CMA’s Ian Smith returns a backhand shot during one singles play in the Culver Academies Regional Final between Warsaw and the host Eagles Wednesday. (Photos by James Costello)

CULVER — Warsaw boys tennis has made a habit of jumping on opponents early in the postseason, taking the fight out of them quickly. But in Wednesday’s regional final, host Culver Military ripped that page straight from the Tigers’ playbook.

The Eagles claimed straight-set victories on four of five courts, Ian Smith completed the sweep with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Colton Lind at one singles, and CMA claimed its fourth straight regional title at home at the Gable Tennis Complex.

“You’re always disappointed to lose, but Culver has a heck of a team. Alan has been coaching a long time; he’s a great coach. They’re solid all the way through,” said Warsaw head coach Rick Orban.

“They kind of took the playbook from me. Maybe they read the articles. They came out so strong, so fast. Our doubles teams were playing on their heels. We didn’t play aggressive. I know two and three singles, same way. When you get to this level, you have to play to win, not play not to lose.”

“When we met after last night, it was clear to me that if we did not get out early on top like we did tonight, we were going to lose,” explained CMA coach Alan Loehr. “Last night we did not play well early against Plymouth, and we were able to escape. We were fortunate. Tonight, I knew what we were going to do if we did the same scenario as last night — they were going to beat us. That was the only thing I said of a negative nature to the boys last night.”

Nikolas Warnholtz handed Warsaw number two Kyler Bartol a quick, 6-0, 6-2 defeat, and Vince Huang and Peter Gallagher put away Nolan Knight and Reuben Williams in a mirror-image, 6-2, 6-0 decision at two doubles. Not long after, Patrick Wilson shut out Caleb Williams, 6-0, 6-0, securing the Eagles the four-peat.

With the potential to stay alive in the state doubles tournament, Bailey Buhrt and Spencer Britton mounted a comeback at one doubles, knotting the second set at 3-all, but Henry Bilicic and Jose Santiago-Peraza held serve, then broke the Tigers tandem for a 5-3 advantage. They put them away quickly in the ninth game to seal a 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Warsaw one doubles players Bailey Buhrt, right, and Spencer Britton talk between points in the Wednesday’s one doubles match.

Already eliminated from both the team tournament and the state singles tourney — after a three-set loss to Wabash’s Rob Ford Tuesday night — Lind mounted his own comeback on the one singles court, jumping out to a 5-2 cushion in the second set and holding off Smith for an eventual 6-4 win to split sets with the CMA senior.

But after the break, Smith jumped on Lind quickly in the third set for a 3-0 advantage. Lind continued to battle and made a set of it, but still fell 6-3 as Smith won his first match in a rough two-week span.

Both coaches liked what they saw on the one singles court.

“He’s a senior. He’s leaving, and I think he wanted to play his best tennis right towards the end. And he really did,” said Orban of Lind. “He’s got nothing to hang his head about. Played a great match, and he should be proud of himself.”

“Ian has struggled in the last two weeks with his game, so I’m so proud of him the way that he was able to find himself mentally and fight through this match, particularly having to go three sets, and really played very fine tennis in stretches tonight,” said Loehr.

“His teammates need to see positive energy down here, no matter what’s going on. You can’t just lay down because it’s not going my way. So the importance is that he’s offering up a lot of maturity and leadership by fighting in these matches. Now it went his way. Had it not gone his way, I still was proud of the way he played, and I think the boys see that. They can’t walk home and say he didn’t try and didn’t play well, even if the story hadn’t turned out as well.”

Colton Lind scrambles to keep a point alive.

With Wednesday’s win, the Eagles win their fourth straight regional title and 13th all time. They advance to play Penn — a 3-2 winner over St. Joe in the Portage Regional Wednesday — in a home semi-state match Saturday at noon.

“No doubt that we have the horses,” Loehr said of his team’s four-peat. “We have some really good horses that help us win those regionals, one. And two, that intangible when underclassmen see the kids, the seniors win these titles, you can’t put a price on it. You can’t coach to it. There’s an expectation that’s set, isn’t there, in any of these programs.”

Warsaw closes its sixth straight sectional championship season with a record of 10-7, meanwhile, after starting the season with just two returners from last week’s top seven lineup in Lind and Britton. The Tigers bid goodbye to Lind, Bartol, Burht and first alternate Nicholas Marsh.

“You always kind of look at the season before the season, what you’ve got, who you’ve got. This team, I think, overachieved, and it was because they just flat liked each other and wanted to win,” said Orban.