In a stiff field of competitors at the Suburban League American Conference tournament, the Aurora Greenmen girls’ tennis team’s resolve was tested with several long matches. But the Greenmen girls persevered to place third by scoring 28 points last Friday at Medina Highland High School.
“We were there for about 10 hours, and it was sunny the entire day so I am thinking it caught up with everyone and we had some players that were not used to playing three matches in one day so I think those factors caught up with us,” said Coach Vincent Cannata.
By recording a 5-2 record in conference duels in the regular season, the Greenmen stood in third place with six points prior to the tournament and after taking third, they received another six points to finish in third place with 12 points as the Medina Highland Hornets captured their ninth consecutive SLAC banner by sweeping all five brackets.
At first singles, junior Kamy Milano posted a 1-2 record to finish in fourth place. The Greenmen junior advanced to the semifinals after triumphing against Cuyahoga Falls’ Nyx Weiss 6-1, 6-1, but was ousted from the championship bracket when she was defeated by Cassandra Komlanc of Copley 7-6, 6-1.
Milano lost the third-place match against Revere’s Gabriel Iler 6-0, 6-1 to end her day in fourth place.
“She had a tough day,” the second-year coach noted. “I thought it would be a tough day because in her first match, she won easily but there were a lot of long points, and I am wondering if being out there a little bit longer would wear on her. Because in her second match, it went to a tie breaker and it was real close back and forth and she lost in the tiebreaker and I think she just ran out of gas.”
Senior Zelie Cerda came in fourth place in the second doubles bracket by finishing 1-2, Cerda won her first match to advance to the semifinal by beating Tallmadge’s Bri Egger 6-0, 6-2, but then lost against Medina Highland senior Claire Schlak 6-0, 6-0.
“The score did not show it because she lost 6-0, 6-0 but she had a lot of good points afterwards and the other coach came up to me and said wow, Zellie played some of the best tennis that she played so that was encouraging for her,” Cannata said.
Cerda was then defeated in the third-place match by Rebekah Ashby of Copley 6-3, 6-2.
Junior Addison Martin rallied to take third place at third singles with a 2-1 record.
Martin trumped against Kent Roosevelt’s Grace Johnson in her first match, winning 6-1, 6-1 but was overpowered by Ananya Jayaraman from Revere 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinal. She rebounded in her third-place match by besting Copley’s Misha Reyes 6-2, 6-1 to finish third overall.
“She did well considering this was her first year playing singles,” said Cannata. “I was very happy with her. She is like a prototypical third singles player where you want your third singles player to keep the ball in and not make a lot of mistakes.
Aurora’s first doubles tandem of junior Sophie Cifani and freshman Logan Archibold took fourth place, going 1-2 in the tournament. The Greenmen duo prevailed against Kent Roosevelt’s Matddy Steffl and Addison Curtis 6-4, 6-4, but could not capitalize on a fast start in the semifinal match, losing 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 against Bridget Steiner and Ilyana Leenher of Revere.
The Aurora tandem’s day ended when Barberton’s Sophie Samples and Tehya Graham defeated them in the third-place match 6-7, 6-1, 10-8.
“They started off the season really well and next year I will probably keep them together at that first doubles spot so I will hope that they keep on taking lessons together in the offseason and hopefully they can get better for next year,” said Cannata.
The duo of junior Ashley Kohl and sophomore Eliza Cunningham placed third in the second doubles bracket with a 2-1 record. The Greenmen tandem trumped Tallmadge’s Alaina Egger and Ishnaya Mishra 6-4, 6-3 in the first match but lost 6-1, 6-2 against Rasika Veerappan and Aleena Siedlecki of Revere 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinal.
They edged Copley’s Ava Vasquez and Ara Larrauri 6-0, 6-4 in the third-place match to end the tournament on a high note.
“They fought well,” said Cannata. “They were another new team that I paired up together this year and it was an adjustment period. They kind of had some ups and downs but to finish in third place in the Suburban League as a new pairing, I was happy with their performance.”
Aurora will prepare for postseason play as it will compete in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I sectional tournament at Solon Community Park on Sep. 30 beginning at 9 a.m.
