Parker Addison, Ravenna rise at MAC Tennis Tournament

RAVENNA — Parker Addison had barely played tennis prior to this season.

He nearly came out for the team last year, but the timing didn't work out, so the Ravens junior was essentially a rookie — to the team and the sport — this season.

He didn't look like a rookie Wednesday, finishing third in first singles at the 2022 Metro Athletic Conference Tournament.

"I catch on to sports pretty fast," Addison said. "I caught on to bowling pretty fast and I just kind of went with it. Same with this. I mean I'm not the best player here, but I'm fine with that."

Trying to explain Addison's rise, Ravens coach Brittney Kohanski noted that perhaps the junior's time on the bowling team contributed to his strong mentality on the tennis court.

"He usually just channels himself in most of the time," Kohanski said. "I don't talk to him most of the time and I just let him go because he just like goes with the flow."

Ravenna junior Parker Addison's journey to the tennis court

Prior to the 2022 season, Addison's experience on the tennis court was limited to casual excursions with his dad.

"When I was a bit younger, me and my dad would just go up to the park and kind of just hit it around," Addison said. "But [we] really wouldn't like try to keep it in play or whatnot."

As high school progressed, Addison picked up one new sport, bowling, and his friends convinced him to give tennis a try as well, thinking that he was pretty good at badminton in gym class, so he might excel at tennis as well.

Kohanski, for her part, was thrilled.

Given the team had just eight players this year — and a team needs seven players in a given match to avoid forfeiting points — she needed all the players she could get.

Still, she tempered her expectations for a rookie who had the desired height for tennis but lacked experience.

"I assumed he'd probably be playing third singles just because of his experience, but then he was beating everyone [in our team challenge matches], so I'm like, 'Well, I guess you're playing first singles because you beat everyone,'" Kohanski said. "I was like I have nowhere else for you to go and he actually held his own."

First singles can be punishing for any tennis player, especially a rookie.

Whereas second and third singles (and first and second doubles) in the MAC tend to be filled with players who picked up the game in high school, first singles includes players who have spent far longer on the tennis court.

Still, Addison pushed along, falling to the top two players in the league (Cloverleaf's Joe Donnelly and Norton's Jackson Davis), but generally beating everyone else.

"I feel like I just caught on to it," Addison said. "I would use the best of my time when we were practicing. Like serving, I'd try to get the most out of it I can. When we were doing like small rallies back and forth, I'd try to get the most out of those."

What Addison demonstrated Wednesday in his third-place victory over Coventry's Matthew Naugle was consistency in his groundstrokes — he rarely made unforced errors — and plenty of dexterity in the way he moved around the court.

"I'm good at positioning the other player," Addison said. "So if I see that they're close to the net, I try to push them back, or if I see they're on the left side of the court, I try to send a ball to the right to make them run, and then if they go on that side, send another one back left to kind of keep them moving and not just a simple back-and-forth rally."

Needless to say, year one on the tennis court has only whetted his appetite for year two.

"I definitely do want to come back," Addison said. "I mean I picked up on the sport and I really enjoy it and I really feel like I have a good opportunity."

Ravenna boys tennis has greatly improved

Addison's third-place finish at first singles was one of a number of promising returns for a Ravens team that rose from last in the league in 2021 to the middle of the pack in 2022.

All told, in a six-team tournament, Ravenna made one title match (at second doubles) and four third-place matches (at first singles, second singles, third singles and first doubles).

All while having just one senior: Blake Fitzgerald, who finished fourth at third singles.

"This team, they listen," Kohanski said. "They really listen when you tell them stuff and I feel like they understand and they try to fix things because they're very, very coachable.

The Ravens had two other fourth-place finishes — Dylan Phelps (second singles) and the pairing of Ben Rainone and Lily Schofield (first doubles).

Phelps, in particular, has made incredible strides from his freshman season.

"He couldn't hit a ball, like he was probably the worst person I had out there, and then he came back the next year and got better," Kohanski said. "Even this year, over the summer, he took a couple lessons and had been working on it and so you can tell he's improved and he likes the sport and wants to get better at it."

Meanwhile, the all-freshmen team of Aiden Hills and Derick Skilton, seeded third at second doubles, pulled off a slight upset in the semifinals over second-seeded Norton to advance to the championship match, ultimately earning runner-up honors.

Ravenna Ravens By The Numbers

Regular Season (2022): 3rd, 5-5, 7 points

Tournament (2022): 3rd, 33 points, 7 points

Overall (2022): 3rd, 14 points

Regular Season (2021): 6th, 0-10, 4 points

Tournament (2021): 6th, 22 points, 4 points

Overall (2021): 6th, 8 points

Field boys tennis ties for fourth

The Falcons improved this regular season, from 2-8 in 2021 to 4-6 in 2022, before finishing fifth at Wednesday's MAC Tournament.

Combining regular-season and tournament results, Field tied for fourth in the league.

The Falcons' top performance Wednesday came from the second doubles tandem of Blayze Tosenberger and Nick Murray. Despite being seeded fifth of five teams, the duo managed to top fourth-seeded Coventry in the first round, forced a third set against top-seeded Cloverleaf and beat second-seeded Norton in the third-place match.

Seth Cunningham also tallied a victory for Field, winning 8-0 in his fifth-place match.

Field Falcons By The Numbers

Regular Season (2022): 4th, 4-6, 6 points

Tournament (2022): 5th, 24 points, 5 points

Overall (2022): T-4th, 11 points

Regular Season (2021): 5th, 2-8, 5 points

Tournament (2021): 4th, 27 points, 6 points

Overall (2021): T-4th, 11 points

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Parker Addison, Ravenna rise at Metro Athletic Conference Tournament