The Chagrin Valley Conference will be well represented at next weekend’s OHSAA Division II State Tennis Tournament after one singles player and three doubles teams advanced through the district bracket at Springside Athletic Club.
Orange senior Genevieve Hayden led the charge by winning the district singles championship, while Orange also advanced two doubles teams. Hawken’s duo of Dani Forte and Valeria Kislyansky finished as district runners-up to earn their own trip to Mason, where the state tournament will be held Oct. 16–17 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
Hayden dominated the singles draw, cruising through her first two matches without dropping more than a single game. She defeated Hawken’s Emery Grossman, 6-0, 6-0, in the opening round and Hathaway Brown’s Lucia Holiday, 6-1, 6-0, in the quarterfinals. Hayden was pushed to the brink in the semifinals, rallying to outlast Gilmour Academy’s Abigail Lynch in a third-set tiebreaker, 6-0, 3-6, 7-6. In the championship match, Hayden maintained control from start to finish to defeat Laurel’s Sophia Nguyen-Huynh, 6-1, 6-3, and secure the district title.
In doubles play, Forte and Kislyansky rolled through their early rounds, defeating Triway, 6-0, 6-0, and Hathaway Brown, 6-2, 6-0, before topping Orange’s Lily Guiler and Ivy Berlin, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals. The Hawken tandem fell to Gilmour Academy in the final, 6-1, 6-4, but their runner-up finish punched their ticket to state.
Guiler and Berlin bounced back to place third overall, while their Orange teammates Adele Tokmazeysky and Raina Patel finished fourth, giving the Lions three total qualifiers for next weekend’s state tournament.
