Center Grove duo falls in doubles semifinal

<p>INDIANAPOLIS</p><p>The Center Grove doubles team of Nic Ballesteros and Grant Herron competed against what coach Ivan Smith described as the hardest team the duo has faced this year in the semifinal round of the state finals on Saturday.</p><p>The Trojans fell 6-1, 6-0 to Eli Herran and Isaac Steiner of Leo at Park Tudor. Ballesteros and Herron still earned third-place medals despite the loss.</p><p>“They really had a good season,” Smith said of the duo. “Obviously they’ve had some good wins over a lot of good teams, and the team we played today was the best team we’ve played.”</p><p>Senior Ballesteros wrapped up his high school playing career on Saturday, but this year was new territory for him. Ballesteros was primarily a singles player but made the switch to doubles heading into this season. He had no idea that he’d be ending his final year with a third-place finish.</p><p>“It’s a lot more than I ever thought I could accomplish,” Ballesteros said. “Being a No. 2 singles player my past two years, I wasn’t prepared to play doubles this year. Actually accomplishing something physical is really nice.”</p><p>The match started with a Leo 2-1 lead in the first set before Herran and Steiner won 10 consecutive games to advance to the final against Timmy Dixson and Garrett Lloyd of Carmel.</p><p>Smith was proud of his players but said Leo was just better.</p><p>“We really hit a lot of good serves,” Smith said. “We really came in and hit a lot of good volleys and we wound up having a lot of balls landing on our shoe tops. I keep saying if they can do that the whole match they’re going to beat you anyway.”</p><p>Center Grove will be losing Ballesteros to graduation but Herron, who is just a junior, will be returning for one more season. He will look to build on what he was able to accomplish this year.</p><p>“It’s an incredible experience; we made a good run,” Herron said. “In tennis the past few years we lost in sectionals twice two years ago. We made it to semistate last year and it feels good to be back at state with the team.”</p>