By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – As of Wednesday, the Carmel boys tennis team has won 39 sectional championships.
And that title may have been the toughest sectional victory of all for the Greyhounds.
Jack Tiplick played No. 2 singles for Guerin Catholic. (Richie Hall)
Top-ranked Carmel beat No. 6 Guerin Catholic 5-0 in the Sectional 35 championship at the Todd Witsken Tennis Center. That victory came on the heels of the Greyhounds’ Tuesday semifinal win over No. 8 Zionsville. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles beat No. 24 University in Tuesday’s other semifinal – all four teams were ranked by the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association.
Carmel coach Dan Brunette said his players had to beat “two quality teams” to win. The Greyhounds won all five of their matches against Guerin Catholic in straight sets, but nothing was easy.
The No. 2 doubles match went quickly, as Carmel’s Andrew Hall and Rajeev Singh won 6-0, 6-0. The No. 1 doubles match finished next; Jude Sangar and David Liu were 6-2, 6-4. No. 3 singles Vishal Shankar delivered the clinching point, as he won his match 6-2, 6-1.
No. 2 singles Andrew Kim was next, as he got past the Golden Eagles’ Jack Tiplick 6-3, 6-4. That left the No. 1 singles bout, where Carmel’s Wes Worobel battled Guerin Catholic’s Charlie Phillips.
Worobel had already played a marathon match the night before against Zionsville’s Tyler Reed, eventually winning in a third-set tiebreak. Worobel won the first set 6-4 over Phillips, then came back to win a back-and-forth second set in another tiebreak, 7-6. The tiebreak score was 9-7.
Worobel said he kept focused by “staying within the lines, within myself and doing little things that motivate me, like sometimes looking at my parents who support me and my dreams, looking at my coaches. Just little things that help me push through every minute that the match lasts.”
Carmel won its 16th consecutive sectional championship. The Greyhounds’ current streak began in 2010.
“It feels great,” said Worobel. “Just keeping the tradition alive.”
Guerin Catholic finished its season with a 12-3 record.
Carmel will host the Regional 9 tournament this year. The Greyhounds will play No. 3 Brebeuf Jesuit in the regional semifinals, which start at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. The Braves won Sectional 36 at Park Tudor, beating Pike 5-0 in the Tuesday semifinals, then sweeping the host and No. 29-ranked Panthers 5-0 in Wednesday’s championship.
“My guys, they’re going to get a break,” said Brunette. “They should be very, very proud of themselves and they way they handled themselves on the court today was phenomenal.”