Triton’s Hannah Wanemacher whistles a shot at Bethany Christian Monday in the No. 1 doubles match. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WATERFORD MILLS – Elizabeth Eby looked like she still had plenty of gas left in her tank. Haley Hooley did not.

The pace of Eby late in the second and third sets were the difference as the Bethany No. 3 rallied to defeat Hooley 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to put the Bruins over, 3-2, on Triton.

Hooley had Eby dead to rights in the second set, leading 4-1 with the first set in hand. Eby, however, found another gear and got nearly all of her return shots to land deep in the corners and the baselines while Hooley’s returns were landing in the net or sailing long. Eby rallied to tie the set at 4-4, but Hooley would take a 5-4 lead after getting a pair of shots to drop in. Eby would take the serve and the game, then break Hooley’s serve and a deuce to claim a 6-5 lead. Hooley again would have a leg up, taking a 30-15 lead in the next game, only for Eby to storm back and grab the game to force the third set.

Triton’s Emma Hepler at No. 2 doubles

Another quick start from Hooley had the sophomore up 3-0, and then again in the advantage at 4-2, but Eby’s enthusiasm after breaking serve told the tale as she raced to grab the final four games and a win for Bethany.

“Haley is a little streaky”, said Triton head coach Al Peckham on Hooley’s match. “She’s a wall player. If she runs into the same type of wall player, they could return to each other all night. Haley’s tendency is, however, to get out of position when she misses a shot. Then you see the errors. I thought she played pretty well, and credit her opponent, she played solid, too.

“It just came down to a couple of points,” continued Peckham. “I could count a couple points where she could have been up 5-1 or 5-2 and then the match probably changes. But you lose those one or two points, and you make some errors, and what happened sometimes happens.”

While Hooley and Eby played over two-and-a-half hours, Triton mopped up a pair of wins in just over an hour. At No. 1 singles, Kolbie Mason was one of four seniors in Triton’s lineup that had returned from the senior trip to Washington D.C. earlier Monday morning. Rolling in on just a few hours of sleep, it would have been easy to write off the seniors as road weary after a busy weekend. But Mason needed just over 65 minutes to wipe out Mariah Miller love and one, using her powerful backhand and first serve to her advantage.

Triton’s Haley Hooley at No. 3 singles

At No. 1 doubles, senior Emma Ross’ timely winners across court and classmate Hannah Wanemacher’s rips to the corners put Triton as the aggressor in a two and one win over Anne Nisley and Caroline Cartmel.

Where Peckham was a little surprised with Monday’s result was at No. 2 doubles, where the pairing of senior Megan McFarland and freshman Emma Hepler had a good matchup with Ana King and Tarmi Nguyen. The Triton duo, which has seven court wins to its credit this season, didn’t respond well to the powerful returns from King and lost several lob shots that looked routine. In a four and two loss, along with a one and one scoreline from Bethany’s Meg Heinisch over Molly McFarland at No. 2 singles, and Triton ran into its first dual loss of the season. The Bruins improved to 7-3 win the win.

“I’ve got a pretty young team when you take out the seniors, and they’ve responded pretty well when asked,” said Peckham, whose team drops to 7-1 in dual competition this season. “They are going to need some time like all younger players do, but they will be OK.”

Triton doesn’t have much time to think about it, looking at back-to-back matches in Hoosier North Athletic Conference play with Knox. The Tuesday match will take place in Bourbon and house senior night, and Wednesday’s play will take place at Knox, both to decide seeding for the HNAC tournament which starts next week.

“We are just looking at these matches as one day at a time,” Peckham said. “We can’t do much about the schedule, we just have to play who is in front of us on whatever day they tell us to.”

Triton’s Kolbie Mason at No. 1 singles