Indians tennis wins SCOL championship
Lead Summary
By
The Highland County Press-
LONDON — The Hillsboro boys tennis team are now South Central Ohio League champions.
On Friday, May 7, HHS traveled to London for the SCOL Championship Tournament.
"These young men knew they held a very slight SCOL lead over Washington C.H. They were determined that night to achieve Hillsboro's first SCOL tennis championship since 1981," HHS tennis coach LaRue Turner said.
Hillsboro won two SBC championships in 2000 and 2001.
In first singles, Ross Chambers made it to the semifinals but saw defeat at the hands of London's Eric Gunthrop.
Chambers had a bye earlier in the tournament due to his winning season record.
Hillsboro's first doubles Ben Rhoads and Stanley Lannigan won over London's second doubles but lost in the semifinals to Miami Trace's Zac and Isaiah Carson. The left-handed and right-handed twins eventually won the tournament's first doubles title.
Second doubles Trong Le (HHS) won over Washington's Tyler Ream. Le started with a bye due to his season record but lost in the finals to London's Yuta Nakamura.
"Trong played some of his best tennis yet this year and almost won it all," Turner said.
Second doubles Johnny Abel and Andrew Goolsby won their semifinal match. They started with a bye due to their season record, but with high wind speeds, the HHS second doubles duo lost a close match to Washington's Patton and Vance.
While both Goolsby and Abel were able to keep alive some very long and physical rallies, it w as th e Blue Lion doubles team who secured the victory at the end.
"Any other day or night we would have won that court. In fact, just last week Johnny and Andrew did indeed beat this same duo in convincing fashion. Tonight, though, the wind just terrorized our game plan. The Blue Lions played well," Turner said.
Third singles Reese Leibreich showed why some of his teammates call him "The Freshman Phenom" by being awarded an immediate bye by virtue of his seasonal record. He won his semifinal match over Miami Trace's Zach Hoppes and then won in the the finals over Washington's Kyle Litteral.
"Reese's can-do spirit and consistent play was just a super way to cap off our biggest win, which was the SCOL Championship," Turner said. "This team has been such a joy to coach with their inspired play and the leadership by our seniors. This SCOL championship is nice for our young men."
The boys team will travel to Portsmouth for sectional tournament play Thursday, May 13.
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