LINDEN — The Montgomery County boys tennis title once again belongs to the Crawfordsville Athenians. Monday the Athenians made the cross county trip to North Montgomery for a battle with the Chargers and came away with a 5-0 win for their second straight county title.
While the scoreboard did read 5-0 in favor of CHS, the match was closer than it has been in years past with the Chargers making Cville work for the win.
“I was really impressed with the way North played,” Crawfordsville coach Craig Brainard said. “Especially at three single and one doubles, they have some really good athletes who are the come up. That made winning the county title that much sweeter.”
The Athenians shifted the lineup a little bit to accommodate the return of senior James Murphy. Murphy had missed most of the season due to a heel injury, but made his return Saturday when Cville placed second in the Lafayette Jeff Tournament. Wyatt Motz defeated North Montgomery’s Alex Chapman 6-0, 6-0 at one singles with Rowan Gambrel picking up a 6-0, 6-0 win at two singles over Beckett Martin. At one doubles Murphy and Jude Hutchison were 6-0, 6-0 winners over Nate McCoy and Owen Utterback. Thomas Bowling and Henry Bannon defeated Dane Elliott and Austin Biddle 6-1, 6-0 at two doubles.
The match of the night was at thee singles between Jude Coursey and Cade Cole. While the two are familiar with playing against one another on the baseball diamond, both were just as fun to watch compete on the tennis courts. Coursey took set one 6-0, but Cole went up 2-1 in the second set before Coursey was able to take control to win 6-0, 6-3.
“For us moving the lineup around, I think this gives a little more overall experience at each spot,” Brainard said. “Jude wasn’t feeling well and Cole didn’t make it easy on him at all. I was really proud of Jude in the fact that he continued to battle and get the win.”
North Montgomery first year coach Devan Plant has seen his team steadily improve as the season has gotten deeper and deeper.
“I feel like we’ve gotten to a point where we want to be at this point in the season,” the first-year Charger coach said. “We still want to keep improving, but I like what I’m seeing right now way more than at the beginning of the season. We’ve made a lot of strides so far. Cade specifically is going to go into every match and just compete his tail off. It doesn’t matter who he’s playing. He’s a big asset to our team and we were really excited for him to join us this year.”
Next up on the docket for the Athenians will be another SAC match vs Danville at home on Tuesday. The Chargers will make the trek to Frankfort for another SAC match of their own. For the Chargers they’ll conclude the county schedule next Tuesday when they host county rival Southmont for senior night.
“These county matchups are really fun for our guys to play in,” Plant said. “Crawfordsville has some really talented athletes and they’re well coached. We’ve seen South once this year and are looking forward to playing them again. We’re going to have to come ready to compete if we want that county win.”
