NorthWood Tennis: Panthers Sweep Lions
BREMEN — It’s not a conference or a tournament rivalry, but NorthWood’s annual boys tennis match with Bremen is a rivalry nonetheless.
And the Panthers earned a sweep over the Lions in this year’s meeting in Bremen, with straight-set victories on all five varsity courts Monday.
“We know when we come here we’re going to have good matches. Bremen has always been one of those things — between Nappanee and Bremen it’s always been a big rivalry so it’s always fun to be able to come here and see a lot of friendly faces, familiar faces,” said NorthWood head coach Tiffiny Schwartz.
“It’s always fun to be here, and it is very nice any match you go to to win in straight sets or be able to come out and have confidence like that. It does help the team dynamic and everything else, and it’s carried on down the line to some of the JV matches, so that helps.”
NorthWood two singles player Landon Holland completed the sweep by holding off a surging Mark Bahr via 7-5 tiebreaker at the tail end of a 7-6 second set. It was a dramatic departure from Holland’s 6-1 win in the first set.
“I think that we pretty much tried to stay doing the same things we were doing,” explained Schwartz. “Maybe mishit a few times — went for too much — and we just needed to bring our targets in a little bit better instead of going out towards the line. Bring that target in a little bit so you get a little bit more margin of error. Sometimes that makes a little bit of a difference. And I think that Bremen did pick up their game. I think in his mind he wanted to play a little bit better, and he did. He picked up his game.
“Landon is one of those that can play for longevity. So he will take a lot of time playing, and he’s OK with that.”
“He’s a freshman, and he’s learning how to play points. I think it takes him awhile to get started, but he’ll get better,” said Bremen head coach Mark Wagner of Bahr.
First off Monday was Panther number one Wes Troyer, who beat Bremen’s Carter Filchak in quick 6-2, 6-1 sets. Trevor Klotz and Trajan Schwartz soon followed with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of the home team’s two doubles tandem of Brian Cruz and Jordan Thornton. Jared Hoffman and Brant Mast took the last two games from Jake Strehler and Bryce Sterling to finish off a 12-game second set and a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Hoffman, one of three seniors in the Panthers’ top seven, moved into NorthWood’s doubles lineup from the team’s one singles spot last year after struggling through health issues with his back in the offseason.
“After the season was done he had some things going on and wasn’t able to play for awhile and really struggled during basketball season with his back. They’ve finally got some things taken care of a little bit on that end, and he was able to start playing again in the summer,” said Schwartz. “But in my mind putting him at the doubles position, it helped him to not have to serve every other game. And it just makes a big difference when you’re doing it once every four times instead of once every other time. I think that’s been a bonus for us too.”
NorthWood three singles player Jack Wysong made the opposite move this season, shifting from last year’s two doubs to three singles, where he topped Bremen’s Brett Yelaska, 6-3, 6-2 Monday.
“He came out really aggressive, playing really well and really was, I think, kind of one of those people that was a surprise, that we didn’t know we would be putting into a singles position. But he’s done a great job for us,” Schwartz said of Wysong. “He’s coming out there strong, being aggressive doing what he’s doing. So it’s really been a nice asset to have him be in that position for us and be able to win some matches and get some points.”
The Panthers recognized one of four seniors in Bremen in Klotz. With their home courts undergoing a major reconstruction, the team has decided to divide up its senior nights between four different meets this season.
“We have picked four different matches to celebrate a senior. We had Tyler at the Fairfield match and then tonight we did Trevor,” Schwartz said. “We’re just trying to make it as special as we can knowing that we aren’t going to have a home match to be able to have a senior night. We didn’t really want to put anybody out to do all four of them and do everything so we try to do something special. We have the parents come out. We recognized them, took some pictures of them before the lineups. We’ll do that and then the parents have brought a senior snack so something that they enjoy or they like, then they give to the kids. When they get on the bus we’ll have a meal and then we’ll have like a senior snack.”
The Panthers move to an even 3-3 following a 4-1 loss to the Culver Academies last Friday. Hoffman and Mast were the team’s lone winners in that match with a three-set, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over CMA’s Patrick Wilson and Vincent Huang.
Also Monday, NorthWood’s JV won 5-2. That result followed on the heels of a 3-0 result at the Jimtown JV Invitational on Saturday. The JV Panthers beat both Jimtown and Concord, 4-1, and trumped Bethany Christian 3-2. Like their varsity counterparts, they fell 4-3 to CMA Friday.