Rivalry Renewed

ST. MARYS - With Celina winning the first three matches, St. Marys' remaining singles contests were about pride.

Maddie White beat Celina's Alex Yaney in the third set to give the Roughriders a win, but that was their only victory as the Bulldogs prevailed 4-1 on Monday at the Minster Bank Courts in St. Marys in a Western Buckeye League girls tennis matchup.

"Celina's a big rival, so I hate losing to them," St. Marys coach Mariah Krugh said. "But I told the girls, 'Every single time, I hate losing to Celina, but this time, I'm really proud of how you played.'"

Celina's second doubles team of Audrey Albers and Michelle Elston rolled to a 6-3, 6-3 win, and Lauren Muhlenkamp handled Brooke Fricke 6-4, 6-3 to give Celina the edge.

The Bulldogs secured the match win in first doubles, where Kaylyn Saunders and Whitney Jones won a tiebreaker in a long first set, then found a groove in the second set for a 6-0 win.

"We had a lot of unforced errors that first set, and they settled down and played smarter," Celina coach Jan Morrison said. "Doubles is about positioning and placement, and they settled down and played the way they were coached to play the second set."

That left two matches heading into three sets, first and second singles. White, who beat Yaney 7-5 in the first set before struggling in the second, was in control in the third set, earning a 6-1 win to prevent the sweep.

"It's rare to see that happen," Krugh said. "She won the first set, lost the second set, won the third set. It's hard to come back from losing a set like that and win it, but she did and that's awesome."

Although the match was long since decided, Charley Spencer and Amy Hartings continued to battle it out in first singles for almost three hours. Spencer won the first set with relative ease before Hartings settled in and took the second set 6-3.

"Amy played with just heart and soul," Morrison said. "She really hung in there, and she did the same thing (last) Monday night against Bluffton. I love to see the grit and determination."

In the final set, Hartings went up 2-1 and the two traded games until the end, when Spencer's last return sailed left to give Hartings the victory.

"Charley can hit it hard, she can place it, she can make them move," Krugh said. "If this were later in the season and she kind of had her feet - she was one who was out with illness early in the season - so if she had a couple more matches in her, I think she would've gotten it."

The Roughriders did take both exhibition matches, with Cora Rable and Molly Schlosser defeating Celina's Arshia Girotra and Lilly Black 8-5 and Natalie Imwalle and Kadence MacLean beating Mia Chrisman and Kaleah Dailey 8-2.

"That was a hard-fought battle," Morrison said. "St. Marys gave us a good match, good competition. That was a match that could've gone either way, and we're just happy to come away with the win."