By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Covington Catholic doubles partners Kalei Christensen and Alex Yeager entered the boys state tennis tournament as the No. 1 seeds and defending champions. If that put any added pressure on the two juniors, it didn’t show.
After winning their first five matches in straight sets, Christensen and Yeager closed it out with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Aditya Shah and Walker Bush of Louisville St. Xavier in the state finals Thursday at the University of Kentucky.
CovCath senior Brady Hussey lost to Louisville Collegiate junior Colby Berson, 6-2, 6-4, in the singles final after upsetting the top-seed in his third trip to the semifinals.
CovCath had never won a state doubles title before last year. Christensen and Yeager worked hard to make it happen again.
“These guys have been troopers all year,” said CovCath coach Al Hertsenberg. “We played them at singles for a while and moved them back to doubles later in the season. They worked hard to get back to where they were even better than last year.”
During the state tournament, the CovCath duo’s closest victory was 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals. They took control early in the championship match and never let up to become the first Northern Kentucky duo to win back-to-back state titles in boys doubles.
“They’re both very different personalities on the court,” Hertsenberg said. “Alex is very level and calm and just business-like, and Kalei is a lot of emotion and takes more risks. But it works. They definitely know how to use each other to make the best of each point.”
It took more than two hours for Hussey to get past top-seed William Lewis of St. Xavier, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, in the singles semifinals. He then faced Berson, who was “on the top of his game,” according to Hertsenberg.
“With Brady, he tried everything in the final,” the CovCath coach said. “Pretty much as soon as it was over he went right over to cheer on the doubles team. He was typical Brady. He was happy for the team and looking forward to next week.”
CovCath will finish the season in Kentucky’s first state tournaments for boys and girls tennis teams on Monday and Tuesday.
Each of the state brackets has 16 teams. In each round, two teams will play three singles and two doubles matches. The one that wins three of the five matches advances to the next round.
“The one thing with team tournaments is you can adjust your lineup according to the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent,” Hertsenberg said. “We’re already looking at the bracket to see what our options are. We can use our guys interchangeably. We played them all in singles and doubles all year in preparation for this tournament.”