NetDogs rebound to shut out Roughriders

CELINA - The Celina girls tennis team rebounded from a tough loss to undefeated Western Buckeye League leader Wapakoneta on Tuesday to shut out cross-lake rival St. Marys 5-0 Thursday afternoon at the Booster Club Tennis Complex.

The win moves the NetDogs to 3-2 in WBL. The Roughriders drop to 1-4 in league matches.

"This was a nice win. I'm proud of the girls," Celina coach Jan Morrison said. "This is the third time we've seen St. Marys. We saw them at the Schroeder (Invitational in Tipp City) and at the Lima Invitational. Today (you had) two improving teams with just one senior on the court. We had four sophomores and three juniors. I thought they played very well."

Most of the Celina lineup had challenging first sets against St. Marys. Second singles, third singles and first doubles all won the opening sets at 6-4.

Ally Harris also had a smoother second set in her second singles match with Hanna Felver, winning 6-2 to post the sweep. Breanna Jenkins had the most competitive match of the day against Bailey Rust in third singles. Jenkins looked ready to cruise to a sweep with a 5-2 lead. Rust came back, however, to win two straight games to 5-4 before Jenkins won the final game to take a 6-4, 6-4 decision.

The Celina first doubles team of Nicole Elston and Cami Mohler had little trouble winning the final set over Jennifer Lauth and Avarie Ellis as the NetDog tandem won 6-1.

The second doubles pair of Kaeleah Fisher and Miranda Rable needed extra points to win 7-5 over Jenna Perry and Alyssa Finley in the first set. Fisher and Rable went on to take the second set 6-3 to clinch their match.

The only Celina player to have an easy first set was Maddy Cline in first singles, who opened her match with Anna Ernst with a 6-0 first set and then took the second set 6-2.

"I thought the first set of every match was tighter than the second set," Morrison said. "That makes me feel good. I think they're good little competitors to come back in the second set and win a little more easily than the first. I'm proud of the progress we're making."

"Lot of competitive matches. Unfortunately, they all went the wrong way," St. Marys coach Brice Brenneman said. "A point or two here and there makes a lot of difference. There were a lot of (points) we didn't get. It was a little more competitive than the scores (bore out) in some spots."

Celina is back in league action on Monday at Van Wert. St. Marys travels to Lima on Saturday morning to face Lima Senior.