Nelson sisters finish fourth at State tennis
What better way to celebrate your birthday than by winning a pair of tennis matches at the State tournament?West Holmes freshman Rachel Nelson celebrated her 15th birthday on Friday, Oct. 23, by teaming up with her sister, senior Mary Nelson, to win a pair of matches at the 34th Annual Girls State Tennis Tournaments Friday afternoon at the Elysium indoor tennis facility in Plain City. The matches were moved indoors from the Stickney Tennis Center at Ohio State because of rain all weekend.
The wins on Friday assured the Lady Knights of placing in the top four in the State, which is where they wound up. The Nelsons finished fourth overall, dropping a pair to eventual State champion St. Francis DeSales and then falling in two sets to Chaminade-Julienne.
The Nelsons opened the tournament with a convincing 6-1, 7-5 victory over Lauren Coggins and Hannah Lindesmith of Canton Central Catholic.
"Winning that first match was big," West Holmes coach Jason Otto said. "The girls played nearly flawless tennis that first match. We seemed to score every key point."
In the second game, it was a little tighter, as the Crusaders duo got over the jitters and picked up their level of play. They just didn't have an answer for the dynamic duo of the Lady Knights.
"I thought our girls played as well as they could in that second match," Central coach Basil Violand said. "Unfortunately, so did the girls from West Holmes."
The teams split the first four games, and Central took the fifth game to go up 3-2. The Nelsons responded by winning the next two to regain the momentum.
"We didn't want to go down 2-4. Pulling out that third game was a big win," Otto said.
The Lady Knights advanced to the second round against Anna Benson and Erica Leone from Chagrin Falls.
West Holmes was the aggressor in the first game, jumping out to a 5-2 lead and never looked back, winning 6-2.
Chagrin Falls won the first game of the second set, but the Lady Knights answered with three straight games to take control on their way to a 6-3 triumph.
"That was a very exciting way to spend my birthday," Rachel said. "Winning two matches here was a special birthday present."
"We were very aggressive," Mary said. "We really wanted to win, because we knew both of those girls from before, and had lost, so it motivated us."
The West Holmes duo was knocked out of title contention Saturday morning by the favorites to win the Division II title, another senior-freshman sister act, Kim My Li and My Linh Li of St. Francis DeSales. The Lis topped the Nelsons 6-0, 6-2.
"That first game, we didn't play well," Otto said. "Rachel made a lot of errors that she normally doesn't do. But that team was so strong. We just got beat by a better team. In the second set, I thought we played a lot better and gave ourselves a chance to win a couple games."
The Nelsons were then matched up against Nicci Dresden and Mollie Buerschen of Chaminade-Julienne in the battle for third place.
The Lady Knights were in control early and held a 5-3 advantage, one win from taking the first set.
The Eagles duo dug deep and started forcing the action, and before anyone knew what happened, Chaminade-Julienne had won four straight games to take the first set 7-5.
The Nelsons stopped the slide by winning the first game of the second set, but the Eagles won the next four on their way to a 6-4 victory to claim third place. West Holmes settled for fourth place.
Rachel said she looks forward to coming back to Columbus in the future and finishing higher than this year.
For Mary, it was her last shot, and the senior savored every moment.
"It was great to be able to make it to State my last year," Mary said, adding it was especially fun being able to do it with her sister as her teammate.
"This was a nice way for Mary to end her career," Otto said. "She has worked really hard."