The high school girls tennis district tournaments are set for Tuesday and Friday, and the brackets are filled with both expected names and potential surprises.
Two-time defending Division II state singles champion Amiya Bowles, a junior at Bexley, breezed through the Columbus School for Girls sectional last week with four 6-0, 6-0 wins and improved to 48-0 in her career.
One team, Upper Arlington, had the distinction of advancing all seven players in its lineup through its home Division I sectional.
UA hosts the first two rounds of the Division I tournament Tuesday. The top four finishers in singles and doubles advance to state Oct. 17 and 18 at the College of Wooster.
Columbus Academy hosts Division II, from which the singles and doubles champions and runners-up move on to state. The semifinals and finals of both divisions will be at Academy on Friday.
Here are five storylines entering the district tournament:
1. Dublin Scioto’s Kunard pulls upset to earn district berth
Scioto senior Amelia Kunard is no stranger to district, having advanced as a freshman and sophomore, but she returns this year having been unseeded for the postseason.
Kunard (19-3) edged No. 4 seed Avery Reed of Olentangy Orange 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a qualifying match at UA and finished fourth. Kunard is one of five unseeded singles players to make district.
That Kunard advanced through a grueling sectional that included top teams Dublin Coffman, New Albany and UA sweetened the achievement, coach C.J. Juda said.
“We had five top players at the same site and only four could advance, so it was going to be a gritty match no matter who it came down to,” Juda said. “(Kunard) wasn’t playing her best game early (against Reed); she was overthinking, but we regrouped. It was very much a mental battle for her. She has the skills. She knew (Reed) probably would be the one standing in her way to potentially get to state.”
2. Unseeded players try to make mark at district
Each of the four Division I sectionals had at least one unseeded singles player or doubles team advance to district.
One of those pairings, Watterson junior Francie Ciesinski and freshman Dory Scharfenbarger, swept top-seeded Kate Poeppelman and Gracie Wilson of Pickerington North 6-3, 6-4 to win the Pickerington Central 2 doubles title Saturday.
Another unseeded doubles team, Hilliard Davidson juniors Greta Bordjadze and Aila Mahefkey, finished second in Central’s other sectional. Central and UA both hosted two sectionals simultaneously.
Top seeds largely held elsewhere, although No. 2 seed Tyra Butler of Worthington Kilbourne knocked off No. 1 Nora Grennan of Watkins Memorial 6-0, 6-2 in a Central singles final. Another second seed, UA freshman Kylie Husted, defeated unseeded teammate Emily Lin 6-4, 6-0 in one of their school’s singles finals.
3. Upper Arlington leads team representation at district
In addition to Husted, the younger daughter of Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, UA senior Alice Hawley and sophomore Alexa Roth won a doubles championship, edging teammates Dani Ball and Ava Kramer 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in the final.
Unseeded UA teammates Lin and Nancy Li, the latter of whom finished fourth, also advanced.
Five New Albany players moved on, led by UA sectional doubles champions Sophia Bojko and Reava Desai.
4. Columbus Academy paces Division II field
The host Vikings advanced the maximum six players from their home sectional, given that the top three finishers in both singles and doubles qualified for district in Division II.
Singles players Gabrielle Stewart and Ella Tsao, a sophomore and freshman respectively, advanced in singles. Stewart took the sectional title when Tsao had to default from the final, and senior Tamanna Arya and junior Sophie Wu outlasted teammates Lara Wood (senior) and Mary Panley (junior) 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 in the final.
Bexley, CSG and Worthington Christian grabbed the berths from CSG’s sectional. The host Unicorns’ Victoria Dizon and Priya Mehta, both juniors, won the doubles title.
5. Columbus Academy advances to OTCA state tournament
Academy swept Central Buckeye League rival CSG 3-0 on Friday to win the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Division II district championship and advance to state Oct. 19 in Wooster.
Academy (19-1) will play Gates Mills Hawken or Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown in a semifinal.
The Division I district championship will be determined Wednesday when New Albany (14-4) visits Upper Arlington (12-0). UA is seeking its fifth district title in six years, and New Albany its second in three seasons.
The winner will play Rocky River Magnificat in a semifinal.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio high school district girls tennis tournament preview
