Players gearing up for county tennis tournament on Saturday
Apr. 19—Staff Report
Ashtabula County boys tennis players are gearing up for the county tournament on Saturday.
Edgewood, Geneva, Jefferson, Lakeside and Saint John are scheduled to compete at Saint John School. The rain date is on Sunday.
Conneaut doesn't have a boys team this spring due to low numbers.
Matches are scheduled to start at 8 a.m.
—The Warriors are off to a solid 4-1 start.
The top players are Noah Vencill, Robbie DiGiacomo, and Vinnie DeGeorge.
DeGeorge and DiGiacomo teamed up in the postseason to qualify for the Division II district tournament last season.
Upcoming players for Edgewood include: Carter Howard, Nick DeFazio, Brady Vencill, Kinsey McLaughlin and Matthew Pierce-Ruhland.
"The boys are performing well in practice and I expect that will translate to the rest of our matches and the season's tournaments," coach Renee Mattson said. "They've been dedicated to playing several times a week all year round, so I am expecting good things to come."
—Geneva returns four starters from a team that went 19-2 last year, including county Player of the Year Isaac Riddell at first singles.
The Eagles, who are 4-1 on the season, have filled the line-up openings with a couple of freshmen, a sport transfer and an exchange student.
"We haven't played many matches [due to weather], but the time has allowed us to get healthy and hopefully a week of dry weather and matches will prepare us for the county tournament on Saturday at STJ," coach Scott Torok said.
—The Falcons are 4-3 on the season.
"My captains, Jensen Yarosh, at first singles, and Brandon Furman, second singles, anchor our lineup," coach Rick Furman said. "Jensen won the county first singles last year and Brandon won the county third singles last year.
"Although we have five seniors in the lineup, three of them have very limited varsity experience. We have had a different player at third singles every match trying to figure it out. The county is loaded with great players this year and we are looking forward to defending our back-to-back team county titles."
Yarosh, at first
singles; Furman, second singles; Brady Talcott, third singles; Landen Ellis and Dylan Hut, first singles and Jack Furman and Reagan Williams, second doubles, is the projected Jefferson lineup.
—The Dragons, at 1-9 overall, are in a rebuilding year.
"We lost our top four from last season," coach Spencer Selman said. "We come in with a lineup where only four of our players have played for more than one year.
"It will be a learning experience for most, but of the notable players, my three senior singles players: Matthew Surbella [first], Sergio Lozano [second], and Owen Meaney [third] are finally getting their first shots at playing singles in the county tournament after being relegated to doubles in previous years."
Selman is especially interested in watching Lozano compete.
"Sergio is someone to look out for at second singles as he has been playing well going into the tournament with close sets against Edgewood and Saint John," Selman said. "I am looking forward to finishing out the season and gaining a lot of youth next year thanks to our successful middle school team coached by Amy Thompson. I am hoping that we will be in the running for the best team in the county again in the next few years."
Lakeside is scheduled to play at Geneva today.
—For the Heralds, Carter Blenman and Danny Hutchins won the county first-doubles championship last season.
Saint John is 5-2 heading into today's match at Kirtland.
"The kids are looking forward to the county tournament," Heralds coach Todd Nassief said. "There are some really good teams this year. We will try to do our best to be competitive with them. We'll have fun and enjoy a great day of tennis.
"Ashtabula has an impressive tennis community with a great group of kids from all the schools."
Last season, Jefferson won its second straight county title, scoring 23 points to edge out Saint John at 21.
Geneva finished
third with 20 points, followed by Lakeside
at 18, Edgewood
with 17.
