District Tennis: Local Magnificat doubles team, Amherst's Katelyn Bussard advance to state tournament

BATH TWP. — Three from Lorain County will be making the trip to the Division I state tennis tournament this week. Magnificat's Elizabeth Ammori and Marissa Packer, Avon and Avon Lake residents, respectively, finished runner-up in the Division I Northeast district doubles draw, while Amherst's Katelyn Bussard took fifth in the singles bracket Saturday morning. All three will represent Lorain County at the Linder Family Tennis Center in Mason. The first two rounds will be played Thursday with the semifinals and placement matches Friday. While none of Avon's five district qualifiers reached the state tournament, the Eagles will compete in the state team semifinals Saturday at a site to be determined in the Cincinnati area. Ammori and Packer are both making their second state tournament appearance, both doing so last year in doubles, with Ammori reaching the quarterfinals. "I'm excited to go back," Ammori said. "Last year I had a lot of fun and it's cool to go back with a lot of other really good people. It's a serious environment there, so I'm going to come in with a serious mentality and hopefully we can make it to Friday." The pair advanced to the final with a 6-1, 6-1 win against Rocky River's Lily Crull and Allie Huff, but lost to Massillon Jackson's Ashley Helle and Claire Williams 6-4, 6-2 in the championship. Magnificat won the first three games in building a 4-1 lead against Jackson, but the Polar Bears adjusted and rattled off 20 of the next 26 points for five straight games to take the opening set. Jackson ultimately won 10 of 11 games before trading holds to close out the title. "Once it hit 4-1 and we were up, they started being more aggressive," Packer said. "I think it came down to just them outplaying us at the net." Bussard, a sophomore, is making her first trip to the state tournament. While she elected not to play last fall, she did compete with the boys in the spring of her freshman season and lost in the sectional tournament. She had to navigate a tough sectional — the top two singles seeds from Solon ended up playing for the district championship. On Saturday, Bussard faced a familiar opponent in Avon senior Ashley DeHaven for a spot in the fifth-place match. She defeated DeHaven 6-1, 6-1, then took fifth with a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win against Strongsville's Mallory Koch. It's the second straight year a member of the Bussard family will represent Amherst in the state singles draw after her older sister Kayla qualified as the No. 4 seed out of the Northeast district. "I'm happy," Bussard said. "It's really cool because she went last year and now I get to go. It's nice that we both got to do it. I played a lot of these girls over the summer in tournaments. So I kind of know them a little bit. I feel like I played well this week." As for DeHaven, it's the second straight year the senior fell one match shy of the state tournament. She will leave Avon a four-year varsity starter, playing third singles on a loaded 2023 squad that finished district runner-up in the state team tournament and then anchoring Avon at first singles the past three seasons. She's a three-time district qualifier, doing so in doubles as a sophomore. She'll have two more matches Saturday in the team state semifinals and then either the championship or third-place match. "I'm really glad I made it to the state qualifying round because that's where I made it to last year," DeHaven said. "I'm glad I made it to districts. Some of the draws this year were really hard, so being a second seed from my section was great. The season ain't over yet, we're still going to go down to Cincinnati and compete as a team." In Division II, sophomore Elise Latessa made her first district appearance and came one match from ending Elyria Catholic's 17-year state tournament drought. She defeated Sophia Watkins of Ravenna 6-0, 6-1 in her consolation semifinal, then ran into Hathaway Brown's Lucia Holliday in the fifth-place match. The Northeast district only sends five to the Division II state tournament and Holliday clinched the final bid with a 6-1, 6-1 win against Latessa. "It was really exciting to play against high-level players," Latessa said. "(Holliday's) serves were really good and she was hitting really hard. I just couldn't combat that well. I'm hoping to just get better as a player and improve this offseason." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.