For Center Grove tennis coach Ivan Smith, the match with Greenwood went about how he expected.
“We felt like they could play us well at certain spots,” Smith said. “I think we held our ground there. We had a little slippage at times, but we advanced.”
The No. 12 Trojans topped the Woodmen 4-1 Tuesday in the opening round of the Center Grove Sectional.
Center Grove (13-6) advances to today’s 4:30 p.m. semifinal meeting with Indian Creek. Whiteland and Franklin face off in the other semifinal. The championship is set for 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Woodmen picked up their lone point at No. 1 singles, where junior Ethan Gray topped Center Grove senior Mason Runkle 6-2, 6-4 in the longest match on an unseasonably hot day.
“I don’t think the heat wound up being much of a factor,” Smith said. “It might have affected Mason a little bit because he had a tougher time."
The only negative Greenwood coach Jeremy Runge saw from Gray’s perspective was that it could have been over a little quicker.
“Ethan was up 4-1 and dropped three straight games,” Runge said. “His biggest thing is his focus. That’s going to happen especially at No. 1 singles, I don’t care who you are playing. If he stays focused, to me he has the strokes that he can play with anybody.”
Gray remains alive in the singles portion of the state tournament.
Center Grove No. 2 singles player Luke Embrey dropped just one game in a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Nick Belovic. The Trojans’ Dhrumil Patel defeated Charlie Brooks 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3 singles.
At No. 1 doubles, Center Grove’s duo of Landen Finlinson and Logan James beat Aiden Luttrell and Ben Sobieray 6-1, 6-3.
The Trojans’ No. 2 doubles team of Glenn Swaney and Carson Contos were 6-1, 6-2 winners over Sam Fenner and Thomas Burtt.
Runkle is Center Grove’s only senior starter. James is a sophomore and the rest are juniors.
This was the first meeting between the two Johnson County rivals this season.
“I don’t think we particularly played well tonight,” Runge said. “I don’t think that’s indicative of where wanted to finish or how we wanted to go out. All in all, there was progress throughout the year. Everybody got better. We put ourselves in a position, I feel like, to be really competitive. It just didn’t go our way tonight.”
The Woodmen, who finished 13-5, will graduate only Sobieray from their starting lineup.
Overall, Smith is satisfied where how his Trojans are playing as the postseason heats up.
“We had three good wins before we played No. 1 Carmel and No. 2 Homestead,” Smith said. “We beat Jasper last Friday night and they’re a ranked team (No. 14). We beat Jasper earlier in the season, too. We beat Bloomington South 3-2 before that last week and they’re ranked (18th). We’ve had some good wins coming into this. We went through a buzzsaw on Saturday, but that’s why you play those teams, to get ready for all the hard teams in the tournament.”
