LIMA — A fan arriving at the annual Lima Senior Girls Tennis Invitational at the Collett Street courts in its final hour might think there were only two teams competing. That wasn’t exactly the case.
But when the finals came, every court seemed to be occupied by one or more girl from either Celina or Ottawa-Glandorf.
The two schools combined to win all five of the finals rounds Saturday, with Celina taking home the team title and three first-place finishes while Ottawa-Glandorf was second and won the other two first-place finishes.
“I have a hard-working group of girls,” Ottawa-Glandorf head coach Mary Ellen Lehman said. “All of them came out here today gave eveything they had. I’m really happy with what I saw today.”
Senior Ashley Heckman won the first singles final match for Ottawa-Glandorf 8-4 over Wapakoneta’s Kaitlyn Snyder. She began her day by defeating LCC’s Paige Collins 8-4 and then Van Wert’s Katie Etter 8-3.
“Ashley’s really good,” said Snyder, a sophomore. “She did really well at her returns. It was close, but she’s a very good player.”
“She had some really good angle shots,” Heckman said. “Kaitlyn’s a really good player and she taught me a lot today. I was just doing my best to stay positive and keep hitting short balls at her and it seemed to work out. Coming out here as a senior, it’s good to have the experience that I need now to be successful in this kind of tournament.”
Celina’s Miranda Werling won second singles, defeating Kim Kahle of Ottawa-Glandorf 8-6 to hold off a singles sweep by the Titans.
Drea Parent won for Ottawa-Glandorf in the third singles finals match, defeating Rachel Chen of Van Wert 8-2.
Celina was, however, able to pull off a doubles sweep, thanks to the pairs of Katie Kerr and Lea Rose, and Brooke Sutter and Kalie Gardner.
“We started out O.K.,” Rose said. “With it being the morning, we were a little slow in the beginning. But we worked at it together and got better as the day went on.”
“I think a lot of teams are down this year, including us,” Kerr said. “But it seemed like everyone out here today came ready to play.”
Sutter and Gardner defeated the LCC tandem of Liz Kidd and Allison Hullinger 8-4, in the second doubles final.
The final team scores were not available Saturday.
