Lucas makes Ryle history at state tennis tournament

LEXINGTON – State championships are won on the second and third days of competition in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association state tournament.

The first day Thursday was one for other milestones as the first two rounds of the six-round championships were contested at two sites in Lexington. With 13 singles players and 11 doubles teams from Northern Kentucky, totaling 35 local athletes overall, many of them spent their spare time cheering on their friends from other schools.

Leading the way was Ryle junior Carley Lucas, who made history by becoming the first Raider in the history of the program, boys or girls, to reach the third round of the state tournament. She won a dramatic second-round match over Manual freshman Maha Pattabiraman 7-6 (3), 1-6, 10-5.

"I set a goal and I reached it so I'm pretty proud of myself," Lucas said. "It means a lot because it's the first time in Ryle history."

Lucas, who qualified for state two years ago and won a match, used newfound maturity to get to day two this time around. She had to dig deep after being drilled by her opponent in the second set, 6-1.

"Normally I like to hit the ball pretty hard, and today I had to slow down, take some pace off, and play a bit different than I normally do," she said.

Lucas lost in the Ninth Region semifinals last week, but is the only one of the four qualifiers from that region to advance to day two. Regional champ Francie Case of Notre Dame and runner-up Brooke Warden of Dixie Heights were eliminated in the second round.

"It's exciting for Carley that she got to do something no one has ever done at Ryle High School," said head coach Stephen Collins. "The first match, she moved the girl around the court. She used her volleys and she was serving really well. The second match was just pure heart. She really showed her maturity in that when she lost the second set rather sizeable she came right back and took control."

Highlands senior Meredith Laskey, the 10th Region champion, dropped five games in two matches on her way to round three. She is the second seed in the tournament.

In boys singles, second seed Austin Hussey, a Covington Catholic senior and 2013 state champion, lost one game in his first two matches to advance to day two. Tenth Region champ Ben Emery of Highlands and Max Cook of CovCath won one match.

In girls doubles, the Ninth Region champs Abigail Kennedy and Maryann Meadows of Notre Dame, advanced to the third round along with 10th Region champs Lauren Auteri and Lexi Herman of Highlands, both juniors.

A highlight of boys doubles was Conner juniors Nate Eberhard and Nick Elleman reaching the second round of the tournament. They gave second-seeded seniors Mustafa Gardezi and Austin Strause from Louisville Trinity a stern test in the second round before falling 6-4, 6-3. Conner was up 3-0 in the second set and had game point in the fourth game.

"They played the first set tight against them, knowing they were playing the two seed," said Conner head coach Shawn Garnett. "They got comfortable and started to believe they could play with this team. That's the last thing I told them near the end of the first set is that they had to believe in themselves, and that you're that good. That carried over to the second set. (Trinity is) No. 2 for a reason. They came back."

This marks the third straight year Conner has advanced a doubles team to state. Garnett said the sky is the limit for his returning Cougars.

"What they did is really asserted themselves as high-level tennis players and being able to play with the top seeds," he said. "I think next year they have a great opportunity to come back down here. They're year-round tennis players and they play with all the Cov Cath kids. They play tennis all the time, it's in their blood."

Covington Catholic brothers Jared and Jake Haught were the only local team to reach the third round in doubles. They will play noon Friday in their next match.

Ryle seniors David Geis and Drake Hudak were the other local team to reach the second round in boys doubles. They will both play for Thomas More College next season.

At various points in Conner's second-round match, representatives from at least five different Northern Kentucky foes stood near the courts and watched. Ryle's Lucas cheered on Notre Dame as it played Thursday afternoon in the semifinals of the team tournament.

Notre Dame outlasted Russell 3-2, with the final match going to a deciding third set, which is played directly as a tiebreaker to 10 points. That was the first doubles team of Maryann Meadows and Kylie Moellering going to the limit for a 10-8 win. The first two sets were 6-0, 2-6.

The other four matches were 6-0, 6-0, with Kennedy falling at first singles and Case at second singles. Emma Hughes won at third singles, and Catherine Meadows and Sarah Frisch won at second doubles.

The lineup reflected the strategy needed in a team dual match, as Hardin considers Kennedy his top singles player, and neither doubles team was the same as it is in the individual tournament. Russell used its top doubles team of Maci Ferguson and Kierstin Hensley, who are defending state doubles champions and third seed this year, as its first two singles players.

