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WARSAW – Day one of the Warsaw Girls Tennis Sectional went per expectation. Both of Columbia City’s doubles teams were solid and the Eagles needed just one singles court to win. It received two in a 4-1 team win while Wawasee’s one singles player, Katy Ashpole, will move on in the individual tournament.

Ashpole was outstanding after shouldering a tough go at the Northern Lakes Conference tournament last weekend. In a 6-1, 6-1 win over Rachel Flauding, Ashpole automatically qualifies for the individual state tournament next week at Culver Academy with her team going down in defeat. Ashpole’s regional opponent won’t be determined until after all the sectionals are completed.

The court win Wednesday, which pushed Ashpole to 6-9 on the season as an individual, was a real bright spot for Wawasee head coach Chris Winters.

“She has made huge jumps this year and her confidence made huge jumps,” Winters said of her senior. “I said ‘that’s what you need from here on out’. I don’t care about win-loss. You have to believe you can do that. And she’s got that.”

On the flip side, Columbia City’s more than reliable doubles duos were up to the task. Macie Hinen and Sydney Ford needed less than an hour to punctuate a 6-2, 6-0 result on Addison Ayres and Jazlyn Gehlhausen, moving to 17-1 this season as a duo.

The two doubles combo of Cassie Bosselman and Bayley Smith moved to 15-3 overall with a 6-0, 6-3 blitz of Jaclyn Miller and Charity Parker, in a match that ended shortly after the one doubles match wrapped up.

“My doubles teams are really carrying us this year,” said Columbia City head coach Katie Myers. “We just need to get a win at singles somewhere. Some days are trickier than others, but our singles played well tonight.”

Aubrey Wright made it academic on the two singles court, beating Jada Antonides four and love to send City to the sectional semi-finals against Whitko, which City beat 5-0 earlier this season.

To tie up the match play, almost 150 minutes of tennis needed to be played in the three singles matchup between City’s Katie Doerhmann and Wawasee’s Chelsea Carolus. Going to a tiebreaker in the first set well after everyone else had wrapped up, Doehrmann won 7-6 (7-2) then outslugged Carolus 6-1 in the final set as the sun set on day one of the tournament.

The team loss for Wawasee ends its season at 3-10 overall in a campaign where the Lady Warriors lost five varsity players from day one. The frustrating team season left Winters hungry to see what the offseason brings.

“Record-wise, we were not better this year, but we had more potential this year than we did last year,” Winters said. “I am anticipating that to flow into next year.”

Myers’ group is looking forward to a rematch with Whitko Thursday, with the winner of Tippecanoe Valley and defending champ Warsaw looming Friday. All courts are scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.

“We have seen improvement since the beginning of the season at the singles positions, we just need one win somewhere as long as the doubles hold their own,” Myers said.