Zoe Brujic (left) and Teeda Cromwell tap rackets after winning a point in first doubles on Wednesday at the NLL Championship. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
PERRYSBURG — The Bowling Green High School girls tennis team won their second consecutive NLL Championship in the Cardinal Division on Wednesday at the Perrysburg Tennis Center in both dominant and resilient fashion.
“I saw a lot of resilience,” BG’s third-year coach Andy Drumm said. “They played really hard and quite a few of them had comebacks. They were down, faced a little adversity and were able to come back from either losing in the second set or losing the first set, or being way down in the first set.
“(There was) a lot of resilience and determination, a lot of fight trying to figure out what the opponent was doing and playing through all the adversity.”
The Bobcats needed every win as they edged out Clay 36-35 for the league championship, which also includes regular season play. Fremont Ross (26), Springfield (17), Southview (16) and Napoleon (9) rounded out the order of finish.
Singles Domination
In singles action, the junior trio of Julia Barnett, Sarah Mathey and Caroline Balker captured straight-set wins in first singles (6-0, 6-2), second singles (6-4, 6-2) and third singles (6-4, 6-4), respectively.
Barnett, who didn’t drop a set in her opening round match on Tuesday, cruised through her competition by winning the first 23 sets in those two outings against Brooke Stechschulte of Southview and Kayla Lewis of Fremont Ross.
“It means a lot to me,” Barnett said. “I’ve been playing tennis forever, and I’m just so impressed with myself being able to kind of get past any mental blocks I have or any negativity and just play my game and have fun with it.”
This is Barnett’s first year at the top singles spot after taking over for her sister, Libby. Both were First Team All-NLL selections a year ago.
“I’m really proud of myself, especially being the first time at first singles for me” she said. “I had some tough competitors, and I was able to get over the mental side of being nervous about playing and just go out and play tennis.”
Drumm has been impressed with Barnett’s ability to battle through pain this year.
“She’s just a really solid player. She plays hard every time, fighting through pain, elbow injuries and things like that where you feel pain because there’s a lot of tough matches,” he said. “You have to keep doing it, and she did a good job of that.”
While Barnett was the fourth and final of the championship tilts to finish for Bowling Green, Mathey was the first to dispatch her opponent, cruising past Clay’s Grace Fortier.
Mathey found herself in a 4-1 hole in her opening match on Tuesday against Elayna Gray of Fremont Ross before responding with a 7-6, 6-4 straight-set victory, which set her up for today’s success.
“Tennis is a big mental battle,” Mathey said. “Obviously there’s the physical aspect, but a lot of the time it’s just about overcoming the mental battle in your mind.
“It was definitely a challenge to get into the mindset of wanting to get where I was anticipating, but I played two really great players. It was never easy. I just have such a good atmosphere with support, so I was just glad I could support all my teammates and coaches.”
At third singles, Bowling Green featured Baker, a former volleyball student-athlete who just started playing tennis around a year ago. She claimed her consolation title with a win over Southview’s Jamie Chung.
“(Caroline) has improved a lot throughout the season,” Drumm said. “She’s really good about getting the ball back anywhere on the court. She has quick feet, just gets her racket on it and gets it back on the court and plays until the opponent makes a mistake a lot of times.”
Doubles perseverance
Both doubles teams for the Bobcats had to persevere through some adversity.
The upperclassmen duo of Zoe Brujic and Teeda Cromwell at first doubles lost their opening set 6-4, but rebounded to win the next two sets 6-0, 6-4 over Clay.
“During that first set, we definitely had to get in that mindset that we could win this … we’ve played this team before, and we can do this,” Cromwell said. “We hyped each other up to keep that positive mindset.”
Cromwell, who is the team’s lone senior in the lineup, credited her coaching staff for helping the team stay the course.
“I’m just really proud of my team this year,” she said. “I know we were all really nervous. I’m glad we could push through that, and I’m going to miss my team. I’m glad we won.”
At second doubles, Drumm described his team’s performance as incredible after the underclassmen tandem of Miriam Faulkner and Lily Rader pulled off another three-set win (6-0, 5-7, 7-5) over Clay.
“They won that first set pretty easily and then struggled in the second a little bit,” Drumm said. “The other team had a couple nice breaks, but we fought back in the third set.
“We were down a couple breaks and fought back, just a lot of resilience from a sophomore and a freshman working hard trying to keep the ball in play longer than the opponents.”
In the right direction
Drumm, the reigning NLL Cardinal Division Coach of the Year, has guided his team to back-to-back league titles, and he will graduate just one senior, Cromwell, heading into next season, which gives him excitement about what the program has accomplished and where they’re headed.
“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Drumm said. “The division format has helped. We had the additional teams added to the NLL, which created two divisions, so that restructuring helped a little bit.
“The team is going in the right direction, though. The girls are working hard in the offseason, winter and summer trying to get better. We try to emphasize getting at least one percent better every day.”
Bowling Green (12-6, 6-4 NLL) has one more regular season match left against St. Ursula on Monday, which is a weather makeup. They’ll compete in sectionals next Thursday and Saturday at Ohio Northern University and Findlay, respectively.
