After a full season of girls high school tennis, it's almost time to crown champions.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association state tournament kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 15. The tournament, hosted at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, will see the top 64 singles players and doubles teams from across Ohio battle over two days to determine champions.
Cincinnati has fared well at the tournament in recent years, with at least one Cincinnati athlete claiming a title each year since 2019. In 2026, the Queen City will have one doubles team looking to recapture the championship, while other hopefuls look to etch their names into the record books.
Here's what to know about the Cincinnati girls making their way to the state tennis tournament.
Turpin sophomore Makayla Malone leads Cincinnati singles challengers
An underclassman
star shook up the Division I singles scene at the Southwest District tournament. Sophomore Makayla Malone, who led Turpin to the Eastern Cincinnati Conference championship during the regular season, caught fire in the postseason. Malone swept through the Lindner Family Tennis Center sectional, besting Anderson's Emma Raetscher and Sycamore's Serena Sayles in the process.
At the district tournament in Mason, the sophomore was similarly dominant as she reached the finals after dropping only one game through three matches. After a tough 7-5, 6-4 match, Malone was crowned district champion after handing Renee Harper her first loss of the season. At state, she'll open with a match against Strongsville's Mallory Koch. If she can pick up two wins Malone will likely face defending champion Soleil Cordell in the semifinals.
Harper had been an unstoppable force until the district finals. After earning a bid to the state tournament last season, she proved she was much more than a one-hit wonder in a dominant junior-year campaign. The Greater Miami Conference player of the year for the second year in a row, Harper went undefeated through the regular season with several wins against top regional opponents. She was crowned champion at the Mason sectional and will be a formidable opponent at state once again. Harper will take on Hudson freshman Anna Li to open the state tournament and could have a favorable path to the finals.
On the Division II side, Cincinnati came up short against Dayton in the district finals and third-place game. Wyoming senior and Lindner sectional champ Nina Myatt avenged her earlier loss at the hands of Mariemont's Lucy Hanser in the semifinals, but fell to Oakwood's Mila Gelbart in the championship match. Myatt put up a 10-3 record during the regular season and is peaking at the right time. She'll open the state tournament against Tiffin Columbian's Leah Wiengart in an exciting first-round matchup.
Hanser took fourth place in the district tournament, falling to Northwestern's Sadie Pilson in the third-place game. She had previously won the Mason sectional in commanding fashion, marking a continuation from a stellar regular season. Hanser went 15-3 to earn Cincinnati Hills League player of the year honors, leading Mariemont to an undefeated regular season and first conference championship in 30 years. She opens the state tournament with a matchup against Genevieve Hayden from Pepper Pike Orange.
Mason's returning doubles champions look to add to the trophy case
Mason has won at least one state championship each of the past five seasons. If the Comets can keep the streak alive, it will likely come from a doubles pairing that already has three combined state titles.
After both their partners graduated last season, seniors Saanvi Reddy and Emma Wagner have teamed up to steamroll through the sectional and district tournaments. Wagner won back-to-back doubles championships in 2023 and 2024 before Reddy won the 2025 doubles state championship in an all-Mason final. Now, the dynamic duo have their sights set on working together instead of competing at state. Reddy and Wagner only dropped a single set all postseason, in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 district championship win against Seton. They begin their quest for the crown against Dublin Coffman's Emma Zerbi and Eknoor Kaur.
The Seton duo of Helena and Elle Finley have been one of the best stories in Cincinnati tennis this season. The freshman twins moved to Ohio from South Carolina this year and were immediately among the best singles players in the area. Though Seton didn't have its greatest season as a team, the Finley twins were almost automatic in first and second singles. After joining forces and rolling through the Division I doubles sectional, the Finleys took down Mason's second-doubles team in a three-set thriller, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, to reach the district finals. The twins are on the opposite side of the bracket from Mason's Reddy and Wagner, so a rematch would have to take place in the state finals.
Last year, Mason set an Ohio record with three doubles teams in the state semifinals. While that won't be possible this season, the underclassmen duo of Harine Karthikeyan and Megha Soundar could give the Comets multiple teams in the semis for the second year in a row. Though the younger Mason pairing finished fourth at the district tournament, they aren't far off from the top Comets. At the sectional championship, Karthikeyan and Soundar pushed Reddy and Wagner in a 6-2, 7-6 loss. Mason's underclassmen duo will face Claire Williams and Ashley Helle from Massillon Jackson in the state tournament's first round.
In Division II, a familiar duo is returning to the state tournament. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Corrine Labin and Miranda Wang, state semifinalists in 2025, finished third at the district tournament to punch their return ticket. The Eagles' upperclassmen gave the eventual district champions from Oakwood their toughest test of the tournament, falling after a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 battle. Labin and Wang rebounded with a 6-4, 6-1 win against Mariemont in the third-place game. The CHCA pairing will open the state tournament against Lila Brennan and Alivia Mack from Lima Shawnee, needing three wins to surpass last year's fourth-place finish.
The CHL is well represented in doubles as it is in singles, with a pair of teams leading the charge. Indian Hill's underclassmen pairing of Ella Kim and Elle Mikula are Cincinnati's highest-seeded team at the Division II doubles tournament after a second-place district finish. Kim and Mikula had previously bested CHCA's state-tested Labin and Wang in the sectional tournament, giving the freshman and sophomore confidence after a rocky regular season. Indian Hill opens the state tournament against Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown senior duo Anna Mills and Ava Kamensky.
The other CHL team in attendance is Mariemont's Allie Tully and Mia Eberlein. The first-doubles team for the Warriors went 15-2 en route to the conference championship. That dominance continued as the junior and senior ran roughshod through the sectional tournament at Mason, dropping just two games and sweeping three opponents to claim the title. A fourth-place finish for the Mariemont duo at district sent them to state, making Mariemont and Mason the only Cincinnati schools with multiple representatives at state. Tully and Eberlein open their state run against Grier Peckham and Abigail Lynch from Gates Mills Gilmour Academy.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Former doubles tennis champions headline Cincinnati players at state
