NorthWood claimed its first boys tennis sectional title since 2007 with a 5-0 win over Jimtown Friday afternoon. (Photos by Mike Deak)

NAPPANEE – Since Day 1, NorthWood has had Friday circled on its calendar. Or written in its iPhone notes. Or on an Instagram post. Whatever the case, the seven Panthers on the court Friday in the finals of the NorthWood boys tennis sectional have been looking forward to October 4 for some time.

And for 12 years, so have the loyalists of the Panther program.

NorthWood swept Jimtown, 5-0, in Friday’s finals, and after a bit of struggle with Goshen in the semis, the Panthers weren’t having any premonitions of a Jimmie surprise.

Wes Troyer sets up a backhand against Matt Margraf.

All five courts went NorthWood’s way in straight sets, and the Northern Lakes Conference champions didn’t let Jimtown sneak into any of the matchups. At two singles, Ben Vincent awoke from a tough semi-final matchup against Carlos Lichty of Goshen to blow past Bill Pawlak. After a 6-3 first set that went quicker than the score would indicate, Vincent’s consistency on return serves afforded a 6-1 sealer to walk off the court first.

“Last night I didn’t come in with the best attitude and figured since I beat him a couple times this year I would just win easily, and that’s not always the case,” Vincent said of his match with Lichty. “Mental games play into sports, and he came at me strong and that motivated me for today. I knew I had to work harder and concentrate a lot more. I knew I couldn’t be lackadaisical.”

It was fitting NorthWood’s seniors closed out the team’s first sectional title since 2007. The one doubles duo of Landon Holland and Jack Wysong had several entertaining points with Preston Phillips and Christinn Vanderwerf, including a long rally to open the second set that went Jimtown’s way after some great scrambling on both sides. NorthWood, however, would grab the court, 6-1, 6-2.

Wes Troyer had himself quite a week. After the No. 1 for NorthWood had to retire in the championship match of the NLC with leg cramps, Troyer than ran into a buzzsaw Tuesday in a love and one loss to West Noble’s Joel Mast in a sectional tuneup. Troyer, however, rallied to win quickly Thursday over Goshen and then left no doubt in a 6-1, 6-1 romp of Matt Margraf to clinch the team title.

Chase Horner tracks down a drop shot against Beau Kaler.

“We have had a lot of goals and sectionals was one of them,” Troyer said. “Regionals is next up for us. We’re not assuming anything, we know that will be tough. You look at yesterday, yeah, we won 5-0, but they played us really tough. Jimtown played us tough today. We know it’s going to be that way as long as we want to keep playing.”

All that was left was the team goal the players themselves set. After running through the NLC round robin at 35-0 in team courts, the Panther seven decided to keep it going in the sectional. After a 5-0 win over Goshen, all that were left was Chase Horner at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles. Horner finished the job against a game Beau Kaler 6-3, 6-2, utilizing a myriad of unforced errors from the Jimtown freshman. As the eyes of the tournament wandered back to the entrance and the doubles court, a bloody Bryce Harner, dealing with a smashed index finger during the match, and Treyton Martin were working on closing out Lucas Flick and Sam Wert. Martin’s monster smash on match point was a fitting way for the Panthers to celebrate its latest goal, 6-3, 6-4.

“We came together and knew this is something we wanted since the season started,” NorthWood head coach Tif Schwartz said. “I heard some of the guys being asked how it felt being a sectional champion and all of these guy were in elementary school last time it happened. So it’s all new for them. But it’s very well deserved.”

NorthWood advances to the Concord Regional, where the Panthers will take on DeKalb in the first semi-final. DeKalb knocked off Fremont 5-0 Thursday night at the DeKalb Sectional. Northridge, which beat Concord 3-2 Thursday to win the Concord Sectional, will play either East Noble or Westview, which play Saturday at the East Noble Sectional.

Area Sectional Scores:

NorthWood Sectional – NorthWood 5, Jimtown 0
DeKalb Sectional – DeKalb 5, Fremont 0 THU
Concord Sectional – Northridge 3, Concord 2 THU
East Noble Sectional – East Noble v. Westview SAT
Warsaw Sectional – Warsaw v. Wawasee SAT
Peru Sectional – Peru 4, Maconaquah 1
Bremen Sectional – Bremen 4, John Glenn 1
Culver Academy Sectional – Culver Academy 5, Rochester 0 THU

Landon Holland loads up a return against Jimtown’s one doubles.