Never a dull moment

ST. MARYS - The annual Western Buckeye League girls tennis matchup between Celina and St. Marys has never been dull.

Monday's renewal of pleasantries was no exception as two matches went the full three sets and another match required a tiebreaker to decide a winner.

Celina clinched the victory early and had to wait out a 2 1/2-plus hour singles match to officially pick a 3-2 win over the Roughriders at the Minster Bank Courts on the St. Marys campus. The win moves the Bulldogs to 3-4 in the WBL with the Bulldogs wrapping up league play on Thursday against Kenton. St. Marys ends league play at 4-5.

After Celina won in third singles when Amy Hartings defeated Charley Spencer 6-3, 6-1 and the second doubles team of Audrey Albers and Michelle Elston won 7-5,6-2 over Ashley Dawson and Alivia Sawmiller, the clincher match came in first doubles as St. Marys' Jaden Gibson and Alyson Talge played Madina Davlatboyeva and Kaylyn Saunders. The Celina tandem won the first set 6-1 before the Roughriders took the second set 6-3 to go to a third set. Celina's duo came through for a 6-3 win to clinch things for Celina.

"We're happy to get out of here with a win. I knew we were evenly matched," said Celina coach Jan Morrison. "We saw St. Marys at the Schroeder Invitational (in Tipp City) and finished tied (for second) with them. It could have gone either way."

All that remained was the two remaining singles matches. Celina's Grace Gabes gave St. Marys standout Allie Vanderhorst a battle in first singles before Vanderhorst came with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4 tiebreaker) victory.

The longest match of the night was in second singles as St. Marys' Grace Dodson faced Celina's Kaylin Avers. Dodson needed a tiebreaker to win the first set 7-6 (7-5) before Avers came back to force a third set with a 6-3 win. The two battled hard in the final set with Dodson winning 6-4 to give St. Marys two wins.

"I'm really proud of Grace for pulling that one out," said St. Marys coach Mariah Krugh. "She faced Kaylin at the Schroeder Invitational and got beat in a close set. It was great for her to come back and win that one back personally since we had already lost the match."

Celina also won the junior varsity match in taking four of the five contests. Winning singles matches for Celina were Grace Schneider (over Brooke Fricke), Whitney Jones (against Sydney Boedicker) and Arshia Girotra (against Aaliya Larson). In doubles St. Marys' Sammy Tayler and Kalie Gayler defeated Karley Saunders and Lilly Westgerdes and Celina's Jones and Schneider teamed up to beat Jodi Perry and Maddie White.