The mosquitos weren't the only things inflicting pain Wednesday night at Warsaw Community High School's Tiger Courts.
Hosting the Northridge Raiders in a Northern Lakes Conference boys tennis match, the Warsaw Tigers fell 5-0, not winning a set the entire match."Northridge is a good team," Warsaw coach Rick Orban said. "I gotta give them credit. They outplayed us at 1, 2, 3 singles - 1 doubles, 2 doubles. It's been a long time since I've had a team that's been dominated this bad."
Warsaw (7-2) and Northridge (9-0) both entered the match undefeated in NLC play, but the Raiders definitely made a statement, moving to 3-0, while the Tigers dropped to 2-1.
"This is a big win," first-year Northridge coach Evan Atkinson said. "I knew Warsaw would be pretty tough this year. I coached my guys in the (junior varsity) tournament last year, and Warsaw was our big competition for that. I knew they lost some players on varsity, but I also knew they'd fill in with some good players."
On the season, Orban's been able to rely on wins from his No. 1 doubles team of Andrew Cutshall and Shawn Carmichael, as well as his No. 2 doubles tandem of Richard Feng and Keaton Joyner. Both doubles teams entered the Northridge match undefeated, the only problem was the Raiders' doubles squads had also not lost this year.
"That's one of our strengths," Atkinson said about the doubles courts. "We have four seniors at our two doubles positions."
At No. 1 doubles, Northridge's James Brandenberger and Dylan Pieri battled for a 7-5 opening-set win, then coasted to a 6-1 win in the second. On the next court, Northridge's Jeff Eash and Cole Wogomon won 6-3, 6-4.
"(No.) 1 doubles just wasn't as aggressive as they've been, and the same thing with 2 doubles," Orban said. "I don't know if it was the weekend layoff. I'm just not really sure what it was, but kudos to (Northridge). They have a really nice team."
The Northridge domination continued on the singles courts, where the only time a Raider was in trouble was during Jeremy Runge's second set against Bryce Scott, which he eventually won 7-5 after winning the first set 6-3.
"Our 2 singles player is also a senior, and I'd say our 1 singles player is the best in the conference," Atkinson said.
Northridge's No. 1 player Nick Myers defeated Warsaw's Will Coen 6-1, 6-1.
"My guys are very confident," Atkinson said. "They haven't lost yet and we know what we need to do. We just need to execute, focus on playing smart tennis and hit good shots to set up more winning points. When we do that, we get some easy matches."
And that's exactly what they did against Warsaw.
"They attacked the net, they stayed aggressive and they didn't make many errors," Orban said. "They played a great match. We on the other hand, it's really the poorest we've played all season. Even with that, I'm not sure we could have beaten them."
The competition doesn't get any easier tonight when Warsaw hosts 15th-ranked Fort Wayne Canterbury at 5 p.m.
"They've beaten everyone they've played 5-0 this year," Orban said about Canterbury. "So, I'm expecting a really tough match. I expect to shake up the lineup a little bit, just to get the kids attention, and hopefully get them focused for the next NLC match."
Warsaw's next NLC match will be Tuesday at Wawasee.
NORTHRIDGE 5, WARSAW 0
(Singles)
No. 1 - Nick Myers (N) def. Will Coen 6-1, 6-1
No. 2 - Jeremy Runge (N) def. Bryce Scott 6-3, 7-5
No. 3 - Dave Long (N) def. Scott Campbell 6-3, 6-3
