(LEFT) Carmel’s Vishal Shankar won the No. 3 singles match for the Greyhounds during their sectional semifinal on Tuesday. (RIGHT) Guerin Catholic’s Charlie Phillips won a tough No. 1 singles match, helping the Golden Eagles reach today’s championship. (Richie Hall)
CARMEL – The Carmel and Guerin Catholic boys tennis teams advanced to the Sectional 35 championship after winning semifinal matches on Tuesday at the Greyhounds’ Todd Witsken Tennis Center.
Both semifinals were hard-fought competitions, which was expected since all four teams in the sectional are ranked by the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association. No. 1 Carmel toughed out a 4-1 victory over No. 8 Zionsville, while the No. 6 Golden Eagles also got a 4-1 victory, over No. 24 University.
The Greyhounds got their first point at No. 2 doubles, with junior Rajeev Singh and sophomore Andrew Wall winning 6-3, 6-3. Senior Vishal Shankar picked up a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles. The other three matches all went three sets.
Carmel clinched the match when senior Andrew Kim won at No. 2 singles, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a comeback victory. Zionsville got its lone point at No. 1 doubles, with Sam Robinson and Shurui Li coming back to beat sophomore Jude Sangar and junior David Liu 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
University’s Danil Boytsov (left) and Tyler Davis picked up a victory for the Trailblazers at No. 2 doubles. (Richie Hall)
The toughest match of the night was at No. 1 singles, between Carmel’s Wes Worobel and Zionsville’s Tyler Reed, as the two seniors played for three hours. Davis won the first set 7-5, then Worobel took the second set 7-5. The third set went to a tiebreak, and Worobel won it 8-6 to clinch the match and stay in contention for the individual tournament.
“That was gutsy,” said Greyhounds coach Dan Brunette. The coach also had praise for the Eagles, calling them “a deep team.”
“That’s a tough team to beat,” said Brunette. “We played well enough to be playing tomorrow.”
Guerin Catholic swept all three of the singles matches, with two players getting 6-0, 6-0 victories: sophomore Jack Tiplick at No. 2 singles and junior Jake Husmann at No. 3 singles. Junior Charlie Phillips won the No. 1 singles bout 6-3, 6-4 over University’s Kothe Birge in a tough match.
“We had to show up to play and we did that,” said GC coach Wyatt Metzger.
The Golden Eagles won at No. 1 doubles, with sophomore Nick Sills and senior David Cacchillo getting a 6-1, 6-2 victory. The Trailblazers took the No. 2 doubles match; seniors Tyler Davis and Danil Boytsov won the first set 6-0 and the second set 7-5, holding off a comeback from the Golden Eagles’ team of senior George Hein and junior Cole Giesler.
The championship match between Carmel and Guerin Catholic begins at 5:15 p.m. at the Todd Witsken Tennis Center.
