Western-Star.com

Waynesville High School's boys tennis team will need a little help in order to extend their streak of Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division championships to five.

Winners of the last four titles, the Spartans enter today's SWBL tournament at Thomas Cloud Park in Huber Heights in second place behind Carlisle.

"It's going to be tough to beat them," Waynesville coach Dale Bowman said.

"We're going to need someone to step up and win a match that he lost earlier in the year to somebody, and we'll need a Carlisle player to lose a match that they earlier won.

"Carlisle is pretty strong all the way around. They are definitely The team to beat."

The Indians handed Waynesville its only loss in league play this season, but Bowman feels he has the roster to keep the Spartans in contention until the very end.

"We've got a lot of depth and a lot of options to look at in order to put the best lineup out there for the league tournament," Bowman said.

"We'll take a long, hard look at things and try to put together a lineup that gives us the best chance depending on the matchups. We can afford to do that, because of Ben Roeser."

Roeser is the Spartans' virtual lock at first singles.

The Waynesville senior is undefeated in league play this spring and recently was awarded the top seed in next week's Division II Princeton sectional.

"Ben just has too much experience for most of the guys he faces," Bowman said.

"Unless something really strange happens, he should win the first singles bracket."

Bowman is also expecting second singles Cory Hopwood to push for a title, despite a surprising loss to Madison on Monday, May 12.

"Cory's had a great season, he just wasn't on his game Monday and that was the first time he's lost in league play this season," Bowman said.

The other constant for the Spartans has been Luke Schwerdtfeger at first doubles.

He's teamed with a host of players this season — Ben Chamberlain, Dustin Riley, Kyle Knepper, Matt Unger and Arick Downard — and Bowman is still unsure which player will pair with Schwerdtfeger in the tournament.

It's also unknown who will play third singles among Adam Konen, Brett Tardiss and Andy Howeller.

"I can't say enough about these kids and how much they've improved over the course of the season," Bowman said.

"I'm not afraid to put any of them in there regardless of the situation.

"We're going to have our hands full trying to catch Carlisle, but anything is possible."

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.

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