It did not take long for co-No. 8-ranked Columbus North to defeat Columbus East 5-0 to claim the girls tennis sectional championship Friday at North.
“For the most part, I was pleased with how we came out right away and took care of business,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “Once things started rolling on, I thought we did what we expected to do.”
Ashlie Wilson topped Kathryn Hodzen at No. 1 singles, and Shweta Srinivasan downed Louna Prince at No. 3 singles, both by scores of 6-0, 6-0.
At No. 1 doubles, Jaline Tay and Ali Bergman defeated Ayano Nomura and Cristina Marco 6-0, 6-2. At No. 2 singles, Eva Chevalier won over Megna Chari 6-3, 6-3.
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Tiffany Fu and Servane Cloteaux defeated Cathrine Millwood and Emie Kiser 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 doubles to complete the sweep.
“It’s comforting to know that we secured the win, and we now get to move on to regional,” said Fu, a freshman. “I just feel excited what we can achieve as a team, and hopefully, we can make it as far as the state.”
The biggest loss for East coach Matt Malinsky is Chari, who has been battling the injury bug this season.
“It’s been a great four years for Megna, and you probably couldn’t count on more than two hands the number of losses she had in her four years,” Malinsky said. “It’s been an incredible run for her and maybe one of the best players East has had. It’s certainly sad to see her go, and it was great seeing her compete one last time.”
Malinsky will still have plenty of returnees for next year, including Hodzen.
“Megna will be a tough loss for us, but we have plenty of players that will still be here,” Malinsky said. “We have a lot of young players returning and another year with Hodzen. A mix of the seniors coming back and some of the youth coming up, I think we should be OK. We should be fine for the foreseeable future.”
Before the North-East final could begin, the Olympians’ No. 1 doubles team had to finish its match with Hauser that was suspended because of rain on Thursday. Nomura and Marco finished off a 6-4, 7-6 (6) win against the Jets’ Carly Archer and Maddy Archer.
North moves on to Tuesday’s Bloomington South Regional semifinals and will face the winner of the Bloomington North Sectional winner. The regional final is Wednesday, and the Bull Dogs — who are the lone ranked team in the regional — are considered the favorite to get to the May 25 Jasper Semistate.
“We just have to play like we have been playing, and I think we’ll be fine,” Hammel said. “I know we’re looking to the semistate with a rematch probably against Evansville Memorial, but we still have two matches to get to first before that time.”
