FORTVILLE — Tuesday’s Hancock County rivalry on the Mt. Vernon tennis court was full of intrigue and storylines.
Two teams very familiar with one another, Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central, met for not only a Hoosier Heritage Conference matchup, but a rematch of last year’s sectional championship, and a precursor of Saturday’s county tournament which the Marauders and Cougars split last year.
The two teams are ranked in the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association (IHSTECA) top 30 poll with Greenfield-Central breaking through for the first time this week. They have also been the top two teams in the District IV rankings all season.
On Tuesday, the No. 27 ranked Marauders (6-3) defeated the No. 30 ranked Cougars (9-1) 4-1.
“It’s impressive that two Hancock County teams are ranked in the state,” Mt. Vernon head coach Graham McMullen said. “We’ve never seen that at the same time, so it was a fun match and a historic match to have.”
Leaving the court first was the Marauders No. 2 singles player Manny Downs, a junior, with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Greenfield-Central’s Mateo Molanphy.
His win was followed by No. 3 singles player Tate Cougill, a sophomore, who won 6-1, 7-5 over Caden Robertson.
“Our younger guys stepped up and that was impressive,” McMullen said. “Our two and three singles looked great. Manny at two singles looked fantastic tonight, so hopefully we can keep that going.”
Securing the victory for the Marauders was last year’s county champions at No. 2 doubles, Max Orelup and Bryndan Wylie. They defeated G-C’s Alex Michalek and Nathan Roberts 6-2, 6-3.
“Mt. Vernon got up early at two doubles, two singles, three singles, and we just have to have stronger starts. There was absolutely no excuse for how we looked in the first set because we showed that we had more energy in the second,” Greenfield-Central head coach Michael Turpin said. “But, with that being said, Mt. Vernon played an excellent match and they showed that they are the top team in our conference right now.”
The No. 1 matches went the longest, and both were battles.
No. 1 singles was a hard-fought match between two of last year’s county champions. No. 1 champion Adam Koon took on No. 2 champion Chris Long.
In a three-set match, Koon prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
“Chris is a worker. He works nonstop every single day, and it’s nice to see when effort translates into play on the court,” Turpin said. “To be able to see how much he’s grown from last year, it’s just such a leadership spot for everyone else to see that hard work does pay off.”
Even in a loss, Turpin sees the effort and performance by Long as something that can motivate the team going forward and can be taken as a positive in the team’s first loss of the season.
“Chris going out there and going three sets against Adam, everyone knows how strong of a player he is, so to see Chris show that he can hang in there with him was awesome for us and a great motivator,” Turpin said.
The Cougars lone win came at No. 1 doubles. The duo of CJ Michalek and Lucas Sitzman defeated Mt. Vernon seniors Robbie Moore and Matthew Jones 6-4, 6-3.
“It was fun,” Turpin said. “This is probably the most fun matchup I’ve watched us play this year.”
The two teams will meet again at Saturday’s county tournament.
Last year, the two teams tied with 21 points, and each had a pair of county champions. Koon won at No. 1 singles, Long won at No. 2 singles, Orelup and Wylie won at No. 2 doubles, and now-graduated Matthew Hyre won for Greenfield-Central at No. 3 singles.
The tournament is set to begin Saturday at 9 a.m. at New Palestine.
