Warsaw's Season Ends At CMA Regional
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Warsaw's Season Ends At CMA Regional
By Anthony [email protected]
After breezing through the sectional with wins over Tippecanoe Valley (4-1) and Columbia City (4-1), the Warsaw Tigers reached the regional final by defeating Peru 5-0 Tuesday.
Because weather postponed the championship match Wednesday, the Tigers returned to Culver Academies Thursday, where their season ended with a 4-1 loss.
“It was a quiet bus ride on the way over here," Orban said. "Last night, we had all kinds of noise and everybody was pumped. I don't know. Three nights in a row of traveling here – that's tough.”
And the Culver Military Academy Eagles were even tougher.
Having defeated Warsaw 4-1 back on Aug. 29 in Culver, Eagles coach Alan Loehr didn't want his guys to be too over confident, although he wasn't exactly too nervous.
“In some cases, when you beat teams during the season, then turn around and play them in the playoffs, that can go against you,” he said. “In this case, we were confident that the squad we had was going to prevail.”
In the regular season, CMA won on all the courts outside of No. 2 doubles, and that held up in their latest matchup as well.
With their 6-2, 6-4 victory, the Tigers’ No. 2 doubles team of senior Connor Singrey and Will Petro ended their season with a perfect mark.
“They're just tough,” Orban said about Petro and Singrey. “They believe in each other, they trust each other and they go out there and don't think they can lose. That's huge.”
Warsaw's next closest match was at No. 2 singles, where junior Evan Miller fared much better than he did in the regular season, when he lost 6-0, 6-0 to CMA freshman Samuel Concannon.
At the regional, Concannon won the opening set 6-3, but fell behind in the second.
After a line call went against him, putting him in a 4-1 second-set hole, Concannon turned things around by winning the next five games, taking the match 6-3, 6-4.
“He kept the kid deep tonight, which is what our strategy was," Orban said about Miller. “In that second set, he was up big, then he started hitting the ball short. You can't hit the ball short to him. He's quick, he comes forward, he's got great volleys and he puts them away."
And Concannon wasn't the only Eagle with talent.
After finishing the season with its first Northern Lakes Conference title since 2006, Orban couldn't be too upset with his squad, which only lost to CMA and No. 17 Penn this season.
“All in all, we lost to a better team,” he said. “If you lose to a better team, you have to be OK with that. If you look back on our season, my gosh I'm so proud of these guys. It's been years since we went 7-0 in conference and then win the conference tourney like we did. I'm extremely happy with the season.
“Culver Military is a really good team,” he added. “Their coaching staff is just wonderful – we're good friends. He has a really solid team. I knew this was going to be an uphill battle. I'm proud of the way the kids fought tonight."
CMA now advances to the semistate, which will also be played at its own Gable Tennis Center Saturday against Valparaiso at 10 a.m.
CULVER MILITARY ACADEMY 4, WARSAW 1
(CMA Regional, C'ship)
SINGLES: No. 1 – Quinlan Smith (C) def. Kyle Wettschurack 6-1, 6-2; No. 2 – Samuel Concannon (C) def. Evan Miller 6-3, 6-4; No. 3 – Eric Maudhuit (C) def. Alek Jansen 6-1, 6-3
DOUBLES: No. 1 – Alec Proeh/Austin Proeh (C) def. AJ Herendeen/Sam Rice 6-0, 6-3; No. 2 – Will Petro/Connor Singrey (W) def. Arturo Lizarraga/Jorge Segura 6-2, 6-4
Records: CMA 18-2, Warsaw 12-3[[In-content Ad]]
After breezing through the sectional with wins over Tippecanoe Valley (4-1) and Columbia City (4-1), the Warsaw Tigers reached the regional final by defeating Peru 5-0 Tuesday.
Because weather postponed the championship match Wednesday, the Tigers returned to Culver Academies Thursday, where their season ended with a 4-1 loss.
“It was a quiet bus ride on the way over here," Orban said. "Last night, we had all kinds of noise and everybody was pumped. I don't know. Three nights in a row of traveling here – that's tough.”
And the Culver Military Academy Eagles were even tougher.
Having defeated Warsaw 4-1 back on Aug. 29 in Culver, Eagles coach Alan Loehr didn't want his guys to be too over confident, although he wasn't exactly too nervous.
“In some cases, when you beat teams during the season, then turn around and play them in the playoffs, that can go against you,” he said. “In this case, we were confident that the squad we had was going to prevail.”
In the regular season, CMA won on all the courts outside of No. 2 doubles, and that held up in their latest matchup as well.
With their 6-2, 6-4 victory, the Tigers’ No. 2 doubles team of senior Connor Singrey and Will Petro ended their season with a perfect mark.
“They're just tough,” Orban said about Petro and Singrey. “They believe in each other, they trust each other and they go out there and don't think they can lose. That's huge.”
Warsaw's next closest match was at No. 2 singles, where junior Evan Miller fared much better than he did in the regular season, when he lost 6-0, 6-0 to CMA freshman Samuel Concannon.
At the regional, Concannon won the opening set 6-3, but fell behind in the second.
After a line call went against him, putting him in a 4-1 second-set hole, Concannon turned things around by winning the next five games, taking the match 6-3, 6-4.
“He kept the kid deep tonight, which is what our strategy was," Orban said about Miller. “In that second set, he was up big, then he started hitting the ball short. You can't hit the ball short to him. He's quick, he comes forward, he's got great volleys and he puts them away."
And Concannon wasn't the only Eagle with talent.
After finishing the season with its first Northern Lakes Conference title since 2006, Orban couldn't be too upset with his squad, which only lost to CMA and No. 17 Penn this season.
“All in all, we lost to a better team,” he said. “If you lose to a better team, you have to be OK with that. If you look back on our season, my gosh I'm so proud of these guys. It's been years since we went 7-0 in conference and then win the conference tourney like we did. I'm extremely happy with the season.
“Culver Military is a really good team,” he added. “Their coaching staff is just wonderful – we're good friends. He has a really solid team. I knew this was going to be an uphill battle. I'm proud of the way the kids fought tonight."
CMA now advances to the semistate, which will also be played at its own Gable Tennis Center Saturday against Valparaiso at 10 a.m.
CULVER MILITARY ACADEMY 4, WARSAW 1
(CMA Regional, C'ship)
SINGLES: No. 1 – Quinlan Smith (C) def. Kyle Wettschurack 6-1, 6-2; No. 2 – Samuel Concannon (C) def. Evan Miller 6-3, 6-4; No. 3 – Eric Maudhuit (C) def. Alek Jansen 6-1, 6-3
DOUBLES: No. 1 – Alec Proeh/Austin Proeh (C) def. AJ Herendeen/Sam Rice 6-0, 6-3; No. 2 – Will Petro/Connor Singrey (W) def. Arturo Lizarraga/Jorge Segura 6-2, 6-4
Records: CMA 18-2, Warsaw 12-3[[In-content Ad]]
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