So far, a juggernaut: Ontario’s tennis season off to a remarkable start

ONTARIO — Perfect timing.

Banners celebrating each senior on Ontario’s boys tennis team arrived at the Marshall Park courts on Thursday while the Warriors were in the process of posterizing yet another opponent this spring.

Eight matches, eight wins, all by 5-0 scores. The latest victim was defending Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference champion Marion Harding.

That’s right, the Warriors have yet to lose a single court in any of their matches.

“We’ve got something special going on right now. This is phenomenal,” said coach Cary Carcione, who along with staffers Evan Booker (Class of ‘21) and Luke Webster oversee a roster of 21 players. “I’m walking a fine line between wanting to win everything and trying to develop our young players.”

The Warriors were good last year, going 10-3 overall in duals and winning the MOAC tournament over Harding, even though the Presidents were 12-0 in the league.

But this is an even better version of the Warriors. They added reinforcements in senior Joseph Litao, a 2021 sectional singles runner-up and district quarterfinalist for Lexington, and freshman Hector Sanchez Vidal, whose older brother Pablo won No. 1 singles in last year’s league tourney.

The quandary for Carcione is that there are only seven lineup spots for nine players — nine interchangeable parts — who have played significant roles for Ontario in the past or are too good, like Litao, not to be a big part of the plan.

“I’ve got four or five kids I’ve got to rotate in,” she said. “It’s rough, trying to keep them excited when they all want to play. A lot of these guys (vying for spots) would be playing on other teams. And they’ve all worked so hard. Some of them spend day in and day out  at Lakewood (Racquet Club) in the summer program.”

Harding lost its No. 1 singles player and No. 1 doubles team from last year, but has been on a nice run. It’s been the league champ two of the last three seasons (not counting 2020, canceled by COVID), and claimed both the league tournament and the best dual record in 2019.

If anything, Thursday’s lopsided outcome said more about Ontario and the tone set at the top of the lineup.

At No. 1 singles, Litao was a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Mateuz Lisiecki, who was 26-6 last year and first team all-league at No. 2 singles.

At No. 2 singles, Pablo Sanchez Vidal was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Lisiecki’s brother, Alexander, who was 21-5 last year at No. 3 singles.

The straight-set victories just kept coming. At No. 3 singles, sophomore Matt Bayes topped Chord Mull 6-3, 6-4. No. 1 doubles went to Hector Sanchez Vidal and Alex Ellis over Sebastian Lisiecki and Alex Rice 6-1, 6-4 and No. 2 doubles went to Hunter Petit and Brody Phillips over Ryan Newsome and Austen Valentine 6-4, 6-0.

“We’re going to try to do the undefeated season,” said Pablo, who moved here with his family from Spain his freshman year. “We’ll see.”

5-0 scores every match?

“That’s what we’re trying for,” he said.

It could have been an awkward situation when Litao came in and immediately took over the No. 1 spot from Pablo, a first team all-MOAC player and district qualifier last season as a sophomore. But this tight-knit group made sure that didn’t happen.

“I had no idea about (Litao),” Pablo said. “They told me some kid was coming. When I saw him play, I think he has a chance to beat anyone in this conference. He’s way better than me. I want the team to win. That’s all I want.”

Litao transferred from Lex to Ontario last year, but the former Ohio Cardinal Conference champion sat out the 2022 season.

“I didn’t want to pressure him (into playing),” Carcione said. “I wanted him to want to do it. I believe it was the pressure from the kids … the boys have really welcomed him in. We have a really nice team, as far as inclusion and bringing people in to keep this going.”

Litao quickly fit in. He was even named team captain.

“My old friends (from Mansfield Spanish Immersion School) come here (to Ontario), so they made it feel like home,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun. Guys just kind of absorbed me. They didn’t care where I was from.”

Litao has lost five games in his five matches.

“I took a break from team tennis because I wanted to sit back a little bit, but I still worked on my craft,” he said. “But it’s definitely different playing actual matches, playing real teams with pressure. So it’s like, oh, wow, I’ve got to get used to it again.”

A tennis racket isn’t even Litao’s best stringed instrument. A former member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, he’s concertmaster/first violinist in the Mansfield Symphony Youth Orchestra. He’ll be a soloist in a May 7th performance at the Renaissance Theatre.

“It’s my first solo with an orchestra,” he said, “so I’m really excited.”

Petit has had a wonderful senior year himself. In late February, he joined fellow seniors Colin Cordrey and Alex Rose and freshman Grantham Trumpower to take runner-up honors in the 200 freestyle relay at the state swim meet. That same crew was fifth in the 400 freestyle relay, giving them two podium finishes.

Now he’s part of what looks like one of the best — if not the best — teams in Ontario’s tennis history.

“It was hard to come from swimming to tennis, off of such a big (high) … state runner-up and then (tennis) conditioning starts,” Petit said. “My conditioning from swimming gave me a lot of stamina, so I could run. And just the workouts we did in the weight room (during swim season) helped with tennis also. At the beginning of the season, I was struggling with shin splints. Your ankles aren’t used to pounding the ground, but they got fixed up eventually.”

Last season, his first with the tennis team, Petit was unbeaten with No. 2 doubles partner Aiden Frankhouse, including an MOAC tourney title. With Frankhouse departing, he feels just as comfortable playing with Phillips, a fellow senior. It was Phillips who talked Petit into giving tennis a try.

“I’m surprised I’m getting to play,” said Petit, addressing the valuable depth on this team. “There’s some really good players. A lot of them were practicing over the winter while I was swimming. They went down to Lakewood every day and would just practice and practice and practice. That’s how you get better.

“I felt I was a little behind at the beginning of the season, but I’m catching up, I think.”

With the arrival this season of Litao and Pablo’s brother Hector, players like seniors Lance Miller and Eli Selser — fixtures in last year’s lineup — find themselves battling for playing time. Carcione is doing everything she can to keep everybody happy.

Miller is 5-0, including three wins in doubles, and Selser, who has battled back issues, won his only match so far 6-0, 6-0.

Meanwhile, the younger Sanchez Vidal — Carcione calls him “extremely athletic, a powerhouse” — is keeping pace with his brother. Hector is 8-0, with four wins at No. 1 doubles and four more at singles, rotating between No. 2 and 3.

During the winter, he was the starting point guard on Ontario’s junior varsity basketball team. And he admits that basketball has commanded most of his attention in recent years.

“I love to be back playing tennis,” Hector said. “I stopped playing when I was like 12 years old; then I’m back at it now. We have a crazy squad this year.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: So far, a juggernaut: Ontario’s tennis season off to a remarkable start