Ontario Warriors girls tennis achieves historic first in program history

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LEXINGTON — Ontario girls tennis coach Todd Friend might hurt himself in the process, but he is determined to add 2026 to the empty championship banner hanging in the O-rena at Ontario High School.

Even if he has to climb the ladder himself, he is going to dust the banner off and put the first numbers under the girls tennis section thanks to the Warriors fantastic 2026 regular season that concluded on Saturday, Sept. 26 with a 5-0 victory over Clear Fork that clinched a share of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship. It is the first league title in school history for the girls tennis program.

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“The banner will have a number,” Friend said with a laugh. “It will no longer be blank. I am just so proud of the girls and how they have improved and did things never seen before. The girls are playing great, have fun and they earned this. To do anything for the first time in school history is a big deal.”

The Warriors won every court 6-0, 6-0 with Ellie Dawson taking first singles, Blake Schwartz winning second singles, Saylor Smith and Mady Yoha winning first doubles and Lilly Gray and Ally Bell winning second doubles. Sophie Schuster won third singles via forfeit.

Schwartz, just a freshman, has been working on her game at Lakewood Racquet Club with her grandfather since a very young age. In her first varsity season, she can call her team a champion.

“It feels awesome that we can make school history,” Schwartz said. “It is really cool to do this my first year on the team. We all put a lot of work in and it feels great to see it pay off. This team is so special. We never, ever give up. We fight until the last point and we are always so positive with each other. The positive environment makes it so fun to play in.”

The Warriors dominated the regular season with a 17-1 record and their lone loss was to traditional tennis powerhouse Marion Harding. They exacted that revenge at the MOAC girls tennis tournament on Sept. 24 by winning a league record four court championships and recording 33 points, also an MOAC tournament record.

“Playing at Harding is hard,” Friend said. “It is an intense environment in a tough place to play against a very good team. We lost the first set in all five matches and came back to win the second in 4-of-5 matches, so ironically, our only loss of the year was maybe one of our best matches we played. That actually gave them confidence to play well in the tournament.”

During the tournament, which decided All-MOAC honors more than it had any implication in the final team standings, Dawson, Schwartz and Schuster swept the singles brackets while Bell and Gray won the second doubles bracket and Smith and Yoha were second in first doubles for one of the most dominant days in MOAC tournament history.

It carried over as the Warriors polished off an outstanding regular season with the sweep over Clear Fork.

“I am so proud of us,” Smith said. “I haven’t been playing tennis very long, so it really isn’t that deep for me, but I am just so happy for and proud of my team. It hasn’t hit me yet, but Todd cried, so you can tell it means a lot.”

Smith, one of just two seniors on the roster, only picked up tennis last year and has already left her mark.

“I play doubles with Mady and she is amazing so she really just carries me and makes up for my inexperience and lack of skill,” Smith said laughing.

Yet, she will see her senior year number up on the banner for years to come.

“Honestly, it does make me very proud,” Smith said. “I haven’t been able to do something like that and to have it for tennis which quickly became my favorite sport is amazing.”

Smith’s story is similar to many of this year’s Warriors. Gray only started playing tennis in the Warriors’ last preseason practice. Most haven’t played more than 3-4 years.

“What makes me happiest is we have several girls who picked the sport up recreationally as something that just sounded fun,” Friend said. “Now, you see them spending extra time at Marshall Park playing when our practice times end or we have an off day. They call each other and just play for hours and they enjoy the game.”

And that is why Bell believed the Warriors are champions.

“It does mean a lot,” Bell said. “We worked so hard for this moment. We are a great group of friends so our chemistry helped us get through the season to a championship. First time winning MOAC felt so good and to do it with Lilly makes it special. Just so proud.

“We won this for a reason. We have such a talented team full of friends. I couldn’t think of a more deserving group. We have just been super determined to put in hard work and it paid off.”

Ontario now heads into the Division II sectional tournament on Oct. 1 at Shelby High School as they seek individual glory after achieving their team goals. They have had state qualifiers in 1976, 1996, 1997 and 2008 and will try to end an 18-year drought.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ontario Warriors girls tennis achieves historic first in program history

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