By RICHIE HALL
The Carmel and Fishers boys tennis teams successfully defended their sectional championships on Thursday.
The host Greyhounds, ranked No. 1 and the defending state champions, beat No. 22 Westfield 5-0 at the Todd Witsken Tennis Center. Meanwhile, the No. 9 Tigers won a tense final over No. 15 Hamilton Southeastern by the score of 3-2.
The Greyhounds got off to a fast start thanks to their doubles, winning both matches 6-0, 6-0. No. 1 singles Presley Thieneman also won quickly, by the score of 6-1, 6-0. The other two singles matches were also finished in straight sets.
“It just feels good,” said first-year Carmel coach Bryan Hanan. “I tell these guys, ‘Don’t take it for granted.’ We’re just trying to take this tournament one step at a time. We’ve got some big goals ahead of us. We came out and played a good Westfield team tonight. Just nice to be on the court and have some good competition.”
This is the ninth consecutive sectional title for the Greyhounds, and their 32nd overall. Carmel will play at the Kokomo regional, and will take on the winner of the Kokomo sectional in a Tuesday semi-final match. The Wildkats host Eastern today to decide that sectional championship.
When Fishers and HSE met earlier in the season for the Mudsock trophy, the Tigers won 5-0. Thursday’s meeting was for the sectional title, and it was a fight from start to finish.
Fishers got the first point when No. 2 singles Marcus Luke won his match 6-3, 6-2. But the Royals took the next two matches, both in doubles. No. 1 Matt Meyer and Matthew Parker picked up a straight-set victory, then No. 2 Mahek Chougule and McGuire Wolfe came from behind to win in three sets.
The Tigers tied it up when Nic Knoderer won at No. 1 singles. Knoderer battled it out with HSE’s Aiden De Witt, ultimately taking two tie-break sets to get the final knotted up at 2-2. That left No. 3 singles, and Fishers’ William White came back from being down a set and 5-2 to win the second set 7-5, and the third set 6-3.
With that, Fishers won its second sectional championship and qualified for the North Central regional on Tuesday. The Tigers will play the winner of today’s Mount Vernon sectional championship, between New Palestine and the host Marauders.
“Last year was the first time we’d ever won a sectional at Fishers,” said Tigers coach Dave Heffern. “Winning two in a row is good, but they gave me a few more grey hairs than I wanted.”
“Obviously our guys came out ready to play tonight,” said HSE coach Kirk Webber, who also said he was proud of how his team fought Thursday night. “They stepped up. Our doubles teams really stepped up. One doubles came out ready to play, won in straight sets.”
The Royals aren’t completely done with the post-season, as Meyer and Parker will move on to the individual tournament.
“It’s nice,” said Webber. “This happened to us last year, too, when our 1 doubles team went pretty deep in the state tournament. That is nice to have that consolation of, those guys are still in it.”
At Carmel
Carmel 5, Westfield 0
No. 1 singles: Presley Thieneman def. Connor Maris 6-1, 6-0
No. 2 singles: Broc Fletcher def. Quentin Markle 6-1, 6-4
No. 3 singles: Ethan Zhang def. Connor Housefield 6-3, 6-4
No. 1 doubles: Timmy Dixon and Garrett Lloyd def. Nicholas Mabe and Harrison Sindelar 6-0, 6-0
No. 2 doubles: Uday Lomada and Jones McNamar def. WeiBin Cheah and Alex Mullet 6-0, 6-0
At Southeastern
Fishers 3, Southeastern 2
No. 1 singles: Nic Knoderer (F) def. Aiden De Witt (HSE) 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6)
No. 2 singles: Marcus Luke (F) def. Andrew Orme (HSE) 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 singles: William White (F) def. Elias Yarling (HSE) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
No. 1 doubles: Matt Meyer and Matthew Parker (HSE) def. Drew Dixon and Peter Hallam (F) 6-4, 6-3
No. 2 doubles: Mahek Chougule and McGuire Wolfe (HSE) def. Sam Barrett and Zachary McEldowney (F) 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
The Carmel boys tennis team won its ninth consecutive sectional title on Thursday, beating Westfield 5-0 at the Todd Witsken Tennis Center. The No. 1-ranked Greyhounds will play Tuesday at the Kokomo regional. (Richie Hall)
The Fishers boys tennis team defended its sectional championship Thursday at Hamilton Southeastern. The Tigers edged the Royals 3-2 to advance to the North Central regional on Tuesday. (Richie Hall)