JASPER — The No. 13-ranked Columbus North boys tennis team posted straight set victories at four of the five spots to claim a 5-0 victory over Jeffersonville in the Jasper semistate Saturday to earn its third straight trip to the state quarterfinals.
The Bull Dogs will play No. 3 North Central, which defeated No. 28 Delta in the Homestead semistate, at Noon on Friday at Center Grove. The semifinals and final are Saturday at North Central.
“I’m really proud of this team, and I think they have really achieved a lot as a team themselves,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “This is not one of my strongest teams that I’ve had in the past couple years, but for them to do what they’ve done is a really good accomplishment toward them.”
With the team consisting of two freshmen and three upperclassmen that played little very until this year, Hammel is proud of how they’ve all stepped in those big spots.
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“It’s a young team. It was an inexperienced team in that aspect, but they have stepped to the challenge of all the big matches for the conference and for the state tournaments so far,” Hammel said. “I’m excited for them, and it’s really one of the prouder moments in one of those matches or situations that you don’t know if you’re going to get it done or not, and we did. It is something to look forward to and look back on that this team was able to accomplish what they have so far this year.”
The closest match of the day came at No. 3 singles, where Joseph Kloepfer once again came back from a set down to prevail 3-6, 6-1, 10-4.
At No. 1 singles, Nathan Lin downed Grant Paradowski 6-1, 6-2. Matthew Liu topped Max Fisher 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.
At No. 1 doubles, Anvay Atram and Amrit Kar topped Charley Williams and Alex Kelley 6-2, 6-3. Luke Enneking and Eric Stavnheim won the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (5), and closed out the match with a 6-1 second set victory against JJ Bowles and Jordan Wells at No. 2 doubles for the Bull Dogs.
