The Blanchester High School tennis team finished third Saturday in the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Coaches Classic Flight J tournament held on the BHS courts.

Seton B won the event followed by Monroe, Blanchester and Taylor.

“I think Seton’s B team was the best team there,” Blanchester coach Matt Sexton said. “They probably should have been in a higher flight. But I thought we competed well with them. It would have been nice to edge out Monroe, but to avenge our loss to Taylor from earlier this week was a good result.”

Grace Irwin of BHS won the second singles bracket by defeating Natalie Swope of Taylor 6-4, 6-2, Ellie Young of Seton 6-3, 7-5 and Hannah Cooper of Monroe 6-0, 6-0. She is 19-1 on the year.

“Grace beat two very good players to take home the title,” said Sexton. “She avenged her only loss of the season by beating Taylor on Thursday. She then got the first set against Seton, but the match was suspended due to the time cutoff. She got behind in the second set, but rallied to pull out the win. She is playing some very high-level tennis right now.”

Maddy Coyle at first singles and Annie Trovillo at third singles were both third-place finishers. The doubles team of Taylor Bradley and Rianna Mueller also finished third while Maggie Caldwell and Abbey Irwin were fourth.

Sexton also said of the remainder of his team, “Maddy ran into two very good players. Peterson from Monroe is so good. She beat Kayla last year, and she’s gotten even better. I thought Maddy played a very good first set against her. The Seton girl is only a freshman, but she’s got a ton of tennis experience. It’s been a while since Maddy has run into a top-level first singles player, and she saw two this weekend. She competed well.

“Annie had a great win Thursday and two tough losses Saturday. To be fair to her and Maddy, they haven’t lost a lot this year, so they haven’t had to come back from being behind. For that reason, it was an important weekend in the development of all three singles players.

“I think Rianna and Taylor would have liked to have that first match back on Saturday against Monroe. That Monroe team was solid, but I don’t think we played as well against them as we have been. Taylor and Rianna bounced back in a big way in their second match against Seton, who is very good. Seton B’s doubles teams were some of the best we’ve seen this year.

“It was a tough weekend for second doubles, but those were probably the best three second doubles teams we’ve competed against this year.”

Coyle is 16-4 and Trovillo is 17-3. Bradley and Mueller are 17-3 as a team.