BLOOMINGTON — Columbus North took command early, and it was smooth sailing to its fourth straight girls tennis regional championship and 21st overall in the program’s history with a 5-0 victory against Seymour in the regional final Wednesday at Bloomington South.
The co-No. 8-ranked Bull Dogs (21-4) move on to the Jasper Semistate on Saturday and will play a familiar opponent in sixth-ranked Evansville Memorial, who were 5-0 winners over Evansville Mater Dei in Wednesday’s Evansville Bosse Regional final.
“We’re just carrying over from (Tuesday’s 5-0 win against Bloomington South) and talked about today to go out there and play. We know what’s ahead, so we played solid tennis and worked on things we needed to improve on now before this weekend. We’re going to need it against a really good team,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “In all spots, we did pretty well.”
The Bull Dogs’ Ashlie Wilson topped Seymour’s Sandra Cerino at No. 1 singles, Eva Chevalier won against Seymour’s Peyton Levine at No. 2 singles and Shweta Srinivasan downed Seymour’s Kirby Hill at No. 3 singles, all by 6-0, 6-0 scores.
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North’s Jaline Tay and Ali Bergman also downed Seymour’s Mallory Moore and Kristina Griffin 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, the Bull Dogs duo of Tiffany Fu and Servane Cloteaux finished off Madalyn Baurle and Avery Ragon of the Owls 6-2, 6-0.
“It’s really exciting, and we knew we would be able to do really well,” Wilson said. “This team is really good and has a lot of potential.”
The Bull Dogs (21-4) focus their attention to Evansville Memorial. The Tigers won a 3-2 decision against North in early April. The Bull Dogs picked up their two points at No. 2 singles and No. 3 singles.
“Our lineup is a lot different than what it was the last time we played them, and theirs will be different, too,” Wilson said. “I think we have a good chance to beat them.”
Hammel hopes the lineup can turn the tables in North’s direction.
“I think we still need to win at 2 and 3 singles,” Hammel said. “We were close at 1 singles. That went to a tiebreaker, and both doubles matches were decent scores, but we have different players, different teams. If we get the 2 and 3 singles spots, we just have to try to find the third spot somewhere in doubles or at one singles.
“It can be a 3-2 match, 4-1 match or 5-0 match,” he added. “I just don’t know at this point with the lineup changes. We have more experience, so hopefully we’ll be ready for the situation.”
