Kathryn Wilson
No. 12-ranked Columbus North didn’t take long to put away visiting Bloomington South in a 5-0 girls tennis victory to stay in the driver’s seat at winning the Conference Indiana title.
The Panthers were missing one of their top players, and so were the Bull Dogs. Aya Saad, who normally plays at No. 2 singles for North, sat out Tuesday’s matchup. It didn’t matter in the final outcome as the Bull Dogs dropped only 12 games in the five matches combined.
“We knew going in that we had the advantage just from past records and results,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “It’s the conference, so it does count. A match is a match, and a win is a win for our team.”
Kathryn Wilson blanked Stella Ham at No. 1 singles and Grace Conner and Lison Cloteaux blanked Everly Clark and Quinn Reynolds at No. 2 doubles, both by 6-0, 6-0 scores for the Bull Dogs (6-2, 3-0).
At No. 2 singles, Annabelle Sun defeated Brooke Liao 6-2, 6-4. Ayane Umemura topped Clara Tweedie 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles. At No. 1 doubles, Lucy Bergman and Lizzie Bodart downed Hannah VanDeventer and Carla Demeter 6-3, 6-2.
It’s going to be a busy slate North in the next two weeks with a lot of makeup dates due to weather postponements. The Bull Dogs have two more conference matches in the next week. They will host Terre Haute North on Friday, and then face Terre Haute South on Tuesday, with the match being played at Bloomington North.
“We‘ve got a busy week, so we’ve got to keep playing one match at a time and don’t lose focus, no matter how strong or how weak the players are, we‘ve got to go out and do what we need to do,” Hammel said.
