Perhaps a sign of the perfectionist she is on the tennis court, New Albany High School junior Cristina DiLorenzo couldn’t help thinking about the match that got away in last weekend’s Division I district tournament at Hilliard Davidson.

“I was up 40-15 in the last set against Emma (Stein of Dublin Jerome in a semifinal), it could have been 5-all and I made an error,” DiLorenzo said. “Emma and I know each other well. It was a close match and a tough one to lose, but overall I think I played well.”

Had that happened one match earlier, DiLorenzo’s weekend might have been much different.

DiLorenzo qualified for the state tournament by defeating Upper Arlington’s Andi Smart 6-0, 6-0 and Jerome’s Caitlyn Merzbacher 6-4, 6-1. Her 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4 loss to Stein was only for seeding purposes at state, but DiLorenzo bounced back to earn third place with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Dublin Coffman’s Ashwatha Therappan.

“I was so close my freshman year, then I didn’t play much my sophomore year (because of tendinitis),” DiLorenzo said. “This has been the goal. It feels great to achieve it.”

The top four singles and doubles finishers advanced to state Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21 and 22, at Ohio State.

“She has a tremendous amount of confidence in her abilities and so do I,” Eagles coach Marc Thomas said of DiLorenzo. “If she plays up to her capabilities, she can hang with anybody. It wasn’t an easy draw. She worked very hard in practice and played with a lot of consistency.”

DiLorenzo isn’t totally unfamiliar with the state tournament. She was a spectator two years ago when then-teammates Meghan Buell and Maddie Kobelt won a doubles championship 6-2, 6-2 over Carolyn Pitman and Taylor Holden of Liberty Township Lakota East.

“I got a sense of how things go,” DiLorenzo said. “I just have to buckle down this week and treat it like anything else.”

DiLorenzo was the only Eagles player to advance, but not the only one to win a match at district. Freshman Jane Haffer won her first-round match 6-0, 6-3 over Olentangy’s Megan Brdicka, but lost in the qualifying round 6-0, 6-0 to Olentangy Orange’s Anna Sanford.

Sophomore Carol Vitellas lost 6-0, 6-2 to Olentangy Liberty’s Sydney Power in the first round. The doubles team of junior Kylie Hess and sophomore Alyssa Seneviratne lost 6-3, 6-4 to Pickerington Central’s Kyah Thomas and Peyton Klein and sophomore Priyal Reddy and freshman Emily Zhong lost 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 to Worthington Kilbourne’s Kelley Jiang and Claire Metka.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort this whole team has put forth this season,” Thomas said. “District not going the way we wanted it to doesn’t diminish how well they played.”