Even as his team topped Clear Fork on Thursday, it’s hard to blame veteran Lexington girls tennis coach Ron Schaub if his mind wandered about an hour south – to Columbus.
That’s where he hopes his powerhouse team, ranked second in the state, will seek a fourth consecutive Division II state team title later this season.
“It’s been a good season so far,” said Schaub, whose team ran its record to 11-3 with a 4-1 win over Clear Fork on Monday. “We have had some big wins against some good Division I teams – 10th ranked Dublin Coffman, (Rocky River) Magnificat and Kenston.”
Lexington’s losses have been to schools Schaub’s teams are used to seeing in Columbus – Hathaway Brown, Columbus Academy and New Albany. Hathaway Brown and New Albany each beat Lady Lex 4-1 while Columbus Academy, the school Lexington beat in the state finals last year, claimed this year’s regular-season match, 3-2.
Schedule-maker Schaub ,who hopes the tough regular-season schedule will again have his team ready for the OCC tournament, sectionals and state team tournament didn’t make life easy for coach Schaub.
“Now that we got killed (in those matches), its hard,” he said with a laugh. “Hathaway (the state’s top-ranked Division II team) has three dynamite freshmen and we just didn’t match up well against them.
“I think we can get there. If we do, we just need to get a little lucky where everyone is playing well at the same time,” said Schaub, whose team lost to Columbus Academy during the season last year before gaining revenge in the state finals.
Lexington handled Clear Fork on Thursday, despite Schaub resting his normal starters with the Lexington Invitational coming up on Saturday.
“We are blessed to have a lot of good kids and we try to make sure we get all of our kids as many matches as possible,” said.
Lexington won all three singles matches — Jordyn Traxler ovet Mave Crotty at first singles; Maya Ahmed over Alyssa Franco at second singles; and Kiki Dawson over Jess West at third singles. The two teams split the doubles matches. Lexington’s Alex Griebling-Ana Marquardt topped Monica and Jackie Adkins at No. 1 doubles while Clear Fork’s Hannah Blour-Alexi Gregory defeated Alivia Ekerd and Aditi Sringeri.
Clear Fork coach Sonia Kelley, in her first year, said her team got off to a rough start this season, but has continued to improve.
“The bond this team has helps keep them together. Even when they are down, they work together as a team and improve,” Kelley said. The Colts have 13 players on the team, 12 of which are underclassmen. “We have one senior, one freshman, two sophomores and nine juniors,” she said.
The Ohio Cardinal Conference is Sept. 28, a tournament Lexington has dominated for more than a decade. “We hope we can do well,” Kelley said. “If the girls come ready, we are capable of doing well.”
One week after the OCC, Lexington has the sectionals coming up in Shelby on the first weekend in October. But before both of those, Lady Lex has a team district match at home Monday against Port Clinton. “We need to post three more wins to get to the state team tournament (for an eighth straight year),” Schaub said.
It will be a veteran group leading Lex down the home stretch. Everybody, with the exception of doubles player Emilee Wong, is back from a year ago, led by Elise Betscher at No. 1 singles. Betscher and junior Jillian Earnest have reached the OHSAA state quarterfinals in doubles the last two seasons.
Junior Alex Griebling, senior Nicole Dragos, sisters (senior) Courtney and (sophomore) Maya Ahmed are all back, with Dawson and freshman Jordan Traxler adding depth.
“After Elise, a lot of our girls are dead even,” Schaub said. “All of them are strong players and we try to rotate them around.”
