Franklin’s girls tennis team had beaten No. 26 Whiteland earlier in the week, but both teams came into Saturday’s Johnson County tournament semifinal confident that they could come out on top.
After a 4-1 win in the regular-season match last Monday, the Grizzly Cubs outdid themselves by blanking the host Warriors, 5-0, to advance to the championship against Center Grove.
That match got underway late Saturday morning before being halted by rain less than half an hour in. The ninth-ranked Trojans, a 4-1 winner over Greenwood in the other semifinal, will host the remainder of the final today beginning at 5 p.m.
“It was a good match,” Franklin coach Rusty Hughes said of his team’s conquest of the Warriors. “Whiteland’s a really, really good team, well-coached team. … I thought we improved a little bit over the week at 2 doubles, so that was a good thing. Actually, all of our players have played well this year. We’ve had a pretty good season so far.”
Franklin’s quickest victories on Saturday came from Ailyn Hendricks, a 6-2, 6-0 winner at second singles, and the No. 2 doubles team of Emma Sappenfield and Haley Haldeman, who won by a 6-2, 6-1 score.
Haylie Rayl and Chelsie Rayl picked up a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Whiteland’s Natalie Cloer and Maddie Nieto at first doubles, and Emma Williams was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Sara Ullrich at third singles.
Rylie Wilkison completed the Grizzly Cub sweep by prevailing in a three-set marathon against the Warriors’ Sarah Scott at No. 1 singles, avenging a three-set loss to Scott days earlier by rallying for a 2-6, 6-3, 10-6 win.
“Rylie and Sarah had a really good match at 1 singles,” Hughes said. “They’ve had two good matches — Sarah won one, Rylie won one — so they’re pretty evenly matched.”
Center Grove, meanwhile, sealed its triumph over the Woodmen pretty quickly. Ashlee Fisk was a quick 6-0, 6-0 winner at first singles and Deepthi Shankar earned a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the third spot. The No. 2 doubles team of Hudson Gilstorf and Lauren Dick also won by a 6-0, 6-1 score, and the first doubles tandem of Sapna Vyas and Sydney Plowman claimed their point with a 6-3, 6-3 win.
Greenwood averted the shutout by way of Marissa Linville’s 6-1, 6-4 victory at No. 2 singles.
“We played two tough matches Thursday and Friday night,” Center Grove coach Debby Burton said, “and every match presents a different challenge. A little sluggish on a Saturday morning, so we had a few slow starts, but we took care of business.
“We’re just really happy to be playing and to have this opportunity to compete, so we’re looking forward to Monday.”
Tennis is a game of mental toughness by nature, with players needing to maintain composure through all sorts of adversity, so neither coach expects the two-day hiatus to impact the title match very much.
“One of our focuses this year is to figure out how to deal with it,” Burton said. “Weather, quarantines, all of those different things, wearing a mask every time all over the place. So just working through all of that stuff and being willing to deal with that and have a positive attitude about it.”
“I don’t really think it makes a difference one way or the other,” Hughes agreed. “(Center Grove) started out ahead, but Whiteland kind of started out ahead of us, too. I don’t put too much into the first 20 minutes of play — especially if we’re not winning the first 20 minutes.”
