Columbus North didn’t have a lot of trouble defeating a Southwestern (Hanover) team, which was undefeated and having its best boys tennis season in school history.
The 23rd-ranked Bull Dogs swept the five matches in a 5-0 victory over the Rebels in the semifinals of the Columbus North Regional.
Southwestern was undefeated as a team going into Wednesday and also had defeated Greensburg 5-0 during the regular season. North coach Kendal Hammel cautioned his team that the Rebels were a good team, despite its small-school status.
“We didn’t want to look past these guys, even though we thought they weren’t a strong, strong team, but they had some pretty decent players, and they did. They pushed us in some spots, and it was a really good job of them, overall,” Hammel said. “We did what we needed to do, and I know we were thinking about this next match a little bit, but we still have to get past them.”
Alek Devidze downed Braxton Lewis 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 singles for the Bull Dogs (13-6). Max Wei defeated Talon Wynn 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, and Jace Branham won against Quinton Lewis 7-6 (4), 6-1 at No. 3 singles.
Teddy Littrell and Vince Sasse beat Brady Cook and Colton Deputy 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1 doubles, and Luca Devidze and Jaishal Padmanabhan topped Luke Morrow and Max Joseph 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.
North moves on to play Batesville, a 3-2 winner over Seymour in the other semifinal match, in the regional final at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The winner will move on to play the North Central-Cathedral winner in the Center Grove Semistate at noon Saturday.
“We’ve got to regroup and focus and be ready for Thursday. We beat them, but it was very close. We’ve got to be ready to play,” Hammel said.
Meanwhile, Jennings County’s Parker Bales in singles and Ty Zohrlaut and Luke Napier in doubles won their matches Wednesday to advance in the individual tournament. Both will play again Thursday. Zohrlaut and Napier will face Hauser’s Kam Blair and RJ Foster, with the winner advancing to face the doubles team from Seymour.
