Taking Tennis To The Next Level
INDIANAPOLIS – It’s fitting, perhaps a tad ironic, that in the finest team season in program history, NorthWood is sending an individual doubles team to the IHSAA State Finals.
State isn’t new territory for NorthWood, which just as recently as 2017 sent its one doubles team of Jared Hoffman and Brant Mast to the state finals. The ’17 team didn’t get out of the quarterfinals, which is on the minds of this year’s grouping of Landon Holland and Jack Wysong.
The two are playing together for the first time after Landon Holland played on the singles courts through his junior season and Wysong stepped up in his first full season at varsity. The two have really come on strong, developing chemistry right away and keeping it going to the tune of a 27-1 mark this season, its only loss to DeKalb during the regular season. The two are 7-0 in the postseason, including two wins at the Portage Individual Regional, where they beat Hobart and Bremen in straight sets.
“I think at first it was tougher for Landon in the fact that he didn’t have to hit every ball,” said NorthWood head coach Tif Schwartz of Holland’s adjustments to doubles play. “He had a partner that could step in and help put balls away. The game of doubles is a much faster game than what he was used to in his singles matches but these two quickly started to figure out the strengths/weaknesses of each other. We started using that to our advantage and I think it just kept getting better and better as the season progressed. It has been really fun to watch them.”
Holland himself admitted the doubles game took some getting used to, adding, “It took me awhile to become comfortable playing doubles. I have been a singles player throughout my whole high school career. Playing at the baseline and serving have been my strong suits all year but playing at the net has been hard for me at times.
“Coming into the season I knew me and Jack could be very successful and win like we have been. We are both very experienced players and have what it takes to win matches together. We are both looking forward to the chance to compete in state this weekend.”
Holland and Wysong will enter play Friday afternoon at Park Tudor with a 2 p.m. start in the quarters against Munster’s duo of Charlie Morton and Kathir Venkat (15-1, 7-0). The two sides have not seen each other this season. The winner will move into Saturday’s morning semi-finals against either Zionsville or Castle. The state finals are scheduled for individuals and teams for 2 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis.
“Coaches talk,” stated Schwartz. “I have no doubt that the Munster coach has tried to find some information on us and I have talked with coaches that have seen Munster, but it all boils down to staying within ourselves and trying to improve on what has gotten us this far.”
What’s worked for the Panther duo has been energy. While Holland usually reserves his excitement to a fist pump or two, Wysong is more of the hype guy. Not afraid to celebrate after points, verbally motivate cross court, but be the first to let his opponents know when they made a nice shot or winner, Wysong knows this weekend’s stage is huge.
“I think we need to have a certain amount of pride and swagger going into our match but we need to know that every team here is great at tennis and play to our top ability,” Wysong said. “I think it’s going to be to our advantage if we can get to the net as much as possible and play our game.”