Friday, April 20th, 2018

Bulldogs defeat Roughriders in WBL tennis

By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Celina's Kyle Lochtefeld returns a shot against St. Marys' Howie Spencer during Thursday's WBL tennis match at St. Marys. Lochtefeld won the match 6-4, 6-4.

ST. MARYS - Celina improved to 4-1 in Western Buckeye League boys' tennis action with a 4-1 win over rival St. Marys on Thursday afternoon at the Minster Bank Courts at Memorial High School. The Roughriders drop to 2-2 in league matches.
Although each match went two sets each, all were competitive with just three of the 10 sets having a team win fewer than four games.
"We knew they were going to be tough," Celina coach Toma Hainline said. "We know them and they know us. That always makes it fun for both teams. It was competitive. We had a lot of long matches even though they went two sets. Kudos to St. Marys. I'm proud of my team. I thought they battled."
Celina swept through the three singles matches. Bryce Langenkamp needed a 7-1 tiebreaker to take the opening set 7-6 over Marcel Lansing before taking the second set 6-3 to take first singles. Kyle Lochtefeld picked up the second singles victory with matching 6-4, 6-4 set wins over Howie Spencer, and Collin Harris came through in third singles with the 6-4, 6-2 win over C.J. Vanderhorst.
The first doubles match was one of the most intense matches of the day with both teams showing exuberance after having won points. Celina's Garrett Forlow and Sohaib Saleem won the first set 6-4, but the St. Marys tandem of Andrew Vogel and David Keller quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set. The Celina duo battled through and forced a tiebreaker, winning the tiebreak 7-5 to take the 7-6 win in the second set.
"We had a good first set and (St. Marys) jumped on us in the second set," Hainline said. "We definitely battled back with a little enthusiasm and came back to win the tiebreaker pretty easily."
St. Marys avoided being swept without a win in second doubles as Mason King and Evan Tennant defeated Celina's Brandon Schmidlapp and Justin Warnement 6-4 and 6-3.
"We knew it would be a tough match. We were just hoping for a few more wins," St. Marys coach Seth Hertenstein said. "With Celina, we knew what to expect.
Both teams are back in league play tonight. Celina travels to face Ottawa-Glandorf while St. Marys hosts Kenton.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

St. Marys' Mason King tries to make the return on the ball during a second doubles match on Thursday. King and doubles partner Evan Tennant won the match.

Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Celina's Bryce Langenkamp returns a shot during his first singles match with St. Marys' Marcel Lansing during Thursday's league match in St. Marys.

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ST. MARYS - A 28-minute police chase involving four law enforcement agencies across two counties on Thursday ended peacefully with the arrest of a Phillipsburg man. [More]
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Area Roundup
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
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