North Canton celebrates as Hoover star Tess Bucher makes history at OHSAA state tennis

WOOSTER — Coaches! Teammates! Family! Fans! Snack bar lady!

Get over here!

Everybody wanted in the picture, and those who didn’t want in got pulled in.

Tess Bucher’s victory in Friday’s state finals turned into a loud, laughing, massive community celebration.

Why not?

Girls tennis is a community treasure in North Canton, and now a Hoover girl had delivered Stark County’s first OHSAA Division I state championship. Only one other county player had ever worn a state girls tennis crown — Celena McCoury, who won two Division II state titles in the 1990s for St. Thomas Aquinas.

Friday’s action got rained inside. The state semifinal and final matches unfolded indoors at Aspen Racquet Club, 40 miles west of North Canton.

Bucher won two marathon three-set matches against seniors who really had game, Solon’s Natalie Smitek and Westlake’s Amara Brahmbhatt. She won the state championship in her last chance, her fourth final four. “This was always the goal, and now it’s reality … it sounds crazy,” Bucher said as the crowd went wild on the second-floor observation from which her fellow Hoover Vikings and cheering section watched history unfold.

The ecstasy that broke out at 4 in the afternoon was nowhere in sight at 10 in the morning.

Disappointment seemed very possible when Smitek beat Bucher 7-5 in the first set.

Bucher hadn’t lost a set in 2023 prior to this week. Smitek changed that Monday when she took a set before falling to Bucher in a separate event, the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association team tournament.

Getting a scare from Smitek was no fluke. When Bucher was a junior, she lost only one match prior to falling in the 2022 OHSAA state finals, that coming to Smitek in the season opener.

This time their battle went three hours.

Bucher fought passionately but was not on her game in falling behind 5-6 in the first set.

Six times, Smitek had set point, but Bucher answered. When Bucher lost the set on the seventh match point, she jumped in frustration.

Smitek’s seemed calm throughout the set. Bucher’s body language could have filled a book as she flipped her racquet, kicked the air and tossed back her head at varying points.

During a break, at the net, Bucher told assistant coach Joe Concialdi it was her worst match of the season. She wasn’t feeling it. Some days are like that, Concialdi replied … make the best of whatever you’re feeling.

Former state boys champion Michael Rubin, who practices with Bucher, spoke a steady stream of encouragaments from the top deck. “C’mon now, Tess. Keep going. Right now.” A few times, Bucher glanced at Rubin and took deep breaths.

She began to play better. Errors she had made suddenly were ones Smitek was committing. Midway through the second set, the flustered body language came from Smitek.

When Bucher won the second set 6-4, Smitek turned toward her people in the observation area and lifted her arms, which seemed appropriate to marathon points, close line calls, high expectations and the rapids of pressure flowing through “states.”

Bucher had a 3-1 record against Smitek in the last two years. She made it 4-1 by surging to a 6-2 win in the third set.

That put Bucher in the finals against Brahmbhatt, who fell to Bucher 6-2, 7-6 in the district finals six days earlier. They were evenly matched stars coming from different mindsets.

Bucher seems to have loved the experience of being part of a high school team. Brahmbhatt didn’t even have a high school team in 2022, using other training means to prepare for a college career at Michigan State.

After her match against Bucher, as to attaching to a high school season, she said, “It was good to play some matches before college. It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Not that she was disinterested in facing Bucher.

“She’s a great player and so am I, and I think that was the perfct final,” she said.

The first set was the opposite of perfect for Bucher, who fell behind 0-3.

“I told myself to be more aggreessive,” Bucher said. “I told myself, if I’m ever going to play my best, it needs to be right now. I knew I was the best player out there.”

Smitek was a big, strong opponent, but she seemed to hit the ball no harder than the compactly built Brahmbhatt.

“I’m not going to powerdpuff the ball,” Brahmbhatt said. “My goal was to hit hard.”

Bucher gathered herself earlier than she had against Smitek. As her game came in, she sometimes suprised Brahmbhatt with her ability to return seeming winners.

“(Bucher) gets everything back,” Brahmbhatt said.

Bucher rode her ‘A’ game from down 0-3 to winning the first set 6-3. Bucherbhatt won the second set 6-3.

“I had her in a bad spot, but she started playing better, and I started play a little worse,” Bucher said. “I lost a little confidence. It was kind of anyone’s game in the third set.”

Bucher went to a break in the third set and sat down in front of head coach Ryan Shaffer.

“I looked at her and said, ‘What do you think?'” Shaffer said. “She said, ‘I don’t have anything left. I’m exhausted.'”

I got down on my knees and said to her, ‘I know you better than that. That’s not you talking. You prepared for this.’

Bucher saved her response for the court. She ranged baseline to baseline tracking down Brahmbatt’s best balls. She got more first serves to hit, winning the point almost every time she did. Her finesse shots found ideal landing spots.

She broke serve early and was in command. although pressed, in taking the third set, 6-4, setting off the state championship celebration.

“Being ranked No. 1 the entire year, staying undefeated. and beating her two biggest rivals five times within a week were remarkable accomplishments,” Concialdi said.

“Today’s matches against Smitek and Brahmbhatt were pretty much the same match,” Shaffer said. “I felt Tess was the better player in both matches.”

She needed to just play, and in the big moments she did, she played her game.

Reach Steve at [email protected]

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Tess Bucher of Hoover wins OHSAA state girls tennis championship