Mt. Vernon’s Brendan Wylie reacts after a point against Eastern Hancock.
Mike Brown | For The Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon may have drawn the smallest school in the field, but it had a large task to get to Thursday’s championship match.
The Marauders boys tennis team battled to a 4-1 victory over the Eastern Hancock Royals, the smallest school in the four-team Hancock County/Mt. Vernon Boys Tennis Sectional, Wednesday to move on to the title match against New Palestine at Mt. Vernon High School.
The Marauders led 2-0 with victories from No. 2 singles player Gavin Weaver, a 6-4, 6-0 victor over Luke Schilling, and No. 3 player Tate Cougill, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Josiah Swauger, but the final three matches remaining were all far from decided.
Tate went out with workhorse mentality and finished it up,” Mt. Vernon coach Graham McMullen said. “[Schilling] was not willing to go away in that first set. He was willing to scrap, fight and do everything he could. Gavin was able to stay together and keep it together to pull that one out. I think it wasn’t until 5-4 in first set before the first break [of serve].”
Mt. Vernon’s No. 2 doubles team of Ethan Erdos and Eli Muterspaugh, down a break in the second set, rallied to win the final four games to close out a 6-4, 6-3 win over Bo Dixon and Jalen Helderbrand to secure the decisive third win.
At No. 1 singles, Eastern Hancock’s Luke Zeilinga kept his postseason alive with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Mt. Vernon’s Carter Harrington. Zeilinga will move on to the individual sectional tournament next week.
In the lone three-set match of the night, the Eastern Hancock team of Myles Wennen and Luke Fletcher forced a third set against one of Mt. Vernon’s strongest spots, No. 1 doubles. Wennen and Fletcher gave Bryndan Wylie and Max Orelup a bit of a scare in the third set too. They dug themselves a 5-0 hole before the Marauders’ veteran doubles team pulled it out.
Wylie and Orelup won 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
McMullen was glad his team advanced, but believes his group will need to come out with some more fire against New Palestine Thursday.
“When you come out flat and you don’t execute what we’ve worked on and you don’t execute what we’ve talked about, it’s frustrating when coaches see that, but ultimately, they have to make that decision,” McMullen said of his team. “We don’t care if you execute the gameplan and you miss a couple, we’re not mad …It’s when we’re not executing and we start wondering why we’re losing, missing shots and making errors all over the place, that’s when it gets frustrating.
“The energy overall was very low today, hopefully they come out tomorrow and change that.”
Mt. Vernon (13-4) will play New Palestine at 4:30 p.m. Thursday for the sectional championship. The Marauders beat the Dragons, winners of the Hancock County Tournament in September, last week 4-1.
The Royals finished the year 10-5, were runners-up to New Palestine at last month’s county tournament and are four-time champions of the Mid-Eastern Conference. Their enrollment numbers are significantly lower than that of their other sectional opponents.
According to IHSAA numbers, Eastern has just 377 students over 1,000 less than Mt. Vernon (1455) and Greenfield-Central (1430) and significantly lower than New Palestine (1209).
“Mt. Vernon has just turned into something different, the size of the school, the level of play they are able to do,” Eastern Hancock coach Chris Zeilinga said. “We have really taken some steps since last year. We’ve played them three years in a row in the first round and they’re good. I thought our kids competed really hard at all the positions. Our doubles teams have been strong the last couple of years and I thought they really competed with them tonight, going three sets with a strong No. 1 doubles team.
“I’m proud of all my kids and how hard they worked over the summer. It’s disappointing, very disappointing. It’s a special group of seniors [Schilling and Wennen] have played all four years for me and Bo [Dixon] has played since he was a sophomore. They play hard and I’m so proud of them.”
Coach Zeilinga said, though they will miss the seniors, the future looks bright. His son, Luke, at No. 1 singles is only a sophomore. Swauger and doubles players Fletcher and Helderbrand are juniors. And, the program had its largest roster since Zeilinga became coach, 18 players.
“This has been a special team for us … and we have a bright future. It’s the biggest team we have ever had and 18 kids, for a 2A school, that’s pretty good size. We have some pretty good kids coming up from middle school that could end up being pretty good players. The program is growing.”
