LEXINGTON – Never have Cooper Remy and Philip Etzel felt so good about not being needed.
With the season coming to an end this week, Lexington’s boys tennis team finally got the signature win it had been looking for all spring.
And it happened with its two best players having zero impact on the outcome.
Remy and Etzel saw their five teammates do the heavy lifting and become the unsung heroes in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over visiting Ottawa Hills in the Division II district finals of the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association team tournament.
The win earned Lex the right to represent the Northwest District in the Final Four on Saturday at Mason High School near Cincinnati.
The OTCA state team tourney serves as an encore to the OHSAA individual state tournament Thursday and Friday in Mason at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, home of the Cincinnati Open men’s and women’s professional tournament.
This will be Lex’s 18th trip to the Final Four under Hall of Fame coach Ron Schaub, including all four years of Remy’s varsity career.
“I’m excited that we get to play one more day as a team,” Remy said. “We had a few tough losses this year to Wooster, Upper Arlington, Toledo St. John’s, Bexley and Centerville, but we finally got a big one today.”
Under the best-of-five courts format, Lex posted the necessary three wins to clinch Tuesday’s district title while Remy and Etzel were in the middle of their No. 1 and 2 singles matches, respectively. Remy was up 6-4, 0-1 over Henrique Marson and Etzel was in front of Chris Thompson 6-3, 1-3. Play ended at that point, with Remy and Etzel dropping their rackets and joining their teammates to celebrate.
“We didn’t have that one great win, but this one kind of does it,” Schaub said. “To go to state with this group will be fun.
“I tell the guys all the time, no one is more important than anyone else, just because of what spot you are in the lineup. We’ve got to win three spots (courts) somehow.”
Victory No. 1 came at No. 2 doubles as juniors Preston Huynh and Brighton Boemer took down Sam Skiver and Henry Sun 6-3, 6-1.
Victory No. 2 came at No. 1 doubles as junior Tony Palmer and senior Ben Wiltanger beat Ian Marzano and Sahil Parikh 6-0, 7-5.
And the clincher came at No. 3 singles with sophomore Jack Campbell posting the biggest win of his varsity career, a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ayaan Iman.
Normally a doubles player, Campbell was glad he could do his part to clinch the victory and take the pressure off of Remy and Etzel, unquestioned leaders of the program.
“This was a blast,” Campbell said. “Ron told me today I was going to play singles. And I was OK with that. I’m used to flipping back and forth (between doubles and singles). And to win that match (that sealed the state berth) feels great. Team state!”
On paper, the teams looked evenly matched. Ottawa Hills produced four OHSAA state qualifiers – Marson and Thompson in singles and Marzano-Parikh in doubles. Lex countered with three state qualifiers – Palmer and Remy together in doubles and Etzel in singles.
“I was a little bit worried,” Remy said. “We figured they’d be gunning for No. 1 and 2 (singles) and first dubs. Then I saw we won first dubs (after already winning No. 2 doubles) and I felt pretty good because I believed in Jack (at No. 3 singles).”
Etzel was glad his work day was cut short. He wanted to avoid another marathon with Thompson after beating him last Saturday in the OHSAA district semifinals 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-3.
“I’m glad I didn’t have to finish today because when we played last Saturday, it was a three-hour match,” Etzel said.
After surviving that battle, Etzel found his second wind and won the first set of his district title match 6-0, only to see Toledo Central Catholic’s Sebastian MacDonald rally for a 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.
“It’s not like I played bad Saturday,” Etzel said. “(MacDonald) was really good, and it was another two-hour match (on top of the three-hour semifinal). I was gassed from the first match, so even though it was disappointing, I wasn’t really upset.”
Palmer, who mostly played No. 3 singles this season for Lex, went into Tuesday’s partnership with Wiltanger riding the momentum of an OHSAA district doubles championship with Remy. They lost only one game in four matches, beating Marzano and Parikh 6-1, 6-0 for the title.
So even though his doubles partner was different, Palmer had to feel good about Lex’s chances in Tuesday’s rematch with Marzano and Parikh, especially since Palmer and Wiltanger had beaten that Ottawa Hills duo in last year’s district title showdown of the team tournament.
Palmer and Wiltanger won the first nine games of Tuesday’s rematch before settling for the 6-0, 7-5 decision.
Their win gave Lex a 2-0 lead and made that elusive signature triumph of 2026 almost a done deal.
“Preston (Huynh) said before we got started, ‘We’ll throw the wins out the window and we’ll throw the losses out the window. We’re only focused on this match. All or nothing,’” Palmer said, repeating his teammate’s pep talk. “We needed this one.”
Or as Wiltanger more succinctly put it, “We were starting fresh.”
And now they can start fresh one final time.
Joining Lex in the Final Four of the state team tournament will be Cleveland Orange, Indian Hill and Bexley. They’ve all got a rich history, like Lex.
In the OHSAA state tournament, Etzel will face Bexley senior Amiya Bowles, a three-time girls state champ and last week’s Central District runner-up, in the first round.
The OHSAA has given the Michigan State-bound Bowles permission to play in the boys tournament even though Bexley has a girls team.
“I’m pretty confident,” Etzel said. “I don’t mind it too much.”
In doubles, Remy and Palmer drew Billy Beseth and William Henry fromGates MillsHawken in the first round. If the Lex duo wins that one, its reward will likely be a quarterfinal showdown with Bexley’s Henry Lessard and Adrian Schriff.
Lessard, a Northwestern commit, has another year of high school eligibility remaining and has already won a state singles title and state doubles crown.
“We have a very, very tough draw,” Remy said. “We have the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals. But we are playing doubles, so anything can happen. In singles, there’s less upsets, but in doubles, it depends on the day. But it’s still a shock.”
Remy, who graduated last Sunday, has committed to Ohio Northern University, where he will be reunited with his brother, Ethan, and another former Lex teammate in Dylan Catanese. The older Remy and Catanese won a state doubles title in 2024.
The younger Remy would like to at least match last year’s second team All-Ohio honors, earned by virtue of reaching the quarterfinals in doubles with Etzel. This year, Remy decided to collaborate with Palmer because they played a lot of doubles together in the off-season.
“There will still be nerves,” he said, “but after last year, how close we were (to making it to the second day), I’m just ready to play this time.”
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Unsung heroes carry the day as Lexington reaches boys tennis Final Four
Reporting by Jon Spencer, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
