Port Clinton tops Willard to force Bay co-title

PORT CLINTON — Willard girls tennis coach Josh Baurle put it simply: His team "had no business being in this spot." The Flashes returned very little from their 2020 team and were loaded with inexperience. But for the fifth consecutive year, at the end of SBC Bay Division play, Willard can call itself champions. "They're a part of history," Bauerle said. "A Willard program's never won five titles in a row, and we've had some good ones with boys basketball and girls basketball and all of them. It's what we talked about all year, just being a part of history if they could do this." After winning the Bay title outright from 2017-2019, Willard (16-3, 11-1) has now shared it twice in a row with Port Clinton (15-4, 11-1), which won 3-2 on Wednesday night to secure the co-championship. It's a fitting new step in what Port Clinton coach Joe Miller called a "friendly rivalry." PC ended Willard's 52-match league win streak a year ago in a marathon 3-2 match, and the Redskins spoiled the Flashes' shot at an outright championship this year, too. "We have so much respect for the way they play, the way that he coaches," Miller said. "You know you're gonna be in for a battle every single time. We can't win until the next one next year." Willard's first singles player, Summer Kenard, controlled the final league match of her high school career from start to finish. She won the first point with a backhand down the line and didn't look back. It took Kenard three sets to beat PC's Arielle Montowski in the first match this season, a comeback which secured Willard that win. But it was a straight-set 6-2, 6-0 win for Kenard on Tuesday. "Her season, it's hard to even put into words how impressive it is," Bauerle said. "She picked up a racket for the first time right before her junior year, never played before that, and just all offseason was all about tennis. She fell in love with the sport as soon as she tried it." But elsewhere on Port Clinton's courts, things looked different, and not just in outcome. The Redskins made lineup changes from the first meeting, altering every spot but that first singles matchup. "That's the chess match is trying to figure out what they're gonna do," Bauerle said. "They pulled off something that I had no expectation of them doing, and hats off to their coaches for doing that." The shifts worked. Willard was swept at second singles, third singles and second doubles. The Flashes' other win, at first doubles after the match had already been decided, came from Ashley Hamons and Maelyn Shaarda. They won the first set, 6-3, dropped the second 5-7, but then won a tiebreak 10-8. Miller said he was prepared to be at the courts until 9:00 p.m. if needed to decide things after the squads' last few meetings seemed to never end. But proceedings finished quickly Tuesday. After Port Clinton's first doubles team evened the match at one following Kenard's win, PC's Paige Reineck and Reagan Ruthsatz won the third and second singles matches, respectively, within minutes of each other to secure a shared title less than two hours after play began. "We were really nervous because this is the same scenario that happened last year," Ruthsatz said, "but we were really pumped up and we've been working on it, and Willard's always been our main focus." There were tears among the Willard contingent once the result was locked in. The current Flashes are part of a program that's gone 66-2 in SBC Bay Division play since the league's inception in 2017. But Bauerle wanted them to remember those 66 wins, and even more so the 15 in a row that preceded Tuesday night's loss. If Willard was going to share the title again, Bauerle was OK with it being to the team that had handed the Flashes their only two league losses. "We hate to share," Bauerle said, "but if we have to share, I guess this is the team we'll share it with." Singles: Summer Kenard (W) def. Arielle Montowski (PC) 6-2, 6-0; Reagan Ruthsatz (PC) def. Naomi Schag (W) 6-2, 6-0; Paige Reineck (PC) def. Belle Van Zoest (W) 6-4, 6-3 Doubles: Ashley Hamons/Maelyn Shaarda (W) def. Olivia Eickert/Lilly Howell (PC) 6-3, 5-7 (10-8); Alyssa Mares/Alexa Taylor (PC) def. Vivian Barnett/Moriah Sloane (W) 6-3, 6-2