High school tennis: Highland finishes fourth at OTCA tournament

WOOSTER — The Highland girls tennis team lost its Division I state semifinal and third-place match Saturday at the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Tournament, but the Hornets left the College of Wooster with a much deeper understanding of what they accomplished this season. In an event that dates to 1976, the only previous Medina County team to reach the state semifinals was the third-place 1988 Medina contingent led by Beth Schaefer Winquist, who now coaches several Highland players and was in attendance briefly on Saturday. "It's really cool," Hornets senior Ella Tople said. "Beth's team was the last one to do this and she's my coach, so we're connected in that way. It's really special, because I don't know if another team will get this far." The event brought an end to the high school tennis careers of Highland's Ally Haynes, Wren Marquis, Kenzie Pawlak, Hailey Pennington and Tople, while junior Claire Schlak and sophomore Lily Hantz will return next season as the Hornets seek a 10th straight Suburban League American Conference title under coach Lisa Reynolds. "To be honest, at the beginning of the year when we started playing these OTCA matches, I had no idea what it was for," Marquis said. "They told us they were important, but I just figured they were really good teams." After the Hornets defeated Canton McKinley, top-seeded Kenston, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, fourth-seeded Avon Lake and No. 2 Magnificat to become the first Highland team to win the Northeast District, how big of an accomplishment reaching the state semifinals was began to sink in. It fully hit home Saturday, though Highland (18-4) fell 3-0 to Central/East/Southeast District champ Upper Arlington (14-1) in the semis and Northwest District winner Anthony Wayne (20-2) in the third-place match. Upper Arlington finished second for the second straight year to undefeated and now eight-time reigning state champ Mason, which won the Southwest District, while Indian Hill beat Gilmour Academy in the D-II final. Unlike regular-season duals, when all five courts are played to completion, OTCA state tournament matches are halted once one team wins on three courts. With two-time OHSAA state qualifier — once in singles, once in doubles — Haynes unable to play singles because a hip injury prevented her from covering the entire court, Highland had to alter its regular OTCA lineup. Schlak moved from second singles to first, with Hantz going from third singles to second and Tople moving from second doubles to third singles. Haynes played first doubles with normal second doubles player Pennington, while Marquis and Pawlak moved from first doubles to second doubles. Had play gone to completion on all five courts, the Hornets probably would have gotten their lone point from Marquis and Pawlak in both matches. The seniors led UA's Emily Lin and Nancy Li 6-3, 4-2 and were at 6-4, 4-5 against Anthony Wayne's Harper Clifton and KaiYing Buskirk. "We needed 10 more minutes," Pawlak said of the UA match. The gritty Schlak was down 6-2, 3-2 in her first singles match against the Golden Bears' Alexa Roth and Hantz fell 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 to Alice Hawley. Those two UA players finished fourth in doubles Friday at the OHSAA D-I state tournament. Tople lost 6-0, 6-2 to UA's Kylie Husted and Haynes and Pennington fell 6-0, 6-2 to Ava Kramer and Dani Ball, a seasoned team that also reached the OHSAA state doubles tournament. Kramer and Ball lost in the first round of the OHSAA event, as did Haynes and Schlak as a doubles team. Against Anthony Wayne, Schlak was down 6-3, 5-1 to Mara Boyd and Tople fell 6-1, 6-1 to Cora Langenderfer. Those two Generals finished third in doubles at the OHSAA state tournament, while No. 2 player Jillian To, who beat Hantz 6-1, 6-1, lost in the first round of OHSAA state singles play. Anthony Wayne's Mallory Rettig and Emily Szul beat Haynes and Pennington 6-3, 6-3, but that didn't dampen the experience for Tople. "It was amazing, especially doing it as a team," she said of reaching the state semis. "It was really fun and all the girls had a really good attitude throughout the whole season. That made it even better." Pawlak echoed those thoughts after the final two matches of her career. "It's just amazing we made history for Highland," she said. "That's all we can ask." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.