PERRYSBURG — Bowling Green first singles player Elizabeth “Libby” Barnett, a senior, is hoping there is a new banner hanging in the high school gymnasium soon.
The Bobcats won the school’s first ever league championship in girls tennis at Perrysburg Tennis Center on Wednesday.
“It’s so very nice,” Barnett said. “I was looking in our gym the other day and there are banners with all the wins from our teams and our school and the girls tennis banner had pretty much nothing on it.
“So, I’m excited for something to get added there and bring a win to BG for girls tennis.”
BG went 7-3 in NLL dual meets against teams from both the Buckeye and Cardinal divisions, then won all five Cardinal Division championship matches to finish with 14 points.
While this is the first league title for the girls, the BG boys tennis program last won a league title in 1997, so it’s been 26 years since any league tennis championship has been won at BG.
“This is great for the program,” second-year coach Andy Drumm said. “The girls played really hard this year and did a lot of good things. It’s nice to have something to pay off for all that we’ve done — all the work that we’ve put in.”
Drumm said it started in the offseason, carried over into the summer, and will continue into the upcoming sectional tournament.
“The girls played really hard,” Drumm said. “They’d come during the summer, they made lots of improvement, taking lessons at Perrysburg (Tennis Center), and just all those things that paid off in the end.”
Besides Libby Barnett taking a first singles championship and her sister Julia Barnett, a sophomore, winning second doubles, sophomore Sarah Mathey won at third singles, sophomore Zoe Brujic and junior Teeda Cromwell won a first doubles title, and senior Olivia Hamilton and junior Baylie White won at second doubles, making it a clean sweep.
Clay (5-5, 10 points) finished second, followed by Fremont Ross (4-6, 8), Sylvania Southview (3-7, 6), Springfield (1-9, 2), and Napoleon (0-10, 0).
At third singles, Mathey, the No. 3 seed, defeated Napoleon’s Brooklyn Leachy, 6-2, 6-2, in the quarterfinals and Clay’s Kaitlyn Mentzer, the No. 2 seed, 6-2, 6-4, in the semifinals. In the final, Mathey took down Fremont Ross’ Elayna Gray, 6-1, 6-2.
Brujic and Cromwell were the top seed in first doubles, defeating Springfield’s Audrianna Hinz and Kyla Dawson, 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals and then Ross duo Becca Jensen and Shelby Steinberger, 6-2, 6-1 to win the championship.
Hamilton and White, also the top seed, defeated Springfield’s Neha Soni and Grace Elrod, 6-3, 7-5, in the semifinals and Clay’s Gianna Donofrio and Elaina Garcia in a tightly contested championship, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
For Drumm, who has been the boys coach for years, taking over the girls coach has paid dividends for the team in a hurry.
“It’s great. I was the head coach last year for the girls and had a good experience, and I just stayed on this year,” Drumm said. “The girls are great, good personalities and great kids and great students.”
