By Cort Reynolds
ADA - The Ada boys tennis team edged visiting Celina 3-2 Tuesday on a warm evening at the park courts.
The Bulldog netters improved to 9-1 with the hard-fought win in their home regular season finale. Ada went 5-1 at home, including 5-0 at the park and 0-1 at ONU.
Seniors Zach Beaschler, Acel Gamble and Adam Bailey were recognized before their final home match.
"The kids fought hard," said head coach Christy Beaschler. "Celina is a very well-coached team, and for the most part is very comparable to us."
Unbeaten ace Beaschler improved to 13-0 this spring at first singles by dropping just one game over two sets. Combining consistent ground strokes with selective power, he blew away Celina's Bryce Langenkamp.
Sophomore Isaac Spar prevailed at third singles in straight sets after winning an inital set tiebreaker.
"Isaac was able to keep it close the first set and pull out the tiebreaker, which gave him great momentum going into the second set," noted coach Beaschler.
The first doubles tandem of freshman Miranda Wills and sophomore Nathan Hurtig rallied to win a very tight three-set battle. After dropping the first set they stayed alive by winning a tense second-set tiebreaker, then closed it out 6-3 in the third.
Wills angled her groundstrokes well to take advantage of the doubles alley, and Hurtig played solidly at the net to lead the comeback.
"Miranda and Nathan had a very tough and close match at first doubles," said the coach. "It was exciting to see them pull it out."
Match results:
1st singles: Zach Beaschler (A) defeats Bryce Langenkamp 6-1, 6-0
2nd singles: Kyle Lochtfeld defeats Cade Mullins (A) 6-2, 6-1
3rd singles: Isaac Spar (A) defeats Collin Harris 7-6 (tiebreaker 7-1), 6-1
1st doubles: Miranda Wills/Nathan Hurtig (A) defeats Garrett Forlow/Sohaib Saleem 4-6, 7-6 (tiebreaker 7-3), 6-3
2nd doubles: Brandon Schmidlapp/Justin Warnement defeats Acel Gamble/Adam Bailey (A) 6-4, 6-2
Ada visits Upper Sandusky May 7 in their final dual match. But first they play in the Northern Buckeye Tennis League tournament Friday at Defiance College.
The Bulldogs won a four-way tiebreaker last spring to finish first in the NBTL tourney.
