Vince Sasse
Columbus North senior tennis players Vincent Sasse and Teddy Littrell will make another trip to Indianapolis this weekend, but this time as individuals.
Littrell and Sasse will compete in the doubles tournament that will take place Friday and Saturday at Park Tudor.
Teddy Littrell
Sasse and Littrell clinched their spot in the doubles state final by defeating the Homestead No. 1 doubles team during the state quarterfinals and remaining unbeaten in the team tournament.
“Going up against No. 2 Homestead, we really weren’t sure. We knew their doubles team were some of their weaker spots,” Sasse said. “Going into it, both of us knew we had a good chance, so I’m really happy with how we performed, and hopefully, we can continue a good run throughout the state tournament.”
Since there are a total of 10 doubles teams, Sasse and Littrell (11-8, 6-0) won’t play until the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Friday. They will await the winner of the first round matchup between Ethan Cougill and Skyler Rose of Brownsburg (17-2, 4-0) and Kaden Grau and Luke Stults of Westview (20-2, 7-0) in Friday’s morning session.
The semifinals are slated for 10 a.m. Saturday, and the state championship at 2 p.m. that day.
“Even though we are not with the team anymore, I know we’re still playing for them, playing for the school and playing for us,” Littrell said. “It’ll be nice. I know a lot of them were planning to come out this Friday to cheer us on. I’m looking forward to keep on playing like we did last Friday, I think we’ve got a good shot to keep going in the tournament.”
They had been in this same position before during the team tournament, but it will be the first time doing it as individuals. Like in any huge tennis tournament, there are pregame jitters that many players go through until getting in the first few points.
“Once you get into the rhythm, and you start hyping yourself up, the two of us are really good about keeping the energy up and hyping each other up,” Littrell said. “It’ll be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it.”
It has been a warmer boys tennis season, temperature-wise being mostly above average the last seven weeks. For the weekend, the temperatures will be much cooler and comfortable around 60 degrees.
“I’m definitely really excited. I think I play better in a little bit of chilly weather. We’ll see how things go,” Sasse said.
No matter what happens this weekend, it will be a great experience for Sasse and Littrell as their high school careers wind down in a few days.
“These guys have had their ups and downs through the year, season-wise. They played really well at the state finals round (Friday),” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “No matter what happens, and who we play, it is a great experience and memories to have from there. We still want to go in and play to win, and find out some information about the possibilities. We’ve got to keep our head up high and be excited for the opportunity to do that because there’s a lot of people that don’t get a chance to do that.”
