NorthWood sophomore Wes Troyer goes to his backhand during a Northern Lakes Conference tennis meet in Warsaw Thursday. (Photos by James Costello)

WARSAW — NorthWood sophomore Wes Troyer is one cool customer.

Trailing 5-4 in the third set, you’d never know the young Panthers number one was fighting for his life to look at him. Troyer wore the same expression then, trailing late in the third set as he did later, up 4-1 in the tiebreaker. When Warsaw’s Colton Lind began his comeback midway through that tiebreak with a loud gallery of Tigers cheering him on, Troyer never visibly rattled.

The stoic sophomore still bore that same impassive look on his face when he finished Lind off with an ace to complete a 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(5) victory, giving his team the deciding third match point in a 3-2 Northern Lakes Conference victory over the hosts in Warsaw.

“He doesn’t show a lot of emotion, which is awesome as a player, sometimes hard as a coach because I just want him to get fired up. When he gets a good point, I want him to celebrate that point and maybe just a little bit to show excitement,” said NorthWood coach Tiff Schwartz of her number one. “But he also doesn’t ever let his opponents see where he’s at. He is so nonchalant about everything that it just makes a great player out of you when you can do that.”

“Colton really got off to a slow start. He really picked things up in the second set, and the third set I thought he was going to carry that momentum. He was up 5-4 in the third, and I thought he was going to finish it,” recalled Warsaw assistant coach Joe Brenneman. “It was tough, but it went to a tiebreak, and at that point it’s really who is going to perform under pressure.”

Troyer may have made it look easy, but it was anything but.

”I try to stay calm. It’s hard though,” he confessed.

NorthWood’s Trevor Klotz gets set during two doubles play.

Troyer’s match point was the Panthers’ biggest of the night, and it was a big night for him to earn it. Heading into Thursday’s showdown, the Tigers and the Panthers were locked in a tie for second place in the NLC at 4-1, and NorthWood’s win left it a match ahead of Warsaw, trailing only Concord, which was unbeaten headed into a meet with Northridge Thursday.

“It felt really good. It was a big win in the NLC to put us at second,” said Troyer.

“This was really nice,” echoed Schwartz. “It’s always good to come in and play a team that is good. They were 4-1 in the conference also, so it was coming down to who was going to take second in the conference right now, at this stage in the game, from what we know. It was very nice to get a good win here; it’s always nice to be able to come here and get a win.”

NorthWood got its first point of the night when its two doubles tandem Trevor Klotz and Trajan Schwartz put away Nolan Knight and Reuben Williams, 6-3, 6-2. The Panthers went up 2-0 with Jack Wysong’s tiebreak victory over Caleb Williams at three singles, which finished off a 6-2, 7-6(4) decision. That match, two courts over from Troyer and Lind, may even have had an impact on the decisive three singles point.

“We try to tell them that sometimes: Even if you’re not doing as well as you want to be doing, if you can stay out there a little bit longer, keep pushing yourself, make them have to play more balls,” explained Tiff Schwartz. “One, it keeps you on the court so you’re at least getting the ability to stay on the court and possibly get a win out of it, or the other thing is it’s helping to pump up your teammates because they’re realizing ‘OK, he’s still playing. He’s still fighting hard. I’m going to do that too, and I’m going to get this match.’”

It was a rough night for Warsaw, and the Tigers’ trouble began off the courts.

Warsaw’s Kyler Bar returns a ball Thursday.

Visibly ill, head coach Rick Orban was forced to leave the meet early, and wife and assistant coach Jan soon followed to drive her husband to the hospital. It was later reported that Orban was driven to Fort Wayne Lutheran with suspected pneumonia.

Warsaw did get a pair of matches at two singles and one doubles. Spencer Britton and Bailey Buhrt combined for a three-set win over Jared Hoffman and Brant Mast 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to give the Tigers their first point and pull within 2-1 briefly with one and two singles still on the courts. With the team outcome already decided, Kyler Bar overcame an opening-set tiebreaker loss on the way to a 6-7(8-6), 0-6, 7-5 win over Landon Holland.

It didn’t do anything to sway the meet, but it was a heartening finish for the home team on an otherwise tough night.

“I was really pleased with the way that Kyler finished that out. Not only does it help him know that he can win matches, but hopefully he takes that confidence into the next matches after that,” Brenneman said.

Warsaw’s JV trumped NorthWood 5-4.

Warsaw one doubles partners Spencer Britton and Bailey Buhrt talk during a changover.