Owls, Braves to compete for sectional title

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For The Tribune

Seymour and Brownstown Central’s boys’ tennis teams will battle for the championship of the Seymour Sectional this afternoon as a result of picking up wins Thursday afternoon.

Seymour defeated Scottsburg 3-2, while Brownstown was a 4-1 winner against Trinity Lutheran.

Brownstown (12-5) and Seymour (10-6) did not play during the regular season as their match was rained out.

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The Seymour-Scottsburg match came down to No. 3 singles between Seymour’s Isaac Hardin and Jordan Smith.

Hardin won the first set 6-3, and Smith the second 6-3. They battled to a 6-6 tie in the third set before Hardin won the tiebreaker 7-5.

Hardin said this is the second time this season a Seymour match had come down to him. “I just needed to keep that positive attitude. I’ve been in that position before. Against Bedford it was 2-2 and my match came in, so I was kind of comfortable with it.”

“The support from my team is what got me through. I had the adrenaline going and they got me through with my coach standing over there. He was pumping me up. All that helps. I put all my trust in God. He gets me through it. It’s a lot of things that factor into the win.”

Hardin and Smith were on the court for more than 3 hours.

Owls coach Brad Emerson said, “Isaac hung in there. He wasn’t feeling particularly well, but he gutted it out. I’m so proud of him. He had opportunities in the second set and let those get by.”

“In that third set he had trouble holding serve, but again he gutted it out, he broke serve and kept coming back. He did a good job. There wasn’t a loser of this match. Both teams are winners on that.”

Seymour’s Ty McCory defeated Camden Jones 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, and Adam Berry was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Malachi Carr at No. 2.

“Ty and Adam did a real good job,” Emerson said. “Ty got a little revenge match from the first meeting and came back and beat that kid today. We didn’t have Adam the first match we faced them so that kind of helped us out a little bit. He came out strong and finished well.”

“We’re proud of our doubles teams. I know we had match point at 1 doubles and they didn’t quite finish, but still they hung in against a tough team. Overall I’m very pleased with the team.”

Will Rinehart and Sam Schmidt lost 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5 at No. 1 doubles, and Pablo Jimenez and Trey Hohenstreiter fell 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2 doubles.

The Braves swept the singles with Ethan Carlin posting a 6-3, 6-2 win against Bailey Baker at No. 1, Ethan Wischmeier was a 6-0, 6-3 winner against Jace Crockett at No. 2, and Adam Pottschmidt topped Matthew Stuckwisch 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3.

Jackson Lahrman and Gunner Zickler topped Hunter Morgan and Pierce McCammon at No. 1 doubles, while Trinity’s point came at No. 2 where Avery Schwipps and Noah Voelker won 7-5, 6-3 against Reece Carlin and Cole Shasteen.

Braves coach Mitch Taylor said, “The guys took care of business. I was trying to keep them focused on the match and worry about what they had to do tonight because there is nothing worse than overlooking a team and having them beat you. … They felt like they could win because they had beaten them before. However, I just didn’t want them underestimating that team. When it comes to sectionals anything can happen. I wanted them to make a statement tonight and win their match the way they know they can play. Overall it went well. I wish our No. 2 doubles could have gotten a win. We’re still working with those guys.”

Cougars coach Mark Voss said although the team score was the same as when they teams played at Brownstown two weeks ago, he felt his team put up a better fight this time.

“(Schwipps and Voelker) came through in straight sets this time instead of having to go to three to get it done.”

“They did very well tonight, everybody did well. I’m very pleased with everybody how they played across the board. The score on the scoreboard may be the same, but the set scores were a lot closer than what they were down there.”

“They knew we were here. Our mental game was better. We came out at the start with our mental game on tonight. I think we were ahead in four of the five matches at the start. That was a big plus for us getting off the snide and getting ahead real quick and forcing them to play a little bit.”

Trinity finished 1-14.

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