Anderson Pulls Upset; Trojans Advance Almost Everywhere
The boys tennis postseason arrived Wednesday with the introductions of the Northern Lakes Conference and Hoosier North Athletic Conference championships. The first of three days for the NLC tournament took place at NorthWood while the two-day HNAC tournament opened at Knox.
ANDERSON LANDS AN UPSET AT NLC
NorthWood’s unbelievable run through the NLC regular season had the team go 35-0 and bring in all No. 1 seeds to the tournament. While NorthWood still has a legit shot at wrapping up its first tournament championship with four courts winning Wednesday, it suffered its first loss in conference play.
Warsaw’s Hayden Anderson had the upset of the day, coming into the No. 3 singles tournament unseeded but knocking off the No. 1 seed Chase Horner of NorthWood 6-4, 6-4. Anderson will meet Plymouth’s Bennett Christy in the semi-finals, Christy a three-set winner over Goshen’s Wyatt Fisher..
Warsaw claimed the only other upset of the tournament, where Trey Williams defeated No. 4 seed Holden Babb of Wawasee 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in what was the only other three-set match in the brackets.
Every other court went to the higher seed. NorthWood had Wes Troyer win three and four over Warsaw’s Caleb Williams and Ben Vincent beat Concord’s Mitchell Whitehead four and love in one and two singles play. Troyer will see Plymouth’s Grant Houin in the semis, Vincent will meet Warsaw’s Williams. Jack Wysong and Landon Holland opened one dubs play for NorthWood with a three and love win over Wawasee’s Grant Brooks and Blaine Baut. The duo will see Northridge in the semis. Bryce Harner and Treyton Martin opened for the Panthers at two dubs with a three and four result over Warsaw’s Cole Rhodes and Carter Schuh. Concord is waiting for NorthWood in the semis of the two dubs bracket.
Warsaw’s Michael Ray and Will Boren fell to Northridge’s Aaron Cripe and Evan Nay love and three in one doubles play.
Wawasee lost all five of its courts and will battle for fifth place in the consolation brackets.
TRITON ALIVE AT FOUR OF FIVE SPOTS AT HNAC
With a conference co-championship already wrapped up alongside North Judson-San Pierre, Triton tennis kept its hopes alive for All-Hoosier North Athletic Conference honors at four of five positions as the HNAC Tournament opened Wednesday night.
Unlike some conferences, the HNAC team title is decided exclusively in dual meets, and the conference uses its tournament simply to determine all-conference picks at the five varsity positions. The Trojans went 4-1 Wednesday, moving on to the finals at 1 and 2 singles and at both doubles positions in Knox.
John Gardner made short work of Knox’s Ethan Sanders a third time this season with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at 1 singles that echoed their second match late last month. He advances to play North Judson’s Hayden Kaminski — a 1-1 winner over LaVille’s Zach Rutherford Wednesday — in Thursday’s finals. The two went three sets last Thursday, with Kaminski coming out on top, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Conner Large was similarly quick in his 6-0, 6-2 win over LaVille’s Kyle Walker at 2 singles and will play Judson’s Gavin Alonso — who beat Knox’s Devan Himes 0-2 — in Thursday’s finals. Large previously defeated Alonso in their only meeting last week, 7-5, 6-4.
Triton’s doubles tandems of Jared Bules and Tyler Heckaman at the 1 spot and Cole McKinney and Chandler Westafer at the 2 spot both drew what were essentially byes as LaVille forfeited both doubles points. Bules and Heckaman went unbeaten through conference play and so drew the forfeit automatically, while McKinney and Westafer split their home-and-away series with Judson’s Payton Cox and Kayden Ginder, falling in three sets in their first meeting in late August and winning their rematch last week. Cox and Ginder advanced 0-2 through Knox’s Carter Fornelli and Colin Bottorff Wednesday and wait in the finals for the Trojans Thursday. Bules and Heckaman will face North Judson’s Kyle Burkett and Andrew Attinger after the Bluejays’ three-set win over Knox’s Josh Fletcher and Gabe Manning Wednesday.
“Our guys really developed well, and they are playing well. They’re playing better now than I think they have in awhile. The first time they played Judson they went three sets. The second time they won in straight sets, and the first set was like 6-0,” said Peckham of his 1 doubles tandem.” They’re playing a lot better than they have been, and even the 2 doubles team from the first time, they’re learning more and more, and they’re getting more and more confidence. They’re stroking the ball a lot harder and looking for the alleys and the openings a lot better than they did early.”
Triton’s only loss Wednesday came at 3 singles, where Gavin Greer won his first set opposite Knox’s Brock Taulbee, 6-4, but wound up suffering 6-2 and 6-3 losses to Taulbee over the next two sets to fall in three. Although Greer loses his bid for an All-HNAC pick, Wednesday’s match still represented a significant improvement over Greer’s first go-round with Taulbee in late August.
“He did a lot better than he did last time. There’s nothing he should feel bad about. He’s improved all year,” said Peckham.
LEWIS CASS 3, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 2
In non-conference tennis action in Akron, Lewis Cass claimed both doubles matches to get past Valley. The one dubs duo of David Woolever and Brent Johnson shut out Russ Paxton and Ethan Hartman while the two dubs group of Jensen Burrous and Dominic Gilbert worked through a 6-2, 7-5 run on Cooper Walls and Annakin Pettit. The Cass singles win came at No. 2, where Jack Salyers put away Dylan Neese one and love.
Payton Mills earned a win at No. 1, 6-0, 7-5, against CJ Burrous, and Owen Kirchenstien went the distance to win in a three-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (2) over Gannon Davis.
The three JV matches saw Cass’ Ethan Johnson beat Mason Purvis 8-1, and in doubles play, Purvis and Hunter Craft beat Tyler McGuire and Tristen Padilla 8-7 (6) and Evan Harsh and Wyatt Reiter beat Jack Miller and Josh Packard 8-1.