In a battle of ranked Hamilton County teams, No. 5 Hamilton Southeastern beat No. 20 Noblesville 5-0 in a Hoosier Crossroads Conference dual meet Thursday at the Royals’ courts.
“All matches were won in straight sets, but they were all good battles as Noblesville is a tough, young team,” said Southeastern coach Kirk Webber.
The Royals’ doubles teams were the first ones off the court, with No. 2 Meghan Slaninka and Kaylee Etheredge getting a 6-3, 6-3 victory. No. 1 Misha Bukkasagaram and Emily Orme were the next winners, also by a 6-3, 6-3 score. No. 1 singles Tea Vrkic clinched the meet by winning her match.
Southeastern is 3-0 in the conference and 5-0 overall, and will play at the Park Tudor Invitational on Saturday. The Millers play another HCC meet today at Brownsburg.
No. 1 singles: Tea Vrkic def. Alli Maskew 6-3, 6-0
No. 2 singles: Taylor Wolf def. Alli Stamm 6-2, 6-4
No. 3 singles: Emma Bieberich def. Josie Flinchum 6-0, 6-1
No. 1 doubles: Misha Bukkasagaram and Emily Orme def. Kaylee David and Katelyn Decker 6-3, 6-3
No. 2 doubles: Meghan Slaninka and Kaylee Etheredge def. Sierra Leach and Lina Hamashuck 6-3, 6-3
Carmel, ranked No. 2 in Indiana, took on Louisville Sacred Heart Academy, the No. 1 team in Kentucky, Thursday at the Todd Witsken Tennis Center.
The Greyhounds lost to Sacred Heart 4-1, dropping to 1-1 for the season. Carmel’s win came from the No. 2 doubles team of Hallie Reeves and Anjali Natarajan, 6-1, 6-4. At No. 3 singles, freshman Nora Perkins came back from 5-2 down in the third set to eventually play a tiebreaker before her opponent prevailed 8-6 in the tiebreak.
“She’s just a gritty freshman,” said Greyhounds coach Bryan Hanan. “She’s not your everyday freshman. She’s got a really good head on her shoulders. She’s a competitor. Just shows a little bit about her character what she was able to do coming back from that against a good opponent. She’s going to win some big matches for us this year.”
Carmel has four players on its top seven varsity squad that are new to varsity this season.
“We’re going to have some tough matches this year,” said Hanan. “Nothing’s ever a gimme. But that’s why we practice and this year we’re just going to have to get better if we want to get to where we want to get to.”
The Greyhounds will host their own Carmel Invite on Saturday.