- Hoover senior Tess Bucher reaches fourth straight OHSAA final four.
- Bucher and chief rivals play side by side on dramatic first day at state.
- Hoover doubles duos put up good fights in advance of state team tournament.
WOOSTER – The OHSAA tried something new – operating a state tennis tournament at the College Wooster – and it was something to see.
Nestled amidst a golf course, a pleasant neighborhood and a peaking splurge of fall colors, nearly 100 of the best girls high school players in Ohio took turns on 12 courts, six on each side, back to back, trying to smash their way into today’s Division I and Division II state semifinals.
As drama fans would have it, Hoover’s Tess Bucher, Westlake’s Amara Brahmbhatt and Avon’s Natalie Smitek, each of whom made it through to the D1 semis, occupied the hot corner.
Those three — possibly the best players among the nearly 100 — all breezed in Thursday’s first-round matches. They soon reappeared in quarterfinals right next to each other.
In this corner, Bucher.
The unbeaten senior had answers for the everything in the kitchen sink thrown at her by Olentangy Orange junior Avery Reed and won 6-1, 6-0. Reed walked away looking as if she had seen a ghost — she lost 6-0, 6-0 to Bucher in the regular season.
In that corner, Brahmbhatt.
One of two players to have made Bucher sweat in 2023, Brahmbhatt played on a court Bucher couldn’t see because of a screen, through which they could have had a quiet conversation.
Those who walked to where they could watch Brahmhatt saw her roar past Sylvania Northview junior Maddie Peisley, 6-1, 6-2.
In the court next to Bucher’s, close enough that they tapped stray tennis balls to each other as needed, Smitek’s senior year flashed before her eyes when she dropped her second set against Dublin Coffman junior Lauren Burkett, 6-2.
Smitek, the only player to take Bucher to three sets this year, fired back and won the third set 6-0.
Yes, Bucher said, she noticed that she and Smitek and Brahmbhatt were crowded into that hot corner.
“We all kind of have in mind that we’re going to play each other at some point,” Bucher said.
It was the hot corner on a cold day. At least, under gray skies, with stiff winds, despite temperatures around 60, it seemed cold.
Bucher played her match in a tennis skirt and sleeveless top, in comical contrast to a nearby meet official wearing a winter coat and stocking cap.
“At some point” equaled very soon.
Friday’s all-senior Division I semifinal matchups are Brahmbhatt vs. Cincinnati Turpin’s Sarah Clark and Bucher vs. Smitek. The Bucher-Smitek match has been set for 9 a.m. indoors, at Aspen Tennis Center, based on a rainy forecast. The winners will take a short break and collide for the state championship.
Scott Long, 29-year head coach at Centerville, had one of the better players in the tournament, Clara Owen. A late bracket shuffle left Owen with a terrible first-round draw; namely, Smitek.
Smitek beat Owen 6-3, 6-2.
“Smitek is good,” Long said.
Long thinks Bucher is better.
“This is probably her tournament to win,” he said.
Bucher, Brahmbhatt and Smitek have powered through a six-day whirlwind.
In last Saturday’s district semifinals in Fairlwan, Bucher overran Smitek 6-0 6-0. It was a different story when they collided two days later in the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association state team quarterfinals in Canton.
The match was supposed be at Hoover but was driven by rain inside to Hall of Fame Fitness Center, and then delayed when Smitek’s team waited out a wreck that jammed up Interstate 77.
When they finally began a match that ended at 10 p.m., Bucher won the first set 6-4. Smitek won the second set 7-6. This was a stunner, in that Bucher was 30-0 coming in, never dropping a set.
“Tess had a couple bad bounces in the second set,” said Hoover head coach Ryan Shaffer. “She had a match point where she just ripped the ball. It was a court that had pickleball lines. Smitek’s return hit a pickleball line and skidded and Smitek got the point. That was a little frustrating.”
Stunner No. 2 was Smitek taking a 1-0 lead in the third set. Bucher took over from there and won 6-3.
Hoover needed Bucher’s win to beat Solon 3-2 and advance to this Saturday’s team final four against Mason.
“She came through like a champ,” Shaffer said. “She really stepped up for us all.”
Squeezed between the two Bucher-Smitek matches was the OHSAA district championship scrap, in which Bucher outlasted Brahmbhatt 6-2, 7-6. Up to then, Bucher’s closest game of the season had been 6-2.
Bucher beat Smitek easily last Saturday, outdoors, but got a scare from Smitek on Monday, indoors. Their state semifinal matchup is scheduled for Friday morning outdoors but will go inside if rain that is in the forecast gets heavy enough.
Bucher’s attitude: Let it rain. This is her fourth final four. She knows the drill.
“Any pressure is pressure I put on myself, just to do well,” she said. “I need to do everything I know I’m capable of and I’ve worked for. If there’s pressure, it’s good pressure.”
Hoover’s two doubles units at the state tournament put up good fights but did not win the matches required to advance.
Sophomores Ema Papcke and Addison Sheil won their first-round battle against Centerville’s Eva Siler (senior) and Sahsa Riley (junior), 6-3, 6-1.
“They were a nice steady team that had really good hands around the net,” said the Centrerville coach, Long.
Papcke and Sheil lost in quarterfinals Worthington Kilbourne’s Libby Alderman (senior) and Tyra Butler (sophomore), 6-2, 6-4.
Hoover seniors Bridget Fink and Nyla Spangler fell in the first round to sisters Isbella Roth (senior) and Alexa Roth (freshman) of Upper Arlington, 6-3, 6-2.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the sophomores,” Shaffer said. “They were outstanding. Our senior doubles players faced Upper Arlington’s No. 1 and No. 2 singles players and gave a pretty decent account of themselves.
“It was a good day for us. The best of the best are here. I feel like we’ve dotted all our i’s and cross all our t’s this year.”
Reach Steve at [email protected]
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
