Less than 20 hours after squeaking out a first-round win against Columbus East, the Columbus North boys tennis team had to be back on the courts for a semifinal match with Edinburgh.
The Bull Dogs were up to the challenge. They dropped only six games in the five matches in a 5-0 victory.
“We went in feeling pretty confident,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “Edinburgh has had some nice teams in past years, but this year, they were down a little bit. (Wednesday) night was a big match for us, and I just didn’t want a letdown from (Wednesday) night to tonight’s match.”
The 23rd-ranked Bull Dogs (14-6) move on to today’s 4:30 p.m. final, where they will meet Brown County. The Eagles edged Hauser 3-2 in the other semifinal.
North played without No. 1 singles player Nathan VanDeventer, who dropped a weight on his right wrist in weights class Wednesday and had to retire from Wednesday’s match after one set. In his place, Akshaya Sabapathy beat Edinburgh’s Colton Henderson 6-1, 6-2.
At No. 2 singles, the Bull Dogs’ Anay Gangal bounced back from a three-set loss on Wednesday to blank Carlos Pazmino 6-0, 6-0.
“I thought I played better than I played (Wednesday) night,” Gangal said. “I was able to keep a lot more balls in play, and I thought I served pretty well. (Wednesday) night was obviously disappointing, but today was an improvement.”
North’s Ben Mathew beat Gavin Hancock 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 singles. Kevin Lin and Ammar Khaled downed Tommy Schneider and Blade Elliott 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles, and Isaac Jackson and Lucas Huang blanked Bladen Hancock and Kegan Jones 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 doubles.
The Lancers finish the season 3-12.
“North has a strong team,” Edinburgh coach Pete Khensouri said. “They’ve been in the top 25 the whole season. I’m very proud of my players. They have improved so much from when we started in August until now.”
