Success comes in all shapes and sizes. For Mariemont girls tennis, it's taken the form of a three-inch capybara.
Mariemont senior Mia Eberlien came across a small stuffed capybara keychain named Douglass before the season started, and he quickly became the the team's unofficial mascot. The capybara's name bearing a similarity to head coach Doug Spreen is, allegedly, just a coincidence.
"Mia brought it to some of our matches, and it actually started to work," senior Lucy Hanser said. "It's helping us win, so we bring him everywhere for good luck."
Of course, one magical stuffed toy didn't revivify a tennis program overnight. The process has been long and challenging, with several near misses over Spreen's 14-year tenure. He took over a team that
hovered around .500 in the years before his arrival to 16-4 in his third season, but getting over the hump in the Cincinnati Hills League has proven a tall task.
"When I first started, we weren't very good, and over the years we kind of built something," Spreen said. "The last couple of years, we were knocking on the door and had some close calls."
To be crowned conference champions, Mariemont knew it would have to overcome a familiar roadblock. Indian Hill has perennially been the team to beat in league play, winning the league for 29 straight seasons and churning out three team state championships in that span. The Braves hadn't lost to the Warriors for 30 years, but that streak was due to close.
For all the build up, the Sept. 9 battle proved shockingly decisive. Mariemont left no doubt against Indian Hill with a 5-0 sweep of the defending champions.
"It's a goal we have every single year, to beat Indiana Hill," Hanser said. "We could really tell on the court how hard everyone was trying. It was a really big accomplishment, and we're really happy."
It was a complete team win, but that all-around dominance had been Mariemont's calling card this season. Rather than relying on two or three courts to carry the load, each of Mariemont's five courts carried the weight equally. No court suffered more than two defeats in regular-season play, so there were always plenty of wins to spare in the case of a rare loss.
Senior Lucy Hanser went 14-2 in first singles, senior Katie Tully was 15-0 in second singles, and junior Ava Millering posted a 13-1 third-singles record. Not to be outdone, the first double pairing of senior Mia Eberlein and junior Allie Tully went 13-1 in first doubles, while second doubles teammates senior Molly Neville and junior Maeve O'Brien went undefeated at 14-0.
The Warriors had finally broken through after defeating Indian Hill, but they weren't done yet. Mariemont proceeded to sweep its final six opponents, achieving an undefeated 19-0 record. The Warriors became Cincinnati Hills League champions for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
"We've had good teams. We've been ranked in the top 10 in the state and had a lot of good players come through here," Spreen said. "It's been a long time coming."
As if the undefeated record weren't enough, the Warriors made a statement with a strong showing at the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association (GCTCA) Coaches Classic tournament. Mariemont got called up to compete in Flight A for the first time in school history, facing off with some of the top schools in Ohio's Division I. The Division II Warriors comported themselves well in a narrow third-place finish behind annual juggernaut Mason's A team and Centerville.
The road to regular-season perfection has run its course, but there's still history left to be made in Mariemont. It's been 12 years since a Mariemont girl qualified for the state singles tournament; Hanser will lead the way as the No. 1 seed at the Mason sectional, but Katie Tully and Millering are right behind as the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.
It's been even longer since multiple Mariemont bids reached the state tournament, last happening in 1995 when two Warriors' doubles teams reached the first round. Allie Tully and Eberlein are the doubles favorites in their sectional, with Neville and O'Brien close behind with the third seed.
Whatever happens on the courts in Mason during postseason play, it's been a year to remember in Mariemont. The Warriors are champions at last after three decades of waiting.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How a capybara named Douglass inspires Mariemont girls tennis success
