Southmont's Reese Long and Micah Korhorn gave the Mounties the decisive match point with a win at No. 1 doubles in the 4-1 win over Northview.
Conner McVay picked up a 3-set win in Southmont's 4-1 win over Northview at No. 3 singles.
Fountain Central saw their boys’ tennis season come to a close, while Southmont survived and advanced at the IHSAA Crawfordsville Regional on Tuesday.
Mounties beat Knights
Southmont earned a hard-fought 4-1 win over Northview in one semi-final, scrapping to win each and every game.
“The message to our kids was there wasn’t a spot we couldn’t win, and we also knew there wasn’t a spot we were guaranteed to win,” Mountie’s coach Nathan Poynter said. “We knew they could beat us 5-0 just as easy as we could win this one 4-1. We just knew we had to play.”
Adam Cox won at No. 1 singles 6-4, 6-3 over Brevin Cooper, while Trevor McKinney defeated Tyler Hess 7-6(3), 6-3 at No. 2 singles, and Conner McVay held on to beat Franco Singulani 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 at the No. 3 position.
The duo of Reese Long and Micah Korhorn defeated Owen Tipton and Caleb Swearingen 7-6(4), 7-6(5) at No. 1 doubles, while Luke Tesmer and EJ Brewer fell 6-1, 7-5 to Benjamin Goshen and Chase Nuckols at the No. 2 spot.
The Mounties will now face No. 6 Terre Haute South, tonight in the regional final.
“I just want them to come out and play loose and hard,” Poynter said. “We don’t have any pressure on us. Terre Haute South is one of the best teams in the state. They’re singles are outstanding, and they’re good all the way down.”
Mustangs fall to Braves
Fountain Central was unable to overcome one of the state’s best teams in a 5-0 loss to Terre Haute South on Tuesday.
“Obviously Terre Haute South is very talented,” Mustang’s coach Chris Webb said. “Their level of play is a lot higher than what ours is. I felt like especially at No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles that we competed well.”
At No. 1 singles Carson Eberly fell to Canaan Sellers 6-0, 6-0, while Cody Linville lost to Matthew Roberts 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 singles, and Brent Myers fell to Caleb Morris 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
Jacob Keeling and Denton Otero fell to Seth Gage and Jacob Thacker 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles, while CJ Yager and Sawyer Keeling fell 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 doubles to Aiden Fellows and Stephen Kallubhavi.
Following their third straight sectional title season, Webb hopes to see the Mustangs begin to take the program to the next level.
“I really like the idea of our kids playing multiple sports,” he said. “Putting themselves in competitive situations is going to do more for them than just focusing on one sport. That can’t be applied everywhere, but I think for small schools it is important for these kids to be playing multiple sports. As for the ones who aren’t involved in a winter sport or a spring sport is to just get out an play a couple times each month. The worst thing that can happen is the rackets get put away until June or August, because then you allow others to catch up to you.”
