Everybody wins: Lex-Ontario showdown was competitive, congenial

ONTARIO — To discover how much mutual respect the Lexington and Ontario boys tennis programs had heading into Monday’s showdown at Marshall Park, all it took was a glimpse at coach Cary Carcione’s cell phone.

She has Lex counterpart Ron Schaub listed among her contacts as “The GOAT.”

“Honestly, I have to give it to Ron,” Carcione said after Lex advanced to the district finals of the Division II state team tournament with a 3-0 win over her Warriors. “He’s very welcoming to our boys (as manager and teaching pro at Lakewood Racquet Club). He creates an environment where they want to go there (to practice). He really is the GOAT.”

While Lex is a perennial state power, Ontario has enjoyed a historic season. And it was not diminished by Monday’s somewhat misleading outcome.

Even though Lex clinched this best-of-five district semifinal before all five courts were finished, No. 2 doubles easily could have gone to a third set tiebreaker and No. 1 and 2 singles were very much up for grabs when the match was called.

At No. 1 singles, Ontario’s Joseph Litao won the first set 6-4 and Lex’s Dylan Catanese won the second 6-4.

At No. 2 singles, Ontario’s Pablo Sanchez Vidal was leading 7-5, 4-4 over Karl Etzel when play was halted.

“I’m proud of our team,” Carcione said. “Who would have thought three or four years ago we would have been competitive with them?”

Schaub’s Minutemen now need one more win, next Monday at Ottawa Hills, to earn a trip to the state Final Four for the third straight year.

This match felt more like a district final than a district semi to Schaub. He was so impressed by the strides Ontario has made in the last couple of years that he invited the Warriors to play for the first time in this year’s Lexington Invitational. The invite is always one of the strongest regular-season tournaments in Ohio.

“He could see how hard these kids are working, so he reached out to me and said ‘You guys need to come to our invitational,’” Carcione said. “That says a lot about what he sees in us and who we are.”

Since nine of Monday’s 14 players have qualified for the OHSAA’s DII district tournament, beginning Wednesday in Port Clinton, the coaching staffs decided that rather than risk injury, it would be better not to play out the last two singles matches since the outcome had already been decided.

“I thought I was playing great,” Sanchez Vidal said. “I had a chance against Karl. I just wanted to finish the match. That’s what I wanted to do.

“I think we had the best team Ontario has ever had this year, and I was so hyped for today, that I was going to give my best. I felt good. I wanted to keep playing, (but) we have districts, so I understand it. I’m hyped for Wednesday.”

Ethan Remy, the reigning Ohio Cardinal Conference Player of the Year, felt bad all day and didn’t even go to school. So Schaub had to juggle his lineup. Normally, Remy would have been at No 1 singles, but it was Catanese who got the nod to play in that spot against Litao while Remy moved to No. 1 doubles with Jake Chilcote.

If Remy was still feeling feverish, it didn’t show because he and Chilcote, the lone senior in Lex’s lineup, won 6-1, 6-2 over Alex Ellis and Brody Phillips.

“I saw (Remy) warm up and I thought, he’ll be fine,” Chilcote said. “I got it in my head that even if he played bad, I could play good, but Ethan was fine and I played good “

At districts, Chilcote will be paired with sophomore Owan Gongwer, who won No. 3 singles Monday with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Hector Sanchez Vidal, Pablo’s younger brother.

“Hector’s a real good player,” Gongwer said. “I tried a bunch of different things. I tried rushing the net to make points quicker, but every time I did, he’d hit a good shot. So I stayed to the baseline, tried to get everything back and tried to hit the corners and down the line, and either hit a winner or let (him) make a mistake.

“But he’s definitely more consistent than I thought he would be. Even though it was 6-2, 6-0, it seemed like every game went to deuce, and it was a neck and neck match. Even though you might be up a lot in the match, you still have to stay in it. Just a little change in motivation can get your opponent more games, just because of how close some of the games were. So you have to keep the same intensity the whole match.”

No. 2 doubles was also a straight-set victory for Lex’s Cooper Remy and Jake Halfhill over Matt Bayes and Hunter Petit 6-1, 6-4. But the latter duo led the second set 4-3 and came close to pushing the match to a decisive tiebreaker.

“Just getting the experience against Lexington players makes you a better person,” said Bayes, a sophomore and district qualifier in singles. “I had a fun time, but (Remy and Halfhill) just turned it on after we were up in the second set.”

Carcione would like to bottle the positive attitude Bayes has maintained all season.

“You want to play better kids and he really does,” she said. “In fact, at the Lex Invite, he lost a match and came off the court and said, ‘That was fun.’ He likes to play competitive guys.”

Bayes is a big part of Ontario’s remarkable story this season. He went from being a jayvee player last year to a fixture at No. 3 singles for a team that finished atop the Mid-Ohio Conference standings with a 12-0 record without losing a court in any league dual or in the MOAC tournament.

“Thirty years from now we’ll talk about just how good our team was and how we 5-0ed literally every team but Lex,” Bayes said. “It was definitely amazing to be part of it.”

Catanese and Remy won a sectional doubles title for Lex, but with his post-season partner under the weather Catanese went from thinking he’d be playing doubles Monday with his usual sidekick Chilcote to playing No. 1 singles against Litao.

It was tough going in the first set, but Catanese made sure he had some momentum heading into districts by winning the second set to earn a split.

“It was surprising to me,” said Catanese, about playing singles, “and Joseph’s a good player. It was a good match. I just kept missing a lot (in the first set), but after that I was more consistent and got my serves in.”

Litao has gone back and forth from singles and doubles the last couple weeks, winning No. 1 singles in the MOAC tournament and then pairing with Pablo Sanchez Vidal to earn a district spot in doubles. They are two wins away Wednesday from becoming the first state qualifiers in the history of Ontario’s boys program.

If that happens there will probably be a lot more fist bumps like the ones Litao shared with Lex players – yes, Lex players – after he walked off the court Monday.

“They’re my old teammates and I had fun today,” said the Ontario senior, who played his first two years of varsity tennis at Lexington before sitting out last season at his new school. “On the court  (Catanese) is a friend, but he won’t take mercy on me and I won’t take mercy on him.”

After the plug was pulled on their match, Litao and Catanese shared a long embrace at the net, another clear sign of the respect shared between their teams.

“These are the two best teams in the (Northwest) district, I think,” Schaub said. “The Ontario kids could not have put in more time (at Lakewood) and Cary’s an awesome coach. I’m glad to see our teams helping each other out.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Everybody wins: Lex-Ontario showdown was competitive, congenial