WARSAW – How sweet it is for the Warsaw girls tennis program.

As in a Sweet 16 straight sectional championships for the Tigers.

Host Warsaw added another trophy to its already-stuffed coffers Friday night by blanking county rival Wawasee 5-0.

The Tigers claimed sectional title number 26 overall and made it a perfect 16-for-16 under coach Rick Orban.

“It feels absolutely wonderful,” said Orban following the title match. “To win 16 in a row is really special. We don’t take it for granted.  You never know coming into a sectional what will happen. We’ve been fortunate to build the streak. But it never gets old.”

Warsaw will take 9-5 mark into regional semifinal play Tuesday night at Culver Academies. The Tigers will face Manchester (16-2), which beat Wabash 5-0 Friday night to win the Peru Sectional title. The other bracket has Plymouth (16-2) squaring off with Rochester (11-4).  Plymouth topped Bremen 5-0 to win the Bremen Sectional crown and Rochester defeated Knox 5-0 to win the Culver Academies Sectional title.

The regional championship match will be Wednesday night with the winner earning a spot back at Culver Academies on Saturday, May 28 for the semistate.

Warsaw did not play Manchester during the regular season and lost a 4-1 final on April 19 to Plymouth, which won both the Northern Lakes Conference regular season and tournament championships.

Wawasee, which put up a game fight Friday night, finishes its season at 5-10. The young Warriors, who had just two seniors in their lineup for the finale, won two sectional matches to get to the title tilt.

The Tigers, who returned five of their top seven players from last year’s team that lost to Plymouth in the regional semifinals, simply had too much talent and experience for Wawasee.

Warsaw had beaten the Warriors 5-0 in their Northern Lakes Conference match back on April 28 with four of the courts posting 6-0, 6-0 finals.

The Tigers took a quick 2-0 team lead Friday night as sophomores Colette Smith and Liza Lewis posted dominating wins at No. 2 and No. 1 singles respectively, finishing just a minute apart. Smith topped freshman Peyton Rookstool 6-0, 6-0 in 38 minutes at No. 2 and Lewis followed that right up with a 6-0, 6-0 win over senior Jazlyn Gehlhausen at No. 1. The scores on both the No. 1 and No. 2 singles courts were identical to the regular-season results.

Warsaw wrapped up the win as its No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Hannah Rice and junior Athena Schlitt beat senior Charity Parker and sophomore Kabrea Rostochak 6-1, 6-1. Five minutes later, it was 4-0 as the No. 2 doubles duo of senior Rosie Fleming and sophomore Grace Miller defeated sophomore Courtney Larson and freshman Kendra Doerr 6-1, 6-1.

The final point of the shutout did not come easy. Sophomore Ella Knight won 6-2 in her first set before freshman Meg Heinisch took a quick 3-0 lead in the second set. Knight regrouped and won six of the final seven games to win 6-4 to complete the 87-minute match. Knight beat Heinisch 6-0, 6-0 in their regular-season meeting.

“I don’t like to lose, but we did what we could and I saw some good things for us on every court tonight,” said Wawasee coach Shane Staley. “The girls came in here with great attitudes and fought as hard as they could. They won two sectional matches and I’m proud of how we ended up. Warsaw is a great team and they deserved to win their 16th in a row.”

Orban saw his improving team continue to take steps forward.

“I talk every year that the regular season is all about getting us ready for the postseason,” said Orban. “That’s exactly how it happened this year. The girls are playing better now. They are more confident and they believe and trust each other.

“I’m very proud of them tonight. This is our fifth straight 5-0 win. Our true focus tonight was to play our game and not to fall into any traps and do anything different. The girls did that pretty much throughout the lineup. I was thrilled with our doubles play tonight.”