Girls tennis: Four area players set to make their district debuts

First experiences last a lifetime. When six area players take the court at the Springside Athletic Club in Akron for the Division I and II Northeast district tournaments Wednesday, it will be a new experience for four of them. For Midview's Katarina Yates and Amherst's Kayla Bussard, it's not just their first district appearance, but both ended long district droughts for their programs. While Yates was handed her first loss of the season in the Division II Strongsville sectional final, she won her first 28 matches and is the school's all-time wins leader at 92-18. She will now try to become the school's second state qualifier, regardless of gender, joining D.J. Spice, who won the boys state singles championship in 2000 and 2001. "It's really exciting because I get to play more tennis and prolong the season," Yates said. "It definitely feels good to represent my school and create new goals for the up-and-coming high school students." Bussard has also played first singles since her freshman year. She entered this season with a 25-10 career record, but has nearly doubled her wins total this year alone by going 23-7 overall and 22-5 at singles. The last two seasons she lost in the Magnificat sectional tournament to Avon's Denver Johnson, a three-time district qualifier and the Eagles' all-time wins leader. This time around, she qualified without much resistance then upset Melanie Statsevych, the No. 2 seed, 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals. While Bussard won the regular-season meeting, Statsevych had to retire after leading 6-4, 4-3. "To me, it's showing that I've actually improved and that I've gotten better than I was freshman year," Bussard said. "All the hard work I put in the last two years is actually paying off. It wasn't all for nothing, that's just what it means to go to districts." Avon and Avon Lake are no strangers to the district tournament, but two of their top players are. Elizabeth Meiners, a mainstay in the Avon Lake's lineup since her sophomore year, was key in helping the Shoregals reclaim the Southwestern Conference title. Avon Lake went 7-0 in the regular season and finished as co-champions with Avon when the Eagles won the tournament title. Meiners and Autumn Korey, also a senior, make a strong doubles team at 7-1. The only other time they played together this season was when they won the first doubles title at the always-competitive Highland Invitational on Sept. 7. The pair hold identical 25-4 overall records with Meiners primarily playing second singles in the regular season and Korey first doubles. Korey is making her third straight district tournament appearance and chasing her second straight state tournament bid. "We're going to go in playing aggressive start to finish," Meiners said. "We just want to do all the right things. In the sectional, I think we were going for all the right shots, we just got a little unlucky at times, but, hey, at least we went for the right shots. We just have to keep that mindset." Avon sent six out of seven members of its lineup to the district tournament last year with Ashley DeHaven the only one to not make it. The sophomore moved from third singles to first singles this season and posted a 10-9 record, including a third-place finish at the Southwestern Conference tournament. She's now 13-11 overall after going 3-2 in doubles at the Magnificat sectional with senior Maddie Heun, who is making her second straight district appearance and played second singles for Avon throughout the year. Heun is 18-8 overall. DeHaven said she and Heun are best friends off the court and their complementary styles made it easy to team up for the postseason. "It's really rewarding because I practice a lot year-round and it's finally starting to pay off a little bit," DeHaven said. "It's very special. Last year was super fun, I loved last year, but this year I'm going to get to have this experience. I love playing with Maddie, she's super good at the net and I'm better at the baseline so that just makes a perfect match." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.