Fountain Central girls tennis has been chasing Covington for the last few seasons. In 2019 and 2021, the Trojans were the team that knocked FC out of the post-season. Saturday the Mustangs would get another chance to take down the Trojans as Covington and FC met up in the sectional championship. Originally supposed to be at Fountain Central, the match was moved to the Collett Indoor Tennis Center at Wabash College due to rain. This time the moment wouldn’t be too big against the Trojans and Fountain Central was able to capture their first sectional title since 2017 with a 3-2 win.
“I’m just really happy for our players because they work so hard and you want them to be rewarded,” Mustang coach David Kight said. “Covington has been that kind team that we knew we had to beat and I think it was very fitting that it was Covington who we’d have to play in the sectional final. Their singles players played the best I’ve seen them play this year and our kids were able to match that.”
Fountain Central dropped just one game at all three singles spots as Lillie Fishero defeated Peyton Brown 6-0, 6-0 at one singles as the senior still has yet to drop a match this season. Haley Webb took care of Cora Reynolds 6-0, 6-1 at two singles, and Angela Gonzalez, with FC up 2-1 over Covington secured the sectional title with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Halle Grady at three singles.
The two wins for Covington came at both doubles spots as Karsyn Engle and Emma Taylor defeated Emily Jiminez and Alydia Mellady 6-2, 6-2. At two doubles Marylee Muniz and Hannah Prickett fell to Lilly Hacquet and Addison Streuer in a three set super tie-break 2-6, 6-3, 10-8.
“For us to drop just one game at our singles spots, we played some fantastic tennis,” Kight said. “At one doubles unfortunately when Covington is at their best, they’re just better. I do want to congratulate them for moving on in the tournament. I know Emma and Karsyn will do well.”
A lot of different factors were at play as the Mustangs and Trojans met up in the sectional championship. FC came in as the favorites for the first time in quite sometime and then you add a venue change of playing on your home courts to now having to move inside. The nerves for Fountain Central could’ve gone through the roof and they could have folded under the pressure, but they did the exact opposite and were able to play their best tennis when they needed to.
“Our ability to play in a big match like this and handle our nerves and that’s one of the things that I’m the most happy with,” Kight added. “We didn’t handle them well on Thursday against Benton Central, but still were able to find a way to win. We played well against Attica and really carried that over to today and you have to give our girls a ton of credit for doing that. We’re just really happy as a program right now and now have a Regional to get ready for.”
That regional will take place on Tuesday at Crawfordsville and the Mustangs will take on Terre Haute South who defeated Terre Haute North 4-1 at the Terre Haute South sectional. The other two teams in the sectional are pretty familiar to the Mustangs as Greencastle and Crawfordsville will play in the other Regional semi-final. The two winners of both semi-finals will meet on Wednesday at Crawfordsville in the Regional Championship.
“They’re a team that plays a loaded schedule and is going to be battle tested,” Kight said of the matchup with the Braves. “I believe they’re fairly young so this will be their first their first time in this environment. We’ll try and know everything we can about them but I feel like we can be in a good spot to compete and win that match.”
The match between the Mustangs and the Braves will get underway at CHS on Tuesday beginning at 5 p.m.