Neither team knows the other's lineup until the match is about to start. The lineup Russell submitted was one of two anticipated by the Pandas.

"You get their list of players and try to conclude what they were going to do," said NDA head coach Rob Hardin. "We thought there were two scenarios they could go with, and we tried to set a lineup that would cover both. It's a bit of a guessing game. We've done this three times in a row now this year, winning in those tiebreaks. They're great under pressure."

NDA will play in the state finals at 5 p.m. Friday against McCracken County at the University of Kentucky courts. Covington Catholic will play St. Xavier at 6:30 after beating Ashland Blazer 3-0. Cov Cath easily won all three singles matches to end the contest.

Tennis

State Championships

Boys

Singles

First Round

Emery (Highlands) d. Sharp (Grayson Co.) 6-0, 6-1; Least (Woodford Co.) d. McDowell (Campbell Co.) 6-7, 6-0, 10-8; Hussey (Cov Cath) d. Hardy (Hazard) 6-0, 6-0; Lam (McCracken Co.) d. Shi (Scott) 6-3, 2-6, 10-8; Mount (S. Oldham) d. Doggett (Holy Cross) 6-2, 6-1; Cook (Cov Cath) d. Bowling (Clay Co.) 6-4, 3-6, 10-4.

Second Round

Sumivolstein (Oneida) d. Emery 6-2, 6-3, Hussey d. Williams (Henderson Co.) 6-0, 6-1; Lineberry (Atherton) d. Cook 6-0, 6-1.

Doubles

First Round

Geis-Hudak (Ryle) d. Gray-Jones (North Laurel) 6-2, 6-1; Bilderback-Slone (LCA) d. Bosch-Heimbrock (Cov Cath) 6-3, 6-1; Eberhard-Elleman (Conner) d. Haley-Saunders (W. Jessamine) 6-2, 6-3; Mays-Tapp (Henry Clay) d. Geiman-Walters (Campbell Co.) 6-0, 6-1; Barry-Dove (Shelby Co.) d. Freyburger-Laskey (Highlands) 6-1, 6-4; Haught-Haught (Cov Cath) d. Harrison-Logan (Clark Co.) 6-2, 6-1.

Second Round

Crawford-Dixit (Ballard) d. Geis-Hudak 6-3, 6-3; Gardezi-Strause (Trinity) d. Eberhard-Elleman 6-4, 6-3. Haught-Haught d. Barry-Love 6-2, 6-2.

Girls

Singles

First Round

Hammons (Sacred Heart) d. Hoffman (Highlands) 6-3, 6-3; Case (Notre Dame) d. Newland (Henderson Co.) 6-2, 6-1; Pattabiraman (Manual) d. Crigler (Campbell Co.) 6-1, 6-2; Lucas (Ryle) d. Clayton (Apollo) 6-1, 6-2; Laskey (Highlands) d. Vincent (Grayson Co.) 6-0, 6-1. Warden (Dixie Heights) d. North (St. Henry) 6-2, 6-2.

Second Round

Borders (St. Francis) d. Case 6-1, 6-0; Lucas d. Pattabiraman (Manual) 7-6(3), 1-6, 10-5; Laskey d. Jewell (Corbin) 6-0, 6-4. Sprouse (McCracken Co.) d. Warden 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles

First Round

Kennedy-Meadows (Notre Dame) d. Kroes-Seals (W. Jessamine) 6-1, 6-1; Atkinson-Starosciak (Dixie Heights) d. Lui-Olliges (S. Oldham) 6-1, 7-5; Auteri-Herman (Highlands) d. Beecham-Stevens (Corbin) 6-1, 6-2; Moore-Snyder (Dixie Heights) d. Kindred-Stocker (Clark Co.) 6-1, 6-0; Frisch-Moellering (Notre Dame) d. Bergman-Ratliff (Knott Co.) 6-0, 6-1.

Second Round

Kennedy-Meadows d. Brown-Hayden (Owensboro Catholic) 7-5, 7-6(2); Auteri-Herman d. Mair-Miller (Lex. Catholic) 6-3, 6-3; Leslie-Leslie (Greenup Co.) d. Atkinson-Starosciak 6-2, 6-2; Kendrick-Nguyen (Russell) d. Moore-Snyder 6-0, 6-3; Kauffman-Shiben (McCracken Co.) d. Frisch-Moellering 6-1, 6-2.