The previous night’s tooth and nail loss to Brown County didn’t hinder Brownstown Central’s confidence on Tuesday.
This time around the Brownstown didn’t want to leave any room for doubt.
The Braves (3-4) rebounded from Monday’s 3-2 loss to the Eagles with a 5-0 victory at sectional and Jackson County foe Trinity Lutheran (1-3).
At No. 1 singles, the Braves’ Laken Reynolds took the first set 6-1 before going back and forth with Trinity’s Courtney Barker in the second set.
Barker took a 2-1 lead early, but dropped the next two games. Reynolds held onto the lead, and would go on to close the match at 6-4.
“Courtney did a really nice job fighting back in her second set tonight,” Trinity coach Mark Voss said. “The first set kind of got away from her. She settled down, figured a few things out and made it competitive in the second set. That was a positive for us.”
The next two singles spots went to the Braves in strong fashion.
Carly Brown defeated the Cougars’ Abby Schult 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles while Riley Roberts topped Sidney Hoene 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 3 singles position.
The Braves No. 1 doubles tandem of Rachel Adkins and Olivia Hackman topped Trinity’s Leah Stuckwisch and Lauren Voss 6-0, 6-2.
The Cougars’ Lauren Fleetwood and Cassidy Burnside built a 4-1 lead in the opening set at No. 2 doubles versus Sydney Cockerham and Claudia Sibrel, but the Braves stormed back.
Cockerham and Sibrel won the next five games to win the set 6-4 before take the final set 6-1.
“The first set for No. 2 doubles, they just weren’t in sync,” Braves coach Erik Stangland said. “The longer the match went on the better they seemed to get. It was really nice to watch.”
Stangland said that the team is trending in the right direction.
“We’re feeling really good because it was hard for us to lose that match (against Brown County),” Stangland said. “To come back and win 5-0 the next day gives the girls a big boost. It was really important to come back and play like they did today.”
Coach Voss said the team needs to work on some technical aspects of their game.
“I think we just weren’t really ready to hit the ball sometimes out there tonight. We were hitting a lot off the back foot,” he said. “We will work on it and get better in the long run.”
Should the teams meet again in the postseason, Voss expects a much closer match.
“I don’t think we got a true indication tonight of how we can fare against (Brownstown),” Voss said. “I think that we have a lot of room to improve and think we can give them everything they want at sectional.”
Brownstown will play at Seymour, the sectional host, on Thursday.
Stangland said that the match against SHS will give the Braves a good indication where they stand.
“Seymour is the team we are going to gauge most of the rest of the season on,” Stangland said. “The Silver Creek, North Harrison and Seymour matches are big matches. If we play well against Seymour that should give us a good indication for the rest of the season.”
Trinity, which has dropped three straight matches, will host Southwestern on Thursday.