By Nicholas Huenefeld

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

PERRYSBURG — Perrysburg’s Jack Alcroft and Aaditya Ambulkar captured the second doubles championship at the Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division championship on Tuesday in thrilling, come-from-behind fashion at the Perrysburg Tennis Center.

With the victory, the duo helped Perrysburg finish second in both the championship and the Buckeye Division final standings. Anthony Wayne captured the overall and tournament titles.

“Personally, I think me and Jack just work really great as a team,” Ambulkar said. “When we were down, Jack brought me up, I brought him up. We complement each other.”

Alcroft and Ambulkar defeated Anthony Wayne’s Reed Hahn and Josh Kohntopp in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6 (4), but the score wasn’t indicative of what a battle it was as the duo fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set and a 5-3 deficit in the second before overcoming a 3-1 hole in the tiebreaker.

“It means a lot, knowing we can walk out with a little hardware, especially my senior year,” Alcroft said. “I was apprehensive going into this year. The start of the year I sprained by wrist. And when we played (Hahn and Kohntopp) last time, I thought there was no chance we could make a run against a team like Anthony Wayne.

Alcroft and Ambulkar credited their cohesiveness as a key factor in the win.

“We’ve built a really strong friendship together,” Alcroft said. “I think that’s been able to make us feel like we can mess up, we can be down, but also how tight we can push ourselves to be back up there and compete.”

Ambulkar credits Alcroft, a senior, for leading the pair.

“It means everything,” Ambulkar said. “This is my first NLL playing. With Jack, he’s a great partner, a great friend, even a mentor on the court.”

Elsewhere for the Yellow Jackets, Perrysburg’s Aiden Bielefeld fell 6-1, 6-1 to Anthony Wayne’s Will Black in the third singles championship.

At first singles, Jevin Mullins lost 6-3, 6-0 to Findlay’s Sam Swisher in the consolation final, while Caleb Stein knocked off Findlay’s Jonathan Wright, 6-2, 6-0, in the consolation final.

Solomon Lambdin and Jack Kreienkamp knocked off Northview’s Bryce Behan and Nathan Taylor, 6-2, 6-0, in the consolation final at first doubles.

“The common denominator for the team has been anytime that they’ve been down, they’ve fought their way back,” Perrysburg head coach Patrick Giammarco said. “It’s such a huge thing because this is such a mental sport. So today was a good representation of how strong the team is becoming mentally.”

Giammarco is pleased with how this season has been for this team so far, describing it as “above average.”

“Each match, we just get better and better,” he said. “This is a perfect match to lead us into sectionals next week.”