By Cort Reynolds
The Ada High School tennis team served up its delayed season opener vs. visiting Wapakoneta on an overcast but unseasonably warm Monday evening, April 3, at War Memorial Park courts.
The Bulldogs lost a grueling match that was closer than the final score of 5-0 might indicate. Ada starts out its spring season 0-1 with the loss, while Wapak improved to 1-1.
“Wapak is a good, established team and we are a young core,” said Ada head coach Tyler Christoff. “This was a great baseline for what we need to work on, and we are going to keep going at it. I couldn’t be more proud of the way they handled themselves.”
The top two singles matches were long and very closely-contested, punctuated by several long rallies.
Redskin senior Connor Coffey rallied in the second set to win 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in a tiebreaker at first singles.
After losing the first set, hustling Bulldog senior Brendan Jameson led 4-1 and 5-2 in set two. But Coffey came from behind with good overheads and forehand volleys to tie it up, 5-5.
Each player held serve to force the tiebreaker. Jameson led 1-0 and 4-3 in the hard-fought tiebreaker. He tied it 5-5 on a forehand volley, but then Jameson hit a forehand that sailed long.
Coffey then clinched the match on a backhand error into the net.
Redskin junior Aiden Bellman gutted out a tough three-set match at second singles against quick Ada sophomore Nathan Williams. He won the opening set 7-5, but the stylish Ada southpaw Williams came back to win set two, 7-5.
Bellman led 3-0 in the third before the feisty Williams battled back with good groundstrokes to tie it 5-5. But the Redskin outlasted Williams to win the last two games, breaking serve to capture the lengthy match.
“The first two singles matches were close; other than that, we have some work to do,” Christoff noted.
Wapak senior Nathan Doll won 6-2, 6-0 at third singles over Ada’s Justin Bowden.
Redskin juniors John Jauert and Parker Moell combined to win at first doubles 6-3, 6-3 over Ada senior Geddes Klingler and sophomore Luke Archer.
The Wapak junior duo of Gabriel Pepi and Gannon Casebolt won at second doubles 6-0, 6-1 over the inexperienced Ada tandem of sophomore Mohamed Khalil and freshman Sam Crawford.
“This was a great match, we had a tremendous effort from all positions,” said Wapakoneta coach Mike Watt. “Ada has a great team and we had to battle hard.”
Ada senior top-three singles player Amelia Alexander missed the match due to injury, but is hopeful to return to action soon.
Ada plays at Fostoria Wednesday evening. The Bulldog netters then visit Celina Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
