By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
If success is based on not letting the things you can’t control get to you and focusing on the things you can control, then the Noblesville boys tennis team has had a successful season – no matter what its record is.
Three things that the Millers can’t control are injuries, rainouts and their opponents. Noblesville has had to deal with several injuries, to the point where Millers coach Tim Samons has had to juggle his lineup pretty much every single match.
Samons said “it’s been an injury-plagued season where the top seven players haven’t played a match together all season,” and most of the time Noblesville has had two or three of those players out.
“That’s made it a very tough season for us,” said the coach.
But the Millers have not been hanging their heads. Instead, they’ve kept a positive attitude during the season. And that has resulted in some success. While Noblesville is 3-11 in dual meets for the season, the Millers put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season earlier this week.
Noblesville beat Frankfort 5-0 on Tuesday, then defeated University 4-1 on Wednesday. The Millers also beat Yorktown 4-1 earlier in the season, and played Lapel to a close 3-2 loss. The Bulldogs are now ranked No. 24 in the state.
“The team’s growing, they’ve all improved,” said Samons. “The JV team has improved a lot as the year’s gone on.”
The rainouts haven’t been too bad, although they have disrupted the ability of players – especially the junior varsity – to get match experience. That’s key for the Millers, who have a relatively young team, with only five seniors this year.
“What these boys really need is more match play,” said Samons. “They need more match play experience. We’ve had a ton of rainouts this year that have not been able to be made up, and that has hurt them in developing players as well during the year.
“But all in all, I was pleased with their results because when you look at the obstacles that were put before them, I feel like they’ve really went out and worked hard and tried to get better,” said the coach.
Noblesville is playing its usual difficult schedule, including dual meets against each of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference teams. Four of those HCC teams are ranked: Avon is No. 7, Brownsburg is No. 8, Fishers is No. 9 and Hamilton Southeastern is No. 23.
Other top teams the Millers have faced are No. 3 Brebeuf Jesuit, and No. 15 Cathedral, who beat Noblesville 5-0 on Thursday. The Irish won all the matches in straight sets, although the No. 2 doubles team of seniors Ryan Plummer and Jackson Ramey extended their opponents to 7-5, 7-5.
The Millers have one more regular-season match, at Pendleton Heights on Monday. Noblesville will then play at the HSE sectional, which starts on Wednesday. No matter what happens, the Millers have stayed positive, and are also looking towards the future: Samons said there are some eighth-grade players coming in that will help the team next season.
“This team stayed positive even when they were losing, and that’s all you can ask of a team when they go out there and play,” said Samons.
Hamilton Heights lost a Wednesday match to Western 3-2.
The Huskies honored their three senior players (Hawkins Hochstedler, Adam Gross and Zane Remsen) and senior manager Emily Peterson. Heights’ wins came from No. 2 singles Hudson Hochstedler in three sets (3-6, 6-2, 6-1) and Gross at No. 3 singles (6-2, 6-1).
“Whether we won or lost tonight, this was going to be a great night,” said Huskies coach Cameron Scott. “This is a special group of seniors we’ve got, and I’ve been really proud to be their coach the last several years. Hawkins, Hudson, Adam, and Emily (our manager) have meant a great deal to this program, and it was special to be able to honor them tonight.”
Westfield swept Kokomo 5-0 on Wednesday.
No. 2 singles Quentin Markle won in straight sets, bringing his record to 16-4 on the season. Harrison Sindelar then won at No. 3 singles.
The Shamrocks’ doubles teams of Carson Maris/Connor Maris and Joe Day/Nicholas Mabe followed with wins, then No. 1 singles Parker Kalis won a three-set match that took three hours to finish.
The Noblesville senior boys tennis players have stayed positive throughout a challenging season for the Millers. Pictured with their senior banners are Salil Gupta, Jackson Ramey, Rylane Jones and Andrew Friesen. Ryan Plummer is not pictured; his banner is at the far left. (Richie Hall)