Celina opens league play with victory

CELINA - The Celina girls tennis team opened Western Buckeye League match play in grand fashion with a 5-0 sweep of the Kenton Wildcats on Monday afternoon at the Booster Club Tennis Complex.

The styles of victory varied between the doubles and singles.

"Nice to get a WBL win," Celina coach Jan Morrison said. "I thought my singles girls worked hard and set up points well. I think they are becoming more confident. Doubles had life pretty easy today and are playing quite well."

Both the first doubles team of Breanna Jenkins and Miranda Rable and the second doubles team of Allie Lehman and Christina Harting had convincing 6-0, 6-0 wins over their Wildcat foes.

In contrast, the singles players for Celina were challenged, even though in two of the three matches the scores didn't show the battle.

In first singles, Celina's Cami Mohler and Kenton's Mykaela Schriber battled back and forth on long points before Mohler came away with a 6-3, 6-2 win.

Ally Harris was also pushed in her second singles match with Kelsey Flowers. Long points made for a lengthy match that Harris won by a 6-2, 6-3 margin.

"They had to play smart. They had to keep the ball in play patiently until they could create some offense," Morrison said of Mohler and Harris. "That's part of being an experienced tennis player."

In third singles play, Kenton's Abby Hartshorn won the first set over Renee Zuercher 6-4 but the Celina senior stormed back to win the second set 6-2 to force a third set that Zuercher won by a 6-0 margin.

"Renee is a senior, but a first-year varsity player," Morrison said. "She's still kind of learning the game and how to persevere out there. I've seen good development in just the three matches and tournament (the Schroeder Invitational in Tipp City on Saturday). She's learning how to hang in there."

Picking up junior varsity wins for Celina were the doubles teams Skye Grube and Bhavya Giratra, Lexi Noll and Shivani Bhatt, Alyssa Adams and Sara Hellwarth and Ashley Jaeger and Karina Melendez.

Celina is back in action today at home against Division I Findlay. The Bulldogs return to league play on Thursday at Bath.