NorthWood’s Wes Troyer volleys with Fairfield’s Aaron Streit Friday in the NorthWood Boys Tennis Sectional championship. (Photos by Mike Deak)

NAPPANEE – Thursday’s semi-final round had all the feels of a championship, at least for NorthWood and Goshen. Fairfield wasn’t interested in any of it.

While the two Northern Lakes Conference teams slugged it out into the night Thursday in the semis, Fairfield just went about its business and quietly beat Jimtown. The same could have been said Friday as Fairfield again went about its business and stunned NorthWood, 3-2, in the NorthWood Boys Tennis Sectional championship.

In much the same way Thursday’s semi-final went, NorthWood started out well and fizzled, only to find the need to rally. Fairfield put a stop to that, pulling off a pair of huge games that swayed the course of the match, and the championship.

At one singles, NorthWood’s Wes Troyer was building his usual ground attack and got a 6-4 win in the first set. Facing elimination in the second set, Aaron Streit was tied 5-5 with Troyer, but dug deep to win the next two games to force a third set at 7-5, then hung that momentum into a shocking 6-2 win.

At No. 2 doubles, Riley Behrens and Isaac Inniger were deadlocked with Grant Topping and Dawson Bley in the first set, and fell into the tiebreaker, which the Falcons claimed 7-5 to take the first set. Instead of NorthWood rallying, Fairfield closed out the court with a 6-3 win.

Fairfield’s No. 1 doubles also took punches, but withstood the challenge to pick up a win. Tanner Nunemaker and Ben Toole broke a 4-4 tie in the first set and were blessed with several Wood mishits to grab a 6-4 first set. After trading a 6-4 set to Wood in the second, the Falcon duo turned around a 6-4 win to put it away.

NorthWood had Ben Vincent shine at No. 2, blowing past Eric Gaby love and two while Landon Holland finished out on a high note, rallying to beat Colin Hochstedler 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 6-1 after the other four courts, and the championship, had already been decided.

“That was a bummer,” stated NorthWood head coach Tif Schwartz. “We had lots of opportunities and Fairfield was just the better team tonight. They played well on all courts and I felt like we were in the match right to the end. It was good to see Ben come off early after two sets and then to have Landon win his match after losing that first set and knowing after the first game in the third set that match had been decided.

“We had a great season and these boys fought hard every match. They can be proud of themselves for the way they battled tonight.”

NorthWood, which with the losses by Troyer and its No. 1 doubles teams, is done for the season. The Panthers conclude at 12-4 overall. Fairfield improves to 15-5 and will meet DeKalb, which won its sectional title, 5-0 over Fremont, in the semis of the Concord Regional next Tuesday. Concord will meet either East Noble or Westview in the other regional semi-final.

Landon Holland rallied to win in three sets at No. 3 for the Panthers.