Franklin girls tennis coach Rusty Hughes has been around long enough to know that past successes don’t necessarily ensure similar ones in future situations.

So even though his 11th-ranked Grizzly Cubs had already earned a victory over Oldenburg Academy earlier this month, Hughes knew that Saturday’s rematch at the Center Grove Semistate wasn’t going to be the glide path into the state quarterfinals that some might have assumed.

The Twisters back-loaded their lineup to bolster their two doubles teams, and the move paid off in a hard-fought 3-2 victory.

‘They beat us in the doubles, the close matches; that’s what it came down to,” Hughes said. “We knew it was going to be tight. We just had to play well, and we didn’t play as well as we can. But you’ve got to give credit to their team.”

Of course, Oldenburg’s moves to create doubles strength meant offering up some sacrificial lambs at the top of the lineup, and Franklin (21-1) took advantage. Rylie Wilkison posted a quick 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 1 singles, and teammate Emma Williams, playing in the No. 3 spot, finished off a win by the same score just minutes later.

But the Twisters were playing the long game, waiting the afternoon out like a predator patiently stalking its prey — and the momentum shift gradually became more apparent.

Oldenburg went up a set in each of the three remaining matches. It then got on the scoreboard at second singles when Alyssa Wanstrath finished off a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Chelsie Rayl. The Twisters’ No. 1 doubles tandem of Evelyn Storms and Mimi Wilder then evened the match at 2-2 when they closed out a 7-5, 6-3 win against Franklin’s top duo of Haley Haldeman and Ailyn Hendricks.

All eyes then shifted to second doubles, which saw the tide turn more than once over the course of a marathon battle that proved a fitting conclusion to the showdown between these two squads. Oldenburg’s Emma Back and Mary Hunter took the first set 6-3 and got out to a 3-2 lead in the second before Grizzly Cub sophomores Emma Sappenfield and Kennedy Urban claimed the next four games to force a decisive final set.

“We were more consistent off the ground,” Hughes said of the duo’s second-set comeback. “We got a little less consistent in the (third) set.”

Sappenfield and Urban got out in front 2-1 at the start of the third set before Back and Hunter came back to win four straight games. Facing elimination, Franklin came up with a service break to cut the deficit to 5-3, but the Twisters’ pair responded by closing out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory to get their team through to next weekend.

By remaining undefeated in singles play, Wilkison can keep her season going in the IHSAA’s individual singles tourney. The rest of the Grizzly Cubs, however, will have to wait until next spring for their next shot at a state appearance.

With Haldeman the lone senior in the starting lineup and some talented players on the way up from middle school, the future looks bright for Franklin. And despite the disappointment that the Grizzly Cubs felt in the immediate aftermath on Saturday, the 2022 campaign will go down as a pretty fruitful one, too.

“They had a great season,” Hughes said. “They should not have to hang their heads. We just got beat today by a better team today.”

Even the match we won could have went either way.