The two-time defending Northern Lakes Conference champion Warsaw boys tennis team made things a little tougher on itself Tuesday evening at home. Hosting Goshen, the Tigers were defeated 3-2, dropping to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference. The match was Goshen’s first NLC competition of the season, but the Redskins have had plenty of success, entering with a 9-0 record. “They’re a solid team,” Warsaw coach Rick Orban said. “It’s like I was telling (assistant coach) Jan (Orban), ‘They’re coming in at 9-0. I don’t care who they were playing – they didn’t lose.’ So, I knew right up front that it would be a tough match.” Goshen jumped out right away, winning the opening game on four of the five courts, as well taking the opening set on three courts. Of the three opening-set wins, all of them ultimately went to Goshen, but the one at No. 1 doubles was the toughest. After losing the opening set 6-3, Warsaw junior Christopher Herendeen and sophomore Jordan Stout came back to take the second by the same score. Following a 10-minute break, the match was the only varsity action still going, with the team score tied at 2-2. Playing for the team win, Herendeen and Stout tied it at 1-1, but Goshen senior Zach Troyer and sophomore Logan Troyer were too much, going on to take the set 6-2. “(Goshen) showed a lot of heart, because they won the first set pretty easily, then we came back and played extremely well in that second set,” Orban said. “They went out (in the third), and they went out to win. We made all kinds of errors, all kinds of double faults. You can’t do that against a good team and expect to win.” Warsaw seniors Sam Rice and Nic Jansen got the Tigers points, winning at No. 1 and 2 singles, respectively. Rice defeated Hudson Kay 6-3, 6-2, but his win actually looked a little easier than Jansen’s 6-0, 6-3 victory over Evan Beck, as he labored through a sickness that Orban says has been troubling the team lately. “We’ve had this stuff going through the team,” he said. “I was in bed all day Saturday. But, no excuses. Their No. 3 singles player pretty much took ours apart (winning 6-3, 6-3). He played a great match. Their No. 2 doubles just took us apart (winning 6-1, 6-2). We couldn’t put balls away. We couldn’t keep balls in play.” Things don’t get any easier for Warsaw, as it travels to Culver Academies today, then hosts a crucial NLC match Thursday against rival Plymouth. The week rounds out with the Crown Point Invitational on Saturday, packing in four matches in five days. “It’s one of those weeks, but it’s like I told the boys, ‘The girls have five and six matches a week,’” Orban said. “So, they just need to man up and understand that’s just part of it.”
