Photo by Cody Nespor Linsly's Rachel Ekanem prepares to return volley against University's Lyla Byers in the OVAC No. 1 singles championships match Tuesday.

WHEELING — It came down to the final matches of the day, but the result was still what everyone has come to expect. Playing in the indoor tennis bubble at Wheeling Park due to the weather Tuesday, the Linsly girls tennis team took home the OVAC 1A-4A team championship for the 11th year in a row.

“I’ve been very blessed with some great players,” said Linsly coach Dave Riethmiller. “It’s been quite a run.”

Out of all 11 titles, Tuesday’s win may have been the most dramatic one of all.

Entering the final round of championship matches, Oak Glen led Linsly by a single point, 15-14, in the team standings. Each team had one player in the final round, giving host to a number of possible outcomes depending on who won which match.

Linsly had Rachel Ekanem in No. 1 singles and OG had Kittawana McKinley in No. 3, both were playing girls from Class 5A champion University.

Ekanem, Linsly’s senior captain, was able to claim an 8-6 victory over University’s Lyla Byers, who was the top seed in the bracket and had beaten Ekanem earlier this season.

“I’ve played her multiple times and it’s always kind of been like this,” Ekanem said. “I knew that it would be a tough match but I planned and I’m glad that I was able to pull it through in the end.”

In defeating Byers, Ekanem claimed her second consecutive individual championship and pulled the Cadets into a 15-15 tie with the Golden Bears in the team standings.

“It was just completely overwhelming how I felt because that was my very last high school single match that I will ever play,” Ekanem said. “I was just overwhelmed with such joy and satisfaction. It was such a wonderful match and I enjoyed every minute of it, the good and the bad.”

The Cadets then gathered as a team to watch how McKinley’s match would conclude. McKinley fell 8-0 to University’s Emma Rusiecki, keeping the team scores tied at 15-15. The tiebreaker was the number of individual champions, meaning that Ekanem’s win tipped the scales for the Cadets to claim the trophy.

“I really thought (Oak Glen was) going to take it this year,” Riethmiller said. “It was sweet, especially for it to come down to a match like that where our captain, Rachel, pulled it out for us. That meant a whole lot for her.”

For Oak Glen coach Ken Keller, the feeling was very familiar.

“This is the second time we’ve tied and the second time that they won because they had more champions than us,” he said. “We thought we had them this year, but Linsly’s tough.”

Even after 11 straight championships, Riethmiller said the excitement of winning never gets old.

“This was really fun, really exciting,” he said. “We were behind the whole time, I really thought that Oak Glen was going to edge us out. They’ve been our competition pretty much the whole (11 years). They’ve got a great program and a great coach.”

Along with Ekanem, Olivia Rosenthal and Kate Bondarchuk each advanced to the semifinals in the No. 3 and No. 4 brackets, respectively, and Ava Bartlett won a match in the No. 2 bracket as well.

Riethmiller said he was particularly impressed by his team’s performance given that Rosenthal and Bartlett are both freshmen.

“They did a great job coming in here as freshmen,” he said. “A lot of times, freshmen will come in here and look like deer in headlights.

“We tell them that it’s going to be a totally different atmosphere than the regular season. We tell them to just try to look calm and collected and to smile and laugh and your body can kind of be fooled by that.”

For Oak Glen, Lyndsay Reynolds and Gabie Pasco advanced to the semifinals in No. 1 and No. 3 singles, respectively, and Katie Zoellers won a match in No. 2.

University won the 5A team title 24-16 over Morgantown, claiming championships in No. 2 singles, No. 3 singles, No. 1 doubles and No. 3 doubles along the way. Morgantown won in No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles.