Warsaw Tennis Team Sees Season End
CULVER – The Warsaw girls tennis team almost turned the tables on Plymouth Tuesday night.
In the end, however, the Pilgrims prevailed.
The Tigers dropped a 3-2 final to their Northern Lakes Conference counterparts in a regional semifinal match at Culver Academies.
The Pilgrims, who beat Warsaw 5-0 back on April 16, advance to play the host Eagles (10-4) Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. in the regional title match. Culver Academies, which beat Peru 4-1 in the other semifinal match Tuesday night, is the defending regional champion.
Plymouth, which lost 3-2 to the Tigers in the regional semifinals in 2012, improves to 15-4. Warsaw closes out its season at 4-11.
The match was a far different cry Tuesday night than the regular-season meeting in mid-April at Plymouth. The host Pilgrims won four of the five matches that day in straight sets. Warsaw had a much different lineup this time around for the regional rematch as only its No. 1 doubles team was the same as the first meeting.
Both Warsaw and Plymouth had claimed their 13th straight sectional championships last Friday. The Tigers beat Columbia City 3-2, Tippecanoe Valley 5-0 and Wawasee 4-1 to win its own sectional title. Plymouth won the Bremen Sectional crown with wins over Bremen (4-1) and Triton (5-0).
Coach Rick Orban’s Warsaw squad got straight set wins from both Jacqueline Sasso and Lindsay Sciarra Tuesday night.
Junior Sasso defeated senior Mikayla German 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.
Senior Sciarra topped sophomore Carly Berger 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3 singles.
The Pilgrims took both doubles matches as its No. 1 team of seniors Andria Shook and Marissa German defeated seniors Olivia Wallin and Marley Smith 6-2, 6-3. Plymouth also won at No. 2 as senior Emily Blake and junior Ellen Smith stopped sophomore Camille Kerlin and freshman Rosie Fleming 6-1, 6-2.
The final outcome of the evening came down to the No. 1 singles court. Senior Allie Berger rallied to defeat junior Sarah Boyle 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-1 to give the Pilgrims the victory.
The winner of the Culver Academies Regional advances to the LaPorte Semistate Saturday. They will play the winner of the LaPorte Regional, either Penn (18-0) or Valparaiso (18-1) in a semifinal matchup.