Coach Rick Orban has been at the helm of Warsaw’s girls tennis program for 16 seasons. His teams have never lost in sectional play. The Lady Tigers beat Wawasee 5-0 in Friday’s final to make it a sweet 16 consecutive sectionals titles, and 19 of the last 20. According to Orban, winning trophies never gets old. “It’s absolutely wonderful,” he said. “Somebody last night said ‘sweet 16?’ And I hadn’t really thought abut it that way. “We’ve been fortunate to be able to build this streak. Some years we may not have been the best team, but we won. There have been a lot of teams out there whose streaks have ended, so you never know. But it never gets old.” The first two matches to end couldn’t have gone much better for the Lady Tigers. Collette Smith won her first set at No. 2 singles in 20 minutes, and two minutes later Liza Lewis won her first set at No. 1 singles. Both players won without dropping a game, and in less than 45 minutes. The victory was clinched when Hannah Rice and Athena Schlitt won 6-1, 6-1 over Kabrea Rostochak and Charity Parker at No. 1 doubles. The turning point in that match came about halfway through the first set. Down 3-1, Parker served for the game twice, double faulting the second time. From there Rice and Schlitt won six straight points to go up 5-1 and never looked back. At No. 2 doubles, Lady Tigers Rosie Fleming and Grace Miller had longer points and closer games with Wawasee’s Kendra Doerr and Courtney Larson, but the end result was another 6-1, 6-1 win for Warsaw. After the rest of the courts had cleared, Wawasee’s Meg Heinisch hung tough with Ella Knight at No. 3 singles. Heinisch dropped the first set 6-2, but took an early lead and was ahead 4-3 in the second set. The last three games took a while, but Knight prevailed 6-4 to win. Orban said while his team hasn’t talked about it much, the sectional final made it five dual matches in a row that Warsaw has won 5-0. “I’ve always said it, ‘the season is all about getting ready for the postseason,’” said Orban. “And truly in this case that’s exactly what happened; we’ve gotten better and more confident as the season’s gone on. They have confidence, they trust each other, they believe in each other, It’s special. I’m very proud of them tonight.” As far as Wawasee head coach Shane Staley was concerned, his Warrior squad went about as far into the postseason as it could, rebounding from a disasterous Northern Lakes Conference tournament in which no Lady Warrior won a set, much less a match. “You never like losing, but we came here to compete, and I think we did that tonight,” he said. “We were fighting the whole way through, and I saw something on every court that I appreciated. I’m happy (with the effort). “They’ve got a great team, and they deserve it. It’s something to be sectional champs 16 years in a row.” Wawasee finishes its season 5-10 in dual matches. Warsaw will play Manchester in the Culver Academies Regional on Tuesday. The Lady Squires were a 5-0 winner over Wabash in the championship of the Peru Sectional Friday. Note: Going in to this week’s sectionals, Warsaw had the sixth-longest streak of consecutive titles. Munster has won each of the last 39 years, Jasper has 26 straight, Carmel 24, Delta 23 and Crown Point 21 straight seasons with a sectional title.
