Seeded tennis players advance to semis

Staff report

The area’s seeded tennis players advanced as expected while a trio of unseeded players came one victory short of qualifying for the next level during sectional play on Thursday.

In Division I at Canton, second-seeded Donnie Barrett of Boardman and the second-seeded doubles team of Will Brown and Nick Debiec of Canfield won quarterfinal matches to advance to Saturday’s semifinals (9 a.m.). The wins also qualify Barrett and Brown-Debiec for next week’s District tournament at Oberlin.

Barrett beat Noah Ott of Massillon Perry, 6-1, 6-0, and Brown-Debiec stopped Hoover’s Robert Yeary and Gregg Brandle, 6-2, 6-4.

Meanwhile, Canfield’s Ryan Kaleel, who had knocked off fourth-seeded James Oakes of Hoover in the previous round, lost in the quarterfinals to Winston Davis of Perry, 6-4, 6-2, in a battle of unseeded players.

Boardman’s Kris Santilli saw his tournament run come to an end at the hands of third-seeded Jake Pukys of Louisville, 6-2, 6-1.

In Division II at Boardman, only one quarterfinal match was left to be played on Thursday. Third-seeded Les Horvath of Ursuline topped West Branch’s Tom Korda, 6-1, 6-0.

Horvath joins fellow singles seeds Garrett Gardner (1) of Poland, Aaron Paczak (2) of Lakeview and Anthony Ricciardi (4) of Poland in Saturday’s (9 a.m.) semifinals and in next week’s District tournament at Canton.

The four seeded doubles teams advanced earlier in the week: 1, Tyler Cole-John Nader of Warren JFK; 2, Rich Hill-Andrew Stille of Cardinal Mooney; 3, Erie Rohrabaugh-Zach Teffner of Lakeview; and 4, Billy Phillips-Caelan Phillips of Warren JFK.