FORTVILLE — New Palestine had its opportunities, but its bid to upset No. 21 Fishers in the Mt. Vernon Boys Tennis Regional championship match came up short Wednesday.
The Dragons, trailing 2-0, got a big three-set win from the No. 1 doubles team of seniors Max Havel and Moses Haynes, but weren’t able to secure another victory in a 4-1 loss to the Tigers.
With their win at No. 1 doubles, Havel/Haynes —since they have not lost a match in the tournament —will continue playing in the individual doubles tournament. They will play Hamilton Southeastern’s Tyler Rich and Landon Osswald at 9 a.m. Saturday at Mt. Vernon High School.
“Going 17-4, a county championship, sectional championship, it’s a good group,” New Palestine coach Jean Graham said of her team that includes six seniors among the seven starters. “And, they’re not only good athletes, they’re good in school. I’m fortunate to work with them, good kids.
“We had an opportunity to win it and we were in it. We got No. 1 doubles, were in the hunt at No. 2 doubles and Brady [Torzewski] was in the hunt at No. 3 singles. … We still competed. This group has been a great inspiration to our younger boys. We just have to hit more tennis balls [in the offseason] and get better and make less errors. A good group, a great season and we’re going to miss [our seniors].”
At No. 2 singles, New Palestine senior Joey McPike lost 6-0, 6-0 to Fishers senior Gavin Conrad. At No. 1 singles, New Pal senior Arjomand Khokhar lost 6-1, 6-2 to Fishers senior Aidan Foley.
Havel and Haynes lost their opening set 4-6, before winning 6-2 and 7-5 in the final two.
“In the first set, a lot of it was at the baseline,” Haynes said. “I was sending my shots deep and Max told me to get to the net whenever I could. When I am at the net I am most confident. Once I started getting to the net more it took away those errors and we stopped beating ourselves. We had to keep building and once we got a lead in that second set we found a belief in ourselves that we could win.”
“The first set, I was the complete opposite of Moses,” Havel said. “I was underhitting all the time. We just weren’t putting stuff away like we normally do. In the second set, we knew all we had to do was get a break and we would hold our serves and then we got a big break in the third set.”
After the second set win, a break in the third gave the New Palestine pair a chance to serve for the match, but the Tigers broke Haynes to tie it 5-5.
Haynes said he was able to shake it off and the Dragon duo broke Fishers and clinched the victory on Havel’s serve.
“I hung my head for 10 seconds,” Haynes said. “As soon as they were ready to serve, I was like, ‘we have to get the break.’ I knew if we got it, with Max serving, I felt confident at the net that he can put it where they are going to hit me an easy ball and I can put it away.”
“We knew at the start of the day it was going to be tough for the team and we were going to have to win a lot of tough matches,” Havel said. “But, we knew we had a big chance [to continue in the individual tournament] and we capitalized.”
At the same time the No. 1 team was in a three-set battle, the Dragons No. 2 group of senior Andrew Hahn and sophomore Carson Rush were in a three-setter too. They won the first set 6-4 and lost the second by the same score.
While the doubles teams were battling in three-setters, Torzewski was fighting to stay in the match against Fishers freshman Dylan Campbell.
A couple minutes after Havel/Haynes got the Dragons their first point, Torzewski and Campbell were shaking hands at the net. Campbell prevailed 6-2, 6-3.
In the longest match of the night, close to two hours, Hahn/Rush lost the third set against the team of Jackson Huntley and Beau Wolf, 6-3.
Along with Havel and Haynes continue play Saturday, Greenfield-Central sophomore Nathan Roberts kept his streak of wins going in the individual singles tournament.
A winner over Khokhar in a four-hour match last week in the sectional team tournament, Roberts picked up his second individual sectional win in as many days with a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Blue River Valley’s Caleb Inman. On Tuesday, Roberts eliminated Eastern Hancock sophomore Luke Zeilinga.
On Saturday, Roberts will play New Castle’s Leo Underhill, who he beat in straight sets in the regular season. Underhill advanced with a win over Khokhar in a Trojans’ team loss Tuesday.
“Just being ready,” Roberts said on how he’s been able to move on in the individual tournament, “moving my feet and being ready for each shot.”
With Wednesday’s win, Roberts is 19-1 on the season.
