Olentangy Orange takes second, Columbus Academy third in OTCA boys tennis state tourney
Olentangy Orange coaches and players were left to ponder two things in the aftermath of a second-place finish in the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Division I state tournament Sunday at New Albany.
The Pioneers tipped their caps to Cincinnati Sycamore after a 3-0 loss in the final, and they smiled in reflection on the best season in program history.
“(Sycamore is) clearly the best team in the state, no question about it,” coach Matt Rutherford said. “We still competed at every point from the beginning to the end, but that was a great tennis team we ran into.”
Orange (11-3) won one set against Sycamore, which repeated as OTCA champions and had four players earn top-four finishes in the OHSAA individual state tournament Thursday and Friday at Ohio State.
The Aviators claimed a doubles runner-up finish with Arjun Rajagopala and Andrew Wittenbaum and saw Nick Meyers defeat teammate Nick Choo in the third-place singles match of the individual tournament.
On Sunday, Meyers defeated Orange’s Kallan Arledge 6-3, 6-1 at first singles. Nikhil Bhimireddy lost to Choo 6-1, 6-2 at second singles and, at first doubles, Rajagopala and Wittenbaum swept Austin Jackson and Shailen Patel 6-0, 6-1.
OTCA contests end as soon as one team wins three matches.
Orange’s Devan Patel and Eric Tang took the first set of their second-doubles match, 7-6, and were leading Kyle Friedrich and Andrew Mao 3-1 in the second when play concluded.
“We’ve achieved a lot more than we thought (we could),” Bhimireddy said. “This wasn’t in the picture. We took each match one at a time, but as we played each match, we kept accomplishing more and more, and we got here to the state final.”
Bhimireddy, a freshman, teamed with Arledge, a senior, to finish fourth in doubles at the individual state tournament
Bhimireddy and Rutherford said a 4-1 OCC-Central Division loss to Olentangy Liberty on April 25 spurred the Pioneers’ run. They defeated the Patriots two weeks later in an OTCA district semifinal, then knocked off six-time defending district champion New Albany to reach state for the first time.
“The guys were so vocal and pumped up to play (Liberty) again,” Rutherford said. “That’s the moment I knew our character was really deep and we had a strong foundation. Responding to adversity was our trademark.”
Orange rode a sweep of the singles courts to a 3-0 win over Toledo St. John’s in a semifinal Sunday. Arledge defeated Tyler Wood 6-1, 6-1, Bhimireddy swept Drew Eckel 6-0, 6-0 and Zach Haar beat Zennon Zaleski 6-1, 6-0.
“It means a lot because of all the maximum effort we’ve put in since last year,” Jackson said. “We practiced a lot last summer with clinics and all school year until we started team practices.
“This was the focus the entire year. We had three freshmen coming in, Nikhil, Devan and Shailen, and we just had to work together to get all the way here.”
Columbus Academy places third in Division II
Saagar Arya’s 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 win over Pepper Pike Orange’s Daniel Suh clinched the Vikings’ 3-2 win in the Division II third-place match.
Perhaps the headliner of the match took place one court over, where Academy standouts Rowen Lo and Lucas Xue defeated Ben Pomeranets and Krish Mehra 6-4, 6-4 at first doubles. Pomeranets won his second consecutive individual singles title Friday, and Lo and brother Nason finished third in doubles.
“We just mixed some things up,” said Xue, a two-time state singles qualifier. “This was fun to come out here and play doubles and not worry too much since our opponents are really good. Surprisingly, we won. It probably was a little bit of an upset, but our (assistant) coach (Steve Hoffman) said doubles are totally different than singles, so I guess we always had a chance.”
Academy’s other win came at second singles, where Jacob Khvalsky swept Ishan Blatt 6-0, 6-3.
The Vikings (16-3) fell to Lexington 3-2 in a semifinal that was decided by a third-singles match that lasted more than two hours. Khvalsky had match point twice in the second set, but Owan Gongwer forced a third and held on to win 2-6, 7-6 (6-4), 6-3.
Xue edged Ethan Remy 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 at first singles and Nason Lo defeated Karl Etzel 6-0, 6-0 at second singles.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Olentangy Orange, Columbus Academy compete at OTCA state tennis
