NORTH VERNON — The spotlight shined brightly on No. 2 doubles Monday night after the other four matches were completed in about an hour.
With the score tied 2-2, Jennings County’s Wyatt St. John and Joe Kelley and Columbus East’s JT Kuhlman and Derek Heideman were early in the second set of their No. 2 doubles match. Nearly two hours later, the Panther duo pulled out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory to give Jennings a 3-2 win in the opening round of the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament.
“It’s huge,” Jennings coach Deron Brown said. “It gives us a chance. We got a fortunate draw, but it’s good because we’re pretty much at an even level as East. It’s good to compete with them.”
The Panther victory avenges a 3-2 loss at East on Aug. 30. The winners at each position remained the same, except at No. 2 doubles, which was reversed.
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Brown said St. John and Kelley played better than in the previous meeting with the Olympians.
“Groundstrokes were a lot smoother and more solid,” Brown said. “Net play was better. I think it was just all around better play.”
Jennings (2-9) picked up a win at No. 1 singles, where Thomas Schuler beat Jackson Stevens 6-1, 6-0, and at No. 1 doubles, where Weston Miller and Kent Biehle topped Jalen Pleak and Luke Miller 6-2, 6-0.
East (5-8) countered with a pair of 6-4, 6-0 wins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles. Pranav Kumar beat Kyle Tempest at No. 2 singles, and Nathan Hatchett topped Chad Gasper at No. 3 singles.
“That was by far the worst match we’ve played this year, including all the matches where we lost 0 and 0,” East coach Matt Malinsky said. “It was a just a completely sloppy effort.”
The Panthers will host Seymour in Wednesday’s semifinal round. The Olympians will host Bedford North Lawrence in the consolation bracket.
The championship and third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches will take place on Friday.
“We have a lot of work to do for Wednesday,” Malinsky said. “We’re going to do our best to put out a good performance the last two matches of conference. We’ll make sure that we’re ready for those.”
