OHS tennis team having outstanding season

The Oberlin Phoenix tennis team, by beating Rocky River "B" 5-0 last Tuesday, ended the season with an outstanding 10-4 record (9-0 vs. Lorain County opponents).

Everyone easily won their matches against Rocky River; Oberlin won 60 games, vs. only 11 for Rocky River. Singles victories were by Melvin Medina, Lara Mieg and Dima Bosch.

The doubles teams were Zach Walsh/David Miller and Erickson Andrews/Griffin Sabelli.

In the Sectionals last Thursday Bosch advanced to the second round in singles, but that took him into a tough second round match against the #2 seed.

"Our first doubles entry of Zach Walsh and David Miller had easy first and second round victories over Vermilion and Fairview before losing in the quarterfinals to second seeded Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy (last year's state champs)," second year coach Ed Miller said.

Under Miller, the team has grown from 9 to 12 to 20 hardworking student athletes.

Junior Zach Walsh and Erickson Andrews, at numbers 1 and 4 on the ladder, had to miss most of the county matches because of their dedication to the Phoenix baseball team, but acquired win-loss records of 6-5 and 7-2 respectively against all opponents (including the tournaments).

Sophomore Melvin Medina was 8-3 vs. Lorain County opponents, and 11-4 overall. Junior Lara Mieg, an exchange student from Germany, was number 3 on the ladder. She had to miss a couple matches due to a badly sprained ankle, but finished with a 7-3 record.

David Miller played 2nd singles, 3rd singles and 1st doubles and had a 13-5 record overall. Freshman Dima Bosch usually played 3rd singles and had an overall record of 11-6.

Miller said senior captain Griffin Sabelli provided a lot of the heart and spirit for the Phoenix, helping Miller to keep practices fun.

At 1st or 2nd doubles, his record has been 7-4. Junior Marius Chamberlain, also at 1st or 2nd doubles, had a varsity record of 4-4. Tommy Cowling, another senior, has a record of 4-2. The final two playing varsity matches were freshman Daniel Cowling (3-2) and senior Erin Fuhr (2-3).

Members of the junior varsity included Dylan Nelson, Sarah Burbridge, Daniel Pratt, Leah Woods, Janet Gonzalez, Terrie Fields, and Blythe Coleman-Mumford.

Miller said he and his assistant coaches (Clayton Brehm, Erik Andrews and Lynn Swanson) have "enjoyed teaching these wonderful young adults and have high hopes for next year's team, given that the Phoenix is only losing their #3 and #7 players on the ladder, and has a strong junior varsity squad."

Next year the Phoenix hope to, for the first time, take on the Division 1 tennis powerhouses -- Avon and Avon Lake.

The final event of the season will be the fifth annual Big Ball Doubles Tournament at 12:30 on Sunday, June 6, followed by the end-of-year party. Any interested adults who want to pair up with a member of the Phoenix team can contact Miller.