St. Marys sweep

CELINA - Featuring a young group with no varsity experience, the Celina boys tennis team looks for positives every match.

Although the Bulldogs fell to neighbor St. Marys 5-0 in the Western Buckeye League opener on Thursday at the Booster Club Tennis Complex, coach Toma Hainline did see some positives.

"We have a team where 10 of (the players) learned to play three weeks ago," said Hainline. "So, they're getting thrown (into) the fire. I'm really proud that they're keeping a positive attitude and are learning every day. Our goal is 'What can I do to get better today?' … We want to keep that philosophy this year."

The Roughriders (2-0, 1-0 WBL) won all five matches in two-set sweeps and allowed Celina to win just four games for the contest.

St. Marys' Howie Spencer picked up a 6-1, 6-2 win over Celina's Logan Goettemoeller in first singles while teammate Andy Vogel shut out Zach Haines 6-0, 6-0 in second singles. Mason King completed the Roughrider singles sweep with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Nick Farlow.

In first doubles, the St. Marys tandem of David Keller and Matthew Kawalec won 6-0, 6-0 over Ramsey Cox and R.J. Veit. In second doubles, Evan Tennant and Justin Grannan won 6-0, 6-0 over Celina's Isaac Garrett and Aidan Schmidt.

"Young team for Celina and I think they'll get a lot better coming up," said St. Marys coach Andy Wilker. "We just have a solid team with a lot of experience. It served us well today."

St. Marys swept the exhibition singles and doubles matches as well. Joey Vanderhorst defeated Holden Cubberley and Caleb Helmlinger beat Maggie Zhang in 8-0 pro sets. In doubles, St. Marys' Nathan Kuffner and Cameron Now defeated Christian Aukerman and Kendall Hull 8-0. Gavin Engel and Jacob Berning defeated Diego Castorena and Justin Bruggeman 8-0.

Both teams return to action on Monday. St. Marys is home at Minster Bank Courts to face Ada while Celina travels to Shelby County to face Lehman.