SYRACUSE – Longtime Warsaw tennis coach Rick Orban has been an open book about his feelings over the years. When things are going well, he’s as affable as they come. When they’re not, he’s not afraid to speak up. After his team cruised to a 5-0 Northern Lakes Conference girls tennis win at Wawasee Thursday afternoon, Orban had an interesting thought process.

“I’m happy as a clam that we’re 2-6, considering who we have played,” Orban said, noting his non-conference schedule workload including ranked foes Fort Wayne Carroll and Fort Wayne Canterbury mixed in among the Northern Lakes Conference duals. “Look at our schedule, it’s one of the tougher schedules in the state.

“Right now, it gets easier and easier. We’ve talked about it as a team and the girls understand that.”

An easy win against Wawasee? Not particularly, but Warsaw jumped out to big leads on all five courts right from the get-go and made the momentum work in its favor.

Warsaw’s Liza Lewis wasted no time in jumping all over Chelsea Carolus at three singles, taking a love and love win in less than 45 minutes. The one doubles duo of Camille Kerlin and Rosie Fleming played very confident at the net and used its aggressiveness to its advantage. Several well-placed shots from Kerlin helped the Tiger team to a 6-0, 6-3 run on Charity Parker and Ashley Larson.

The two doubles pairing of Sydney Hartman and Athena Schlitt took advantage of numerous service errors by Wawasee’s Jazlyn Gehlhausen and Kabrea Rostochak in claiming a 6-1, 6-1 final.

Both the one and two singles courts were well contested, but the power returns of the talented Tiger freshmen did the trick. Colette Smith played smart on her baseline in placing shots that Nealy Thanasrivanitchai just couldn’t return in a 6-2, 6-2 final at two singles. Ella Knight’s power game on her returns confounded Jada Antonides in a similar 6-2, 6-2 scoreline at one singles.

“We definitely need to improve on serves and attacking on other team’s second serves,” said Wawasee head coach Shane Staley. “We go out in practice during the week and serving is always something we work on. That’s probably my main objective during the offseason is to get the girls out and really train them to serve the right way.”

Orban continued to find progressive steps in his young team, which went three freshman across the singles courts and sophomore Schlitt gaining more experience on the varsity circuit.

“I know it sounds crazy because I started three freshman tonight and a sophomore, but it’s the experience of playing,” Orban said. “I was watching Shane at the (racquet) club this winter bringing in girls, and it was the first time they had played tennis. We don’t have that. We are experienced. Kids have been playing tennis for years. That’s the biggest difference.”

Staley, in a similar boat of varsity inexperience, just didn’t have the talent off the serve or in placement to keep pace Thursday.

“We are such a new team, especially at the JV level, ten out of the 17 kids on the team are playing tennis for the first time this spring,” Staley said. “I haven’t been able to move any of the JV up because of the lack of experience at the varsity level. Our lineup has been consistent and probably where we are going to be at.”

In the JV matches, Warsaw took all nine courts. Singles winners for Warsaw included Grace Miller, Libby Jenkins, Sophie Parke and Julie Frazetta. Doubles winners for the Tigers included Shelby Roberts and Chelsey Farling, Greer Smith and Jennifer Katris, Bonnie Wang and Brooklyn Rummer, Corinna Good and Rummer, and Taylor Biberstein and Cheyenne Wenger.

Warsaw (2-6, 2-2 NLC) will play at Fort Wayne Concordia Friday night while Wawasee (1-7, 0-4 NLC) will play at home Monday against West Noble.