Miranda Kay returns a ball during her No. 1 singles match against Wawasee’s Katy Ashpole. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – After picking up a win on Wednesday at Lakeland, the Wawasee tennis team was back in action on Thursday evening. Unfortunately for the Lady Warriors, the result was not as enjoyable this time around.

The Lady Warriors welcomed in Northern Lakes Conference foe Goshen and despite playing the Redskins tough, fell 5-0 in both teams first NLC contest of the season.

Erin Wiktorowski congratulates her doubles partner Aubrey Schmeltz during their match against Kayci Troyer and Amy Harris.

“I don’t think the scores were really indicative of the effort from our girls tonight,” said Wawasee head coach Chris Winters. “Every match, all the way through our varsity lineup, the girls were in every game. There were lots of close games. The girls matched up well, they played well. We just didn’t get the extra points here and there and Goshen did.”

Wawasee best chance of getting a victory on the day came from perhaps the most unlikely place. Aubrey Schmeltz and Erin Wiktorowski put on the match of the day on the No. 1 doubles court against Amy Harris and Kayci Troyer.

Harris and Troyer won 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 but the play from Schmeltz and Wiktorowski was encouraging for a young Lady Warrior team looking for positives early in the season. Schmeltz, a freshman, and Wiktorowski, a sophomore, are both playing tennis for the first time in their athletic careers. Thursday’s match was the first time Wiktorowski played doubles. The young duo ultimately took the loss, but played beyond its level of experience for the duration of the match.

Wawasee No. 2 doubles team also found itself on the losing end of its match. Goshen’s Courtney Dobrzykowski and Kayleigh Crowder defeated Wawasee’s Natalie Fritz and Jazlyn Gehlhausen, 6-1, 6-2.

In singles, Goshen (3-0, 1-0) continued to find itself on the winning side of things. Miranda Kay defeated Katy Ashpole 6-1, 6-0 on the No. 1 singles court. Kathleen Morrical picked up the victory for Goshen on the No. 2 singles court with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Wawasee’s Jada Antonides. On the No. 3 singles court it was Sarah Rush winning 6-0, 6-0 for Goshen over Jaclyn Miller.

While Wawasee took the loss, Winters knows her team took a big stride in confidence and performance on the court against a good Goshen squad.

Chelsea Carolus played fantastic as the No. 1 singles player for the Lady Warrior JV team, winning 6-1, 6-1 over Liz Erickson.

“We’re still trying to find our lineup,” Winters said. “This was a last-minute lineup for us, we had one girl out sick today. This may be what we use on Tuesday night, but we are still trying to figure things out. I liked what I saw from our girls tonight and I really feel that if this match happened at a different point in the season that maybe things would have gone a different way.”

Wawasee (1-1, 0-1) will play at Concord on Tuesday night.

Wawasee picked up a win in the junior varsity contest, 3-2 over Goshen. Chelsea Carolus (6-1, 6-1) and Brooke Fick (8-1) picked up wins on the No. 1 and No. 3 singles courts while Charity Parker and Madison Cooper (8-5) claimed a win on the No. 2 doubles court for the JV Lady Warriors. The Wawasee JV in now 2-0 on the season.