Tigers, Warriors Advance At Warsaw Tennis Sectional
WARSAW — The Warsaw Tennis Sectional champion has yet to be crowned, but one thing is already certain — it will be an NLC squad.
The host Tigers advanced with a clean sweep of Tippecanoe Valley, and Wawasee edged out Columbia City 3-2 in the semifinals Thursday night.
“It is nice. I think their confidence is up, but I told them they need to be ready. Wawasee is good,” said Warsaw coach Stacy Lind.
Warsaw made short work the Vikings, only giving up a relative handful of games opposite the Vikings.
Trey Williams put away Dylan Neese, 6-1, 6-0 at 2 singles, and Cole Rhodes and Carter Schuh defeated Cooper Walls and Annikan Pettit, 6-2, 6-0 at 2 doubles. Hayden Anderson earned a 6-2, 6-1 win over Owen Kirchenstien at 3 singles, and Will Boren and Michael Ray defeated Russ Paxton and Ethan Hartman, 6-2, 6-1 at 1 doubles. Caleb Williams’ 6-2, 6-2 victory over Payton Mills at 1 singles was the most competitive match of the semifinal.
“He went out, he overcame it, and he played great,” said Lind of her No. 1. “I’m very proud of my boys today.”
It wasn’t the outcome Valley coach Chris Kindig wanted, but he did see some big steps taken by his players in their closer.
“Obviously, coming in Warsaw is probably always the favorite. I think our guys were a little bit nervous coming in. I told our guys ‘Play your game. It’s just another match. We’ve played some really good teams this year,’ he said. “I don’t think we played intimidated at all, which, maybe in the past we have in some matches. I thought we played pretty well. We’ve just got to get better.”
Valley closes the season at 4-12 and bids goodbye to just one senior in Paxton at the end of a year that saw big growth for a team that fielded just three players in 2018.
“Russ, playing tennis as a senior, it was awesome to have him. He couldn’t hit a ball in the court to save his life the first day of practice, and tonight he played pretty well,” Kindig said. “It’s kind of annoying how often I say ‘Oh, you guys have improved. You guys don’t realize it because you don’t watch each other all day every day like I do, but we are 100 times better than we were in August.’ Hopefully we just spend some more time in the offseason, everybody. Hopefully they want to get better, and we can be a lot more competitive next year with the numbers we have.”
Wawasee’s win over City was more dramatic.
The Warriors actually trailed 2-1 after Eli Jones downed Holden Babb, 6-3, 6-1 at 2 singles, and Joshua Miner and Troy Krider topped Zeke Keim and Colin Rhoades, 6-2, 7-5 at 2 doubles for the Eagles’ two match points, and Grant Brooks and Blaine Baut finished on the other side of a 6-2, 7-5 decision over Evan Cearbaugh and Tanveer Singh at 1 doubles to keep Wawasee in it.
Playing for an injured Jack Gibbons at 3 singles, sophomore Devon Kuhn stepped up big time with a three-set, 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 victory over Noah Finefrock at 3 singles that evened the semifinal up at two points apiece.
“He was trying to lob. I told him ’Stick with trying to drive it past him,’ and that’s what brought him back. He stuck with that. He’s one of those kids that will do what you tell him to do,” explained Wawasee coach Vince Rhodes of the difference between the second and the other two sets.
Already up a set and leading 5-0, veteran Zach Leedy put Kendall Smith away, 7-5, 6-0 at the top singles position. The usually businesslike senior finished Smith off with an ace, then tossed his racquet to the ground and clinched his fists in celebration at the exclamation point as Wawasee advanced to the final.
“He’s just steady. I told his dad ‘Just let him go.’ We told him ‘You’re up 5-0. Hit the ball. Pound it in there.’ He just stuck with what was working, trying to draw him to the net,” said Rhodes.
Saturday’s finals are slated for 9 a.m. Saturday morning. The sectional championship represents a rematch for the conference rivals, who met Sept. 17 at Wawasee, where Warsaw edged the Warriors, 3-2, with the 2 singles match coming down to 3 sets and the 1 doubles going to a tiebreak in the first set.
“It’s going to boil down to, I think it’s going to be 1, 2 and 1 doubles, basically. Two doubs, they’ve got an opportunity if we can get them to play aggressively,” Rhodes said.
“We’ll have some good matches, I’m sure. We’re kind of excited to be in the finals, and we’ll see what happens.”