Girls tennis: Avon Lake double steam of Elizabeth Meiners and Autumn Korey one win from state

BATH TWP. — Avon Lake senior doubles players Elizabeth Meiners and Autumn Korey know exactly where they stand. If they win their first match Friday at the Springside Division I district, they'll be headed to the state tournament. If they lose, their high school careers will be over. That scenario was set up Wednesday on the first day of the district event, as Meiners and Korey downed Highland's Lily Hantz and Kenzie Pawlak 6-1, 6-0 in the opening round prior to falling 6-2, 6-3 to Hoover's reigning district championship team of Addison Shell and Ema Papcke. Because Northeast Ohio has more D-I tennis teams than other areas of the state, the Springside District sends six singles players and six doubles teams to the state tournament, which will be held at the College of Wooster. If Meiners and Korey, who finished second last week at the Springside sectional, are able to defeat Solon twin sisters Olivia and Isabella Liu, who finished second at the Solon sectional, they are guaranteed of finishing no worse than sixth and possibly as high as fifth. "We're going to play our game," Meiners said. "We're going to keep the ball crosscourt and put the ball away when we can." "Confidence is what we lack," added Korey, who qualified for the state doubles tournament last year with twin sister Amber, currently injured. "When we lose confidence, we lose too many points. We have to keep each other up and smiling. I think that will be key." After beating Hantz and Pawlak 3-6, 6-3 and 10-7 in a tiebreaker played in lieu of a full third set at the Highland Invitational early this season, Meiners and Korey had no shortage of confidence in their rematch with the Hornets. "We were locked in," Meiners said. "Autumn hit some really nice volleys and we were just really confident out there on the court." Meiners and Korey also won several nice points and extended a number of others in their match against Hoover, but the Vikings were just too talented. "They hit some really good shots," Korey said. "Sometimes it just doesn't go your way." That also was the case for big-hitting Amherst singles player Kayla Bussard and the Avon doubles team of Ashley DeHaven and Maddie Heun, who saw their seasons come to an end with first-round losses. Midview singles player Kat Yates will open D-II district play this morning at Springside. Bussard, who was seeded third and finished second at the Magnificat sectional, fell 6-4, 7-5 to Archbishop Hoban's resilient Karlie Nicolae, who was third at the Springside sectional despite going in unseeded. "I just made mistakes on the important points," Bussard said. The Amherst junior led 5-2 in the second set, only to drop five straight games. "I just got nervous," Bussard said. "Then I told myself, 'It's just one game,' but it spiraled." To her credit, the calm and collected Nicolae did not give up on the second set in an attempt to save energy for a third. "It's happened to me before," she said of players coming back against her. "I knew I just had to keep a good mindset and keep grinding." DeHaven and Heun, who were fourth at the Magnificent sectional despite being unseeded, played well in a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Walsh Jesuit's Lauren Stephens and Eva Amourgis, who were coming off a Springside sectional championship. "I thought we played really well," said Heun, a senior. "They were just a little more connected than we were. We weren't really expected to win. The pressure wasn't on us, so we had room to do what we wanted to do and not be stressed." Despite being an underdog, DeHaven entered the match expecting to win, like the sophomore always does. "All you can do is put your best foot forward," she said. "I didn't play that great. I feel like I was overhitting my technique, and I had to take some heat off to be more consistent. It was a close match considering they were a No. 1 seed and we were fourth." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.