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AKRON - For Tippecanoe Valley's varsity girls tennis team, this has been and may continue to be a very special season.
After posting the most wins in a season in school history a year ago at 12, the Vikings have fought their way to a 12-2 record this year.
What would put the icing on the cake, so to speak, is something no Tippecanoe Valley girls tennis team has ever done - win a sectional championship.
And third-year coach Jack Shambaugh knows this year's Wawasee Sectional could be a special one for his Vikings.
"This is our best chance," Shambaugh said. "This is the best team we've had. We have a good opportunity."
It's an opportunity Valley has proven this year it can take advantage of.
After falling to Warsaw 4-1 a year ago in the regular season, Valley came back and fell 3-2 to the Tigers in the sectional championship. This year they gained another point on the Tigers and defeated them 3-2 in the regular season.
"We've made little progresses each time," Shambaugh said of turning the table on Warsaw.
Valley will play Whitko, a team it beat 5-0 a week ago, Saturday morning at 10 a.m. The sectional kicks off tonight at 4:30 with Manchester playing Warsaw. Wawasee drew the bye and will play the Manchester/Warsaw winner at 10 a.m. Saturday. If Valley and Warsaw are to clash it once again would be for the sectional championship. Two other local teams, NorthWood and Triton, compete in different sectionals. Triton goes to Bremen, while NorthWood hosts a sectional.
"They're still the defending champs," Shambaugh said of Warsaw. "Until someone beats them, they're the favorite."
Wawasee also has beaten the Tigers 3-2 this year.
"I don't think there's a favorite," Wawasee coach Phil Mishler said. "Warsaw won last year. Tippecanoe Valley beat Warsaw. We beat Warsaw. There's three teams that have a good shot. For the first time in a long time it's more than two teams fighting for the championship."
"Going in we're expecting to play our best," Mishler said. "If things go right, I hope we're there. Along with I guess Tippecanoe Valley."
Valley and Wawasee have not clashed this season.
For Wawasee, No. 1 singles player Mandy Perzanowski, a senior, enters the sectional with a 19-0 personal record.
"Right now we're about as ready as a team can be," Mishler said. "Mandy is a big part of that with her play and her leadership. She's a role model on and of the court."
