JASPER —
The Jasper boys tennis team knew what it would take to advance to Wednesday’s regional championship, what they didn’t count on was the rain.
The Wildcats (16-2) defeated Loogootee (16-4), 5-0, during the rain soaked opening match of Tuesday’s regional.
Washington’s No. 1 doubles of Garrett Burton and Tyler Stoll also lost to Forest Park, ending their season. The match between Vincennes Rivet and Bloomfield was forced by weather to move to the Jasper indoor courts.
The Wildcats and Lions got underway at the Ed Yarbrough Tennis Complex with the threat of rain in the back of their minds under a number of dark clouds. Soon enough, that threat became real.
Forty minutes into play, all tennis was stopped by a 30-minute delay.
The rain stayed away for roughly 20 minutes before heavier rain ascended on Jasper and Rivet and Bloomfield were forced by the weather to move to the Jasper indoor courts.
Following the delay, Jasper finished off Loogootee, sweeping all five matches. Singles’ Eli Seng and Grant Weaver defeated Loogootee’s Conner Wittmer and Jesse Horney, both by scores of 6-1, 6-0. No. 3 singles Logan Mathies finished off Tyler Booker just before the rain started to come down harder.
The No. 1 doubles team of Will Seger and Noah Moss defeated Waylon Matthews and Gabe Nolley in straight sets without surrendering a point. No. 2 doubles Aaron Nordhoff and Ben Seng defeated Hayden Bell and Will Nonte 6-2, 6-0.
While the Lions had a good season, coach Rick Graves said his team simply ran into a better squad in Jasper.
“It’s a whole different level of tennis when you play a team that is that good,” Graves said. “They (Jasper) don’t make many mistakes, and they’ve got just any shot they want to hit when they need to hit it.”
Jasper head coach Scott Yarbrough emphasized the importance of taking care of business against the Lions.
“The thing that we try to focus on more than anything else is if we’re playing an opponent that we’re stronger than is keeping our focus for the entire match,” Yarbrough said. “More than anything else believe it or not, we use matches that we’re playing well in to work on our serves and actually try to play serves in certain spot for future matches.”
“Jasper is simply an extremely talented team all the way through the lineup,” Graves said. “Our kids competed, and I’m proud of the kids, but we just competed against a better team.”
The lone hold over from the Hatchet’s squad was the No. 1 doubles team of Burton and Stoll. Burton-Stoll fell in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, to Forest Park’s Sam Beckman and Trent Wever.
“This isn’t the pairing we had most of the season,” said Washington head coach Jason Johnston. “We made some adjustments as coaches to try and get out of the sectional. These guys haven’t had a lot of time together, this is basically their sixth match together. Having that in mind they did pretty well.”
As he looks back on the 2012 season for his team, Johnston said this year the Hatchets earned experience for a young bunch that looks to be a threat next year.
With a matchup with Rivet or Bloomfield scheduled for Wednesday evening, Yarbrough said his team is very familiar with Rivet having defeated them, 5-0, in the regional last year. Bloomfield, however is a different situation.
“They (Bloomfield) have been down here a few times in the past, but not this year,” Yarbrough said. “Vincennes Rivet actually comes to our invitational earlier in the year. We played them at three spots. We’ve beaten them at one and it was a good match. We beat them at two in straight sets and I think we got them at one of the doubles. It’s a flighted tournament, so you don’t necessarily play head-to-head.”
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