Three local teams made up the four spots at the IHSAA tennis sectional semifinals at Warsaw Thursday evening. With the Tigers taking on Whitko and the Northern Lakes Conference Champions Wawasee facing off against Columbia City for the two spots in Saturday’s final, there was plenty of action on the courts. In the end, the two NLC competitors were left standing after a 5-0 win for Warsaw and a 5-0 victory for the Warriors.
“This is a really special team this year,” Wawasee head coach Vince Rhodes said. “Obviously when you have six seniors on the roster you’re going to have a ton of leadership. But they’ve all put in the work too, and it shows.”
Starting with the host school, Warsaw was able to depend on their doubles teams for some quick results, which has been the case all season long. The first match to conclude on the day saw Tiger senior Drew Ryser and sophomore Henry Norton defeat Whitko’s Caden Deneve and James Ness 6-0, 6-0. The duo improved to 22-3 on the year with some top-notch play.
Not long after, the duo of Spencer Love and Luke Smith picked up yet another Tiger win, coming away with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over the Wildcats’ RJ Bollinger and Nathan Augustus. This gave the Tigers two quick victories right off the bat to put the team just a single win away from advancing for the second time in as many days.
It didn’t take long for them to get it, as No. 2 singles competitor Ted Grandon, who finished his match in just over a half an hour the day prior, took about ten minutes longer to dispatch Thursday’s opponent, Aiden Baldridge. The straight-set, 6-0, 6-0 win clinched the match for Warsaw with two more to go.
No. 1 Charlie Norton was next up with another perfect performance, a 6-0, 6-0 win over Keaton Cornell. This match featured some intense rallies with both athletes sharing their fair share of successes, but Norton proved to be too much, often finding perfect placement to capture wins when needed.
That left No. 3 Miles Rager, who bounced back from a loss on Wednesday to pick up a 6-4 6-0 win to make it a clean sweep for Warsaw. Rager started the match by trading games with Whitko sophomore Issac Long, but got into a grove in the second set to capture the win.
“The boys did exactly what they did yesterday. They came out, and they were aggressive,” Warsaw head coach Stacy Lind said after the match. “I knew they wanted to come out and get done today, and they were focused on every point on their way to victory.”
Wawasee was also quick to secure victories in their match. First up was the No. 2 doubles team of Dane Cripe and Evan Byler, who continued the trend of domination with a 6-0, 6-0 victory of their own. The senior pairing has been on fire all season long and came out on top quickly and efficiently, making the most of serves and chances throughout the match.
Next up was No. 1 singles Joey Harper, who’s phenomenal senior season continued with a 6-0, 6-1 victory. The runner up in the NLC tournament, Harper’s serve was one of beauty on Thursday, consistently frustrating his opponent while racking up points on the scoreboard.

    Senior Joey Harper of Wawasee watches the flight of his backhand return during his No. 1 singles match against Columbia City...Nieter

“Joey is a very special player. He’s been playing since the fourth grade and has been my No. 1 since his freshman year,” Rhodes said. “He brings a tremendous amount of leadership to this team and is competitive in every point he plays.”
The other singles players were next to finish, as No. 3 Kane Dukes and No. 2 Pablo Mor Chocos each picked up straight set victories to clinch the match for the Warriors and set up Saturday’s final. Both players were on their game, with points being incredibly hard to come by for their opponents as they each won 6-0, 6-1.
It took three sets, but the No .1 doubles pairing of Dane Cripe and Evan Byler finished off the sweep with a victory of their own. After dropping the second set by a razor-thin margin, the duo won the third set 6-2 to finish things off.
Warsaw and Wawasee will face off Saturday morning for the right to advance to regionals.
“Wawasee is a very, very tough team,” Lind said. “I think it’s going to be a close and competitive match and either way a very good team is going to come out on top. We’ll need to be focused and ready to go if we want to beat them.”