Tipp tennis wins MVL tournament
It was another great MVL postseason tournament for the Tipp girls tennis team. They captured the annual event, something that has become a standard for the Red Devils program.
“It’s a huge day for us, it's a day we always have circled on the calendar as one of the most important days for us,” said Tipp coach Jack Romer. “It was one of our biggest goals every year to come in and secure another MVL title. We have won it every year since the MVL came back, and we don’t plan on that streak ending any time soon.”
“We knew coming in where we had to place to secure first, but we wanted to win on all the courts, so it was never going to be in doubt on who runs the MVL.” Bre Kovaleski captured the first singles title, defeating Nina Short of Troy 8-4 in the finals. Kovaleski was seeded as the number two seed overall, coming in with only one loss to Troy. In the first round she went up against Deja Glover from West Carrollton and she controlled the whole match, coming out as an 8-0 winner. In the semifinals, she went up against a very strong opponent from Butler, Ava Petty, and won 8-1 to advance to the championship match. “She came in seeking revenge against Nina Short from Troy, the defending first singles champion. Kovaleski played some of the best tennis of her career and came out 8-4 as the winner, Romer said. “I’m super proud of Bre putting in the work and working to get better, and she has elevated her game to another level. She has a lot of momentum going into sectionals.”
On the second singles bracket, Maddy Lieber came in as the number one seed and won 8-0 the first match was against Maddie Mann from Stebbins. In the semi-final match, she battled against a scrappy singles player, Riley Cappasso from Greenville, who finished third overall. Lieber came out as 8-6 winners. In the championship match, she defeated Kimber Connors 8-5 to secure the championship.
“Lieber has been a consistent presence on the second singles court,” Romer said. “She comes out and grinds every match.” On the 3rd singles court, Jillian Schroeder was the one seed and defeated Laissa Gakunzi 8-0 In the first round. She then defeated Lily Pierron from Piqua 8-4. In the finals, she fell short to Leila Zugelder from Butler 8-5. “Jillian has been a scrappy player with great power on her shots that throw off a lot of opponents,” Romer said. “She is getting more and more consistent every match.”
The first doubles pairing of Eve McCormick and Mary Waibel came in as the 1 seed after sweeping the MVL regular season. In the first round, they went up against Piqua and dominated in every facet of the game, securing an 8-1 win to advance to face Greenville. In round two, they defeated Greenville 8-4, and in the finals, Tipp was victorious over Troy 8-3 to win the title. “They have played consistently and aggressively every match that has led them to this fantastic season they have been having,” Romer said. “They started quick and never really looked back as they secured the championship.”
The second doubles pairing of Sammi Kozen and Penny Bathgate started the day defeating West Carrollton 8-2 and Fairborn by the same score. The championship match could be the match of the day. Playing the second doubles pairing from Troy, where it went to an 8-8 proset, where they dropped a back-and-forth tiebreaker 8-6. Next up for Tipp is a trip to the sectionals, where Tipp hopes to advance many players to the district meet. “The mindset going into sectionals is to keep working on being more consistent and improving in areas of the game where we see weaknesses in ourselves,” Romer said. “Our mindset is focusing on the match we have and not looking ahead to the next match, as we need to earn that opportunity by winning the match we are guaranteed. We have to stay level headed and just focus on what we are good at and put it to work.”
