FISHERS — Mt. Vernon has a sectional trophy to go with the one it won at county.
After ending a nine-year New Palestine run of Hancock County boys tennis crowns, the Marauders put an end to their rival’s domination of sectional play, too, beating the Dragons 3-2 in the Mt. Vernon Boys Tennis Sectional, held Friday at Fishers High School.
For the first time since 2011, Mt. Vernon won the team title, ending the Dragons’ supremacy. The Marauders will take a 17-2 record to the North Central Regional and face Hamilton Southeastern in one of two semifinal matches.
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Keying the victory for the Marauders, who along with winning the county title, beat New Palestine, 3-2, in a regular-season dual meet on Sept. 24, was the No. 1 doubles team of seniors Jackson Dunlavy and Justin Lemke.
The Marauder pair had lost to the Dragon duo of Ezra Schwier and Ethan Haeberle 10 days ago, 6-1, 6-4.
In the sectional-title clincher, the Dunlavy-Lemke crew won 6-0, 7-6 (7-4).
“We played them before and we really struggled with them,” Dunlavy said. “We didn’t play them that well. It was great to get out there in the first set and to have complete control. We knew it was our match and it was our game to win.”
Three matches were in the books quickly. New Palestine’s No. 1, Ben Blachly, who finished the season unbeaten against county foes, defeated Haiden Rose, 6-0, 6-0. Mt. Vernon had won at No. 3 singles, with senior Reece Powell winning convincingly over Zach Au, 6-1, 6-0. The Marauders also picked up a win at No. 2 doubles with the tandem of Dallas Turner and Owen Korn defeating Jackson Havel and Caleb Davis, 6-1, 6-3.
Dunlavy-Lemke trailed 6-5 in the second set with New Palestine serving to try to force a third set.
“We knew we weren’t playing how we were in the first set and were less aggressive and confident,” Dunlavy said. “We knew, in that final game, we still had a whole set on them. We were still winning and we had to play confident and we had to play aggressive for us to finish off this match. If we got back to that then we would win and that was exactly what we did.”
In the tiebreaker, it was knotted 3-3 when the Marauders finished it off by scoring four of the final five points.
“(Winning the sectional) means more than I can even put into words,” Lemke said. “The first three years, our freshman through junior years, Jackson and I watched New Pal beat us three years in the sectional. We got a chance to step up to No. 1 varsity doubles, and I feel we showed that we deserve the spot and it feels great to win it the first time in eight years.”
“It’s been eight long years, and it seems like eight lifetimes,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh, in his 24th year as the program’s head coach, said. “All the credit goes to my assistant coaches (Graham McMullen and Jeff Brandes) and to our players. It starts and ends with our three seniors on varsity, Justin Lemke and Jackson Dunlavy at No. 1 doubles and Reece Powell at No. 3 singles. They set the tone.”
New Palestine was able to get the final remaining match. Colin Darley defeated Chris Hays 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. Darley had come back from a 5-2 first-set deficit.
New Palestine finished its season 13-9. Blachly, by winning both of his tournament matches at No. 1 singles, will advance to the individual tournament, also to be held next week at North Central.
“We’re young, we’re making a lot of unforced errors, but we’re going to be around for a while and we’re only going to get better,” New Palestine coach Jean Graham said. “Hats off to Mt. Vernon, they played well today.
“Ben played fantastic and that’s a huge win for Colin. That’s a good player, their No. 2.”
