It’s no secret that second-ranked Columbus North is a prohibitive favorite in this weeks North boys tennis sectional.
But after the Bull Dogs, the other four teams in the sectional are fairly evenly matched. The schools learned their initial opponents on Monday night for the sectional, which begins on Wednesday.
“We’ve had a lot of matches where we’ve gone out and won a lot of 6-0, 6-0s,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “We’re not going out there and just going through the motions. They’re doing what they need to do.”
Brown County (3-16) and Edinburgh (5-7) will meet in the opening round at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will face Columbus East (2-9) in the semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
In Thursday’s other semifinal, also starting at 4:30 p.m., the host Bull Dogs (12-1) will take on Hauser (5-5).
“They’re a powerhouse in tennis,” Hauser coach Heather Miller said. “They’ve been super strong for years, and you have to respect their program. I’m just going to tell the boys that we’re going to show up and do the best that we can. We’ve made a huge improvement toward the second half of the season. If we can win a few games here and there, then we’ll do better than I think a lot of teams have done all year on Columbus North.”
Hammel mentioned that because of lingering injures, he may rest up to three of his seven varsity players on Thursday or in Friday’s sectional final, or both.
“We’ve been dealing with some injuries all season long,” Hammel said. “I’m not overly worried because I know I can put in some alternates. Hopefully, we’re just going to get through this week and get past the injures.”
If the Bull Dogs get past the sectional, they would face the winner of the Jennings County Sectional in the semifinals of the Bloomington North Regional on Oct. 5. The regional final is Oct. 6.
The Bloomington North Regional winner plays the Floyd Central Regional winner in the Jasper Semistate on Oct. 9. That winner faces the winner between the winners of the Culver Academies and Munster winners in the state quarterfinals Oct. 15 at Carmel.
If Columbus North advances that far, it likely would face top-ranked Carmel, the only team to beat the Bull Dogs this season, in the state semifnals Oct. 16 at North Central. The state final also is Oct. 16.
“Unfortunately, we did not get a lot of matches in last week because of the weather,” Hammel said. “That really hurt us. So whether the competition is strong or not right now, we need to get some match play in the sectional and regional before we get into tougher competition rather than just playing against ourselves. We’re just looking for some matches to play right now to get ourselves going.”
