Marion Harding boys tennis duo finds district success in Division I tournament

• The Marion Harding boys tennis doubles team finished one win away from qualifying for the Division I state tournament.
• The Lisieckis made the transition from singles to doubles seamless.
• It was the first time Harding boys tennis won a district match since 2007 and its first in the Central District since 2001.

UPPER ARLINGTON — The Marion Harding boys tennis doubles team finished one win away from qualifying for the Division I state tournament. However, the Lisiecki brothers have no regrets.

"We did what we expected," sophomore Sebastian Lisiecki said, following the D-I district tournament held Thursday morning at Upper Arlington. "We got a good win in the first round and played a really tough team. In the second round, we did the best we could and played a good match. It’s a good season and happy feelings. Not much resentment or anything."

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The same went for his older brother Alexander, a senior.

"I’m definitely feeling most proud," Alexander said. "Sebastian and I were strictly singles players all season, and we really had to get it together for this tournament over these last couple weeks. I think we did a great job. We played a lot of doubles. We really became a solid team and a great team, and I want to thank Coach Ellis for that because he set up a lot of great opportunities."

Singles to doubles

Both competed as singles players during the regular season. Alexander at No. 1 and Sebastian at No. 2 each finished as first-team Mid Ohio Athletic Conference honorees. But doubles was in their future.

"The singles bracket is always brutal at the sectional/district/state level," Alexander said. "It never gets easier. We thought we had a better chance at doubles, and it paid off. We had a lot of great draws."

The Lisieckis made the transition from singles to doubles seamless.

"It’s different. It’s a different flow, and you have to get used to it," Alexander said. "I think being brothers probably helped us. We didn’t really have any arguments. We clicked at the right time over these last 10 days especially."

Marion Harding boys tennis coach Dustin Ellis had no reservations in teaming up the Lisieckis for the postseason. To get them ready, he had them practicing all over central Ohio in the last couple of weeks against other elite competition in order to prepare them for the rigors of D-I doubles tennis around Columbus.

"We’ve gotten a lot better doubles-wise over the last couple of weeks because they had to play singles all year," Ellis said. "There’s a lot more strategy in doubles. It’s serve placement and movement. It’s different formations when you line up on serve. Returns are way harder than they are in singles. It’s really a different game."

But they were up to the task.

"We really brought it together when we needed it most. We pulled off a pretty good win here in the first round, but that second team is a great team," Alexander said.

The tournament run

Last year Alexander and older brother Matuesz, who graduated in 2023, advanced to the D-I district tournament as a doubles team. This year Lisieckis Version 2 made it deeper into the postseason.

The Presidents duo, seeded No. 1 at the D-I sectional in Pickerington, opened the tourney with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Gahanna Lincoln and a 6-1, 6-0 win over Olentangy Berlin. They advanced to the sectional final by knocking off fourth-seeded Watkins Memorial 6-4, 7-5, then lost to the DeSales team of Gabe Arbona and Brandon Heil 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to end as sectional runners-up.

At Thursday's district tourney, the Lisieckis started with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Luka Young and Aiden Palcheck of Worthington Kilbourne to advance to the quarterfinals. A win in that round would have guaranteed a state berth, but New Albany's Ben Bilenko and Tyler Thomas prevailed 6-1, 6-1.

"It is tough knowing we were one match away, but it is a really tough team. It wasn’t an, ‘Oh man, we lost.’ They did what they should have," Sebastian said.

Still, the brothers made some school history. It was the first time Harding boys tennis won a district match since 2007 and its first in the Central District since 2001.

"You’ve got to take it one point at a time," Alexander said. "If you go out on the court and you’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re about to make history,’ you have to lock in and you can celebrate when you are done. We put a lot of work into it to get as good as we are. I think we made a pretty dang good doubles team. It paid off tremendously."

Sebastian agreed with his older brother's assessment.

"I wouldn’t have asked for a better partner," he said. "It was a great time practicing and prep. Everything. I wouldn’t have asked for anyone else to do it with."

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