Whitko’s Morgan Keirn sends a shot toward Tippecanoe Valley one singles opponent Hanna Dalrymple at the Warsaw Girls Tennis Sectional. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – Day two of the Warsaw Girls Tennis Sectional started pretty much as expected. The round ended with a little bit of a bang as Whitko rallied past Tippecanoe Valley to claim a spot in the finals.

Warsaw did what most everyone expected, sweeping Wawasee 5-0 without much trouble in the top half of the bracket. Whitko, however, found itself down 2-0 very quickly to Valley before sweeping all three singles courts to take a 3-2 win.

While the singles and doubles courts were split up in the matchup between Three Rivers Conference rivals, Valley’s doubles wins put a lot of pressure on the singles courts to produce either one win for the Vikings or the Wildcats needing to be perfect. On Thursday, it was the Wildcats coming through in fine fashion.

Both pairings of Morgan Brazo and Ariel Schoettme at No. 1 doubles and Kennedy Niedbalski and Cassidy Cave at No. 2 doubles jumped out to quick leads. Brazo and Schoettme were more than happy to accept numerous unforced errors from Whitko’s Jackie Werstler and Aurelia Slusher to bolt to a 6-1 first set, and keep on, keepin’ on at 6-0 in the second.

Despite very little court experience together, Whitko’s Natalie Iholtz and Blair Creamer managed to put up a fight, but fell to Niedbalski and Cave 6-3, 6-4.

As the two courts came off, that left a lot of pressure on Whitko to answer. And, boy, did they ever.

No. 1 singles Morgan Keirn mixed power and placement to keep Hanna Dalrymple off balance in a 6-2, 6-1 win.

No. 3 singles had Mikayla Findley pick up a nice win, 6-2, 6-3, against Aerin Shewman in a match that pitted two players working on about as even keel as any court Thursday.

The team advancement came down to the final court in action at the tennis complex. No. 2 singles Delaney Keirn did a little of the same like her sister, taking all of Whitney Haneline’s punches and still coming out with a 6-2, 6-2 final. With Delaney’s win, Whitko flashed an incredulous smile and a chance to fight another day.

“Our singles have been pretty strong all year. We’ve won 3-2 a lot this year,” said Whitko head coach Chris McGehee. “My doubles teams are improving, they just need the experience. I was proud of how the doubles teams fought. But it was big for our singles courts got the wins to help us move on in the sectional.

“It’s tough to see four of your teammates on the sidelines with losses. Now it’s, ‘Oh, man, I gotta win.’ That’s a lot of pressure for kids, especially at a sectional.”

With grossly less drama was the matchup of Northern Lakes Conference neighbors Warsaw and Wawasee. One day after Warsaw knocked out Columbia City, the Tigers looked even stronger in five straight-set wins.

At No. 1 singles, Liza Lewis took a little time to get going, but put away Jada Antonides 6-3, 6-1.

At No. 2 singles, Colette Smith again was methodical in trading groundstrokes, but used her growing confidence to swing past Nealy Thanasrivanitchai 6-0, 6-1.

Ella Knight at No. 3 singles continued to get stronger coming off her NLC title, powering her way to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Chelsea Carolus.

The one doubles tandem of Camille Kerlin and Hannah Rice rebounded nicely from a loss to Columbia City with a much more business-like 6-1, 6-2 win against Ashley Larson and Charity Parker.

And at two doubles, a 6-0, 6-3 win from Sydney Hartman and Athena Schlitt lacked much flair, just the approach that Tiger head coach Rick Orban really enjoys seeing at this point in the season.

“We were the favorites and having beaten Wawasee 5-0 during the season, I was really looking to see how focused we would be throughout the match,” Orban said. “We’ve got another team in Whitko that is young, and we’re probably the heavy favorites again. We just need to keep focused, take Friday as the next day, and play our best tennis.”

Warsaw and Whitko will matchup at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the finals of the Warsaw Girls Tennis Sectional. The winner will meet either Plymouth or Triton, the two finalists at the Bremen Sectional, which feeds into the Culver Academy Regional next Tuesday. The other half of the draw will be the winners from the Culver Academy and Peru sectionals.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Brazo and Schoettme will advance in the individual state tournament, joining Columbia City’s one doubles team of Macie Hinen and Aubrey Wright as qualifiers from Warsaw.