Irish sweep highest All-Clark County girls tennis honors

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Irish sweep highest All-Clark County girls tennis honors

Miller, Herzog helped Irish to 17-2 record, including solid wins over big-school foes.

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By Kermit Rowe, Staff Writer Updated 8:16 AM Thursday, November 19, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — As seasons go, this was the best Catholic Central High School has ever experienced in girls tennis.

Catholic Central put together one of the best seasons the area has seen in some time, going 17-2. Included in that record was a win over then Division I Miami Valley fourth-ranked Beavercreek and the Irish’s first-ever team tournament championship, at the Dayton Carroll Invitational.

When you have the All-Clark County Girls Tennis Player of the Year in senior Leah Ann Miller and the All-Clark County Coach of the Year in Bill Herzog, success is bound to follow.

Did Herzog expect such a dominant showing?

“To be honest, no,” he said. “Coming in, having players like Frannie (Trempe, second singles player and two-time district qualifier) and Leah Ann, we knew we’d be competitive. But you’ve got to win three to win a match.

“It’s just amazing how the season has gone.”

The emergence of foreign exchange student Lisa Lauf at third singles helped as she went 15-2.

“She really gave us that depth and allowed us to move Molly (Tehan) and Renae (Pavlatos) to doubles,” Herzog said.

And the rest is Catholic Central history.

“It’s surreal to see how far my team has come since my freshman year,” said Miller, who as a freshman had only four teammates. “We went from five girls the first year to go to 17-2. That’s awesome.”

Miller was a giant part of that history. She finished the year with a 28-1 record in 2009 and didn’t lose until the second round of the district tournament. Her career record is 97-11. She was even Central’s best recruiter.

“I got a couple of my friends to come out and play,” she said. “Once everyone came to the first practice, we were all set. We had fun. It was a great team atmosphere.”

And a great season.

Also on the All-Clark County Girls Tennis First Team were junior teammate Trempe (24-4 at second singles), junior MacKenzie Jenkins of Northwestern (18-2), Shawnee senior Amanda Stephenson (15-4), Northeastern sophomore Lauren Davy (13-6) and the doubles team of junior Brianna Moore and sophomore Helen Hua of Northwestern (15-4).

2009 News-Sun All-Clark County Second Team:

Singles

Kenzie Detrick, fr., Shawnee

Samantha Hastings, sr., Kenton Ridge

Kathy Hua, jr., Northwestern

Lisa Lauf, jr., Catholic Central

Manisha Nezhad, soph., Springfield

Doubles

Allison Tune, sr., & Sana Ahmed, sr., Springfield

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