COLUMBUS — Eighteen central Ohio girls tennis players head to the state tournament this week, led by a defending champion who has not lost a high school match in almost two years.
Olentangy Berlin senior Soleil Cordell won the Division I singles title last season and carries a 52-match winning streak into the Oct. 15-16 tournament at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. She went 27-0 last year and 25-0 this fall, dropping only one set since the 2024 final, and swept four district matches last week.
Cordell, a four-time state qualifier committed to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, is trying to become only the second repeat Division I singles champion this decade. She says she is going in with full confidence and treating it as a new year rather than a title defense.
The Columbus area will send six singles players and six doubles teams — four of the doubles teams in Division I and two in Division II. Rain is forecast for both tournament days, but the Mason facility has six indoor courts available if play has to move inside.
The local field is full of stories. Worthington Christian seniors Evie and Tori Bourgeois are 20-0 as a doubles team. New Albany juniors Claire Siegel and Valentina Suslova won a district title a year after Siegel missed a season with a torn ACL and Suslova’s own state bid ended with a leg injury.
Columbus Academy junior Ella Tsao won the Division II district singles title, and Olentangy Orange seniors Aaria Gala and Zoe Haar return to state as a doubles team after a third-place district finish.
