Eric Min’17. (Inji Kang’19/Media)

After winning the district title by default, seniors Austin Lawrence and Eric Min advanced to the state tournament for doubles. Their first round of matches took place on Friday, May 26. 

The duo was matched up against Blak and Luke Webster of Lexington High School. After winning the first set 6-4, they dropped the next set 3-6. The Vikes recovered and advanced to the state quarterfinals.

Later that day, Lawrence and Min faced seniors Milan Bhandari and Christiano Lima of Indian Hill. In a tightly-contested match, Lawrence and Min recovered from dropping the first set and pulled away to earn a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory, which allowed the Vikings to advance to the semifinals.

On Saturday, May 27, Academy took on Hawken seniors, Michael Lee and Josef Horwath , with a spot in the state final on the line. Lawrence and Min finished the match tremendously, winning the last 11 points en route to a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. 

Next, in a nail-biting match 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, Lawrence and Min fell to seniors Vishaal Nalagatla and Justin Baker of Cincinnati Country Day. 

This was Lawrence’s second straight year in the state doubles final, and sadly it ended with his second straight runners-up trophy.

Despite the disappointing loss in the final, this concluded another solid season for the Vikings. They finished as the 6th ranked team in Ohio Tennis Zone’s D2 rankings and ended with a good run in the tournament.