FORTVILLE — Some of the players switched spots, but the results were the same when Greenfield-Central and New Palestine boys’ tennis teams met in a Mt. Vernon Sectional semifinal Wednesday.
The Cougars, ranked No. 30 in the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association poll, had beaten the Dragons 3-2 in a regular season match at NPHS on Aug. 30.
G-C swept doubles and won the match at No. 1 singles last month. The Cougars had a different lineup in three of five spots Wednesday, but they won both doubles and at No. 1 singles, again, to defeat the Dragons 3-2 to move on to Friday’s championship match against Mt. Vernon.
Chris Long, as he did last month, beat New Palestine’s Moses Haynes at No. 1 singles. Luke Sitzman and C.J. Michalek, at No. 1 doubles, won again over Max Havel and Joey McPike.
The players were different for both teams at No. 2 doubles. Nathan Roberts and Mateo Molanphy, who played No. 2 singles earlier in the season, defeated Eli Sloan and Tyler Wilson 6-0, 6-2 in Wednesday’s first completed match.
Sitzman and Michalek were just minutes behind. They gave G-C a 2-0 lead with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Havel and McPike.
New Palestine was up in two singles matches and Haynes, after losing the first set, was a game away from forcing a third set against Long.
It was similar to their first meeting last month when Long won the first set and had to come-from-behind in the second for a 6-1, 7-5 win. In the sectional match, Long won the first set 6-2. Haynes was up 5-4 and serving to force a third set when Long broke serve and won three straight games for a 7-5 win. It was the match clincher.
Prior to Long’s victory, New Palestine’s Arjomand Khokar, at No. 2 singles, defeated Caden Robertson 7-5, 6-3. Robertson had played No. 3 singles in the first meeting.
After the match had been decided, New Palestine’s Brady Torzewski completed an undefeated season at No. 3 singles, defeating Alex Michalek, a No. 2 doubles participant the last time the team’s played, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6).
“Knowing (No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles) were strong spots, we were hoping No. 2 doubles or one of the singles guys could close it out,” Greenfield-Central coach Michael Turpin said. “Caden looked phenomenal playing against Arjomand. He had a very tight first set and I thought Alex looked great at No. 3 singles. Across the board, I thought every single guy put it all out there knowing that it just takes three.”
Greenfield-Central improved to 18-3.
Torzewski finished his season 18-0. The Dragons end their year 10-6, but Torzewski wrapped up his junior season at No. 3 with an 18-0 mark.
“I can’t say enough about Brady, 18-0. He could have pulled it in said, ‘the heck with it’ when the match was over, but he didn’t. He kept playing and that says a lot about him as a tennis player,” New Palestine coach Jean Graham said. “Greenfield played tough. The good news for us, we have all juniors but one (Sloan). We have to get better and more consistent. We’re very competitive in the matches we lost, but you gotta win them if you want to move on.”
