Kenton Girls Tennis Team Competed in WBL Tournament

The Kenton girls tennis team travelled to the University of Northwestern Ohio on Thursday for their annual Western Buckeye League Tournament.

Having a big win Thursday was senior and first singles player who was seeded number four Mykaela Schriber in her first round match. Mykaela topped Wapakoneta’s Madison Snider in a three set thriller 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Winning that match advanced Mykaela to the semi-finals which will be played at UNOH on Saturday.

“Mykaela knew that her match today could possibly be a difficult one because Madison was a strong player. Mykaela came out controlling the points the first set, but lost momentum and rhythm in the second. Madison started to feel much more comfortable in the second set and was waiting for Mykaela to make mistakes. In the third set Mykaela started feeling her forehand crosscourt again and started to dictate and move Madison side to side. At that point, Mykaela kept up her momentum and positivity to close out the third set with a solid win 6-1. We are very proud of her for winning a three set match and look forward to her being able to play some great tennis Saturday and hopefully win her matches,” said coach Katie Isenbarger.

Mykaela will face the number one seed Aria Patel of Shawnee Saturday morning.

Also returning to the court on Saturday was sophomore and third singles Grace Collins. Grace won her first match in straight sets against Defiance’s Reece Miller 6-0, 6-0. Grace was in the rat-tail matches as the eighth seed playing the ninth seed. Moving into the main draw, Grace then faced the third singles and number one seed of Shawnee Alora Patel. Grace lost to Alora 6-0, 6-0 and then moved to the back draw where opponents play an eight game pro-set. Grace faced third singles from St. Mary’s Charley Spencer and bested her 8-6. Due to her win, Grace will play an eight game pro-set Saturday to either win fifth or sixth place.

“We are so proud of Grace and the improvements she has made this season. She came into this tournament as the eighth seed and she will leave as either the 5th or 6th seed which is a huge accomplishment! We saw her stroking well and moving both opponents that she beat today. She does a good job trying to keep calm and focusing on her opponents weaknesses. We are excited to see Grace continue to do well on Saturday and next week before sectionals,” said coach Katie Isenbarger.

Falling to their opponents Thursday were Kenton’s second singles, and both doubles team. Kenton’s second singles Lily Osborn lost to second singles of St. Mary’s Grace Dodson 6-0, 6-0. Kenton’s first doubles of Kayce Sherman and Aaliyah Rogers were beaten by St. Mary’s Allyson Tagle and Jaden Gibson 6-1, 6-1. Kenton’s second doubles Abbey Anglemyer and Samantha Lowe lost a close match to St. Mary’s second doubles team Ashley Dawson and Alivia Sawmiller 6-4, 6-4.

“Overall we played very well as a team today. I was really proud to see second doubles staying the match and playing some of their best tennis of the season. Abbey was hitting great cross courts and Sam had some great poaches at the net. Watching them play this well together makes me very excited for them at sectionals next week. Lily and first doubles kept going to deuce in their games and were hitting well, but didn’t know how to close out their games. We will have to keep working on this at practice before tournament next week. We have some things to keep working on but we also want to have some fun practices as we head into possibly our last week of tennis next week.”

Grace Collins and Mykaela will continue on to play on Saturday.