MASON – Adversity and Soleil Cordell rarely have been mentioned in the same sentence throughout her high school tennis career, and that remained the case during the first day of the Division I state tournament Oct. 15.
The only hiccup for the Olentangy Berlin senior as she drew to within two wins of her second consecutive singles championship was a broken string in her racket during the second set of a quarterfinal against Whitehouse Anthony Wayne’s Cora Langenderfer at Lindner Family Tennis Center.
“That was kind of unexpected but it happens. Thankfully I have other rackets prepared,” said Cordell, who cruised into the semifinals with sweeps of Centerville’s Mia Trubee (6-1, 6-3) and Langenderfer (6-1, 6-2).
Cordell (27-0) admitted having to settle
in during her first match, but an aggressive approach set the tone as she extended her winning streak to 54 matches spanning the past two seasons.
“[In the] first match, I just tried to get settled in,” Cordell said. “It’s definitely a much bigger environment here than district, then in the second match I felt more comfortable. I wanted to go out there and just really perform.”
Cordell, who for the second year in a row is the only central Ohio player to reach the tournament’s second day, will face Cincinnati Turpin sophomore and Southwest District champion Makayla Malone in one semifinal Oct. 16.
The other will pit Amherst Steele’s Katelyn Bussard and Cincinnati Oak Hills’ Renee Harper – an occasional doubles partner of Cordell in non-scholastic tournaments.
The championship and third-place matches are later in the day.
Malone swept Upper Arlington senior Alexa Roth 6-1, 6-2 in the second round. Roth had opened with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Rocky River Magnificat’s Adriana Guillermo.
The area’s other two Division I singles qualifiers, Watkins Memorial senior Nora Grennan and Watterson junior Ava Scott, lost in the first round.
In Division II, Columbus Academy junior Ella Tsao lost to defending state champion Genevieve Hayden of Pepper Pike Orange 6-1, 6-0 in a quarterfinal. Tsao had opened with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Lima Shawnee’s Riya Naroor.
Columbus School for Girls senior Iva Karagirova lost to Gates Mills Gilmour Academy’s Maeryn Ryznar 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 in the first round.
Three central Ohio doubles teams reach second round
The undefeated season for Worthington Christian seniors Evie and Tori Bourgeois came to an end in the second round with a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown’s Ava Kamensky and Anna Mills.
The Bourgeois sisters (21-1) made their state debut with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win over Lorena Guardia and Olivia Stumbo of Toledo Ottawa Hills. That was one of only two three-set matches in Division II and four overall regardless of division.
“Evie and Tori are very good tennis players and [Kaminsky and Mills] are very good players, so definitely not the result we liked but they were still respectable,” Worthington Christian coach Susie Winfree said. “They got to the ball, they had great serves and we had some games that went to deuce.”
CSG senior Emme Dizon and sophomore Hannah Goldberg split two matches, edging Port Clinton’s Jae Mazur and Shantha Weit 7-5, 6-4 before losing to Dayton Oakwood’s Narella and Niobe Beiersdorfer 6-1, 6-2.
UA senior Nancy Li and sophomore Zoe Lloyd split two matches in Division I, defeating Massillon Jackson’s Kamryn Rieder and Halle Smith 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 and losing to Mason’s Harine Karthikeyan and Megha Sounder 6-0, 6-3.
“We knew going in that we had to make a few shots, don’t make too many mistakes and see what you can get,” UA coach Shaun Stamps said. “The second set, we realized they weren’t machines. They were vulnerable too. You just never know. But we just had to eliminate our errors and take chances.”
Olentangy Orange seniors Aaria Gala and Zoe Haar, Dublin Coffman senior Eknoor Kaur and sophomore Emma Zerbi and New Albany juniors Claire Siegel and Valentina Suslova lost their first-round matches.
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Which central Ohio players reached final day of OHSAA state tennis?
