CULVER — After steamrolling the Northern Lakes Conference field during the league round robin, the Panthers were hoping for championships at all five positions at this week’s NLC Tournament. That wasn’t in the cards for NorthWood, but it did little to sour the team’s program-first league title at Saturday’s NLC finale.

NorthWood scored 48 points ahead of Northridge’s 42, and that finish, combined with the Panthers’ historic 35-0 run during the dual meet schedule — a feat that no one could recall any other team ever having accomplished — gave NorthWood sole bragging rights at the Culver Academies’ Gable Tennis Complex.

“It feels good. We’ve never won in boys NLC ever, so knowing already we’d made history going 35-0 and then just being out here to play and doing their thing, it felt really nice to be able to perform in the tournament as well just to back up what we were able to do during the regular season,” said NorthWood head coach Tiff Schwartz, who was voted NLC Coach of the Year after guiding her team to its high water mark. “Very proud of these guys. It was a fun tournament. I thought everyone played well. They knew they had a target on their back. It was going to be tough, and I think we came out to play in several of our matches. I felt like we backed it up.

“I was just super excited for them. This is history. It’s exciting for NorthWood tennis.”

The Panthers made the finals everywhere except the No. 3 singles spot, and they split their four championship matches during the NLC Tourney capper.

 

Ben Vincent won his championship match at 2 singles in the first of the five title matches to wrap Saturday, coasting through Goshen’s Carlos Lichty, 6-2, 6-0. Saturday’s historic win felt even sweeter for the senior No. 2 player when he thought back through the team’s struggles over his previous three seasons.

“It feels really awesome to be a part of this — first team in NorthWood history to win the NLC. It just shows the hard work that we’ve put in has all paid off, and it’s really exciting,” he said.

“These four or five senior core guys, they just plugged away. Our freshman and sophomore years, we really weren’t the best team, but we all kind of just stuck with it and we played with each other a lot over the summers and pushed each other. That just slowly, steadily improved the whole team, and that’s what made the difference.”

Not long after Vincent’s victory, Wood’s 2 doubles team of Treyton Martin and Bryce Harner came up a little short in their championship bid versus Northridge’s Collin Seegert and Cole Miller, 6-4, 6-1. The Panthers’ 1 doubles team of Jack Wysong and Landon Holland managed to put away Plymouth’s Drew Harrell and Adam Hunter, however, collecting a 7-5, 6-2 win and automatic All-NLC honors at their position.

“I was struggling at the beginning, and Jack was really picking me up. He played a great match and I started to click at the end and play a lot better,” explained Holland. “I feel like we just communicate really well, and we never get down on ourself, so that’s what gets us through every match.”

“My strong suit is the net, and Landon’s strong suit is the baseline, so we got back to the basics. On my serve normally we struggle a little bit, so a big part of tonight was getting him up at the net with confidence. And then I tried to come up to the net as well,” said Wysong.

“The majority of the time, I feel like when we got to the net we won the point. And we play great defense too, so when we needed to get back, we were able to.”

The Panthers 1 doubles tandem actually trailed their Plymouth counterparts midway through the first set, 4-3. But they rallied to win four of the next five games and clinch the extended opener. That comeback seemed to mentally break Harrell and Hunter, and Wysong and Holland jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set en route to the win.

“I said to Landon ‘They’re giving up. We lob a ball, they don’t even go for it,’” recalled Wysong of the second set. “That’s a ball you can get around and return easily, so I said let’s just keep playing our game and win it.”

Wes Troyer’s 1 singles championship match with Northridge’s Gabe Rodino didn’t go as well, unfortunately, as Troyer was forced to retire in the third set.

The Panthers’ top player fell behind a set at the conclusion of a nip-tuck, 7-5 opener and trailed 4-3 in the second set before taking the next three games from Rodino to split at 6-4. Troyer jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the third but began to experience a cramp in his forearm, then a cramp in his left leg that left him hopping around the court. Still he battled but soon developed another cramp in his right leg, this one dropping him to the ground. With sectionals looming next week and a tournament title already in the bag, Schwartz thought it best to retire her No. 1 with the third set even at three games each.

