TROY — Troy junior Nina Short knew it would be tougher to go it alone this year in the Troy D-I sectional action.

Trojan sophomores Izzy Lutz and Maile Romberger never even gave qualifying for district a thought.

But, all three earned district berths at the Troy D-I sectional opening round Wednesday at Troy High School and Troy City Park.

Short and the doubles team of Lutz and Romberger were scheduled to play Saturday in sectional semifinals and finals to determine their seed at district.

Short, who had advanced to district the last two years in doubles with Liz Niemi — is the second seed in singles.

She was scheduled to play third seed Lily Braswell of Northmont in the semifinals Saturday morning at 9 a.m. D-I will play at Troy High School.

“It was a lot tougher (to make it to district in singles),” Short said. “Doubles was much easier with having Liz (Niemi) playing with me. I have my expectations high. I want to win the sectional, just because we were sectional champs last year. But, I know those are pretty high expectations.”

After defeating Sienna Gilman of Greenville 6-0, 6-0, Short founder herself in a battle with Vandalia-Butler’s Ava Petty before winning 6-3, 6-3.

“It didn’t go the way I expected today,” Short said. “Because, I struggled in my second match and was on the court a long time.”

Troy coach Mark Goldner was not surprised.

“She (Ava Petty) is a girl who has won a lot of matches at second singles,” he said. “Fortunately, Nina (Short) was able to get it to 3-3 and then win both sets. There were a lot of deuce games, where a point or two could have made a difference.”

Short then beat Tyler Braxton of Northmont 6-2, 6-2 in the go-to district match.

“Once I won the first set, my shots improved a lot,” Short said.

Lutz and Romberger didn’t have the district tournament on the schedule at the beginning of the year.

“We never even gave it a thought,” Lutz said.

They had a different goal.

“We just wanted to have a good season,” Romberger said. “I think as the season went on and we were doing well, we did start to think it was possible.”

The second seeds topped Lily Pierron and Allyson Hale of Piqua 6-1, 6-0 and Vandalia-Butler 6-2, 6-1 in the go-to district match. They are scheduled to play second seeded Madison Becker and Corena Schiely of Fairborn at 9 a.m. Saturday in the semifinals.

“They were Butler’s second doubles team so we didn’t see them during the year,” Romberger said.

But, it didn’t take long for Troy to take control.

“We were kind of watching them to see what they were doing,” Lutz said. “We just want to play our best Saturday.”

The duo is reflective of the success of the whole Troy team, who finished 15-4 on the season with only Short returning from a year ago.

“They (Izzy Lutz, Maile Romberger) listened to what we told them and went out and did it,” Goldenr said. “When you only return one girl to the lineup and go 15-4, that is what it takes and it tokk all seven girls.”

Kimber Connors was another example of that Wednesday.

After defeating Ari Mullins of Fairborn 6-1, 6-1 and Laila Caudill of Sidney 6-3, 6-1; she faced Springfield’s numbe one singles player Kalyssa Meisner in an attempt to get to the go-to district match.

Connors won the first set 6-4, before losing the final two sets 7-5 and 6-0.

“Kimber (Connors) had a great tournament,” Goldner said. “She won the first set against Springfield and really battled. She ran out of gas in the third set and she had a blister that I think bothered her.”

Calista Hicks defeated Leah Bergjord of Northmont 6-0, 6-0 before losing to fourth seed Sammy Russell of Tecumseh 6-2, 6-0.

Allison Straughn and Savannah Gibson lost to Fairborn 6-4, 6-2.

PIQUA

In singles action for Piqua, Rebekah Cantrell defeated Stephanie Chen of Stebbins 6-4, 6-0 before losing to top seed Hannah Faulkner of Vandalia-Butler 6-1, 6-0.

Bri Anderson lost to Maddy Lange of Greenville 6-2, 6-4 and Ava Owen lost to Emma Filc of Vandalia-Butler 6-2, 6-2.

Both doubles teams picked up a win.

Lily Pierron and Allyson Hale topped Tecumseh 6-2, 6-3 before losing to Lutz and Romberger.

Lainey Honeycutt and Katelyn Szchata defeated Springfield 6-2, 6-0 before losing 6-0, 6-0 to the top seeds from Vandalia-Butler.