ELLICOTT CITY, MD — The boys tennis match between Atholton and Centennial on Monday had the makings of a classic showdown. At 5-1, defending Howard County champion Atholton was hoping to hand Centennial (8-0) its first loss. To add intrigue, the Raiders' defending county champion, Matt Sklar, was facing Centennial freshman Ram Kotnana, who is also undefeated.
Then the weather got in the way.
"We actually haven't played a whole lot of matches because we've had a lot of rainouts. Hopefully we can make them all up before counties," said Sklar, who was trailing Kotnana by one game early in the match before thunder forced the postponement. "I was looking forward to playing him. I heard his name, but I wasn't really familiar with how he played. It's a close match so far. The points have been really long and grinding, so it's definitely testing my endurance. I don't usually hope for rain delays, but this will help today."
With only two weeks to go until the county tournament, and some teams having up to 10 matches still to complete coming into this week, there is a long way to go to determine a regular-season champion. Some matches will likely be turned into doubleheaders, and some have already been postponed until the week after the county tournament.
"The season has gone pretty well considering we've only had two or three practices since the season started," said Centennial coach Erin Fisher, whose team defeated second-place River Hill (7-2) on April 21. "The boys are doing very well. We have a lot of depth and they're very strong. A lot of them practice outside of here on the weekends and indoors."
Kotnana, who came into high school having excelled in the USTA tournament circuit, has been a big part of the Eagles success, along with the boys doubles team of juniors Andrew Deng and Vincent Liu, and junior Andrew Tsai at No. 2 singles.
Kotnana "is awesome. He goes out and just enjoys playing. (Sklar) is definitely the toughest competition that he's had so far ... it's like the clash of the titans right now," Fisher said. "He was a surprise that we didn't know we were getting until he tried out and you could tell he was going to be great for Centennial tennis."
River Hill is also still in the mix, behind senior Nicholas Zhu and sophomore Prateek Swamykumar, who won a boys doubles state championship last spring, and senior Shasta Braithwaite.
The Hawks handed Atholton its only loss earlier this season, so the outcome of Centennial's matches with Atholton and River Hill will likely determine the county champion, whenever weather will permit them to play.
"We're all jammed up with our schedules," Atholton coach Michael Ashmead said. "We're fighting. We got caught off guard at River Hill, but now everything is running a lot more smoothly."
Mustangs look to defend girls title
Although Marriotts Ridge is undefeated at 9-0 and putting itself in strong position to defend its county title, the girls race is just as hotly contested as the boys with two weeks remaining. Mt. Hebron (9-1) and Howard (5-1) aren't far behind the Mustangs with one loss each, while Centennial (6-2) and Atholton (4-2) have the singles players who are most likely to give sophomore Abby Thornton — the Mustangs' defending county and regional champion — her toughest challenge in singles play.
"We still have a tough road ahead," Mustangs coach Scott Dingman said. "Abby Thornton and (senior) Alana Ravasio are leading the way in singles and we have had many different combinations in doubles (led by junior Anna Xi) who have helped to strengthen our line up."
Centennial sophomore Jazmin Walle should give Thornton a good fight, as she did in the county and regional finals last year. But Thornton's most dangerous challenger is Atholton senior Victoria Kogan, who was a state finalist in 2013 but sat out last spring to focus on tournament play. Kogan, who has committed to play collegiately for Division I George Washington next year, has been cruising so far this spring.
"She is a much stronger player. I hate to say this, but that year that she did USTA really improved her game, just in terms of ball placement. She was good her freshman and sophomore years, but she is like a rock star now," Ashmead said. "It's refreshing to know that she can just go out and play her game and not have to worry about anything."
"It's been fun," Kogan said. "I definitely missed all of the players on the team."