By: James Weber , jweber@communitypress.com
PARK HILLS Not long after his Covington Catholic tennis team beat Cincinnati St. Xavier March 29, Al Hertsenberg got a call from Mason (Ohio) tennis coach Mike Reid.
The teams scheduled a match for the final week of the Kentucky regular season, which took place May 2 at CovCath. The visiting Comets, ranked third in Ohio in Division I, won 5-0. While it was only CovCath's second dual defeat of the year, it gets the Colonels ready for the biggest matches south of the river.
CovCath has played a lot of the top teams in Kentucky and Cincinnati, including a 3-2 win over Indian Hill, who is ranked first in Division II in Ohio. CovCath would be D-II in Ohio with its enrollment.
"The idea of playing the top schools in Ohio is to get us ready for the state tournament," Hertsenberg said. "When we start the regional tournament, our guys are going to be very focused and used to playing teams like Mason and Wyoming and St. X. I'm very happy with where we're at right now."
CovCath will be the favorite once again when the Ninth Region boys tournament starts this week, 8:30 Saturday at CovCath and Notre Dame. The two neighbors will split opening-round matches on their 11 combined courts. Hertsenberg said they will try to get the second round done Saturday as well..
All semifinalists qualify for the state tournament, which begins May 18 in Lexington. The separate team tourney format, which was in place for several years, has been removed. The regional and state team champions will be determined by the number of individual matches won by the entrants.
CovCath is led by defending singles champion Anthony Bosch, a senior who will play for NKU, and singles player Max Cook, last year's runner-up to Bosch and also a state veteran. Senior Jared Haught, one half of last year's regional doubles champs, leads a deep doubles core.
Against Mason, Bosch lost a third-set 10-point tiebreaker to sophomore Niraj Komatineni, who is listed as one of the top players in Ohio.
"I'm pretty confident in what we got for the region," Hertsenberg said. "There are good players in the region that we have to be ready for."
The Colonels are enjoying a second full season at their on-campus tennis center, the Yung Family complex, which Hertsenberg said has made Ohio schools more willing to cross the river.
"We have a facility that can host, and that helps," he said.' These Ohio coaches have very good programs. We have good relationships with them and we're going to try to schedule them. All we're doing is helping each other get ready for that postseason run."
The Ninth Region boys tourney will begin 8:30 a.m. Saturday at CovCath and Notre Dame. Hertsenberg's Colonels have the top two seeds in both singles and doubles.
Singles: 1. Bosch (CovCath), 2. Cook (CovCath), 3. Elleman (Conner), 4. Moss (Calvary). 5-8 seeds not released.
Doubles: 1. Haught/B. Trojani (CovCath), 2. Gardner/C. Trojani (CovCath), 3. O'Leary/Shields (Ryle), 4. Ahmad/Spicker (VMA), 5-8: Jordan/Taylor (Beechwood), Connor/Kalbaugh (Ryle), Lightall/Reis (Conner), Berling/Mollman (St. Henry).
The Ninth Region girls tournament will start Monday, 9 a.m. at Lloyd. Defending singles champion Brooke Warden of Dixie Heights has graduated. Returning state qualifiers Elizabeth Hamilton of Ryle and Ellie Zureick of Cooper are the top two seeds. Zureick was regional runner-up last year.
Notre Dame has the top two teams in doubles, led by Isabelle Bailey and Josephine Meyer-Hogan, then Kylie Moellering and Catherine Meadows. Moellering is a returning regional doubles champ.
Here are the Ninth girls seeds:
Singles. 1 Elizabeth Hamilton (Ryle), 2. Elly Zureick (Cooper), 3. Claire Johnson (Beechwood), 4. Lauren Fley (NDA) 5. Zoe Moellering (NDA) 6. Amanda Shane (Ryle) 7. Ally Elleman (Conner), 8. Paetyn Ashcraft (Villa)
Doubles: 1. Isabelle Bailey/Josephine Meyer-Hogan (ND) 2. Kylie Moellering/Catherine Meadows (ND) 3. Annie Atkinson/Alaina Moore (Dixie) 4. Olivia Bowling/Amanda Berkemeier (SK) 5. Igyarto/Guard (Ryle) 6. Haleigh Goderweis/Emily Rowland (St. Henry), 7. Savanah Jones/Katherine Taylor (Beechwood) 8. Saner/Emily Montgomery (SK).
The 10th Region Tournaments are set for Harrison County and are tentatively scheduled to begin Saturday.
Campbell County freshman Anderson McDowell is the top seed in boys singles. Sophomore Luke Williams is seventh. The team of senior Bryce Coyle and sophomore Noah Bertsch is seeded third. McDowell was regional runner-up last year and has one loss all year, to CovCath.
In the girls draw, Campbell eighth-grader Natalie Smith is the third seed in singles. Seniors Megan Hertzenberg and Vanessa Neiser are the third seed in doubles.
The Highlands doubles team of senior Jana Riffe and sophomore Elizabeth Schwalbach is the top seed. Sophomore Mia Smith is the second seed in singles and junior Brooke Hodory is also seeded with a first-round bye. Smith and Hodory qualified for state last year in doubles as regional runner-up. Highlands has won every 10th Region girls team championship in the current KHSAA alignment.