Victoria Kogan's comeback tour hit a serious snag last week. The Atholton senior, who won Howard County and regional titles as a freshman and was a state finalist two years ago before taking off last season to focus on USTA play, was swept, 6-0, 6-1, by Marriotts Ridge sophomore Abby Thornton in the county championship, preventing the Raiders from winning their fourth consecutive County Cup.
But in Friday's Region V championship at Howard High School, Kogan got back on track in a major way by defeating Thornton, the two-time county champion, 6-3, 6-1, to lead the Raiders to the team title over County Cup champion Centennial, 22-17.
"Victoria was back on her game. She was very tight and tired at the county tournament, but seemed well-rested for the regional," Atholton coach Michael Ashmead said. "Her service game was great and that was the biggest turning point in the match. She did a much better job moving Abby around and off the baseline. She played more offense than defense in her hitting pattern."
Aside from Kogan's turnaround against Thornton, each of the other county champions from a week ago repeated with titles in the regional finals against the same opponents.
Atholton junior Matt Sklar, who defeated Centennial freshman Ram Kotnana in a third-set tiebreaker in the county finals, had another extended battle with Kotnana, this time prevailing, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
All of the county doubles champions managed to repeat with straight-set regional titles.
River Hill's defending boys doubles state champions Nick Zhu and Prateek Swamykumar continued their impressive run by defeating Marriotts Ridge's Christian Tringali and Connor Bivens, 6-0, 7-5.
Mt. Hebron's Serene Mathew and Tess Weber defeated Centennial's Gaby Schito and Lexi Hackerman, 6-2, 6-2, giving Mathew, a senior, her third regional girls doubles championship. Their win helped the Vikings to a third place finish in the team standings.
Finally, Centennial's Andrew Tsai and Jazmin Walle marched on to the state tournament, besting Mt. Hebron's Will Chanmugan and Stephanie Carroll, 6-0, 6-3.
The top two finishers in each bracket advance to next week's state tournament at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House tennis courts. The preliminary rounds are scheduled for Friday morning, May 22, beginning at 10 a.m., continuing with the semifinals on Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m. followed by the championship finals at 1 p.m.