Congratulations to the Osceola High School boys' varsity tennis team, which won the 3A state championship on Tuesday, April 29 at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla. The team defeated Allen D. Nease High School 4-2 in the semi-final and Lawton Chiles High School out of Tallahassee 4-3 to take the title.
To complete the trifecta, Alessandro DeBernardo also won the singles state championship, and Alessandro DeBernardo and Alexander Rangelov won the doubles state championship.
The starters at the State tournament were: Alessandro De Bernardo, Alexander Rangelov, Leon Linetski, James Mellinger, Hayden Goodrich.
"In the finals against Chiles High School, the top two seeds who were evenly matched were pitted against each other," said Head Coach Alberto Lense. "Chiles was loud and played a hard-hitting style, trying to intimidate, but the Osceola boys kept their calm and simply went to work battling hard and making the opponents earn every single point."
The Osceola Boys tennis team went 15-0 this season and defeated Palm Harbor University for the Pinellas County Athletic Conference (PCAC) title. This is the second year in a row they have gone 15-0 for an undefeated regular season and won PCAC. They then went on to win the district tournament. In the regional semifinals, they defeated Jesuit High School and in the regional finals they defeated Parrish Community High School.
Alessandro De Bernardo defeated Gabe Garcia of Leon High School for the State singles title. Alessandro De Bernardo and Alexander Rangelov defeated Eric Ormsby and Hudson Taylor of Gulf Breeze High School for the doubles title.
"Alessandro left the Sanlando tennis complex with three well-earned gold medals," Lense said.
