Big swing against Madison is huge for West Holmes tennis
He also felt that Ashland and Mansfield Madison were the two second-tier teams that would battle for the runners-up spot in the conference, leaving the Knights to fight it out for fourth with the likes of Wooster and Clear Fork.
But Otto and everybody else in the OCC might have to re-evaluate those unofficial conference power rankings after the Knights (6-3) (2-2 OCC) rebounded from a 5-0 shellacking at the hands of non-conference rival Triway on Wednesday, April 20, to stun Madison 4-1 the following day on the hard courts at West Holmes High School, creating a big swing in the standings.
“That last match was huge,” said Otto as his number two doubles pairing of senior Ricky Guerra and freshman Evan Aurand wrapped up a 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 win over the Rams second doubles team of Nick Nadler and Zach Dillon.
Huge, because on April 9 Otto and company were able to eke out two points at Lexington by picking up doubles wins over the Minutemen, putting the Knights two points ahead of Madison after the Rams were swept 5-0 by Lexington earlier in the season.
Switching to the role of simple mathematician, Otto ironed out all the ramifications of Guerra and Aurand’s victory by explaining, “If we win 3-2, we’re only up one on them, but if we win 4-1 we’re three up, and because we were already up two because of the Lexington matches, that puts us up five [in the standings], which is huge.”
It is huge, but it was just one more big win for Guerra and Aurand.
On April 7 the Knights’ second doubles pairing rallied from a 5-2 second-set deficit at Wooster to win a tie-breaker, and eventually take the match in three sets, helping West Holmes secure two more OCC points against the Generals just two days after pulling out a hard-fought three-set win over Granville’s number two pairing to ice a 3-2 non-conference upset of the perennially powerful Blue Aces.
“That’s pretty impressive, especially coming from Evan, who just picked up a racquet,” said Otto, whose second doubles team and second singles player, Brendan Lynch, were actually both undefeated on the season before falling at Triway.
Lynch’s 6-3, 6-2 loss against the Titans’ Tyler Flickinger on April 20 snapped a 20-match winning streak at second singles for the West Holmes senior – dating back to the semifinal match of the 2009 OCC tournament – and obviously left a sour taste in his mouth.
“I was pretty aware of the streak,” said Lynch after disposing of Madison’s number two player Duncan Llewellyn 6-4, 6-1. “I’m still not over it. I wanted to win 6-0, 6-0 today but obviously that didn’t happen. I’ll take four and one though.”
Looking back, Otto said, “When Ricky and Evan were 5-0 and Brendan was undefeated, that was two wins right there and you only had to get one more court for the win. That was kind of nice.”
It was kind of nice, but in order to pull off the kind of swing he was hoping for against Madison the Knights would have to get at least two more courts, and they did exactly that as senior Sam Meyer slid over from first doubles to play third singles and regular number three, Ethan Rawson, moved into Meyer’s position at first doubles, teaming up with Collin Galbraith.
“He’s been wanting to play three all year and this is his chance to prove himself,” said Otto as Meyer dropped the first set 2-6 against Rams number three man Steve Bastings who attacked the net and returned everything Meyer tried to get past him. “I told him, it’s one-and-done, Sam. If you don’t prove yourself tonight you’re back at doubles.”
Meyer changed his strategy, basting Bastings 6-3 in the second set and 6-0 in the third, explaining afterward, “[Bastings] was great at the net and in the first set I was trying to do all passing shots, which work against most guys. But he was so good at the net that he was getting all of them. The last three games I started lobbing it over him, and in the second set I kept doing that so he backed off, and then from the baseline I could beat him.”
Somebody who doesn’t back away from the net is Rawson.
“I usually want to be aggressive and get inside the other guy’s head. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You’re just gambling on the shot, but it paid off today,” said Rawson who got to showcase his aggressive style at the net, playing forward half the time during he and Galbraith’s first doubles match against Chris Plantz and Jake Minard of Madison.
“He’s really aggressive,” said Galbraith after he and Rawson powered their way to a 6-3, 6-1 win. “I think we mold together really well. He and I get along well, just like me and Sam, and we’re good friends. I’m definitely not a singles player. I like having that extra partner there. In case I have an off day, then he’s there to back me up.”
And while West Holmes sophomore first singles player Danny Nelson will have that kind of backup when he and Lynch team up as a doubles pairing during tournament action at the end of the regular season, as a second-year number one singles player for most of the regular season he has to face some of the best tennis players the conference and state has to offer, including the Rams Austin Hammett who Otto called “the second best player in the OCC,” and who cruised past Nelson 6-1, 6-0, for Madison’s only point.
“I think I need a better backhand and a better serve if I’m going to step up and be a good number one player in the next two years,” said Nelson after falling to Hammett one day after suffering a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Triway senior – and future Baldwin-Wallace first singles player – Kyle Patterson, in a match described by Otto as “his best of the year.” “I’ll be better off when I’m a junior and senior [having gone through these kind of matches] because I’ll have more experience than the other guys that are playing one then.”
It’s a learning and growing process that will make Nelson one of the best players in the conference – and perhaps the state – in the coming years.
Otto was hoping his team would eventually grow into one of the top programs in the OCC.
That may have already happened with the big points swing created by the Knights decisive victory over Madison on Thursday.
And that’s huge.