CARMEL — The Columbus North boys tennis team seems to been been building toward this moment.
The third-ranked Bull Dogs, who lost in the state quarterfinals last year, defeated unranked Westview 4-1 Friday at Carmel to advance to today’s state semifinals.
“It’s a veteran team. They’ve been together for several years and improved from year to year,” said North coach Kendal Hammel, who has five seniors in his starting lineup. “They took from last year’s experience and carried it over to this year. We came in confident, thought we could win this match and played like we should have and now we are looking forward to taking a shot at No. 1 Carmel.”
The Bull Dogs (23-0) will face top-ranked Carmel (22-0) in the semis at 10 a.m. at North Central High School in Indianapolis. In the other semi, No. 5 North Central (18-3) will face No. 6 Terre Haute South (19-2). The championship is set for 2 p.m.
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The Greyhounds, who have won the past three state titles, advanced with a 4-1 victory over No. 11 Evansville Reitz in Friday’s other quarterfinal at Carmel.
“We have nothing to lose,” Hammel said. “We’re in the final four playing the top team in the state. Anything can happen. You never know. If we can come out and pressure them, maybe get a point here or there, you never know what happens.”
The Bull Dogs last reached the state semis in 2007 and 2008.
Hammel didn’t know what to expect with Westview, which upset No. 29 Marion in the semistate.
“They came out and played much better than we thought they might be,” Hammel said. “Their three singles spots are all very good players, and the doubles are fine, too. But the fact we jumped on them at doubles right off the bat, that took a lot of pressure off the match right away.”
North’s No. 1 doubles team of senior Joey Zhao and sophomore Matthew Liu were the first to finish with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Tim Bradenberger and Elijah Hostetler.
“We played super well and finished really fast,” Zhao said. “We didn’t make a lot of mistakes. Doing it so quickly and not having an emotional roller coaster was super nice. I’ve known these people my entire life, playing tennis together. For us to come so far together is really good.”
Zhao and Liu remain unbeaten in the postseason to stay alive in the state doubles portion of the tournament.
North seniors Eamon Ma and Will King defeated Brady Hostetler and Will Clark 6-1, 6-4 at No. 2 doubles.
North’s only loss came at No. 1 singles, where Westview senior Kurtis Davis beat sophomore Nathan Lin 7-6 (7-3), 1-6, 6-2.
Bull Dogs senior Bhavey Jain topped Justin Schwartz 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and senior teammate Adam Saad topped Isaiah Hostetler 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.
“I wasn’t feeling too good about how I played, but I was happy I was able to win and take care of business,” Jain said. “I’m trying to practice a little more before (today) because it’s the biggest match of the season. It would be really great to make it to the finals. Even last year, everyone viewed Carmel as a team that seemed unbeatable, but now that we are here and compare our players to theirs, we know it’s not impossible. We just hope to go in with confidence and play our best.”
