Columbus North did what it needed to do to advance to Wednesday’s girls regional tennis final.
The 18th-ranked Bull Dogs defeated Southwestern (Hanover) 4-1 in the semifinal Tuesday. They will take on Jennings County, which defeated Lawrenceburg 4-1 in the other semifinal match.
“We didn’t know a lot about this team, but I know they had a good year,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “I know their schedule is not like ours, but we still had to go out and be ready to play.”
Due to showers that occurred Tuesday afternoon, the match was moved from North inside to Tipton Lakes Athletic Club. When the courts dried up during the evening, the individual singles and doubles matches were played at North.
It didn’t matter in the end result. For North, Aya Saad blanked Annie Ford 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles. Lucy Bergman downed Natalie Larue 6-0, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Annabelle Sun and Nino Akhalaya topped Ava Barnes and Raygan Crawford 6-3, 6-0 at No. 1 doubles. Grace Conner and Lizzie Bodart defeated Kaylee Hite and Jocelyn Johnson 7-5, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles for the Bull Dogs (17-5).
North’s Molly Richards fell to Emma Hatton 7-6 (5), 7-5 at No. 3 singles.
“They were nice competition for us, but I thought we did a really great job in all the positions,” Hammel said. “Even though we lost at 3 singles, I thought Molly did fine. They had a really solid 3 singles player. The doubles did well. It might have been one of the best volleying game at 2 doubles, match-wise they’ve had all season long. Aya played great. Now we’re moving into the next round. Jennings County is going to be the next step up. We’re going to have to be ready to win those spots again.”
For Jennings (13-2), Kaydence Lowman topped Maddy Nelson 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 singles, Mia Silvey downed Cadance Fricke 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, Gabi Morin and Sophia Lucas defeated Paityn Barnett and Isabella Gilmour 7-6 (7), 6-3 at No. 1 doubles and Maddy McIntosh and Karmindy Lowman beat Sam Airgood and Lucy Geary 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.
The Panthers’ Grace McBride fell to Aikyn Tapmenbekuya 7-5, 4-6, 10-6.
“(Columbus North is) always a good team. It’s always a good program, a respected program, but we will play it,” Jennings coach Deron Brown said.
In the individual singles competition, Columbus East’s Lauren Degner fell to Austin’s Brynn Owens 6-1, 6-1.
