Saint John’s Hoza, Madison’s doubles team advance in sectional girls tennis tournament

Ashtabule County tennis players, plus Madison, were among the schools to compete in the Division II girls sectional tournament Tuesday.

Edgewood, Jefferson, Madison and Conneaut were at the Hawken site; Saint John at Boardman and Geneva at Strongsville.

Maggie Hoza, of the Heralds, and the Blue Streaks doubles team of qualified for the quarterfinals, moved closer to the district, but still have big matches Thursday.

Hoza defeated Struthers’ Peyton Socha 6-0, 6-0; Poland’s Sofia Elia 6-3, 6-2 and Liberty’s Mary Ann Woods 6-1, 6-0.

“Maggie stepped up and played great today,” Saint John coach Todd Nassief said.

Hoza is slated to play Ursuline’s Grace Reichard at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Boardman.

Madison’s Anna Cook and Brookelyn Chapman captured 6-0, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-3 wins over Ravenna’s Molly Caicco and Emilyh Scibelli and Conneaut’s Hope Gleason and Abby Brecht.

“They are playing their best tennis now,” Blue Streaks coach Keith Brainard said of his duo. “They have put together a couple exceptional weeks of tennis.”

Cook and Chapman are scheduled to play Woodridge’s Isabella Smole and Claire Gregory at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Cook and Chapman took the first-singles title during the recent Chagrin Valley Conference Lake Division tournament.

Meanwhile, Lakeside ended its season in the D-I sectional tournament Monday at Solon.