Center Grove’s Yuvraj Dasari, left, and Quinn Smith congratulate each other during Wednesday’s regional final against visiting Waldron.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Tennis is a sport where one of the state’s largest high schools can still cross paths with one of the smallest in the postseason.
Such was the case on Wednesday in the title match at the Center Grove Regional.
Unranked Waldron might pack the type of game to be a major small-school player in a class system, yet the Mohawks were no threat to prevent the 12th-ranked Trojans from picking up their seventh consecutive regional championship and 33rd overall.
“We only saw them play yesterday for the first time, but I’ll tell you what, though. They say they have about 150 kids in their entire school, and that was some of the best tennis I’ve seen out of a small school,” Center Grove coach David Beasley said after his team’s 5-0 victory.
“Their 1, 2 and 3 singles guys were super impressive. Their coach does a phenomenal job, and they came out and competed.”
Center Grove hosts a semistate match at noon on Saturday, playing second-ranked Columbus North for the right to advance to the quarterfinals. The teams met in September, with the Bull Dogs holding on for a 3-2 win.
Motivation won’t be hard to come by.
“They come in here this time. We can’t ask for anything more,” Beasley said. “We won 2 and 3 singles last time, and lost 1 singles and both doubles, so we’re hoping to flip one of those (losses).”
Against Waldron, Trojans’ junior Tyler Lane defeated Lucas Shaw 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. CG senior Max Williams prevailed over Charlie Fischer in the second spot, 6-4, 6-0, and sophomore Jack Dybwad scored a 6-3, 6-3 decision against Mohawk left-hander Jack Fischer at No. 3 singles.
Both Center Grove doubles wins were identical 6-0, 6-0 scores. The top tandem of juniors Dimitri Kandris and Carson Bush picked up a point for the Trojans, as did the No. 2 pairing of junior Quinn Smith and freshman Yuvraj Dasari.
“This is my third year playing on the team, and all the regionals in the past have been pretty similar to this,” Smith said. “Even though it’s my first year on varsity, I kind of knew what to expect.
“We’ve been the same doubles team pretty much the entire season, give or take two or three matches. Both of us coming from singles backgrounds, we’re both pretty fast, and we try to use that to our advantage. We also communicate really well in order to set each other up at the net, and just try to execute what our coaches want us to do.”
Also taking place at the Center Grove courts on Wednesday was the sectional semifinal round in singles and doubles.
Indian Creek’s No. 1 doubles team of senior Trent Volz and junior Landon Sichting improved to 21-2 on the season with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Connor Evans and Elias Sego of Triton Central.
“We just kind of played our game, and didn’t let them play their game,” Volz said. “We’re both very good at the net.”
Volz and Sichting return to Center Grove this afternoon to face Karson Schaf and Aiden Smith of Shelbyville to determine the sectional doubles champion. Schaf and Smith moved on courtesy of their 6-4, 6-2 victory over Franklin’s pairing of senior Tyler Jones and junior Brady Tucker.
The Jones-Tucker combo finished the season with a 12-10 record.
In singles play, Roncalli’s Christopher Stanley continues on after defeating Connersville’s Kolton DeBoard 6-4, 6-3.
