Rain wreaks havoc with sectional tennis

Staff report

CANTON

At 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Boardman High boys tennis coach Jeff Hammerton and his team left the high school for the hour drive to Canton for the Division I sectional tournament.

At 7:30 p.m., one of his doubles teams had yet to play even one match.

“It is crazy here,” he said, who didn’t leave Canton until 10:30 p.m.

Tuesday’s lousy weather forced the sectional indoors, which shrank the number of available courts — from 14 outdoors to eight (in the morning) and four (in the evening) indoors at Hall of Fame Fitness.

After one round of singles action, Canfield’s Ryan Sankovic, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, and Mark Dalvin were still alive, as was Boardman’s Matt Owens.

Boardman’s doubles team of Kyle Blase and Andrew Macala was still alive after two rounds and will play top-seeded Louie Thomas and Nathan Gardner of Massillon Jackson. Howland’s doubles team of Matt Madgar and Faisal Mangalji also made the round of 16 and will play Massillon Perry’s Kyle Krist and Nate Ott.

No other area singles players or doubles teams advanced.

Competition continues at 9 a.m. Thursday with semifinals and finals on Saturday. Four singles players and doubles team advance to next week’s district tournament at Oberlin College.

Six singles players and doubles teams advance to state competition.