CARMEL
The Center Grove boys tennis team breezed through the first six postseason matches without dropping a point.
“That could have hurt us because you don’t see a team like North Central for the three weeks and that’s difficult,” Center Grove coach David Beasley said. “We talked about making practice super intense, so I liked to think we created the best we could for this match. I’m proud of the kids.”
Eighth-ranked North Central edged the No. 7 Trojans 3-2 Saturday a state semifinals at Carmel. The Panthers also slipped past No. 1 West Lafayette Harrison 3-2 in the championship. Center Grove finished with a 23-6 record.
The Panthers had beaten Center Grove 3-2 Aug. 23 in their regular season meeting.
“Last time it came down to North Central winning No. 2 doubles,” Beasley said. “That was the last match to finish today.”
However, North Central had already earned the third clinching point during the second set of the No. 2 doubles match, which saw Center Grove sophomores Carson Bush and Dimitri Kandris hold on to defeat junior Tyler Dooley and senior Ronit Jha 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.
North Central senior Maurquis Willingham beat Trojan sophomore Tyler Lane 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. In the first meeting, Lane had beaten Willingham in straight sets.
“Maurquis didn’t play as well as he probably should have the first time,” Beasley said. “We knew coming in that Marquis had another couple of gears, and he showed that today. His serve and forehand were working well. That put Tyler on defense. Tyler fought and saved six match points. We’re proud of him.”
North Central junior Alex Antonopoulos didn’t drop a game in beating junior Loc Pham at No. 2 singles. At No. 3 singles, Center Grove sophomore Daksh Patel was nearly as dominating in a 6-1, 6-0 victory over senior Uriah Khoury.
North Central juniors Akshay Guttikonda and Owen Larrimer won 6-0, 6-2 over senior Evan Davis and junior Max Williams at No. 1 doubles.
“We knew it was going to be a tough match coming out here,” Davis said. “Max strained his back at the very beginning; that set us off the whole match.”
Davis was the lone senior in Center Grove’s starting lineup.
“I think they can go the same distance we went this year, if not farther,” Davis said of the returnees. “They definitely have a chance for state next year. We have a young team, but it’s still growing.”
Beasley said the experience of making it to the state semifinals should be a benefit. The Trojans made it to the state quarters in 2020, but no one in Saturday’s starting lineup played in that match.
“So this is just experience under their belt, and we are pumped for next year,” Beasley said. “There are a lot of teams that graduate a bunch of seniors. We will lose Evan, which is a big loss. We’re going to work on skill sets to hopefully replace him next year. We’re going to have guys coming in from our deep bench. We had 14 guys play varsity this year; that’s a record for Center Grove. We’re looking for those guys to replace Evan’s spot.”
Patel said he believes if the players practice hard in the offseason and follow Beasley’s instructions, the team should be prepared for another state tournament run.
“If we just listen to him, I think we should be good,” Patel said.
Beasley replaced Ivan Smith as head coach this season. Smith, who had been the coach since 1977, stayed on as an assistant coach this season. Beasley had been an assistant for three years under Smith.
Patel played No. 2 doubles with Davis for a good part of the season before moving to No. 3 singles.
“The transition from doubles to singles was a little hard, but I really improved in singles faster than I thought,” said Patel, who played No. 2 singles as a freshman.
