In a season filled with weather cancellations and heartbreaking losses, the Cleveland Heights boys’ tennis team found its way toward not only its first win of the season, but a clean sweep for the week.
The Tigers (3-6 overall and 1-2 in the Lake Erie League) edged Lorain City Schools and Midview, both 3-2, on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, and then thumped Andrew’s Academy on Friday, 5-0.
“Right now, we’re playing kind of the softer part of our schedule, but we’re gaining confidence and playing better tennis right now,” Tigers coach John Laskarides said. “Hopefully, we can keep the streak alive … and carry the momentum into the LEL (Tournament).”
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The Tigers’ No. 2 host doubles team of Brandon Fernando and Nathan Adkins edged Brian Rivera and Sean Collins of Lorain City, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, in deciding match. No. 1 singles player Aleksi Vihanto defeated Conner Anderson, 7-6, 6-1, and No. 2 Jake Stern defeated Austin Atkinson, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Against Midview, Stern downed Kevin Gram, 7-6, 6-3, while No. 3 Ethan Tucker downed Tom Hendrix, 6-1, 6-3. The No. 2 doubles team of Fernando and Adkins came through again with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Scott Priddy and Tom Wynne.
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In beating Andrew’s, Vihanto beat Chris Casey, 7-6, 6-2. Tucker moved up to No. 2 singles and downed Kyle Cheng, 6-2, 6-1, and Eli “Wild Eye” Wildey defeated Sam Zhang, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 3 singles. The No. 1 doubles team of Evan Cerne-Iannone and Brian Kent won, 6-1, 6-0, over Tony Lee and Arthur Chu, while Fernando and Adkins completed their perfect week with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Eddie Shen and Edgar Lee.
And what would a Cleveland Heights tennis week be without a couple of rainouts? Earlier this week, matches against Beachwood (Monday) and St. Vincent-St. Mary’s (Tuesday) were sacrificed.
The Tigers open the week at home against Eucild on Monday (4 p.m.) and then travel to Brush on Tuesday (4 p.m.) The LEL Tournament begins Thursday (9 a.m.) at Shaker Heights.
Baseball
With today’s district seeding looming, the Tigers took an extended trip to Zanesville on Saturday afternoon and split a pair of games, defeating John Glenn, 6-1, but losing to Zanesville, 8-2.
Tigers coach Mike Dillon felt it was excellent preparation for the tournament, and he believes the team will get a decent spot when the positions are announced today.
“We had two games that will help get us ready for the tournament,” Dillon said. “We played against two quality opponents on the road. We were in a former minor league stadium so it kind of had a tournament atmosphere to it.”
Sam Gillispie (3-2) pitched a complete game for the Tigers (9-6 overall, 6-1 Lake Erie League) and yielded four hits to down John Glenn (9-6).
Sam Collins went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, and he scored a run against Zanesville (14-1) which was ranked fourth last week in Division II. Wil Sharon (3-2) took the loss.
On Thursday, Cleveland Heights gained a measure of revenge against Bedford and pitcher Davonte Anderson with a 5-1 win at home. Anderson pitched a complete-game shutout to beat the Tigers, 3-0, on April 13. The Tigers won the teams’ only other meeting, 15-0, on April 6.
“That gives us a lead in our league now that we’ve beaten them twice, two out of three games. It’s like a two-game lead because we have the tiebreaker with them,” Dillon said.
Tyler Rudy went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored. Joe Eyerman (2-2) got the win.
Bad weather bumped a pair of games against Shaw off the schedule Monday and Tuesday.
Upcoming on Monday and Tuesday, the Tigers travel to Maple Heights for two games and then play home games against Benedictine on Thursday and Villa Angela-St. Joseph on Friday. All games start at 5 p.m.
Track and field
Shelton Gibson won the MVP of the Mentor Cardinal Relays as part of three winning relay teams along with a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash on Saturday.
