Whitko Ladies Breeze To Tennis Sectional Win
WARSAW – The Whitko girls tennis team breezed to a convincing win on a windy Wednesday night to open postseason play.
The Wildcats rolled to a 4-1 victory over Columbia City in the first round of the Warsaw Sectional.
Whitko was not fazed in the least by the windy conditions in flying past the Eagles for the second time this season.
The Wildcats will take a 13-4 mark into a semifinal matchup versus Wawasee Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Warsaw, owners of 16 straight sectional titles, will meet Tippecanoe Valley in the other semifinal Thursday at 4:30.
The championship match was originally slated for Friday at 4:30 p.m. That finale, with a chance of rain in the forecast for Friday, now likely will be played Thursday night following the pair of semifinal matches. A final decision on the status of the title tilt will be made Thursday morning.
Whitko, which beat Columbia City 4-1 on April 24, used the same formula for success in the rematch Wednesday night.
The Wildcats controlled the three singles courts from start to finish to sideline the Eagles. Whitko, which won all three singles matches in straight sets in the regular season, lost a total of just two games in singles play Wednesday.
Senior Delaney Keirn picked up the first point of the night with a 6-0, 6-1 win over sophomore Grace Cotter at No. 2 singles action.
Junior Jackie Werstler was right behind as she posted a 6-0, 6-0 win over freshman Hailey Cearbaugh on the No. 3 singles court for the second point for the Wildcats.
Whitko cemented the win a few minutes later as senior Morgan Keirn topped sophomore Olivia Campbell 6-1, 6-0 at the No. 1 singles slot.
“Our singles players have been very strong all season for us and that was the case again tonight,” said Whitko coach Ben Ogden. “We’ve come to expect them to shoulder the weight for us and they did.
“We talked about focusing on tonight and not looking past anyone. That was our mentality regardless of what happened in the season. We talked about playing our game and going out there and being fundamentally strong.”
Ogden was extremely pleased with the performance put forth by his No. 2 doubles team. The duo of juniors Jenna Vancuren and Manon Sonneville beat sophomore Isabelle Kreienbrink and junior Lydia Morgan 6-3, 6-0.
“Jenna and Manon played some of their best tennis of the season tonight,” said Ogden. “They played well early on this year and then had struggled some lately. It was really good to see them back to playing so well tonight.”
The Eagles picked up their lone point on the No. 1 doubles court. Juniors Jayma Acres and Hanna Behm defeated seniors Jessica Hook and Gracie Hook 6-2, 7-5.
Whitko will face a Wawasee team that they should be very familiar with. The Wildcats beat the Warriors 3-2 on Monday in the regular-season finale for both teams. Whitko won all three singles matches in straight sets versus Wawasee, which enters the sectional at 7-11. The Warriors claimed both doubles wins on Monday in straight sets.
“I think that playing them so recently is really good for us,” noted Ogden of the rematch just three days later with the Warriors. “They are still fresh in our minds. They (Wawasee) have really good doubles teams.”