Lions a 3-2 win in the consolation final. Bexley won all three singles courts.
The Lions, who finished 14-8, lost to eventual champion Cincinnati Indian Hill 3-0 in a semifinal. Indian Hill defeated Pepper Pike Orange 3-2 in the championship match.
It was Bexley’s first appearance in the state team tournament since winning the title in 2017.
“It was a relief like nothing else brings me,” Schiff said of the final shot. “That’s why I’m in love with this game. That feeling of winning is like nothing else. I loved being a part of that with my teammates.”
Sam Lessard defeated Tommy Secrist 6-0, 6-3 at first singles, and Austin Flamm defeated Karl Etzel 6-4, 6-4 at third singles.
Robby Meyer and Drew Solar lost to Ryan Mercurio and Ross Orlik 7-5, 6-1 at first doubles, and Aaron Jones and Oscar Ramsden lost to Dylan Catanese and Jake Chilcote 6-0, 7-5 at second doubles. Meyer raced to his school for graduation after the semifinal and back to UA for the consolation match.
Bexley lost to Lexington 4-1 on April 23, but Schiff had an abdominal injury and played doubles.
“Getting here was such an achievement for our boys, especially with the way we got here with the (3-2) victory over (Columbus) Academy (on May 20 in the district final),” Bexley coach Will Gingery said. “We swept the singles to get here and those three kids (Lessard, Schiff and Flamm) played down at (the individual) state (tournament) over the weekend. Those three took us home today.”
—Scott Hennen
More state coverage: Gahanna Lincoln's Carpico places second in Division I state individual tournament
DIVISION I
This time, it was Jackson Clements’ turn.
In a season that saw several courts shoulder the credit for some of New Albany’s biggest wins, Clements — a freshman second-singles player — got the clinching win as the Eagles defeated visiting Findlay 3-1 to take third place in the OTCA Division I state tournament.
Clements had to overcome cramps in his right leg to defeat Austin Asada 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, leading coach Marc Thomas to joke that Clements probably couldn’t feel much by the end because of all the ointment he had applied.
“It would take like 15 minutes to kick in (after each application) so I had to push through it,” Clements said. “It was 2-all in the second set and I got a break at 3-2 and that gave me a lot of momentum. I do a lot of conditioning, so that helps me in matches like this. This is the first match all year where I actually started cramping.”
New Albany’s other wins came on the doubles courts. The first-doubles team of Ben Bilenko and Abhinav Dandu swept Arda Dastan and Nick Simmermeyer 6-0, 6-1 and Dhruv Chavan and Jeremy Hanna beat Haden Harris and Sam Swisher 6-2, 6-4.
OTCA contests end as soon as one team wins three matches.
“We just had to be tough and mentally overcome a lot of little things. It just speaks to the character of our team,” Thomas said. “I can’t say enough about these guys. Jackson has won a few of these matches this year where he was down and had to come back. So did Declan (Freedhoff at first singles). I’m tremendously proud of these guys.”
Making its sixth consecutive OTCA state tournament appearance, New Albany lost to eventual champion Cincinnati Sycamore 3-0 in a semifinal before defeating Findlay to finish 14-2. Both the Eagles’ losses came to the Aviators.
Against Sycamore, Clements lost to Nick Meyers 6-1, 6-2 at second singles, Halen Hamstead fell to Nicholas Choo 6-1, 6-0 at third singles and the Eagles’ second-doubles team of Chavan and Hanna lost to Kevin Dong and Andrew Wittenbaum 6-2, 6-4.
Sycamore defeated Solon 3-0 in the final.
—Dave Purpura
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Bexley, New Albany finish third in OTCA state tournament
