GREENWOOD — Going into Friday’s boys tennis state quarterfinals, No. 13 Columbus North knew if it had any hope to upset No. 3 North Central, it had to win both doubles matches and pull out one of the singles.
The Bull Dogs did get one of those doubles matches, and they gave it a run at No. 2 doubles and No. 1 singles, but the Panthers were too much in a 4-1 victory.
“We could always play better,” Columbus North coach Kendal Hammel said. “I was hoping for better, but we played well. We got beat by a team that was really better than us. Going in, we know that they were strong in the three singles spots, and it showed up today.”
North Central (16-4), which moves on to play Munster in today’s semifinals, took a 2-0 lead with wins at No. 3 singles and No. 2 singles. The Bull Dogs’ Joseph Kloepfer fell to Marquis Willingham 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles, and Matthew Liu lost to Alex Antonopolous 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles.
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But just a couple minutes after the No. 2 singles match was completed, Columbus North freshmen Anvay Atram and Amrit Kar completed a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Seraj Hamid and Jerem Moorman at No. 1 doubles.
“I’m pretty disappointed that we didn’t win (as a team), but I’m glad that we could pull through for our team,” Kar said. “I think we could have played better, but we had that momentum carrying in from semistate, and I think we played really well today.”
Atram and Kar overcame a slow start, rallying from a first-set defict in their match.
“We did good, but I feel like if we’d have done better at the beginning, it would have been a better score,” Atram said.
Just a few minutes after the Bull Dogs (17-2) got on the board, however, the Panthers ended any hopes of an upset. North Central clinched the team victory when Jackson Hahn and Andrew Haggstrom completed a 6-3, 6-1 win against Luke Enneking and Eric Stavnheim at No. 2 doubles.
“At 2 doubles, we just never could get the lead and put any pressure on them,” Hammel said. “I was really proud of 1 doubles, though. They were behind, and they came back and started playing better and better and then did the job the needed to do.”
After those four matches were over, Columbus North’s Nathan Lin and the Panthers’ Ajay Mahenthrain were still in their first set at No. 1 singles. Lin forced a first-set tiebreaker, but Mahenthrian prevailed, then overcame a 3-2 deficit in the second set to claim a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win.
“At 1 singles, Nathan had his chances,” Hammel said. “I think if he could have got the first set under his belt, it might have changed the complexion of the whole match because he was right there against that guy.”
The Bull Dogs will lose Kloepfer and Enneking to graduation. The other five are expected to return for what could be a formidable team again next year.
“Hopefully, we learn,” Hammel said. “You can gain so much experience getting to this point, seeing what it takes to get to this level. (Going) 17-2, conference champs again, three times in a row getting to the state finals, that’s a lot to be proud of for this program and for these guys on the team. I’m really proud of what we did. It wasn’t one of our strongest teams that we’ve had, but these guys have worked hard to get to this point. There’s a lot to be proud of. You never want to lose, but it happens, and you just have to move on from there.”
