CSG's Priya Mehta is Dispatch regular-season girls tennis player of the year
The high school girls tennis season has reached the district tournament stage, and 16 Columbus-area players will find themselves at the state level by the end of the week.
Ten area players, most of whom have reached district, were featured in a poll to determine the central Ohio girls tennis regular-season player of the year.
All of the votes from Dispatch.com readers are in, and the winner is Columbus School for Girls’ Priya Mehta.
The senior is 11-2 at first singles but is making a postseason run in doubles with classmate Victoria Dizon for the second year in a row.
Mehta and Dizon, who split two matches in the Division II state tournament a season ago, went 3-0 at their home sectional and defeated Wellington’s Naomi Livits and Dea Singh 6-3, 6-0 in the final Oct. 4.
“Since her sophomore year, (Mehta) has played (No.) 1 singles and has done a phenomenal job leading us each season,” CSG coach Shelby Cheses said. “She’s a true team player and will do whatever is best for the team. Priya has an amazing worth ethic and her dedication to tennis is always visible at practice and during her matches. She put a lot of pressure on herself coming into the season as she has done so well in her past seasons.
“My goal as her coach has been to try to get her to relax, trust herself and have fun. She’s a great role model to all the other girls.”
Mehta widened her margin of victory in the final days of the poll, finishing with 48.49% of the vote. Columbus Academy sophomore Ella Tsao was runner-up (26.9%).
They were followed by New Albany’s Valentina Suslova (17.65%), Academy’s Gabrielle Stewart (2.59%), Watkins Memorial’s Nora Grennan (2.04%), Dublin Coffman’s Emma Zerbi (0.91%), Canal Winchester’s Ava Griggs (0.66%), Worthington Kilbourne’s Tyra Butler (0.4%), Olentangy Berlin’s Soleil Cordell (0.29%) and Upper Arlington’s Alexa Roth (0.07%).
All of these players are candidates to make our All-Metro girls tennis team, which will be revealed in November and honored during the Central Ohio High School Sports Awards in 2026.
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Priya Mehta is Dispatch regular-season girls tennis player of the year
