With a big football game between Tippecanoe Valley and Rochester taking place in Rochester at 7 p.m., the Warsaw Tigers tennis team made sure their Valley counterparts would have enough time to get to the game Friday.
At the Warsaw Sectional Championship, the Tigers needed only 55 minutes to claim their third-consecutive crown, defeating the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings 5-0."This is special," Warsaw coach Rick Orban said of the championship. "This group of kids struggled in the beginning of the year. The team finally came together about halfway through the year. They're just playing incredible tennis right now. They've got a lot of confidence. They really worked hard for this, and they earned it."
The championship is Warsaw's fifth in the last six years, and with that type of tradition, Valley coach Rod Hamman knew his team would have to play near-perfect tennis to advance in the postseason tournament.
"We told our guys coming in, that we're just gonna have to go after our shots - and whatever happens, happens," the Valley coach said. "We know that Warsaw is a very good team, and I want to offer my congratulations to Warsaw."
But even if Warsaw was the prohibitive favorite, that didn't mean the Tigers were taking anything for granted.
"On any given night, anybody can beat anybody," Orban said. "I stressed that. We talked about how we needed to get ready for this, and if we win this, get ready mentally for the regional."
As it was, the Tigers were more than prepared, dropping only four sets.
At No. 1 singles, Warsaw's Deon Shafer defeated Valley's Rosten Hamman 6-0, 6-0, while the No. 2 doubles team of Jake Wallin and Chase Byerly also earned a 6-0, 6-0 win. At No. 3 singles, Zach Tucker was a 6-1, 6-0 winner, the same score the No. 1 doubles tandem of Mark Krizmanich and Will Coen needed to win. In the longest match of the night, which only took 55 minutes, Warsaw's Chris Finke closed the evening with a 6-2, 6-0 victory.
While the sectional championship is nice for the Tigers, it's definitely not the the hardware they're ultimately trying to earn.
"We went to semistate last year, and I don't think they're gonna be happy or satisfied if we don't make it there again," Orban said of his guys. "They have the ability. Now they're gonna have to show it Tuesday and Wednesday."
On Tuesday, the Tigers will be at the Concord Regional, taking on the winner of this morning's Northridge-Elkhart Central sectional championship match at Concord High School.
For Valley, Friday's match was the end of the line, and with six seniors on the team, coach Hamman will have a much different looking squad in 2008. But for now, Hamman's just happy to have worked with the guys he did in 2007.
"These guys have been some of the most coachable we've had, as far as attitudes, as far as listening, as far as wanting to improve and stay after (practice) to work on their games," he said. "As far as that goes, I couldn't be more pleased with them."
