Boys Tennis: Finding balance between individual, team success crucial to Eagles, Vikings
Monday, March 25, 2024
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
New Albany’s Jackson Clements is one of the Eagles’ returning standouts, having made it to the state quarterfinals as a sophomore last season. File photo
Amassing deep pools of talent has helped the New Albany and Columbus Academy boys tennis teams remain among central Ohio’s annual favorites.
The battle for spots in both programs’ lineups can be as competitive – or more so – than a key league or OTCA tournament match for both the Eagles, who compete in Division I, and the Vikings, who are in Division II.
For teams as talented as these two programs, building what Eagles senior Ben Bilenko calls a “winning culture” and balancing individual goals with team goals is the backbone of their success.
“I would say that I’d like the glory of being the first singles player on my team, but I think team success is valued more,” Bilenko said. “There’s still the individual tournament at the end of the season. We have such a standard of excellence is the best way to describe it.”
As a state qualifier in doubles in each of his first three prep seasons, Bilenko represents a prime example of the unselfishness that’s necessary to help a program like New Albany reach the top.
The Eagles have had plenty of superstars over the years.
Peter Kobelt, a 2009 graduate, became the program’s first singles champion as a senior and also won a state doubles title in 2007.
Robert Cash captured the state individual title as a junior in 2018 and Ryan Mudre teamed with Devin Boyer when both were seniors in 2021 to win the state doubles title. Boyer also won a state doubles title as a freshman in 2018 with 2019 graduate Nathan Jose.
Along the way, the Eagles reached the state team tournament every season from 2016-22, including finishing runner-up three times during that period and placing third in 2022. Last spring, New Albany lost to Olentangy Orange 3-0 for the district title.
“We’re lucky enough that we have good players that train a lot in the offseason and have a considerable commitment to tennis,” coach Marc Thomas said.
“Obviously there’s going to be a competitive side. They do want to play and be a part of these big matches for our team. One of the things about the culture of our team that’s made us successful is that we’ve always had really strong individual players, but we’ve always had that buy-in from players like Robert Cash, Nathan Jose, Devin Boyer, Ryan Mudre … all these guys (had success) individually, but they always put the team first and the goals of the group first. In my mind, that’s always benefited the individuals, but the more we focus on putting the team first, I feel like they’re a part of something that’s different than they’d be a part of in other places.”
Columbus Academy’s Lucas Xue during his first round win at the Division II state tennis tournament last year. File photo
Last season, Gahanna Lincoln’s Brandon Carpico beat Pickerington North’s Pavan Uppu for both the district and state championship singles titles. Carpico now competes for Ohio State while Uppu is at Drake.
Jackson Clements, who finished third at district and reached a quarterfinal in singles at state, is back as a junior and likely will be at first singles again for New Albany.
Junior Abhinav Dandu, who lost to Upper Arlington graduate and eventual state-qualifier Ethan Samora in a district quarterfinal, also has returned in singles for the Eagles.
“We do everything together as a team,” Clements said. “This was the first year we’ve started lifting together, and we don’t really care what we play in the lineup. We just want to win.
“I played the whole year last year at first singles, and it puts a lot of pressure on me, but I think it’s awesome. I feel like I got a lot better. I’ve definitely been working really hard. It’s definitely going to take all of us putting in our all and a lot of focus and hard work this year.”
Sophomore Tyler Thomas teamed with Bilenko to earn a district runner-up finish and reach a state quarterfinal in doubles last spring.
Senior Jack Satow is another player coach Thomas is high on.
“We have four of our top seven coming back, and we’ve got two other guys who played a bit of varsity as well,” coach Thomas said. “We lost in a district final to Orange, and give them credit because they had a great team. I feel like we’ve had really one of the best offseasons we could have had. We’ve had to make adjustments, and this group has gotten off to one of the best starts we could have had. We’ve already grown a lot.”
While Marc Thomas has been the Eagles’ girls coach since 2011 and New Albany’s boys coach since 2013, Academy has a new coach in Preston Eberlyn after Marc Wurtzman headed the program last season.
Columbus Academy’s Rowen Lo (pictured), with his brother Nason, played doubles in the first round of the Division II state tennis tournament last season. File photo
Eberlyn, who also served as Academy’s girls coach beginning last fall, has a trio of returning state qualifiers to build around this season in juniors Lucas Xue and Rowen Lo and sophomore Nason Lo.
Xue was district runner-up in singles behind Wellington’s Sanjan Shanker, a returning senior who, like Xue, reached a state quarterfinal.
The Lo brothers lost to 2023 graduate Stefan Schiff and returning junior Sam Lessard of Bexley for the district title but avenged that loss by beating the Bexley duo in the state consolation to finish third.
As a team, the Vikings made it to the OTCA state event for the second time in three seasons and finished third overall.
Academy last won the state team title in 2009.
“Our coaching staff approached the girls season last fall and the boys team with the philosophy that you have to have an appreciation of the sport of tennis since it’s something they’ll play for the rest of their lives,” said Eberlyn, who was Academy’s middle school boys coach last spring. “Tennis is one of those sports where you can have one really good player, but you also need to have two other courts if you want to win the match. We’re really in it together, so being there in all the practices and cheering until the end is crucial.
“We do challenge matches the first couple weeks just to find out the order of strength, but one of the things we’re very fortunate about is their willingness to play singles and doubles. Some of our best doubles players would make good singles players. When you have depth, you have that flexibility for where you can place players.”
Xue and Rowen Lo are expected to be the team’s top singles players.
Junior Jacob Khvalsky, who reached a district semifinal in doubles with 2023 graduate Saaga Arya last spring, and sophomore Ian Chang also should be key players for the Vikings according to Eberlyn.
Academy has no seniors on varsity.
“It’s been coming together pretty well,” Xue said. “We have a brand new coaching staff, and our team is relatively young, so I’m really excited to see how it goes. I made it to district as a freshman and last year I just became stronger physically, hung in points a little more, and my stamina got better.
“Everyone definitely has their own goals on the team, but we’re always trying to get everyone to bring the energy for someone else. As long as I’ve been here, a tradition is to say ‘Go Vikes’ and get everyone to say it. Things changed with our coaching staff and the new members of the team, but the tradition of working hard with everything and winning matches hasn’t.”