Mike Wolanin | For the Daily Journal
After suffering a 3-2 loss to Indian Creek during the regular season, Franklin’s boys tennis team had a burning desire to flip that outcome during Wednesday’s sectional semifinal rematch against the Braves.
Thanks to a clean sweep of the singles matches, the Grizzly Cubs got their wish, pulling off a 3-2 victory to advance into today’s championship match.
Franklin will face host Center Grove, which posted a 5-0 win over No. 25 Whiteland in the other semifinal.
Reid Davidson secured the Grizzly Cubs’ victory with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Brendan Conner at second singles. He followed Caleb Funkhouser, a 6-1, 6-2 winner at No. 1, and Nathan Neville, who earned a 6-1, 6-3 victory in the third spot. Funkhouser had lost the first time the teams met.
Indian Creek got its points in doubles, with Landon Sichting and Aiden Pemberton taking a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory at No. 1 and the tandem of Aaron Spurgeon and Trent Volz winning at No. 2 by a 6-2, 6-4 score.
Meanwhile, the No. 7 Trojans had little trouble polishing off the Warriors after narrowly pulling out a 3-2 win in their regular-season matchup.
Tyler Lane (6-1, 6-0), Loc Pham (6-2, 6-0) and Daksh Patel (6-2, 6-3) all won their respective singles matches in straight sets. Max Williams and Evan Davis were 6-3, 6-1 winners at first doubles, while Carson Bush and Dimitrios Kandris took a pair of 6-3 sets at No. 2 doubles.
The Trojans will be looking for their sixth consecutive sectional championship and 35th overall; Franklin claimed its lone title in 2016.
Meanwhile, at the Columbus North Sectional, Edinburgh saw its season come to an end with a 5-0 loss to Columbus East.
The Lancers (8-13) put up a fight, particularly in singles play. Milas Burkman came the closest to a win, falling in three sets to East’s Brady Redelman (3-6, 6-3, 6-3) at No. 3. The Olympians’ Erik Takahashi defeated the Lancers’ Max Blandford 6-4, 7-6 (3) at No. 1 and Austin Brockman fell to Matthew Degner 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2.
Edinburgh coach Pete Khensouri is optimistic about the future, with his entire lineup returning except for Blandford.
“All of them have improved a lot,” he said. “Next year, we will change it up, some may play singles, but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to the new season again.”
