Ashlie Wilson
JASPER — It couldn’t have gotten much closer Saturday, but Columbus North came away with a heartbreaking defeat in the Jasper Semistate.
No. 2 Jasper pulled out three-set wins in down-to-the-wire matches at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles to claim a 3-2 victory against the No. 3 Bull Dogs and advance to Friday’s state quarterfinals.
“We had our chances in both matches to win them and just didn’t get it done,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “We had some opportunities in those to matches where we could have gone up a little bit more and not made it so hard on ourselves. We have to give Jasper credit. They played well, and we played well. We both knew it was going to be a barnburner coming down the stretch.”
The Bull Dogs didn’t come away empty-handed. Senior Ashlie Wilson beat Harper Wigand 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles, and by being unbeaten in the tournament, advances to the Singles State Finals June 10-11 at Park Tudor.
Kathryn Wilson
North also got a quick win from Kathryn Wilson, who blanked Allie Schnarr 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles. Jasper’s Reese Mundy and Delaney Wigand beat Tiffany Fu and Leah George 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1 doubles, leaving the Bull Dogs with a 2-1 advantage.
At No. 2 doubles, Jasper’s Paige Giesler and Brailyn Whaley rallied for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 win against North’s Sydney Cooper and Annabelle Sun. The No. 3 singles match came down to a third-set tiebreaker, with the Wildcats’ Ally Wigand pulling out a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) win against the Bull Dogs’ Aya Saad.
North, which also had lost to Jasper 3-2 on April 29, finishes the season 16-4 with Conference Indiana, sectional and regional championships.
“The girls played their hearts out,” Hammel said. “I couldn’t have asked them to play with more pride. I’m proud of what they did today. Yes, it was heartbreaking and very disappointing, but there’s a lot to be proud of for what this team for the year and how we played today.”
