Hathaway Brown's Lauren Gillinov wins girls tennis state singles title in Division II: OHSAA state tournament 2014 (slideshow, videos)

PLAIN CITY, Ohio – Hathaway Brown singles player Lauren Gillinov tried to stop crying but she told her Blazers teammates she was just so happy.

The sophomore had quite the road, including a buzz-worthy final match, to win the OHSAA Division II state girls tennis singles title Saturday.

Eight Northeast Ohio girls tennis players entered Elysium Tennis Center as the two-day tournament concluded. One exited with a fourth-place medal, three with third-place medals, three with second-place medals and one with a state singles title. The matches ranged from comebacks, to four-hour three setters to a championship with a code violation.

When the balls stopped bouncing and the final medals were handed out, these were the results:

Hathaway Brown claims state singles title for second straight year

Hathaway Brown's Lauren Gillinov and Sandusky Perkins' Olivia Rohrbacher were in a tight match of impressive backhands, clean winners and you-break-my-serve-I'll-break-you-back play. Gillinov went on to win the Division II state championship match 7-6 (c), 6-1.

Gillinov and Rohrbacher were hitting such big shots that fans were shocked to find out this was a state championship matchup between two sophomores. Then came the tiebreaker. Rohrbacher was beginning to show her frustration at her shots, her opponent and the line judge. Then the Ohio High School Athletic Association official, also the line judge, overruled a call. Then came the ‘c’, a code violation.

Rohrbacher asked the official at the net post if he was "blind" and also used an expletive in the question. A code violation was assessed as a game penalty, meaning Rohrbacher immediately lost the tiebreaker. She was then told, according to observers, that if she didn’t maintain composure, she would be defaulted.

Gillinov, meanwhile, kept her footwork clean and swiftly moved around the court returning Rohrbacher’s powerful shots.

“I was just trying to focus on my game and not really think about her and focus on my strokes and go point-by-point,” Gillinov said.

Seven games later, Gillinov became Hathaway Brown’s second singles state champion in two years. Ariana Iranpour won the title in 2013.

“I’ve been training really hard in the off-season and for a while, my goal was to win two matches and I ended up winning the whole thing. It feels really great. I just really wanted to play my best here and I think I got there.”

Defending doubles state champion Orange upset by HB, finishes third

Hathaway Brown's Catherine Areklett and Ally Persky upset the defending Division II doubles champions, Orange's Adrian Young and Alissa Nakamoto, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals.

Areklett and Persky came with big shots and a ton of confidence. Young and Nakamoto felt like they played better than when the two teams faced off in the Canton District, but still not good enough.

Areklett and Persky ended up in second place, losing the championship match, 6-2, 6-2, to Kettering Archbishop Alter.

Young and Nakamoto, who said they felt like they only had half of their groundstrokes and half of their volleys working in their semifinal match, felt they played much better in their third-place match against Lexington.

In fact, their style was much more rigid against Hathaway Brown, where they showed more frustration – and much more relaxed against Lexington.

Orange won the match, 6-3, 6-3, to take home third place.

Young, a senior, is looking to play tennis in college. Nakamoto, a sophomore, is not even thinking quite yet about looking for a new doubles partner.

“I have no clue,” Nakamoto said about playing without Young. “It’s going to be a rough two years.”

Walsh Jesuit's Sandberg snags second

Molly Sandberg's goal was to make it to Day 2. The Walsh Jesuit sophomore was facing Massillon Jackson's Tessa Hill in a state semifinal match and was looking at 6-0, 3-0 in Hill's favor.

Hill played a nearly flawless first set. Then Sandberg did what she does best, she dug deep.

Sandberg started hitting bigger shots and playing more angles. If you’d saw her play Cloverleaf’s Emily Dunbar at district, it was a totally different style of play. Sandberg had power behind her shots and a more aggressive spirit on Saturday.

She powered back to win the second set 6-4 and took the third set 6-3.

“That was a rough start but she played really well in the beginning,” Sandberg said of Hill.

Sandberg played a tough finals match against Hamilton’s Cassidy Hicks but lost in straight sets. However, Sandberg did win the family competition of beating her brother’s tennis results

“I did,” she said with a laugh. “He got third his sophomore year.”

As for the final result, Sandberg had a positive attitude about her runner-up spot as a sophmore.

“She deserved it,” Sandberg said of Hicks. “She played really well. She’s a really good player. … It’s just fun to have this experience. There wasn’t as much pressure as the first day. I’m happy to be down here and happy to place.”

Laurel's Buchinsky takes third place in final trip to state

As a freshman, Laurel's Danielle Buchinsky finished as the state runner-up in doubles.

As a sophomore, she was knocked out in the first round of the state tournament.

As a junior, she finished fourth.

As a senior, she claimed the third place title in Division II singles.

Buchinsky lost her semifinal match when shot after shot from her opponent was a winner – a forehand winner, a backhand winner, a service winner. She lost 6-0, 6-0.

Then her third-place match was a marathon match against Gilmour's Claudia Althans, who lost in the semifinal round to Gillinov. Althans and Buchinsky dueled out long rallys with sweet shots and big angles.

After four hours and the rest of the club empty, Buchinsky won 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4.

“Well Claudia has a really tough net game and a great all-around game, so I was sort of trying to look for the opening and end it with a winner because she was very consistent and made very few errors,” Buchinsky said.

Buchinsky completes her four years as a Gator as a four-time state tennis qualifier with three medals. She’s unsure about her college tennis plans at this point.

“It’s really been unbelievable,” she said. “I went into this freshman year and I didn’t even know what to expect. I had no idea what states was, coming out of it, the experience is just awesome. I’m so glad I was able to experience it.”

Division I

Singles

Semifinals: Sandberg (Walsh Jesuit) d. Hill (Massillon Jackson) 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; Hicks (Hamilton) d. Abele (Cincinnati Sycamore), 6-2, 6-4.

Third place: Abele (Sycamore) d. Hill (Jackson), 6-0, 7-6 (6).

Championship: Hicks (Hamilton) d. Sandberg, 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles

Semifinals: Berger/Jung (Upper Arlington) d. McNamara/Nahhas (Toledo Notre Dame) 6-4, 6-2; Thomas/Thomas (Pickerington Central) d. Chang/James (Dublin Jerome) 6-1, 6-1.

Third place: McNamara/Nahhas (Toledo Notre Dame) d. Chang/James (Dublin Jerome) 6-4, 6-5.

Championship: Berger/Jung (Upper Arlington) d. Thomas/Thomas (Pickerington Central), 6-3, 6-4. 

Division II

Singles

Semifinals: Rohrbacher (Sandusky Perkins) d. Buchinsky (Laurel) 6-0, 6-0; Gillinov (Hathaway Brown) d. Althans (Gilmour), 6-2, 6-3.

Third place: Buchinsky (Laurel) d. Althans (Gilmour) 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4.

Championship: Gillinov (Hathaway Brown) d. Rohrbacher (Sandusky Perkins), 7-6 (c), 6-1.

Doubles

Semifinals: Hawley/Showalter (Kettering Alter) d. Griebling/Earnest (Lexington), 6-3, 7-5; Areklett/Persky (Hathaway Brown) d. Young/Nakamoto (Orange) 6-3, 6-4.

Third place: Young/Nakamoto (Orange) d. Griebling/Earnest (Lexington), 6-3, 6-3.

Championship: Hawley/Showalter (Kettering Alter) d. Areklett/Persky (Hathaway Brown), 6-2, 6-2.

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