After losing five of its top seven players from last year’s state quarterfinalist, Center Grove’s boys tennis team appeared poised for a rebuilding season.
However, the Trojans kept improving and were able to win sectional and regional titles before being edged by Zionsville 3-2 Saturday in the Center Grove Semistate. Both teams were tied for 12th in the final state tennis coaches rankings.
The Trojans finished with a 17-7 record.
“We’ve come a long way,” Center Grove coach Ivan Smith said. “I didn’t really want to say rebuilding because I knew we had some kids from the reserve team who we hoped would fill in spots, and they did. We talked about how a lot of them pushed each other because we had the most amount of winter play that we’ve had in years. We talked about how that would be important again this year if we want to go to the next step.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Although the loss — in his team’s 12th 3-2 match of the year — was disappointing, Smith said he was pleased with the season.
“Hopefully we can turn some of those around and take another step next year,” he said.
One encouraging sign is how juniors Luke Embrey and Dhrumil Patel performed in going unbeaten in the postseason at second and third singles.
“Luke probably changed more of his game during the match with things he would do,” Smith said. “Dhrumil became more solid towards the end. He went three sets with Carmel, Homestead and North Central, pretty good programs. He was a pretty good No. 3 singles player.”
Patel played No. 2 doubles last year.
Against Zionsville, Embrey beat Nick Bailey 6-3, 6-0 and Patel topped Austin Kukiak 6-2, 6-2.
“My shots were definitely falling into place at the end of the year,” Embrey said.
Embrey agreed the team’s future appears bright.
“Given how hard we worked coming into this season, I think definitely our guys will improve a lot and we’re looking good for next season,” he said.
Zionsville’s Cole Chappell defeated Mason Runkle 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Runkle, the team’s lone senior, played No. 3 singles last year.
“Mason really improved over the course of the season,” Smith said. “He’ll have the opportunity to play college tennis if he wants to do that; he’s a good student.”
At No. 1 doubles, Zionsville’s Robert Campbell and Ryan Carr topped junior Landen Finlinson and sophomore Logan James 6-2, 6-2.
With the match tied, Zionsville’s No. 2 doubles team of Ethan Perry and Nick Winters got the winning point with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over juniors Glenn Swaney and Carson Contos.
In the singles sectional championship match, Perry Meridian senior Sajin Smith defeated Greenwood junior Ethan Gray 6-4, 6-4. Gray finished 17-5, with three of those losses to Smith, who reached the state singles semifinals last year.
“Ethan has been awesome all year,” Greenwood coach Jeremy Runge said. “Throughout the whole year, he got better and better, and today it showed. To me, this is the best match he played all year, hands down. There’s nothing he should be ashamed of; he played well. Sajin just won the more important points and that was the difference maker.
"This will be good for Ethan. It’s never fun to lose. But (Smith) is one of the favorites for the state tournament and he just went toe to toe with him.”
