Eagles take down top-seeded Magnificat in Coaches Cup, 3-2

About 10 minutes before the Coaches Cup tennis match was starting Wednesday afternoon at Magnificat, Ashley DeHaven found out she was playing second doubles, a position somewhat unfamiliar to the Avon senior.

But such is life on the Avon tennis team that has such quality depth that coach Eric Korey is able to move his players around like chess pieces, keeping opposing coaches guessing.

“We’ve been able to change our lineup a lot throughout the season,” Korey said. “I’ve made sure that I’ve continued to do it, even in matches where we didn’t need to do it. I made sure we continued to mix our lineup so the girls got used to playing different positions and so the girls didn’t feel like they were being taken out of their position.

“The strength of our team is our depth, and in these matches, it shows. We have seven varsity players and all of them can play doubles and all of them can play singles. I’ve tried to make them feel like tennis players more than positional players, and I think that’s really helped us in the Coaches Cup matches. So far, we’ve played four Coaches Cup matches and I think we’ve used a different lineup for each one. So, teams don’t know what we’re doing.”

The strategy certainly paid off at Magnificat, as unseeded Avon edged the top-seeded Blue Streaks, 3-2, to advance to the Elite Eight in Ohio and the final in the Northeast Ohio district. Massillon Jackson, Hudson and Walsh Jesuit are all still alive in the other half of the bracket, and the Eagles will face the survivor of those three in an as yet unscheduled match that will send the winner to the Final Four of the state team tournament.

As for not knowing the lineup until just minutes before the match, DeHaven just shrugged it off.

“I kind of expected it,” she said. “I just feel like we have a lot of great players on the team, and we shuffle the lineup a lot. It was nothing new.”

Avon’s top individual player and the only senior among the seven varsity players, DeHaven has played mostly first singles for the past few years. But Korey knew that Magnificat sophomore Adriana Guillermo was at the top of her game and would be a tough opponent for DeHaven.

Second singles player Elizabeth Ammori is also quite strong for the Blue Streaks, so Korey moved people around. He put Sam Jackson and Grace Gedeon at first doubles and DeHaven and Samantha Gault at second doubles. Nora Fiest moved into first singles, while Karina Marsden played second singles and Isabella Gentile played third.

As expected, Magnificat rolled through the first two singles matches, giving up just one game. But the rest of the strategy worked perfectly for the Eagles. Gentile swept her opponent in third singles, 6-1, 6-0, Gedeon and Jackson were dominant in a 6-2, 6-2 victory at first doubles, and DeHaven and Gault came on strong in the third set to win the deciding match, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

“Their first singles player is one of the top players in Northeast Ohio and probably top 10 in the state,” Korey said. “We can’t match up with her, so is it worth wasting my best player in a position that I know she’s going to lose? Sometimes I try to move our best players around. It really helps that Sam and Gracie are so solid at first doubles because I was able to play them together and play Ashley at second doubles.”

Things didn’t start well for Avon at second doubles, as Magnificat jumped to leads of 3-0 and 4-1. But DeHaven and Gault settled in and won the last four games of the first set. The Blue Streaks broke Avon’s serve three times in the second set to force a third set. Their strong play at the net caused Korey to suggest a change in strategy in the final set, often having both players on the baseline.

“I think that we developed better chemistry as the match went on,” DeHaven said. “And, we changed our strategy to having two playing back because they have amazing net players. I feel both of us are good on the ground strokes. We can volley, too, but changing to a strategy that best fit our strengths was really smart.”

Neither team had an advantage in the first five games of the third set, as there were no breaks of serve and the Eagles held a 3-2 lead. But in the sixth game, Avon had multiple break points before finally earning the break on a double fault by Magnificat. Gault then won her service game to make it 5-2, and the Eagles earned their second consecutive break of serve to clinch the match.

“The underdog role is so fun,” said Korey after his unseeded squad won its second consecutive match over a seeded team—the Eagles defeated No. 4 Strongsville in the previous round.