Warsaw Tennis: Tigers Keep It Simple In Win
SYRACUSE – Sometimes coaches just want to see their kids get the job done and move on. Not wanting to see much frill, Warsaw girls tennis head coach Rick Orban didn’t want to see his kids mess around Thursday night. With a wicked crosswind slicing across the Wawasee tennis complex and the spit of rain in the stifling air, Warsaw put together a crisp 4-1 win that had all four of its wins take less than an hour.
Fans arriving to the complex after work likely missed Alyssa Zellers cap a love, love win against an overmatched Brianna Haessig in the three singles match. Ella Knight was just about as efficient, using the unpredictable wind to her advantage to land winner after winner in a shutout of Elizabeth Kleopfer at two singles. Liza Lewis finished off the singles grid for the Tigers with a tidy 6-1, 6-0 win against Meg Heinisch.
Warsaw’s No. 1 doubles team of Colette Smith and Athena Schlitt didn’t have much trouble with Wawasee’s reassembled duo of Kendra Doerr and Peyton Rookstool. Missing Kabrea Rostochak, who is on the Wawasee Super Mileage car team that’s competing in Detroit this weekend, Rookstool moved to take Rostochak’s spot while Kleopfer and Haessig bumped up the singles list, Haessig usually a JV player. All the shuffling didn’t matter to the Tiger duo, which rolled 6-0, 6-1.
“I like what I saw today, I like what I’ve seen the last couple of matches,” Orban said. “We knew we would be the better team. I basically told them to focus on their shots and don’t change their style of play they have been playing. Naturally, you have to compensate for the wind, they just played pretty well.”
Wawasee’s breakthrough was at two doubles, which played well past the conclusion of the other varsity and eventually all the JV courts as well. Taylor Mock and Courtney Larson continued its strong play against Warsaw’s version of the doubles shuffle, sending out Libby Jenkins and Maddie Ray. Orban hasn’t settled on what pairing he is most consistently comfortable with at the position, and with issues with both Rachel Boyle and Rachel Yeager, the Tiger twosome struggled to maintain rhythm while Larson hammered home winner after winner at the net. The 6-3, 6-2 win for Wawasee gave the team something to savor, even though it came at the expense of an extra hour in the wind.
“We were playing out of place all night with Rostochak out and we just don’t have any depth this year,” said Wawasee head coach Shane Staley. “It throws the lineup into disarray, just makes things really difficult for us. Against a tough Warsaw team that’s pretty much what we got with the results tonight.”
Warsaw (7-2, 3-1 NLC) is prepping for a huge seven days of tennis, starting with the potential at the Delta Invite on Saturday then two giant conference matches Tuesday and Wednesday against unbeaten NorthWood and powerful Concord. Warsaw’s Knight and Zellers are both unbeaten in league play but will be tested against NorthWood, which has a potent pair in Reagan Miller and Hannah Walter at two and three. The next week will give Orban a chance to get his team in order with the Northern Lakes Conference tournament under two weeks away.
NorthWood is also 10-0 overall and 4-0 in the NLC.
“NorthWood is good, and undefeated, I’m sure we’ll be the underdog in that match,” Orban said. “I think the girls are really going to have to come to play and it’s not typical for us to be the underdogs but I think we are.”
Wawasee (6-8, 2-2 NLC) still has Rostochak and Doerr unbeaten at 3-0 and Mock and Larson sitting at 3-1 with a good chance to lock up a top-four seed in the tourney.
“With full strength back, I think we’ll get a little more momentum,” Staley said. “I told them we were down today and there was no pressure on us. We were definitely the underdogs today, no doubt about that. Just go out there and try to do what you can do and try to get as many games as you can, sets or matches on the courts. The two doubles was definitely a bright spot, and I know Warsaw was down there, but we’ll take it.”
Warsaw won all six of the JV courts. Izzy Ray, Raegan Merchant and Jaya Panicker all won singles courts while duos of Amy Herendeen and Sophie Schlitt, Jasmine Baker and Sophia Parke, and Bailey Roulo and Addison Marshall earned court ‘W’s.
Wawasee takes on West Noble Monday afternoon.