Ottawa tennis solid all around in 4-1 win over Pontiac

OTTAWA — The Ottawa boys tennis team was solid in many areas, according to coach Matt Gross, in Thursday’s dual with Pontiac at the Henderson-Guenther Tennis Facility.

The Pirates swept the three doubles matches while splitting the pair of singles contests for a 4-1 win over the Indians.

“It was a good day overall,“ Gross said. ”I saw all of the guys doing a lot of the things we’ve been talking about and working on in practice.

“I talk a lot about finding that line between being aggressive and smart when it comes to shot-making. We did a good job with that. Then we also want to be able to adjust to what our opponents are trying to do and what weaknesses they might have that we can take advantage of. I thought we did an excellent job in that area as well.”

Ottawa’s No. 1 doubles team of senior Noah Gross and junior Evan Krafft defeated Pontiac’s Santi Pina and Zack Legner 6-3, 6-1; while at No. 2, the Pirates senior duo of Caden Walter and Landon Sawin topped the Indians’ Tim Logan and Abe Jean-Jaques in a tiebreaker 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.

At No. 3 doubles, Ottawa’s Tucker Ditchfield and Kaden Araujo were victorious over Pontiac’s Daylen Orsowy and Hudson Simmons.

“We’ve both been working hard in practice with our play at the net, and today I feel like that was one of the better parts of our game.” the senior Ditchfield said. “We are both pretty tall and have a pretty big wingspan, so being active at the net is something we need to do.

“I also think we just played steady. Not taking too many chances or forcing things that weren’t really there, but still staying aggressive.”

“I agree with everything Tucker said, but would also add that I thought our positioning was really good,” Araujo, a junior, said. “I thought we communicated well and did a good job of covering the court if we got a little out of sync.

“I feel like we were consistent and didn’t make too many mistakes overall. It was a good day for us.”

In singles, Pirates junior Ayden Sexton recorded a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over the Indians’ Owen Masching at No. 1, while Ottawa No. 2 senior Collin Olszewski dropped a 6-1, 7-5 (5) decision to Pontiac’s Kole Donze.

“I was really happy with how consistent my serves were,” Sexton said. “I’m not really a player that tries to really hit my first serves hard, I feel like it’s more important to have high percentage. That was one key for me today.

“The other was really just keeping the ball in play as much as I could. I felt like I did a good job of picking spots to go for winners while also staying with the easy shot when I needed to.

“I like playing the baseline, but (my opponent) was really trying to bring to the net. I felt like I adjusted pretty well.”

Ottawa is back in action Saturday hosting a quad meet.