BEAVERCREEK — With the 2019 boys high school tennis regular season nearly over, the Greene County area has 17 area singles players and 11 doubles combinations who have come away with overall tennis records of .500 or above.
Of that number, two singles players and one doubles combo have yet to lose a match, and four other singles players and two other doubles pairings have lost just once so far this season.
Bellbrook’s No. 1 doubles tandem of senior Sam Songer and junior Andy Russell are an impressive 20-0 in overall matches this season, and they’re 8-0 in Southwestern Buckeye League play. As a result, the Songer-Russell duo was recently selected as the no. 1 seed in the upcoming Division I sectional doubles tennis tournament, which will take place May 10 at Centerville High School.
Third singles players Sam Steck of Fairborn, and Alan Xie of Beavercreek, have yet to lose at that position this year. Both players have found themselves active in other places in their respective teams’ lineups. Xie and fellow Beaver Zach Savino have only lost once at first doubles, for instance, and Steck has also seen action at second doubles for the Skyhawks with Wylie Parker.
Beavercreek’s solid first and second singles player threat of No. 1 Austin Staiger (11-1 overall) and No. 2 Heidi Orloff (also 11-1) drew similar sectional recognition at the Centerville sectional singles tournament. Staiger is the No. 2 seed while Orloff is seeded No. 4 in the same singles bracket.
Golden Eagles teammates Zach Schultz and Cole McCrae, usually first and second singles players respectively, will team up as a doubles team for the D-I Centerville sectionals doubles tournament, and will be seeded No. 4 in the same tournament as the undefeated Songer-Russell pair.
In Division II, Yellow Springs’ senior first singles player Forrest Rowe (12-2) has been named as the Troy sectional tourney’s No. 4 seed in singles.
Statewide, the boys Division I and II sectional tournaments will take place from May 6 through May 11, District competitions will then be held from May 13-18 with the annual state tournament set to take place May 24-25 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason.