Making a statement: Lex takes big step toward OCC title

LEXINGTON – His Lexington Minutemen had already clinched Thursday's tennis showdown with archrival Ashland, but that wasn't good enough for Blake Webster.

He didn't want Lex winning in spite of him.

In the last match to finish, Webster rallied from a one-set, 0-3 deficit to beat Nolan Glazier 3-6, 7-5 and then 10-8 in the tiebreaker at No. 1 singles to seal Lex's 5-0 victory over the visiting Arrows.

"I didn't want to lose because of my winning streak," said Webster, who is unbeaten this season, mainly playing No. 2 singles. "I heard that the team had already won (clinching it with a 3-0 lead) and I was halfway through the second set, down 3-0. I'm thinking, man, I better step up. I had to get everything back.

"For me, it was just hit it back, no matter what. Don't hit it hard; just let him make the mistakes. If he's going to beat me, he's going to have to work hard because I wasn't going to give up."

Ashland can take a little solace knowing it won the Ohio Cardinal Conference the last two years despite both times losing the dual match with Lex. But those matches were 3-2, so with each team point scored in a dual counting toward an OCC title, the Arrows came away with only one less point than Lex, not five like Thursday.

They'll have to make up those points somehow in the May 5 OCC tournament at the College of Wooster. In tourney play, each OCC team is awarded so many points depending on where it places in No. 1, 2 and 3 singles and No. 1 and 2 doubles.

Lex is 4-0 in OCC duals, while Ashland falls to 3-1. Lex has given up only one point in conference play.

"We talked on the bus ride home that this is not over by any means," said Ashland coach Rick Crooks, whose  team is looking for an OCC 3-peat after snapping Lex's eight-year reign in 2016. "We are going to have to play better, though, and we'll probably need some help from Wooster and maybe even Mount Vernon. That's probably the only chance we have of winning three in a row.

"That still feels good saying that because I never thought we'd win it once the way it was going  ... being second for so many years."

Benton Drake, a sophomore like Webster, beat Glazier's older brother Tommy 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, while senior Josh Mueller, a full-time team member for the first time since he was a freshman, downed Jack Schultz 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.

In No. 1 doubles, it was Blake Webster's twin Brent and cousin Luke Webster beating Luke Blackley and Justin Seamour 6-4, 6-4. The No. 2 tandem of Ajit Venkatakrishnan and Benton Drake's older brother, Spencer, topped Ryan Frazee and Andrew Furness 3-6, 6-3, 10-3.

"When (Ashland) said they were going to get a 3-peat, we decided as a team, no, that's not going to happen," Blake Webster said. "So we all stepped it up."

Benton Drake echoed those sentiments.

"We had a lot of determination to come in and say, OK, this year is our year," he said. "We're thinking, let's make them think about not even winning one (match). That's why we were aiming for every single match. We needed to play hard and make sure they knew this was our year."

Lex coach Ron Schaub has repeatedly praised Drake for putting more time in during the offseason than anybody else.

"Last year I had just come off wrestling and was nowhere near where I needed to be," Drake said. "This year, over the summer, I played every day for a few hours. I put in a lot of work. I quit wrestling. During the fall and winter I played every day and played in USTA tournaments just to make sure I was ready."

Schaub had Drake and Blake Webster switch in the lineup because they had beaten the Glazier brothers at No. 2 and 3, respectively, in last year's OCC duel match. Drake was done soon enough Thursday to watch his older brother pull out a tough one at No. 2 doubles.

Spencer Drake played tennis when he was younger, but needed a little push from his kid brother to pick up a racket again. 

"He came back for his senior year. He said, you know what, I'll do this," Benton Drake said. "He started playing really good. He and Ajit are really good friends and they make a great doubles team.

"Once he started playing, he enjoyed it again and I didn't have to bug him anymore."

Lex handed Ashland its only dual loss of the season and has another big OCC match coming up Wednesday against Wooster. Ashland has already beaten Wooster 3-2, winning three-setters at No. 3 singles and No. 1 and 2 doubles.

"I'm not making any excuses, because (Lexington was) better than us, but we have had no consistency at all this year," Crooks said. "A lot of teams can say the same thing because of the weather."

Crooks keeps a daily time sheet that needs to be turned in at the end of the school year.

"This spring, I can't believe the number of 'zero' hours marked on the timesheets because there were days it was either raining or snowing and we were unable to practice," Crooks said.

Lex can always practice inside Lakewood Racquet Club when the weather is nasty, and that probably played at least a small part in the Minutemen pitching a shutout Thursday.

"Everybody played well," Schaub said. "Everybody looked really strong."

He hopes to repeat himself when the two schools get back together in two weeks.