Top seeds all win in D2 tennis

Staff report

All four seeded singles players successfully navigated their way through two rounds of the Division II district boys tennis tournament on Wednesday.

Three rounds, in fact, were contested, but the top seeds — Mitch Maroscher of Salem, Garrett Gardner of Poland, Jad Abdul-Aal of Warren JFK and Brad Losey of Field — all had first-round byes.

Maroscher, a returning state qualifier, defeated Kyle Nethken of Gield and Kyle Widlicka of United without losing a game.

Gardner and Abdul-Aal did the same. Gardner defeated Jordan Unger of Struthers and Billy Erskine of Salem.

Abdul-Aal actually won three matches, defeating Mitch Lohr of Ravenna, Anthony Steffey of Niles and Pierre Gueguen of United, all by 6-0, 6-0 scores.

Also in the quarterfinals are Anthony Ricciardi of Poland, Alex Mellott of Lakeview and Seth Stewart of Ravenna.

Those quarterfinal matches will be played today, with the semifinals and finals scheduled for Saturday.

Doubles play advanced to the semifinals, where the top four seeds all qualified through to next week’s district in Canton.

They will play on Saturday for placing, and appropriate seeding to next week’s district.

Zach McDivitt and Aaron Paczak of Lakeview, the top seeds, won two matches by 6-0, 6-0 scores, and will play No. 4 seeds Jay Linam and Andrew Pietrzak of Salem in the semifinals. Linam-Pietrzak won three natches, including a 6-0, 7-5 win in the quarterfinals over Eric and Jason Shoaff of Cardinal Mooney.

No. 2 seeds Tyler Cole and John Nader of Warren JFK won two matches — 6-4, 6-1 over Marty Roth and Mark Fredrickson of Salem, and 6-1, 6-3 over Kyle Ames and Austin Haines of Lakeview.

They will play No. 3 seeds Ryan Calcagni and David Shoffstall of Poland, who won three matches and dropped only two games in the process.