It wasn’t all bad news for Troyer, however, as he was named All-NLC At Large during the coaches meeting following the tournament.

“He said ‘I’m not quitting. I’m not quitting.’ I said ‘But we need you next week. You just need to be done with it,’” Schwartz recalled. “He didn’t want to, but I think that last bout of trying to hit an overhead, and I think it went in his calf, I don’t think he was ever going to let it up. He still didn’t want to quit, and I told him ‘It’s not an option. You can be mad at me.’ That was painful to watch.”

“Shoutout to Wes Troyer because he showed a lot of grit out there, and it was a tough way to end his NLC tournament and career. But he had a great attitude and great sportsmanship,” said Holland.

Wood’s worst finish came at 3 singles, where the Panthers still collected fifth place as Chase Horner battled back from his 6-4, 6-4 loss to eventual champion Hayden Anderson of Warsaw, winning his next two matches, 2-0 over Goshen’s Wyatt Fisher and 0-2 over Wawasee’s Jack Gibbons in the fifth-place console.

Anderson’s championship was the lone title for the Tigers, and his 6-4, 6-4 win over Concord’s Nathan Schraw sealed his All-NLC accolade.

“He came out, he played strong, he played tough. He knew he had a plan, and he met it and did great,” said Warsaw coach Stacey Lind of her No. 3.

Nic Bagley placed third at 3 singles, while Warsaw’s 1 doubles team of Michael Ray and Will Boren finished fifth at their position, and the Tigers’ 2 doubles team of Carter Schuh and Cole Rhodes did likewise at their spot in the lineup. All told, Warsaw netted 26 points for sixth place at the tournament, bettering a seventh-place finish in the league round robin to finish sixth in the final conference standings.

“I think they did well. They came out, they played hard, and we landed where we should’ve been,” said Lind.

Gibbons’ sixth-place result was one of two such finishes for Wawasee, which landed in seventh place both in the tournament and in the final, overall NLC standings. At 1 singles, Zach Leedy bounced back from an opening loss to Goshen’s Ryan Harmelink with a 3 and 2 win over Elkhart Memorial’s Brad Walker but succumbed, 2 and 2 to Concord’s Bryson Schrock in their fifth-place consolation match.

“I think him playing three sports kind of holds him back a little bit. He plays hockey, and there’s a lot of stuff going on with him to where he doesn’t get out to play as much as the other kids do. I think if we could’ve gotten him out a little bit more — he did play summer league — it would’ve helped him a lot because he’s come a long way just since the start of the season,” said Wawasee coach Vince Rhodes of Leedy.

“Jack played possibly his best match. The score didn’t show as well as what he’d played, but he played a really good match against him today. It’s probably one of his best matches he’s played so far this year.”

Along with the champions at each position and Troyer, Harmelink and Hunter and Harrell were named All-NLC At Large, and Plymouth’s Grant Houin, Concord’s Schrock, Gavin Smith and Kayden Cain, Northridge’s Evan Nay and Aaron Cripe and Goshen’s Carlos Lichty were all voted all-conference honorable mention. The Raiders’ runner-up result Saturday left them in second place in the final conference standings. Plymouth finished third at the tournament after a sixth-place round robin finish to close the conference in third place overall. Concord wound up in fourth, Goshen was fifth, and Memorial rounded out the league standings in eighth.

With the NLC season now a wrap, teams turn their attention to the IHSAA state series. Warsaw hosts a five-team sectional field that includes Wawasee as well as Tippecanoe Valley, Columbia City and Whitko, and NorthWood plays host to another five-team field of Goshen, Fairfield, Bethany Christian and Jimtown. The Tigers are playing for an eighth-straight sectional title, the Warriors will play for their first such championship since 2010, and the Panthers are in search of their first title since 2007. Draws will be held Monday night.