Drop everything: Sanchez Vidal avenges two losses as Ontario wins MOAC tourney

LEXINGTON — He wasn’t overpowering in sewing up the title for Ontario in the two-day Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference tennis tournament.

But sophomore Pablo Sanchez Vidal was very, very crafty.

Having lost two three-setters to Galion’s previously unbeaten Matt Gimbel during the MOAC dual season, Sanchez Vidal took a different tactic this time, disarming his power-hitting opponent with a wicked assortment of drop shots, passing shots and lobs for a 6-2, 6-3 victory and Saturday’s crown at No. 1 singles.

Combined with Ontario’s sweep of Thursday’s two doubles courts and a runner-up finish by Lance Miller at No. 3 singles, the Warriors finished with 29 points and a one-point victory over regular-season champ Marion Harding in the seven-team field at Lakewood Racquet Club.

“We had something to prove today, we really did,” said Ontario coach Cary Carcione, whose Warriors will finish second to Harding in the MOAC standings, no matter the outcome of Monday’s dual match with the Presidents at Marshall Park. “We worked really hard for this. The competition is pretty tough in the league, so this was a pretty big win.

“Our boys were pumped up and used this tournament to prove we belong in this league.”

With all of the other courts decided, the title came down to the final chapter in the Sanchez Vidal versus Gimbel trilogy.

With a points system of 7-5-4-3-2-1-0, a runner-up finish by Sanchez Vidal would have been worth five points and left the Warriors with a final tally of 27, one shy of Harding. The Presidents won No. 2 and 3 singles, finished second to Ontario at No. 1 and 2 doubles and placed third at No. 1 singles.

So to say the Spaniard's performance was clutch would be an understatement.

“I’m really proud of the work I’ve done,” Sanchez Vidal said through teammate Roberto Espinosa, acting as his interpreter. “There was a lot of work behind it. I’m really happy I’ve come this far.

“Both matches before were really close and I could have won. My coach said (a change in strategy) was my best shot at winning it, and I went with it.”

Fighting Gimbel’s power with power probably wasn’t going to cut it, so Sanchez Vidal found success by drawing the Galion senior in toward the net with drop shots and then either passing him or lobbing the ball over his head.

He handcuffed Gimbel more that way than if he had come out of his shoes trying to blast his returns.

“The strategy from Ontario was a little different and Matt was not quite up to what he usually is as far as feeling good physically,” Galion coach Tom Pawsey said. “Every once in awhile you have a bad day.

“They worked on that short shot routine. Pablo has gotten better at it. Every time they changed sides, I told Matt he had to watch for that. Don’t be standing in no-man’s land because he’ll hit a short ball and then the comeback right past you. It’s a two-shot winner is what it is. We didn’t see it before. He must have really worked on it.”

The first game of the match lasted four deuces, with Sanchez Vidal earning the service break. He broke again, this time at 15, for a 3-2 lead and then broke a third time for what proved to be an insurmountable 5-2 lead in the first set.

The short-ball strategy continued to work for Sanchez Vidal in the second set. He broke serve twice for a 3-0 lead, closing out the third game with a drop shot Gimbel never got his racket on. And when Sanchez Vidal held at love to make it 4-0, it looked like curtains for Gimbel.

Not so fast.

He cracked an ace to hold serve, making it 4-1, and proceeded to win the next two games as well to close within 4-3.

During the changeover, Ontario coach Luke Webster, who was courtside the entire match, tried to find the right words to snap Sanchez Vidal out of his funk. Apparently, telling him he was still winning did the trick.

“I’m still up?” Sanchez said.

Yes, and it stayed the way. He held serve at love for 5-3, closing out that game with another drop shot that Gimbel reached but hit wide. And then Sanchez Vidal finished the match the way he started, with a service break.

That little pep talk from Webster, a former Lexington star, seemed to work. He’s one of three head coaches on the staff, along with Carcione and her son, Ty, and they are assisted by recent alum Evan Booker.

“Pablo was just trying to rally with (Gimbel) from the baseline, but that wasn’t going to work because he’s a real good groundstroker,” Webster said of Sanchez Vidal’s mini-slump. “I told him he needs to control the pace of the point. Other than that, he just needed the confidence back and (spectators) to hype him up.

