District tennis: Severin Kretchmar's win streak halted, but he becomes first Vermilion boys' state qualifier in 60 years

Even though Severin Kretchmar's postseason winning streak came to an end, the Vermilion sophomore has a lot to be excited about. Kretchmar rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to win his semifinal match against Ottawa Hills' Savith Vijendra 7-5, 6- at the Division II Port Clinton district tournament Saturday. He ultimately finished as the district runner-up, losing 6-2, 6-0 to Lexington's Karl Etzel. "It means a ton to me," Kretchmar said. "All year, it's all I've talked about with my dad. I'd ask do you think I can make it to state, and he'd tell me to focus on the season. I'm very happy, I never thought this would happen, but I'm playing extremely well right now so I'm really happy about that. I've been focusing on consistency, keeping the ball in until I can get the ball I want to put away." Kretchmar will take a No. 2 seed into the Division II state tournament, which begins Thursday at 9 a.m. He improved to 28-5 with his semifinal win, now seven better than the previous school record for singles wins in a season. He's the first player from Vermilion to qualify for the state boys tennis tournament since Ronald Brown in 1963. "It's super exciting to get someone to state," Vermilion coach Terry Anders said. "Coming into the season we knew he had great expectations and really put in the work in the offseason. His mom and dad are super committed to supporting him, getting him to USTA tournaments, to workouts with a lot of Lorain County kids like those boys from Avon. Then to come in and make it count on the court is really amazing. I'm proud of him and happy for his family that all this hard work has paid off with a berth in the state tournament." Kretchmar entered Saturday undefeated in the postseason and improved that streak to eight with his semifinal win. But Vijendra came out and took the first three games, something Anders largely attributed to Kretchmar coming out a little too aggressive. After switching gears, Kretchmar rattled off seven wins in nine games, then took control of the second set. "I needed to move him around and was hitting down the middle too much," Kretchmar said of the slow start. "I wasn't playing the game I needed to and got caught kind of sleeping out there." Etzel, who played second singles for most of the year and is a key reason why Lexington is in the district finals of the Division II OTCA state team tournament, used a variety of shots to keep Kretchmar off balance. "Even though he lost that second match, his serves were really, really consistent," Anders said. "His service game really came through today so that's something that needs to carry through. Other than that, he just needs to stay loose and ready to go. And if nothing else, the bottom line is to just enjoy this experience. We're all kind of riding his coat tails and enjoying this ride here. "If nothing else, we're going to enjoy this experience, go down there and do our best on Thursday." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter.