An injury to Columbus North’s No. 2 singles player allowed coach Kendal Hammel to change around his lineup a little bit and led to competitive matches with Columbus East at a couple of the positions.
After building a quick 3-0 lead to clinch the match, the 12th-ranked Bull Dogs held off second-set charges at the other two spots to post a 5-0 victory against the Olympians.
North was playing its dual-match opener after finishing second in Saturday’s Jeffersonville Tournament. With Matthew Liu resting a sore back, Joseph Kloepfer moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 singles, and Luke Enneking moved from No. 2 doubles to No. 3 singles.
“I knew it wasn’t going to hurt us too much with Matthew being out, so I thought it was good for Joseph to be a little bit higher level,” Hammel said. “It gave a chance for a couple of other guys to play at No. 2 doubles, too.”
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Kloepfer cruised in the first set before the Olympians’ Matthew Degner was competitive in the second in a 6-0, 6-3 decision at No. 2 singles.
“I think I played pretty well in the first set,” Kloepfer said. “I really need to work on being aggressive with my shots and coming into the net. That’s what prevented me from getting another 6-0 in the second set, but I’ll take a win any day of the week.”
Kloepfer found out at Monday’s practice that he would be playing No. 2 singles.
“I did see that as a bigger challenge to work on my game,” Kloepfer said. “Moving up to 2 singles, I really needed to focus on being aggressive, and I still need to work on that. I feel like I’ve gotten off to a pretty good start results-wise, but there are still holes in my game that I need to fill because this is my senior year. There’s always room for improvement.”
Meanwhile, Enneking pulled out a 6-2, 7-5 win against Daniel Murphy at No. 3 singles. Murphy led 2-1 in first set and 4-3 in the second set before Enneking rallied in each.
“Those (No. 2 and No. 3 singles) were fairly competitive,” East coach Matt Malinsky said. “Danny actually even gave himself a chance to win a set there in that second set, but Luke was too tough for him in the end there and closed it out.”
The other three matches weren’t as close. North’s Nathan Lin beat Pranav Kumar 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles.
“I think at the beginning, I wasn’t really warmed up yet,” Lin said. “As the match progressed, I played a little better and was more active.”
The two doubles matches were the first to finish. The Bull Dogs’ Anvay Atram and Amrit Kar beat Derek Heideman and Eric Takahashi at No. 1 doubles, and Eric Stavnheim and Noah Abfall topped Jimmy Clark and Emmit Romine, both by 6-0, 6-0 scores.
“I think we played pretty decent,” Lin said. “It was a good experience for our two freshmen at 1 doubles with the match environment. Our 3 singles played well. Overall, I think we played pretty well as a team.”
The Olympians (1-2) were coming off a 3-2 loss to Bedford North Lawrence on Monday. East won both doubles matches, and dropped a three-setter at No. 1 singles.
“We were a couple of points here and there from winning that Bedford match,” Malinsky said. “That would have been encouraging. Both sets of doubles played an an extremely high level compared to normal. They were firing on all cylinders right there.”
The Olympians return to action on Thursday when they visit Madison. The Bull Dogs have three more matches this week, hosting Plainfield today and visiting Southport on Thursday and Terre Haute North on Saturday.
“I know we have a couple of matches coming up that are not going to be strong competition, so it will give us a chance to get some match play under our belt before we get on to the bigger teams,” Hammel said. “We can work on some things here early in the season.”
