Staff report
TIPP CITY — The Lehman girls tennis team finished third out of eight teams at the Schroeder Tennis Center Invitational on Saturday.
“Our assistant coach John Brunner and I are very proud of our team,” Lehman coach Tim Ungericht said. “It’s the highest finish of any team boys or girls in this tourney that I have coached. The girls were especially happy about the fact that they finished higher than our boys did this past spring. The boys finished fourth. The kids performed well under pressure today. We finished last the last four years as a team before this year. It is the first time we have been in the top three in a long time.”
Claire Larger finished runner-up at first singles. She beat Carroll 8-1 in round one, beat Wayne 8-5 in the semifinals and lost to St. Marys 8-0 in the finals.
Sarah Gibson was runner-up at second singles. She beat Kenton Ridge 8-4 in round one, beat Celina 8-5 in the semifinals and lost to Kettering Fairmont 8-6 in the finals.
“Claire (Larger) and Sarah (Gibson) were clutch today,” Ungericht said. “Their runner-up finishes gave us 14 points from first and second singles.”
Melanie Brunner finished in fourth place at third singles. She beat Northwestern 8-6 in round one, lost to St. Marys in the semifinals 8-2 and lost to Kenton Ridge 8-2 in the third-place match.
Kiera Burns and Ann Pennaparra finished in fourth place at 2nd doubles. They beat Carroll 9-8 in the round one, lost to Celina 8-2 in the semifinals and lost to Kettering Fairmont 8-3 in the third-place match.
“Melanie (Brunner) won her last three games from 6-5 down to win her first match at third singles and Ann (Pennaparra) and Kiera (Burns) won the last four points of the tiebreaker from 5-3 down to win their first match,” Ungericht said. “Those were big wins for our team because it guaranteed that we would finish no lower than fourth in those divisions and guaranteed us at least 10 team points from those spots as well.”
At first doubles, Alex Read and Angela Brunner finished in seventh place. They lost to St Mary’s 8-3 in round one, lost to Celina 8-2 in their second match and beat Carroll 8-4 in the seventh-place match.
“First doubles finished off with a good win after losses to tough teams,” Ungericht said.
Fairmont finished in first place, while St. Marys was second. Celina and Wayne tied for fourth, Kenton Ridge finished in sixth, Springfield Northwestern finished in seventh and Carroll finished in eighth.
Lehman will be back in action Monday at Kenton Ridge.
