FINDLAY — The Northern Lakes League girls tennis champions from Wood County, Perrysburg and Bowling Green, pretty much ruled at the Division I sectional tennis tournament last Thursday and Saturday at Findlay High School and the University of Findlay.
All seven players from the Perrysburg team, the NLL Buckeye Division champions, will advance to the district tournament, including all three singles players and both doubles teams. From BG, the NLL Cardinal Division champions, two singles players and one doubles team advance.
The district tournament is this Thursday and Saturday at Port Clinton High School. District qualifiers are competing for a berth in the state tournament on October 19-20 at The College of Wooster.
Perrysburg sophomore Penelope Giammarco won a Division I sectional tennis championship in singles on Saturday, Perrysburg senior Allison Barry was runner-up and Perrysburg junior Eeman Hashem was third as the Yellow Jackets took the first three spots.
The only problem with that was they had to play each other to determine top three seeds heading into the district tournament.
After receiving a first round bye, Giammarco defeated Wapakoneta senior Ava Donaldson, 6-0, 6-0, and then she faced two Perrysburg teammates in a row, defeating Hashem 6-1, 6-0, and then Barry, 6-1, 6-3 in the winner’s bracket final.
Barry opened with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Findlay senior Jillian Doll, then defeated Wapakoneta sophomore Anja Walters, 6-2, 6-0, and Wapakoneta senior Kierra Siefring, 6-0, 6-0 to reach the final, where she lost to her teammate, Giammarco.
Hashem opened with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Lima Senior sophomore MaKayla Rader, and she then downed Findlay sophomore Kendall Beall, 6-1, 6-1, to earn a spot in the semifinals against Giammarco. After falling to her teammate, Hashem defeated Siefring 6-2, 6-2, to place third.
Perrysburg also had the top two teams in the doubles sectional tournament.
Perrysburg senior Brianna Dunham and sophomore Madison Watkins received a first round bye, then defeated Toledo Waite junior Alejah Wadley and freshman Cliciney Onyango-Doria, 6-0, 6-0, in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Dunham and Watkins downed Wapakoneta seniors Brooke Minnig and Elizabeth Good, 6-3, 6-1, then took down their Perrysburg teammates, senior Amelia Taylor and sophomore Sophia Lanno, 7-5, 6-3 in the championship.
Taylor and Lanno advanced to the final with a first round bye, then defeated Wapakoneta sophomores Kate Eley and Brooklyn Mowery, 6-0, 6-2, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Taylor and Lanno defeated Findlay seniors Katelyn Stechschulte and Jocelyn Barbarree, 6-0, 6-1, to reach the final.
Barnett sisters advance
In the other sectional bracket, Bowling Green senior Libby Barnett finished as sectional runner-up in singles and is one of four Bobcats advancing to the Division I district tournament in Port Clinton.
Libby Barnett opened with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Anthony Wayne junior Kaiying Buskirk, then she defeated Sylvania Southview sophomore Joanna Kim, 6-0, 6-0.
To reach the sectional championship, Barnett defeated AW junior Harper Clifton, 6-2, 6-2, but she lost in the sectional championship to Sylvania Northview junior Maddie Peisley, 6-0, 6-0.
Libby’s sister, sophomore Julia Barnett, defeated Northview junior Vaneesa Panchal, 6-0, 6-0, in the opening round and AW freshman Savannah Saneholtz, 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinal round, Julia lost to Peisley, 6-1, 6-0, but in the consolation championship she defeated Clifton, 6-2, 6-0.
In doubles, the BG team of Teeda Cromwell and Zoe Brujic finished fourth, but will advance to the district tournament. After receiving a bye in the first round, Cromwell and Brujic defeated Southview seniors Jillian Arledge and Shaila Joshi, 6-3, 6-4.
In the winners’ bracket semifinal, Cromwell and Brujic fell to AW sophomore Mara Boyd and freshman Cora Langenderfer, 6-0, 6-0, and in the consolation match the BG duo lost to Northview seniors Srestha Chattapodahyay and Lauren Stuckey, 6-2, 6-1.
