VEEDERSBURG — Fountain Central boys tennis are once again sectional champions. Friday the Mustangs hosted the Parke Heritage Wolves and were 3-2 winners as FC claimed its fifth sectional title in the last seven years and 11th overall sectional title in school history. With FC leading 2-1, the senior duo of Wes Jackson and Brayden Prickett secured the sectional title with a three set win at two doubles. Longtime FC coach knew that with a sectional title on the line that his seniors would step up when they needed to most.
“The match came down to us needing to win one of those doubles spots, so it’s nice and kind of fitting that we had our seniors out there being able to clinch it for us,” Webb said. “They held the outcome of our season in their hands. Wes and Brayden have played so well together this year for us and we just felt like we had the right guys on the court at the right time.”
Along with the clinching match at two doubles form Jackson and Prickett, FC got wins at two singles from Skyler Hoagland with a 6-1, 6-1 win over the Wolves Carson McAlister. Ayden Batchelor was a winner at three singles for FC 6-0, 6-3 over Nate Woodard. Jackson and Prickett’s score at two doubles was 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 over Luke Gordon and Parke Hopkins.
Parke Heritage will advance both their one singles and one doubles into the individual tournament as Lewie Woody defeated FC’s Gabe McCollum 6-4, 6-3 and Max Dowd and Jayce Crosley defeated Noah Armstrong and Koby Wolf in three sets 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
Earlier during the regular season when the Wolves and Mustangs met up, the score was the same 3-2 nail-biter with FC coming out on top. Webb praised the Wolves for their play as the two teams have played countless close matches over the years with many of the matches going three sets.
“Us and Parke Heritage have been in countless battles really for now the last sis or seven years,” Webb said. “These three set matches are fun to be a part of, they nerve wracking and it makes for great competition. Coach Slater runs a great program over there and I’ve really been impressed with them this year. They’ve made some lineup changes to make things difficult on us. Kudos to Lewie Woody and their one doubles team for moving on in the state tournament.”
With their fifth sectional title in seven seasons now officially in hand, the Mustangs have continued what is a great winning culture with Webb and David Kight at the helm of the program. This season the team added FC softball coach Ric Walke to help as an assistant. Each season FC comes into it expecting to win a sectional title. That’s the standard that they’ve created over the years and more often than not, the Mustangs have lived up to the high bar they set for themselves.
“Winning a sectional title has become the expectation,” Webb said. “We always strive to play our best tennis in late September. We’ve gotten kids who just buy into this program and have looked up to some of our previous teams who’ve had success. The player values the program and the we value each and every player and that’s how we’ve been able to sustain this success over the years.”
With the sectional title win, the Mustangs will advance tot Tuesday’s regional at Lebanon. The task now gets tougher for the Mustangs as they take on the Park Tudor Panthers in the Regional semi-final. Despite the tall task at hand, Webb says how his team isn’t going to back down from the challenge.
“While this is a reward for the hard work our guys put in all season, we still want to go out there and compete. We don’t want to do over there and just go through the motions and just be happy to be there. We’re going to represent Fountain Central the best way we can and play hard.”
Park Tudor and Fountain Central will get underway from Lebanon on Tuesday beginning at 5 p.m.
