The second day of the state tennis tournament featured Howard County entries in all five brackets, ensuring that local players would place top-four or better in boys singles, girls singles, boys doubles, girls doubles and mixed doubles.
Although no Howard County player came home with a state championship this spring, it was a memorable and successful season for Howard County tennis.
Atholton junior Matt Sklar defended his county champion and regional champion titles by holding off a strong challenger in Centennial freshman Rom Kotnana. Sklar finished fourth in the state tournament, fueling his fire to take the next step next year as a senior. Kotnana, who led the Eagles to a regular season championship, will pose a difficult challenge, however.
Sklar's teammate, Victoria Kogan, sat out last year to focus on USTA competition, but returned for her senior year to take another run at the state title. She eventually emerged as a regional champion and state finalist, but not after falling to Marriotts Ridge sophomore Abby Thornton in the county finals.
Thornton, now a two-time county champion, is on pace to win four county titles, and led the Mustang girls to their second straight regular season title.
In doubles play, River Hill's Prateek Swamykumar and Nick Zhu fell short of defending their state title, finishing third, but dominated at the county and region tournaments.
Mt. Hebron senior Serene Mathew joined sophomore Tess Weber to go on a memorable girls doubles run, as Mathew won her first county title and advanced to the state semifinals for the first time, finishing third.
Centennial's mixed doubles team of Jazmin Walle and Andrew Tsai led the Eagles to their first County Cup in a decade, ending Atholton's run of three straight, and finished third at the state tournament to go along with their county title.
Reporter Andrew Conrad, who covered Howard County tennis all season, sat down recently to go over the highlights of a memorable 2015 campaign. Watch the video above to see the recap.