The large banner proclaimed the University of Kentucky’s Back-2-Back Southeastern Conference men’s tennis tournament championships and the Wildcats’ regular season title.
Covington Catholic repurposed it Tuesday.
The Colonels won their second straight boys team title at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center. CovCath beat Louisville St. Xavier 3-1 in the semifinals and shut out McCracken County, 3-0, in the finals.
“It feels pretty great,” senior Ryan Scheper said. “I got to be a part of it.”
CovCath not only won its second title in school history – the Colonels became the first school besides St. Xavier to win at least two in a row since Louisville Trinity did it from 1991-1993.
“I do not take this for granted,” CovCath coach Al Hertsenberg said. “We were runner-up a number of times, we were third place, we were fourth place, always knocking on the door. Last year, the door opened for us, but this year, we knocked it down. These guys, there was no doubt about it; they knew what they were doing.”
What was abundantly clear: CovCath won with only 10 players on the roster – pretty impressive considering St. Xavier lists 33 and McCracken has 17.
Tuesday’s tournament featured a return to a team format in featuring three singles players and two doubles teams; the first to win three takes the match.
CovCath clinched the 2023 team title when Kalei Christensen and Alex Yeager won the doubles. Christensen thought Tuesday’s win was much more satisfying.
“Oh my gosh, without a doubt,” Christensen said. “It’s definitely nice in a team atmosphere. I felt kind of selfish when we won (last year). Everyone contributed this week.”
The Colonels didn’t need state singles runner-up Brady Hussey to take down St. Xavier – not when Yeager beat Mac Bowman (6-0, 6-0) in No. 2 singles, Christensen and Blake Hussey defeated Aditya Shah and Walker Bush (7-5, 6-2) in No. 1 doubles, and Jacob Kramer and Will Tribble bested Henry Wagner and Nolin Underhill (6-3, 6-1) in No. 2 doubles.
Brady Hussey won the first set over Will Lewis, 7-5. He broke Lewis’ serve for a 2-0 lead in the second set when CovCath clinched the win.
St. Xavier’s lone victory came in third singles; Jacob Ray bet Owen Erpenbeck, 6-1, 6-1.
McCracken County was a surprise finalist; Hertsenberg thought North Oldham would be the opponent.
“We’ve done our homework on every team, but we’ve done our least homework on McCracken County,” Hertsenberg said. “We give McCracken County credit.”
From the opening serve, it seemed as if either a CovCath player, parent or other grown-up hollered “Let’s Go Colonels!” every 10 seconds.
“We pride ourselves on the energy,” Brady Hussey said. “We knew today we’d have a ton of energy and make it a college atmosphere.”
It forevermore worked against the Mustangs.
Start with Brady Hussey. In his final high school match, he took down Aaron Lundberg, 6-1, 6-0.
“Brady had four aces in a game,” Hertsenberg said. “You don’t see that very often.”
Tribble and Kramer beat Conner Campbell and Jack Thompson, 6-0, 6-1, for the second point. At around 1:09 p.m. Christensen and Yeager, who claimed their second straight individual state championship last week, gave the Colonels the team title when they beat Wyatt Crabtree and Hayden Taylor, 6-0, 6-1.
CovCath graduated four seniors – Brady Hussey, Scheper, Erpenbeck and Jacob Brown.
“It’s nice to go down as a two-time state champ,” Hussey said. “Last match on a win, it’s how I wanted to go out.”
