Center Grove’s Daksh Patel hits a forehand return during Tuesday’s match against visiting Whiteland.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Daksh Patel isn’t the tallest player for the state’s ninth-ranked team, and at 125 pounds, he certainly isn’t the heaviest.
Yet when it comes to demonstrating emotion and letting his voice be heard during competition, the Center Grove junior wins going away.
Patel, the Trojans’ No. 2 singles player, won his match in straight sets on Tuesday to help the host squad score a somewhat deceiving 5-0 shutout of 19th-ranked Whiteland.
“It was one of my better matches,” said Patel shortly after downing the Warriors’ Carson Baumann 6-0, 6-2. “I wasn’t missing very many balls. My serves were great, my returns were great.”
As for the assortment of “let’s go” and “come on” yells punctuating his better moments on the court, Patel said it’s a tradition that goes back a couple years.
“I’ve been loud since my freshman year,” Patel said. “It definitely makes me play better, and it just brings more energy to the team.”
At No. 1 singles, Center Grove’s Tyler Lane defeated Whiteland’s Spencer Gillespie 6-1, 6-2. It marked the latest match between the two juniors, who have been competing against one another since the sixth grade.
“When you play other people, they don’t know your weaknesses,” Lane said. “But when you play people you’ve played all year-round, they know what to attack right from the start. That makes it harder to protect your weaknesses.”
Senior Max Williams captured the first set at the third singles spot, 6-0, against Warriors junior Jeremiah Hurt. However, it was Hurt initially capturing the momentum in the second set, jumping to a 4-3 advantage before Williams closed it out with a 6-0, 6-4 triumph.
The Trojans’ top doubles combination of Carson Bush and Russell Dean dropped the opening set to Whiteland’s senior twins, Chase and Kai Koester, 6-2. Bush and Dean then proceeded to flip the script, winning the second and third sets by the same 6-2 count.
Also extremely competitive was the No. 2 doubles match with the Trojans’ Quinn Smith and Yuvraj Dasari prevailing, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, over Whiteland’s Gavin Stubbe and Isaac Phegley.
Center Grove coach David Beasley, well aware the teams might meet again in the postseason, isn’t about to get comfortable simply because of Tuesday’s score.
“I was anticipating those (1 and 2 singles) scores to be tighter than (doubles),” Beasley said. “But that’s just a testament to coach (Mike) Gillespie, and what he works on with his doubles players. They move really, really well, and they do the fundamentals fantastic.
“This could be a 3-2 match, either way, any day of the week. We train with each other all through the summer, through the winter, and we know they have good players. Our guys have to be ready come sectional time.”
Both teams return to the courts on Thursday, with Center Grove traveling to No. 3 Columbus North and Whiteland going to Franklin.