“I told him to keep drop-shotting him and lobbing him. Tiring your opponent is always a good way to win a match.”

Sanchez Vidal didn’t have much of a tennis background when he moved here with his family from Spain last year. He mostly had an affinity for basketball, but he did play padel, the second-most popular sport in his native country. It’s similar to tennis but the court is smaller and there are walls in play, like racquetball.

Whatever experience Sanchez Vidal had with a racket in his hand, it’s paying off now, and he’s only going to get better playing during the offseason and taking advantage of Lakewood, like many of the serious high school players in the area, during the winter.

Anyone in the crowd Saturday who has spent any time at Lakewood probably thought Sanchez Vidal was summoning his inner Jack Miller in beating Gimbel.

Miller is the ageless wonder and Lakewood legend who back in the early Nineties, when he was in his 50s, played six matches and 17 sets in one day of the News Journal Tournament. He survived by drop-shotting opponents to death.

“I play down (at Lakewood) with the adults and they’re always trying to do that,” Pawsey said. “It’s like a standard shot. If you can get a slow ball and then you hit a drop shot, before (the opponent) can ever get to the net, they’re hitting it past them.

“It’s a neat play if you can do it. Matt wasn’t ready for it. You’ve got to stand inside the baseline and get closer to the net. If Pablo pulls that (tactic), you’ve got to run in there and slice it past him instead of him slicing it past you.”

“Matt was doing 90 percent of the right things, but he just wasn’t getting all of his shots in.”

Whatever his arsenal, Sanchez Vidal, who is seeded fourth behind three Lexington players in singles for the Shelby sectionals, was going to battle. That much was certain.

“He’s a fighter,” Cary Carcione said. “He’s got that competitive spirit.”

The same could be said for Ontario’s two championship doubles teams – Brody Phillips and Alex Ellis at No. 1 and Aiden Frankhouse and Hunter Petit at No. 2. They played a huge role in Ontario’s first-place finish, especially since their title wins came at Harding’s expense.

Phillips and Ellis beat Evan Bonsel and Zane Menzie 6-2, 6-2, avenging a loss to Harding early in the season. They lost a three-setter as Harding prevailed 3-2 over the Warriors.

“The weather was crazy the first time,” Ellis said. “This time I was having a really good day with my serve and Brody was having a regular Brody day, which is great serves, great volleys, great forehand – just all-around doing his thing.

“Brody and I came here (to Lakewood) to play pretty much every day in the summer. We worked our butts off here. It was pretty cool to come in here and win MOACs after the ton of time we’ve spent playing together.”

Frankhouse and Petit topped Alex Rice and Asa Deeren 7-6 (4), 6-4 and are two dual wins – against schools they’ve already beaten – from finishing the regular season undefeated. That seemed unlikely when the season began because Frankhouse didn’t play varsity tennis last season and Petit didn’t play tennis at all.

“I knew it was possible,” Frankhouse said. “I think we were able to pull it off because we came in here with confidence and we believed in ourselves all the way through.

“(Finishing unbeaten) would be a pretty cool accomplishment for me and Hunter. It came out of nowhere. I was just hoping to play varsity and win as many matches as I could. I didn’t have a goal in mind.”

Thirds went to Shelby’s Jared Billheimer at No. 2 singles, Clear Fork’s Jeffrey Moody at No. 3 singles, Clear Fork’s Jackson McLaughlin and Griffin Blakely at No. 1 doubles and Galion’s Nick McMullen and John Evans at No. 2 doubles.

Finishing fourth were Shelby’s Jacob Williams at No. 1 singles, Ontario’s Eli Selser at No. 2 singles, Shelby’s Tony Roub at No. 3 singles and Shelby’s Ty Keinath and Bryson Baker at No. 1 doubles.

Gimbel will now transition to doubles for the Shelby sectionals, paired with Jamie Hollis as the No. 3 seed. Normally, Hollis plays No. 2 singles for Galion, but he sat out this tourney with a sprained ankle. The two won a title together at the Jim Grandy Invitational in Bucyrus.

“I think they’re better (at doubles) because they communicate so well and they’re more consistent,” Pawsey said. “They read each other like a book. They know by instinct or telepathy or something where each other is (on the court).”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ontario will take second in overall standings in MOAC