Hawks record-setting tennis season concludes

The Hiland Hawks doubles tandem of Cameron Yoder and Cole Reynolds knew what they wanted to do in their third match of the day in District action Friday, May 25, one that would have sent them to the Div. II State tennis tournament.Only their bodies wouldn’t listen.A great day of tennis saw the doubles team and Hiland singles teammates Braxton Mullet and Spencer Yoder all get at least one win at the District tournament before bowing out having made a very nice showing.A hard fought victory in their second match of the day against a tournament’s top seed left the doubles team physically tired, and the talent on the other side of the net facing them in that final match was too much to overcome.The doubles team of Yoder and Reynolds knocked off the Southeast No. 8 seed team of Hicks and Donaldson from Wheelersburg rather easily, before squaring off against Hart and Wilburn, the Southeast No. 1 seed from Waverly.In a grueling three set match, the Hawks pushed the top seed to the edge, and then shoved them over, recording the day’s biggest upset.With a State berth within their grasp, the Hawks duo had to face a familiar foe in Danny Nelson and Nate Ewing of West Holmes.The two backyard rivals went at it, West Holmes winning the first set easily 6-2, before a spirited second set saw the Hawks claim a thrilling 7-6 (7-4) victory to force the deciding set.West Holmes took an early 2-1 lead, and broke the Hawks, quickly rolling to a 6-2 victory.“It’s nice to say after the career that those two had that they were playing their best tennis at the end,” said Hiland coach Tony Mullet. “They were right there at the play-in match to go to State. They just really ran out of gas.”“We got tired,” admitted Reynolds. “I think that match before we played Danny and Nate really took a lot out of us physically. We ran out of gas. But we were happy because we both felt that we played well here, and that is all you can ask.”Reynolds said of losing to the Knights, “They’re good guys and they really played well. We played well too. It was a good match. If we had to lose to someone to go to State, I am glad it was them. I hope they do well.”As for Yoder, unheralded heading into the Sectional tournament and able to pull off the lone upset of a seeded player there, the opportunity to end his career at Districts was fulfilling.Getting to win a match at Districts was even better.“That was nice,” said Yoder of the win over Zach Johnson of Washington Courthouse. But that, too, was a long, drawn out affair, and with little time between matches Yoder was no match for the Southeast’s top seeded Reese Leibreich from Hillsboro.At one point, after failing to get a lob over Leibreich’s head, Yoder knocked a high lob about 10 feet beyond the end line.“Was that out?” asked Yoder jokingly to Leibreich, a State qualifier last year, bringing plenty of laughter to the moment, enough that Leibreich had trouble settling into his next serve without giggling.Braxton Mullet, who figured to have a shot at getting out, erased his first opponent, Drake Berlin of Washington Courthouse, rather easily, before being subdued by Southeast No. 2 seed Nick Johnson of Valley.“It felt like Braxton actually peaked just a little too early,” said Coach Mullet of his son, who had played some very inspired tennis in winning both the Northeast Tennis League title at first singles then winning the tough Dover Invitational the week before Sectionals.“He wasn’t quite as sharp as he had been, but as a junior, I really think he has an excellent shot at State next year with a pretty big turnover in graduation.”