Dragos braces for huge showdown in state tennis semis

COLUMBUS – The fashion police had a difficult time tracking down Lexington senior Mason Dragos on Friday. Maybe he'll be just as hard to collar in Saturday morning's Division II singles semifinals of the state tennis tournament.

Dragos breezed through his two matches on a Friday that began strangely when teammates Matt Youse and Tommy Barkett were told by an OHSAA official to change out of their "OCC Champs" shirts before their first-round doubles match.

Apparently, any wording on shirts has to be more generic, like school name or nickname. Dragos, attired like his teammates, got through his opening match before anyone noticed.

"We're rebels I guess," joked coach Ron Schaub.

Despite the odd start to the tournament for the Minutemen, the day ended just like last year's first session — with Dragos advancing to the semifinals and the Youse-Barkett tandem going 1-1 to earn second-team All-Ohio honors.

In what is viewed as the de facto state championship match, Dragos, a three-time All-Ohioan and third-place medalist last season, will meet two-time defending champ Asher Hirsch of Cincinnati Country Day in the 9 a.m. semis on the Ohio State courts.

Hirsch lost a total of two games in his two matches Friday, while Dragos was nearly as dominant — ousting freshman Andrew Pregel of Indian Hill 6-0, 6-3 before gunning down ninth-grader Connor Birnat of The Wellington School 6-3, 6-0.

"He looks good," said Schaub of Dragos, who missed a good portion of the season recovering from an accidental shooting. "He's strong; he's got a good head on his shoulders. He shouldn't have to take an ice bath after today."

Dragos, the first four-time district singles champ in the history of Lex's storied boys program, will also try to become the first state singles finalist. He's one of three third-place finishers, along with Ty Schaub (the coach's son) and Nicky Wong.

Dragos is 2-2 against Hirsch, all of them USTA matches except for a win when they were freshmen in the state team tournament. Dragos' victory vaulted Lex into the finals, where they lost to University School. The Minutemen won the state title Dragos' sophomore year.

Hirsch has state tournament history on his side, but the Lex lefty has proven a worthy opponent.

"You have to be consistent, hit a lot to his backhand ... and hope he's off," Dragos said. "I was hoping to have two easy matches today so that when I play him I'd be fresh."

Dragos' wish came true. His first bump in the road during the post-season came when he fell behind Biernat 3-2 in the first set, but the Central District runner-up didn't win another game as Dragos began hammering winners.

"I was a little off at first, making a lot of errors, but I tried to play more consistent and got a rhythm going," Dragos said. "I think it's harder to play a freshman because they can go for broke. There's more pressure on me."

Once the T-shirt flap was behind them, Youse and Barkett easily took the first set from Coshocton twins Jim and Sam Magness before needing to rally from a 2-5 deficit in the second set for a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) victory.

In the quarters, the Lex duo split sets with Cincinnati Wyoming's Myles Bourbon and Will Carter and seemed to have the momentum after winning the second-set tiebreaker 7-3. But with the 6-foot-6 Bourbon capitalizing on his power at the service line and wingspan at the net, he and his partner were able to regroup and advance with a 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-1 victory.

"You have to hit it to the sun to get it over (Bourbon)," Youse, a three-time quarterfinalist in doubles, said. "It's a bummer, especially being my senior year. I really wanted to get to the second day. I thought we had them after the second set, but we couldn't get our returns in. Third sets can be funny."

Normal strategy goes out the window when facing someone who looks like he should be in the gym working on his reverse dunks.

"He's got a huge serve and he's tough once he gets that going," Schaub said of Bourbon. "You try to stand back farther (on service returns), but then he's also a force at the net. He's going to hold serve 90 percent of the time, but we were able to break him twice in the second set.

"At this level, there's a very small margin for error."

Lex's other state reps, cousins Jansen and Luke Webster, fell 6-2, 6-0 to Shaheel Mitra and Vishaal Nalagatlia of Cincinnati Country in the first round. The Cincy tandem is still alive in the semis.

Looking ahead to Saturday morning, Lex assistant coach Rob Michels admits it will be impossible to be true to his school. His college anyway.

Michels will be staunchly in Dragos' corner even though Hirsch has signed with reigning Big Ten champion Illinois. Michels is a proud 1975 Fighting Illini alum.

"I'm not torn at all," Michels said, smiling. "I'm all Bulldog."

He was referring to the Butler University Bulldogs, whose tennis program Dragos will be joining this fall. Maybe he should be "all bulldog" in his approach to playing Hirsch.

"It's Mace," said Schaub, not discounting his star's chances of dethroning the king. "It's hard to explain, but he's got that 'it' quality."

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