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Three D-II singles players headed to state tournament.
By doug chapin
The Mahoning Valley showed up and showed off Friday in the Division II boys tennis district tournament at Harvard Park.
The area’s representative — four singles players and four doubles teams — combined for a record of 8-5 and qualified three singles players to next week’s state tournament in Columbus.
Garrett Gardner of Poland, Jad Abdul-Aal of Warren JFK and Aaron Paczak of Lakeview all will play today in the district semifinals — and possibly final — to determine their seeding in the state event.
Gardner, who won the Boardman sectional tournament last week, defeated Roger Peckham of Lake Ridge Academy 6-0, 6-1, then bested Hawken’s Sid Ahuja in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
“Garrett played great tennis today,” Poland coach Anne Marian said. “He struggled a little bit in the first set of the second match, but he not only is a great athlete, but is also mentally tough. He hung in there and did what he needed to do. He took control of the match.”
Gardner had defeated Ahuja in another three-set match earlier this season in the state team tournament. He will meet Paczak today in a semifinal match.
Paczak, who finished third in the sectional, beat Caleb Mayer of Lake Ridge Academy 6-3, 6-0, then outlasted Karan Gill of Beachwood 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
“The seeding is really important. If Garrett comes out as number one he would play a number four player from another district,” Marian said. “The kids know the importance of Saturday’s matches. They are going to play because they want to get a good seed.”
Abdul-Aal, the runner-up in the sectional, defeated Jacob Groce of Geneva 6-4, 6-0, then whipped Chaz Hansen of Vermilion 6-0, 6-1. Abdul-Aal’s semifinal opponent will be Weston Noall of Gilmour who defeated the Valley’s other singles qualifier, Les Horvath of Ursuline, by a 6-1, 6-1 score in the first round.
“Jad trained this week with Mike Fredericka who was a four-time state qualifier for Kennedy (2008-11) and is now playing at Notre Dame,” JFK coach Joe Marino said. “Jad has been playing so confidently of late.”
In doubles, teams from Poland and JFK won opening-round matches before falling in the quarterfinals.
Tyler Cole and John Nader of JFK, who won the sectional last week, topped Mike Ittu and Ryan McDermott of Rocky River 6-0, 6-1, in the first round, then lost 6-1, 6-1 to the Hawken duo of Adam Lee and Zid Yadav.
Poland’s Ryan Calcagni and Anthny Ricciardi, sectional runners-up, won 6-1, 6-0 over Dan Hippler and Zach Messina of Bay, then lost 6-0, 6-1, to Robert Stroup and Caly Hribar of University School.
“Ryan and Anthony played a great match in the first round against Bay and gave the University School team a good match, too,” Marian said.
Cardinal Mooney’s Rich Hill and Andrew Stille lost in the first round to Hoban’s Chase Krummel and Andy Udevich 6-3, 6-1, and Lakeview’s Eric Rohrabaugh and Zach Teffner lost 6-0, 6-2 to Kyle May and Brandon Caynor of Norton.