The 4x100 relay team of Marcus McShepard, Ryan Bounds, Diontre Delk and anchor Gibson finished with a time of 42.17 seconds, breaking Buchtel’s meet record of 42.90 set in 1988.
McShepard, Dionte Saffo, Gibson and Damon Legget won the sprint medley at 1:30.89, while the 4x200 team of McShepard, Bounds, Saffo and Gibson won at 1:37.41.
“The guys in the relays all showed up with good baton exchanges. We’re just now being joined by Ryan Bounds and Diontre Delk who are known to be two of the fastest guys in the school. It’s good having them back now so we can start building our relays to what they should be,” Tigers coach Nick Continenza said.
Anthony Young of St. Edward edged Gibson by the narrowest of margins in the 100, 10.75 to 10.76.
Nonetheless, Gibson’s efforts helped lead the Tigers to a third-place finish among the boys with 66 points behind Kenston (102) and host Mentor (71). The girls placed last out of 16 teams with 11 points. Jackson took top marks (103).
Bryce Jones won the 110 hurdles with a personal best time of 14.83, while James Moore placed fifth in the 1600 at 4:36.60.
As for the girls, Jasmine Harper and Bryce Gantt combined to finish fourth in the high jump relay with a score of 9 feet, 3 inches.
Earlier in the week, Euclid defeated Cleveland Heights in both the boys' (71-65) and girls' (91-31) divisions in a dual meet.
The Tigers next host Shaker Heights on Wednesday (4 p.m.)
Girls’ lacrosse
The Tigers split two games at the Cleveland Invitational at Laurel School on Saturday, defeating Upper Arlington of Columbus, 11-6, but losing to New Trier Township High School of Winnetka, IL, 6-5.
New Trier is No. 1 in Illinois, while Upper Arlington is ranked seventh in Ohio. While Tigers coach Terry Saylor was quite impressed with how his No. 6-ranked team handled Upper Arlington, the game against New Trier left the bigger impression.
“It was all but perfectly played by both teams. It was a great game, but we ultimately lost. And giving up six goals against a top team is difficult to do, and they’re every bit as good on defense. It was just well played. Fun to coach, fun to watch,” Saylor said.
While Meg Lentz and Olivia Lash are often the stars for the former No. 1 Tigers (9-3), Saylor cited Madison Apple’s play as crucial in their efforts.
“It’s hard for a defender to be considered one of the top players, and she played about as well as anybody could possibly play. She was outstanding,” Saylor said.
Cleveland Heights fell from its No. 1 position in the state with a loss to Hudson, 10-9, on Monday.
Last week, Cleveland Heights’ Lentz, Kyra Schoonover and Isabel Collins were three of 20 players chosen from Northeast Ohio for the Great Lakes North Coast Region Team that will play in the Women's Division National Tournament held at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY.
The U.S. Lacrosse-sponsored event will be held Memorial Day weekend, and Saylor is scheduled to be the coach.
On Monday, the Tigers travel to face Stow-Munroe Falls (5 p.m.) and then hit the road to face New Albany in Columbus on Saturday (2 p.m.)
Boys’ lacrosse
Mac Jones scored the game-winning unassisted goal 44 seconds into overtime to defeat host Bay High School, 10-9, on Saturday for the team’s second win of the season.
Jones finished with four goals and two assists and Mike Bryant also had four goals for the Tigers (2-6). Ian Kraus had a goal and two assists and Sam Brown scored the team’s other goal. Goalie Mike Arnold had 18 saves.
“I’m happy we won, but we need to work on taking too many penalties. We gave up five or six man-down goals. … The more we can curtail our penalties, the better off we’ll be in the end,” Tigers coach Curt Kassigkeit said.
Unfortunately, the week wasn’t a total success as the Tigers lost, 15-0, to North Canton-Hoover at home. The Tigers’ game against Benedictine was rained out on Tuesday.
This week, the Tigers travel to Westlake on Tuesday (7 p.m.), host Lake Catholic on Thursday (5 p.m.) and travel to Solon on Saturday (7 p.m.)