Crawfordsville boys tennis has high goals and high expectations in 2023. So far in the early parts of the year Cville has lived up to those high expectations as they came into Thursday’s Montgomery County and Sagamore Conference matchup against Southmont with a perfect 4-0 record. The Mounties on the flip side are a young team with freshman and sophomore still learning out on the court. What resulted on Thursday was Cville taking home a clean 5-0 sweep over their county rivals to remain a perfect 5-0 on the season.
“I felt like South didn’t just give it to us, they made us earn it tonight,” Crawfordsville coach Craig Brainard said. “Especially at their doubles positions they were playing pretty well and it took our guys a little bit to get going. We’ve really stressed being mentally tough and being able to overcome any challenge, whether that be the conditions we’re playing in or the opponent.”
One of thing that the Athenians are having to overcome currently is the loss of their No. 1 singles player in senior James Murphy who is battling a heel injury. With that Brainard has moved his two and three singles up a spot and is having Nolan Watt step in to play three singles.
Wyatt Motz who was moved to one singles got the win over the Mounties Gavin Downey 6-0, 6-0. Rowan Gambrel picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win over Colton Cory at two singles for the Athenians. Watt was able to come away with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Southmont’s Caden Allen at three singles.
At one doubles South’s Owen McCutchan and Dean McGaughey battled the duo of Jude Coursey and Jude Hutchison, but Coursey and Hutchison came away with a 6-3, 6-2 win. The CHS senior/freshman combo of Thomas Bowling and Henry Bannon defeated Mike Hardin and Alex Garcia 6-0, 6-1 to round out the wins for the Athenians.
“I thought our one doubles played pretty well tonight for how inexperienced they are,” Southmont coach Nathan Poynter said. “We know that we’re still going to be a little inconsistent but we’re not as inconsistent as were a few weeks ago so you can see progress being made. These kids are young and they’re going to continue to improve rapidly from where they’re at right now.”
The Athenians are able to get conference play going with a 1-0 start. Now the real test begins as next week CHS will host both Lebanon (Tuesday) and Western Boone (Thursday). The Tigers bested the Stars Thursday night so the Athenians and Tigers will likely battle it out for the conference title the rest of the way. Before that however, Cville will host their annual Macy Invite on Saturday, a tournament they placed second in a year ago.
Brainard also took the time to compliment his two doubles team which got tested on Wednesday against Lafayette Central Catholic but won in three sets. Then against the Mounties were able to bounce back nicely.
“It’s very interesting to have a senior and a freshman play as well as Henry and Thomas have,” Brainard said. “Henry is still battling a shoulder injury and going out there and still being able to put pressure on his opponents then Thomas experience and positive attitude have really made them fun to watch.”
Southmont with the loss falls to 2-6 (0-3 SAC) on the season. They’ll be back in action on Tuesday when they host Frankfort.
