Wednesday, October 31, 2012

USTA Regional Tournament Champion

Congratulations to Jack Dabek, who won the Boys 12s Doubles with J.J. Mercer at USTA Regional Tournament last weekend in Cincinnati.  They defeated the 2 seeds in the semifinals and won 8-6 in the final on Monday.


18s Team Tennis Nationals

The 18s Advanced team from the Racquet Club of Columbus competed at the Junior Team Tennis National Championships this past weekend.  The team was making their 3rd straight trip to Nationals.  There is an article on the USTA site about the team.
After the team lost a very exciting match to New Enland, the team won their last match against Southern to finish 7th.  They finished 2nd in their flight behind Florida.  The team competed against Florida, winning 2 out of 5 courts, and having the mixed doubles come down to a Match Tiebreaker.

Kelley Jiang and Caitlyn Merzbacher went undefeated, and won in girls doubles against a very strong Florida team, who won against the 1st placed Texas team.  Rachael Morales also went undefeated, coming back from a set down against Florida and Southern.  Rachael along with Ashley were on all 3 teams that went to Nationals.
Ryan Bibo improved in each match through the weekend, and made a big comeback against New England with CJ Cash to force a 3rd set, and also battled back to win key games against Southern.  CJ Cash also improved in each match in doubles and had a big win in singles in a Match Breaker against Southern.  Down 5-7 in the breaker, he won 5 straight points.
Ashley Thai and Jeffrey Melvin fought back from 5-2 down in the 2nd to force a Match Breaker against a strong Florida team, and won against Southern to clinch the victory.


Monday, October 22, 2012

14s Junior Team Tennis Nationals

The 14s Advanced team from the Racquet Club finished in the top 10 teams at Nationals in Cayce, South Carolina over the weekend.  The oldest boy on the Racquet Club team coached by Bryan Nibert is 12, and they won close matches against much older teams from Florida, Southern Cal, and Southern Sections.
Despite being injured, Erica Chen and Victoria Fan were undefeated in matches together. Colten Clark and Robert Cash were undefeated in doubles together.  Alexandra Cash and Jack Dabek were undefeated in the deciding matches and pulled 3 matches out against Southern, Florida and Southern Cal.  The team overcame an injury to Erica Chen, which gave up 12 games to Florida.  Robert Dong rocked a double bagel 6-0  6-0 against the Florida number one. Taylor Sprouse played brilliant second sets pulling out matches and keeping the team close.  Robert Cash came from 1-5 down against Southerns to win 7-3 in tiebreaker.  Players competed hard each match after losing to Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic.
More info, photos and results are on the Nationals website.
Next weekend, the Racquet Club 18s team will be competing at Nationals.




OTCA State Championships

The OTCA State Championships were held Sunday.
Congratulations to Dublin Jerome and coach Tyler Stephen and Caitlyn Merzbacher.  They won the Division 1 championship for the 2nd straight year.  Jerome defeated Cincinnati Ursuline in the final 3-0.

In Division 2, Columbus Academy coached by Megan Martzolf finished 2nd, losing to Lexington.
Congratulations to the team, including Katherine Guan, Deepa Manda, Neela Nataraj and Annie Lavin.


State Championships

Congratulations to all of the girls who competed at the 2012 State Championships.

Caitlyn Merzbacher (Dublin Jerome) finished 4th in D1 Doubles with Ellee Bullock.  All 4 teams in the semis were from Columbus.

Ashley Thai (Hilliard Bradley) won 7-5 in the 3rd 1st round, and then lost to previous 2 time state champion Mehvish Safdar.

Ashley Tan (Dublin Coffman) was the only freshman in the D1 Singles draw.  She lost a close match 1st round to the 1 seed from Northwest Ohio Megan Miller.


Congratulations to Megan Martzolf who coached the D2 Doubles State Championship team from Columbus Academy - Andrea Ballinger / Hannah Wexner.
Rachael Morales (Hartley) won D2 Singles.
Francesca and Christina Dilorenzo (New Albany) were the D1 Doubles Champions.


Monday, October 15, 2012

Girls State Tournament

Congratulations to all of the Girls from Central Ohio who qualified for the State Championships this weekend, including:
Ashley Tan D1 Singles (Dublin Coffman)
Ashley Thai D1 Singles (Hilliard Bradley)
Caitlyn Merzbacher / Ellee Bullock D1 Doubles (Dublin Jerome)

The tournament starts Friday at 9:00 at the OSU Outdoor Varsity Tennis Courts.  Saturday will be held at Hilliard Davidson.
More info can be found here
Draws
D1 Singles
D1 Doubles
D2 Singles
D2 Doubles




Tournament Results

Congratulations to the following
Racquet Club Junior Indoor Open
B12s Champion - Ben Yan
B14s Champion - Connor Biernat
B14s Consolation Champion - Temidayo Dairo
B18s Finalist - Jeffrey Melvin

Elysium Compass Draw 14s
Champion - Jonathan Zhuravel
Finalist - Colten Clark



Monday, October 8, 2012

Midwest Level 5 Champion

Congratulations to Griffin Biernat, who won the Boys 10s Singles and Doubles with Devin Boyer over the weekend at at the Midwest Level 5 Championships in Dayton.

Ella Hazelbaker was a Girls 10s Doubles Finalist with Reagan Long.  Madison Spiess finished 3rd in Singles, defeating the 1 seed.

C.J. and Robert Cash were finalists in Boys 16s Doubles, defeating the 1 seeds in the semis.


Girls High School District Tournament

The draws are posted for Girls High School District Tournament that will take place October 12 - 13.
Division I will be held at Hilliard Davidson.  Division II will be held at CSG.
Division I Singles
Division I Doubles
Division II Singles
Division II Doubles

Congratulations to all of the District Qualifiers, including
D1 Singles
Olivia Kompa (Upper Arlington)
Emma Klebe (Upper Arlington)
Amber Lee (Dublin Coffman)
Ashley Tan (Dublin Coffman)
Ashley Thai (Hilliard Bradley)

DI Doubles
Caitlyn Merzbacher / Eleanor Bullock (Dublin Jerome)
Elaine Cloern / Audrey Berger (Upper Arlington)
Beniva Ganther / Andi Smart (Upper Arlington)
Natalie Hagy / Laura Hagy (Hilliard Davidson)
Ella Wilson / Chloe Shelvin (Hilliard Davidson)

DII Singles
Katherine Guan (Columbus Academy)

DII Doubles
Deepa Manda / Neela Nataraj (Columbus Academy)
Corey Naim / Sarah Mynes (Worthington Christian)

The State Tournament will be held October 19 - 20 at Ohio State.