Warsaw Marches On, Triton Dubs Bounced
CULVER – Warsaw continued its team season Tuesday night while the Triton one doubles unit met its match. Warsaw beat Manchester, 5-0, in the team tournament while the Trojan one doubles duo of Hannah Wanemacher and Emma Ross lost in the individual sectional tournament at Culver Academy.
Warsaw had little trouble with Manchester, winning all three singles courts in straight sets and having its one doubles team do the same. Warsaw’s two doubles tandem needed to rally from a first-set loss, but came back with matching 6-4 scores to finish out the sweep.
With Plymouth’s 5-0 romp over backyard rival Rochester in the other semi-final, the NLC rematch is set between Warsaw and Plymouth for the regional championship. Plymouth won the regular season matchup 4-1 against Warsaw on April 19.
The rematch is set for 5 p.m. Wednesday at Culver Academy. Plymouth is looking to repeat at regional champions, Warsaw seeking its first since 2005.
“The straight sets are real important,” began Warsaw head coach Rick Orban. “It’s a pretty hot day. We’re right back here tomorrow night, and we’ll be playing Plymouth so we know it’s going to be a real tough match. I was pretty pleased with the way we played. Lost focus a little bit, but all in all — Manchester is 19-2 on the season. He’s got a great team. They came in with tremendous confidence so I’m real happy with the win.
“Plymouth’s a great team. They always play hard. Brad’s a good coach so we have a lot of respect for them.”
Triton’s season came to an official end with its one doubles team losing to Culver Academy’s Harshita Sangaraju and Rachael Dodson three and one. Wanemacher and Ross, which rallied to win its only match at the Bremen Sectional last Thursday against Bremen, close at 20-2 overall after running undefeated in Hoosier North Athletic Conference play, including the HNAC tournament championship.
“Harshita really turned on her game and started hitting,” said Triton head coach Al Peckham. “Our girls haven’t seen too many players like that this year. That was the big difference, in my opinion, is when she was able to hit her shots, get some passing shots on us. Once they got the passing shots on us our girls didn’t play back a little bit to try to protect it now and then.
“It got us off a little bit of what we do but not much. We still battled. If you would’ve counted all the deuce games that were in that match and every time we had an advantage to win — and sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t — I felt like if we could’ve held one or two more ad-ins it would’ve been a different story. But that’s how doubles is because one hit, two hits can be the difference.”
CULVER GIRLS ACADEMY REGIONAL
At Culver Academy
PLYMOUTH 5, ROCHESTER 0
SINGLES: 1. Lanae Singleton beat Zoe Bixler 6-0, 6-1; 2. Ashley Harrell beat Allie Bickle 6-0, 6-0; 3. Cortni Cook beat Emma Barontini 6-4, 6-1.
DOUBLES: 1. McKenzie Scheetz/Kendall Dreibelbis beat Rosalie Navarro/Arrianah Jacobs 6-0, 6-1; 2. Kayla Hoober/Leah Smith beat Abbie McCarter/Mariah Yochum 6-0, 6-1.
WARSAW 5, MANCHESTER 0
SINGLES: 1. Liza Lewis beat Allison Smith 6-0, 6-4; 2. Colette Smith beat Karly Eichenauer 6-0, 6-2; 3. Ella Knight beat Leiah Brandenburg 6-1, 6-1.
DOUBLES: 1. Hanna Rice/Athena Schlitt beat Reilly Ruppert/Kelsey Eichenauer 6-1, 6-4; 2. Rosie Fleming/Grace Miller beat Bethany Collett/Lydia Little 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
IHSAA Doubles Tournament
Harshita Sangaraju/Rachael Dodson (CGA) beat Hanna Wanemacher/Emma Ross (TRITON), 6-3, 6-1.
Sangaraju/Dodson will face Paxton Hunt/Makenna Moore (MACONAQUAH) at 5:00pm ET, Wednesday 5/25/16