By Cort Reynolds
The visiting Ottawa Hills tennis team defeated Ada 5-0 on a warm Tuesday evening at the Ohio Northern University Marmon Courts.
Ada dropped to 9-4 with the loss. The undefeated and 12th-ranked Green Bears improved to 4-0 with the win.
OH sophomore Matthew McGee beat Ada senior Cade Mullins 6-1, 6-2 at first singles as the Bulldog fell to 12-4 with the loss. McGee was a state quarterfinalist in Div. II last spring.
Athletic Ada junior Isaac Spar dropped to 11-4 with a tough 6-2, 6-4 defeat at second singles to OH senior James Schwann.
In the closest match of the evening, Green Bear senior Andrew Lyon narrowly beat fiery Bulldog Miranda Wills in a third-set tiebreaker. Lyon won the first set 6-3, but Wills fought back to take set two 6-4 with more aggressive attacking and volleys.
Instead of playing a full third set, the combatants competed in a first to 10 points, win-by-two tiebreaker.
The tiebreak was tense, with Wills falling behind 5-1 yet rallying to tie it 6-6 with some solid volleys and sheer persistence. Lyon took three of the next four points to hold two match points at 9-7.
But Wills won a long rally to inch within 9-8. After another lengthy back and forth rally, Wills hustled down a lob to stay alive.
She then hit a short cross-court forehand that Lyon attempted to put away with a huge forehand swinging volley near the doubles alley to win the match.
But instead he whiffed on the violent swing to tie it 9-9.
Yet Lyon recovered to capture the last two points and win the breaker 11-9 to drop Wills's season record to 11-4.
The Green Bear tandem of McQueen and Schlatter teamed up to beat Bulldogs Morgan Swick and Dexter Woods at first doubles 6-0, 6-2.
Ada plays at Celina in the first round of the state tennis duals tournament Saturday, starting at noon. The Bulldogs are 5-1 vs. WBL teams this spring.
