The Warsaw girls tennis team has been fantastic to start the season this spring, dropping just one match in its first five while keeping a perfect record in the Northern Lakes Conference. The dominance continued on Thursday evening as the Lady Tigers hosted Wawasee for another NLC match. The home side continued to take care of business, winning 5-0 without dropping a set.
“They’ve been working hard all winter, putting in the hard work that it takes to succeed in this sport and it’s really been showing this season,” Warsaw head coach Stacy Lind said.
The first match to take place was the No. 1 doubles duel between Warsaw’s Claire Reichenbach and Clara Porter taking on Wawasee’s Allison Clark and Kenley Stewart. Due to an academic conflict later in the evening, the two teams took to the court before the rest of the pairings began their warm up.
The game itself was a doozy, with an incredibly close opening set that saw Reichenbach and Porter escaping with a 7-5 victory. After battling hard to win set one, it was smooth sailing from there, as the duo went on to win the second set 6-1 and the match 7-5, 6-1. Before any other competitors had even begun their warmups, Warsaw held a 1-0 advantage in the match.
Once the rest of the games began, Warsaw wasted no time continuing the dominant play they have exhibited thus far this season. A day after all three singles players won their matches 6-0, 6-0, the trio of Lady Tigers picked up right where they left off. No. 1 Addie Lind, No. 2 Abby Nicholas and No. 3 Emma VanPuffelen each won their first set 6-0 to put the pressure on the visitors of Wawasee.
The dominance continued into the second set, as Lind got off the court in a hurry. Using a lightning-rod serve and perfect placement all over the Court, Warsaw’s No. 1 cruised to a second 6-0 victory over Wawasee’s Mackenzie Hackleman to increase Warsaw’s lead to 2-0 on the match while putting together her second straight perfect match to remain undefeated.

    Mackenzie Hackleman of Wawasee uses a backhand return during her No. 1 singles match. Photo by Gary Nieter“Addie has a lot of pressure on her being the coach’s daughter, but she works hard all year long and I’m proud of her.”
Nicholas followed Lind off the court with a victory of her own not long afterwards. Warsaw’s No. 2 took a 5-0 lead in the second set before Molly Beer was able to answer with a win, but Nicholas was quick to take care of business afterwards, winning her final game 60-15 to put the finishing touches on a 6-0, 6-1 victory that clinched the match at 3-0 for the Lady Tigers.
“Abby is a tremendous player who has worked really hard on her shot selection and has realized that focusing on that can lead to success,” Lind said.
VanPuffelen, who has had a tremendous season and would probably be the No. 1 on a lot of other teams, finished off Wawasee’s Makayelynn Toumey without a blemish on the scorecard, taking a 6-0, 6-0 win to join Lind in the ranks of the undefeated while also putting the Lady Tigers a game away from a sweep.
“Emma’s a beast. She’s our energizer bunny. She will keep hitting that ball and won’t stop until you tell her to,” Lind added.
That sweep would come about 10 minutes later, as Warsaw’s No. 2 doubles pairing of Lucy Ray and Whitney Dawson put together yet another 6-0 set before winning the second one 6-1 to finish off a 5-0 victory for the Lady Tigers that got done in just under an hour.
Warsaw (5-1, 4-0 NLC) plays its next match Friday at home against Fort Wayne Concordia.
“I think this is a team that can go a long way this spring. We still have some really tough teams left on our schedule but if we can get through them in a positive manner, the sky's the limit,” Lind said.