Whitko’s Morgan Keirn won a three-set battle against Wawasee’s Meg Heinisch to end a long semi-finals at the Warsaw Girls Tennis Sectional. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – It took nearly four hours, a few lightning bolts, a lot of exhaustion and a few wishful leans to wrap up Thursday’s Warsaw Girls Tennis Sectional semi-finals. An epic matchup at one singles stole the show, with Morgan Keirn’s fortitude getting the deciding win that moved Whitko into the championship match against Warsaw.

Keirn and Wawasee’s Meg Heinisch waged a memorable clincher at one singles, playing well beyond the sunset in what would decide the fate of two programs in the state tournament. Heinisch, who was beaten by Keirn in straight sets on Monday in the regular season finale, stunned the Whitko ace with a 6-4 first set win. Set two began quickly enough for Keirn, taking a 5-2 lead before what many at the sectional feared – weather – butted in. A quick spitting of heavy raindrops on the courts also had an accompanying cousin to the south, big thick bolts of lightning.

Warsaw athletic director Dave Anson quickly halted play, which only affected the one singles court with Keirn up 5-2.

Wawasee’s Taylor Mock

Notable in the stoppage was as Anson stepped onto the far north court grid, the three singles court was in match point with Jackie Werstler winning the final piece of a 6-2, 6-2 result on Elizabeth Kleopfer as Anson made his way to stop play and usher everyone to safety.

Werstler’s timing was key to Whitko as it tied the team matchup at 2-2, with Delaney Keirn already having beaten Peyton Rookstool 6-2, 6-1. Wawasee’s doubles teams both had locked up wins, Kendra Doerr and Kabrea Rostochak winning 6-2, 6-2 over Jessica Hook and Grace Hook and Courtney Larson and Taylor Mock winning 6-3, 6-4 over Jenna Vancuren and Manon Sonneville.

“It was very important,” said Whitko head coach Ben Ogden of Werstler’s win at the delay. “Being able to put that away and knowing we only had one more match to the win coming out of the weather delay, even for Morgan, kind of made it mentally easier.”

The delay lasted 56 minutes, and Keirn quickly took advantage with a pair of games, getting the second one back at 6-2, then taking a 1-0 lead that soon bloomed to 4-1. Heinisch would fight back to get the next two games, and Keirn then drawing next blood out of deuce to go up 5-3. Deuce would be a theme in the contest, both players creating seven of them at 5-4, which Heinisch parlayed into a 5-5 tie when Keirn couldn’t return a shot to her left.

After Keirn went the next four points to go up 6-5, the senior salutatorian would break serve, watching Heinisch shoot wide on the final point to exhaust a 7-5 result.

“I guess, you figure, if you are down one point it’s still not over,” said Keirn, who made good on the seventh match point of the marathon at three hours and 53 minutes. “You still have that one point to make it back up. If you get to deuce, you have that much better chance for two points and you got the game. I guess that’s how you get through it. Tell yourself it’s not over yet.”

Tippecanoe Valley’s Lea Stouder

The loss knocked Wawasee from the state tournament, but its one doubles team will survive and advance to the individual tournament.

“I’m glad they are going to be going to Culver,” said Wawasee head coach Shane Staley of his doubles advancers, now 12-4 overall. “They deserve it. They stepped up. One thing I was always concerned about them was playing down to competition, but they’ve always seemed to be competitive and played up to the competition, so I am excited to see what they can do at Culver.”

While all of the drama was unfolding on the north side of the complex, the south side was quiet relatively quickly.

Warsaw dispatched Tippecanoe Valley 5-0 with all five of its courts off in just over an hour. Valley managed just three games the entire day, two from Tiphanie Hodge in a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Alyssa Zellers at three singles. Rachel Boyle and Amy Herendeen beat America Baca and Makayla Sandbakken 6-1, 6-0, and the other three courts were shutouts.

Liza Lewis, Ella Knight and the one doubles team of Colette Smith and Athena Schlitt won without falter against Aerin Shewman, Lea Stouder, and Kennedy Niedbalski and Makenna Bradley.

The wins by Whitko and Warsaw sets up Friday’s final. Warsaw has won the past two meetings against Whitko, in the semis in 2016 and in the finals in 2015, the only two times the teams have met in the postseason.

Warsaw’s Liza Lewis