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Celina's Renee Wilson returns a shot against St. Marys' Mackenzie Behr in the second singles match on Monday. Wilson won in three sets to help the Bulldogs get the Western Buckeye League win over the Roughriders.
CELINA - The score may have read 4-1, but it wasn't a cakewalk for Celina in its Western Buckeye League girls tennis matchup against cross-lake rival St. Marys on Monday afternoon at the Booster Club Tennis Complex.
"To St. Marys' credit, they played hard today," said veteran Celina coach Jan Morrison, whose squad improves to 2-1 in league matches. "That's the third time we've seen them this year, we saw them at Schroeder (Schroeder Invitational in Tipp City) and we saw them at Van Wert (Invitational) on Saturday. They played way harder today than they did Saturday, so I give them credit for fighting. … We're glad to glad to get out of here with a win tonight."
St. Marys' Maylee Fischbach hits a return to Celina's Lily Lunz in a first singles matchup.
Three matches went the full three sets, with the final match in competition on the day seeing Roughrider Maylee Fischbach overcome a 2-5 deficit in the third set to rally to beat Lily Lunz in first singles to give St. Marys its only victory on the day.
Lunz won the opening set 6-0, but Fischbach came back and battled to take the second set 6-4. Lunz heated up again in the final set, going up 5-2 with the chance to serve out the match, but Fischbach began battling back. With the other varsity matches and most junior varsity matches completed, the crowd had their full attention on Court No. 1. A number of games went to 40-all. Finally. Fischbach tied the set at 5-all, then won the next games sets to win the 2 1/2-hour marathon.
"I'm just so proud of her," said St. Marys coach Mariah Krugh. "It was a battle, she wanted it and she got it."
"We were up 5-2, and couldn't finish," said Morrison. But it's a game of momentum."
In the other three-set contests, it was Celina that hung on to pick up wins. Renee Wilson, like teammate Lunz, won her first set of second singles 6-0, only for St. Marys' Mackenzie Behr to come back and win a 7-4 tiebreaker to take the second set 7-6. Wilson regained her footing, taking the final set 6-3.
Second doubles also went three as Celina's Emma Adams and Katherine Goldsberry won the opening set over sisters Aleah and Hannah Brandt 6-2. The sisters came back to take the second set 6-4 before the Bulldog tandem wrapped up with a 6-2 win.
"I'm proud of how they were able to finish the third set," said Morrison. "I thought we had a little letdown in the second set."
Celina's Ariella Kallenberger returns a shot during the first doubles match against St. Marys.
Even the two two-set matches were competitive beyond the final score. Celina's Maddie Reinhart won 6-1, 6-2 over Sophia Zheng. The same scores, albeit reversed, went for the first doubles match as Celina's Ariella Kallenberger and Cheyenne Deere won 6-2, 6-1 over St. Marys' Sophie Long and Olivia Tester.
Despite the loss, Krugh was proud of her squad.
"Sometimes you get stuck on the score, but you don't see all the points that go to deuce in the three sets," said Krugh, whose squad goes to 1-2 in WBL play.
Both teams travel today for non-league matchups. Celina heads to Lehman and St. Marys goes north to Bluffton.
