The Dublin Jerome High School girls tennis team manufactured a superb season a year ago. The Celtics were 17-3 overall in dual matches and won their fifth consecutive league title with a 7-0 mark in the OCC-Cardinal Division.

All seven players qualified for the Division I district tournament and one athlete advanced to state.

And that could just be an appetizer.

"I think we're going to do pretty well because we've got most of our team back and we've got a lot of depth," junior Kathryn Farrar said. "The main thing that's made us a good team is we've got good players on every court.

"We made it to the (Division I OTCA) state team tournament two years ago and we're working hard to try to get back there again."

Farrar leads a group of six returning letterwinners when Jerome opens today against Westerville North in an OCC-Cardinal match. Kelly Doran is the lone returning senior and Cailey Easdale, Nicole Mallory and Lydia Utkin are all juniors. Sophomore Emma Schnell is also back.

"Every single girl we have coming back has changed for the (better)," coach Anthony Susi said.

Last year, Utkin won her first Division I sectional title and Easdale placed third. Both of them finished 1-1 at district.

The doubles team of Doran and Farrar placed third at sectional before going 1-1 at district, and the doubles team of graduate Marissa Gill and Schnell went 2-2 to place fourth at sectional before going 1-1 at district.

"Lydia has experience rotating in at No. 1 singles, and that will help," Susi said. "Kathryn and Kelly both elevated their games quite a bit and they're going to play doubles for sure. Other than that, we're still working out who will play where."

Jerome finished first in the final OCC-Cardinal standings with 76 points, as all seven of its players went 3-0 on their respective courts in the league tournament to win titles.

"We're just lucky I guess, because talented girls come out for the team every year and our depth is better than ever," Susi said.

• Scioto -- which finished 12-7 overall last year -- opened last Wednesday against Chillicothe.

The Irish play host today to Olentangy in an OCC-Cardinal match, before playing Tuesday at Westerville South in another league contest and playing Wednesday at Thomas Worthington.

Back at first singles is senior Tessa Skillington, while freshman Kylie McGinnis is playing second singles and junior Elisse Cho has moved up to third singles.

Senior Zeenath Ameen and Nicole White have returned to play first doubles, while seniors Devon Chappell, Connie Chen and Misaki Ida, sophomores Anna Cherian and Liz Hart and freshman Jessica Xu are vying for playing time at second doubles.

"We've got some experienced players on various courts and we've got a lot of competition for the second doubles spots, so I'd say our depth is a little better this year," coach Mike Wrigley said. "Kylie's only a freshman, but she's obviously got some skill or she wouldn't be at this point already."

Ameen and White (first doubles) helped the Irish to a fourth-place finish in the league standings. They were third in the OCC-Cardinal tournament.

Scioto failed to place anyone in the top four at the Division I sectional at Upper Arlington to qualify to district.

Six of Scioto's players went 2-1 and lost in district-qualifying matches, including Skillington, the doubles team of Ameen and White, and the doubles team of Cherian and Hart.

"Liberty or Jerome would have to be the favorite to win the OCC," Wrigley said. "But I think we can be competitive with the rest of the teams and I'd like to see us finish third or fourth behind those teams."

• Coffman -- which finished 9-6 overall last year -- opens today at Reynoldsburg, before playing Saturday in the CSG Doubles Invitational.

Playing first singles will be freshman Ash Thenappan, while junior Ali Tzagournis and sophomore Jenny Yang will rotate at second and third singles.

Rounding out the lineup are seniors Claire Immell and Grace Rechel, junior Julia Sherry and sophomore Katie Fries.

"We lost some good seniors, but Ash looks like an almost-guaranteed win at No. 1 singles," Tzagournis said. "Having a strong singles player should make the rest of our team stronger."

The Shamrocks finished third (6-1, 57) in the OCC-Central Division last year, behind Upper Arlington (7-0, 80) and Worthington Kilbourne (5-2, 62).

Tzagournis was 3-0 at the OCC-Central tournament and won the third-singles title for a second consecutive year, defeating Upper Arlington's Paige Murphy 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 in the final.

"I think we should do the same as last year in the OCC, because our team's playing at the same level," Tzagournis said. "Individually, our goals are to have a couple of us win OCC titles and make it to
district."

At a glance

Coffman

Aug. 20 -- at Reynoldsburg

Aug. 22 -- at CSG Doubles Invitational

Aug. 25 -- at Groveport

Aug. 26 -- at Gahanna

Aug. 29 -- at Watterson Invitational

Sept. 1 -- at Thomas Worthington

Sept. 2 -- at Bexley

Sept. 7 -- Olentangy Liberty

Sept. 8 -- Hilliard Darby

Sept. 9 -- at New Albany

Sept. 15 -- at Hilliard Davidson

Sept. 16 -- Watterson B

Sept. 22 -- Worthington Kilbourne

Sept. 29 -- at Upper Arlington

Oct. 6 -- Pickerington Central

JEROME

Aug. 20 -- Westerville North

Aug. 22 -- at CSG Doubles Inv.

Aug. 25 -- at Olentangy Liberty

Sept. 1 -- at Westerville South

Sept. 2 -- Lexington

Sept. 3 -- at CSG

Sept. 8 -- Olentangy

Sept. 12 -- at Upper Arlington

Sept. 15 -- Marysville

Sept. 17 -- at Upper Arlington B

Sept. 21 -- Bexley

Sept. 22 -- at Dublin Scioto

Sept. 24 -- New Albany

Sept. 29 -- Westerville Central

Sept. 30 -- Columbus Academy

Oct. 1 -- Watterson

SCIOTO

Aug. 19 -- at Chillicothe

Aug. 20 -- Olentangy

Aug. 25 -- at Westerville South

Aug. 26 -- at Thomas Worthington

Aug. 27 -- DeSales

Sept. 1 -- Westerville North

Sept. 2 -- Upper Arlington

Sept. 8 -- Westerville Central

Sept. 10 -- Groveport

Sept. 15 -- Olentangy Liberty

Sept. 16 -- at Hilliard Darby

Sept. 17 -- at Pickerington Central

Sept. 21 -- Worthington Kilbourne

Sept. 22 -- Dublin Jerome

Sept. 24 -- at Big Walnut

Sept. 29 -- at Marysville

Oct. 7 -- at Hilliard Davidson

Oct. 13 -- Pickerington North