NorthWood Ladies Claim Tennis Title

Written on May 20, 2017 by Staff Reporter

Categories: Sports Archive 2017

Tags: Bremen Girls Tennis Sectional, northwood

The NorthWood girls tennis team won the Goshen Sectional championship Saturday (Photo courtesy of NorthWood Athletics Twitter)

GOSHEN – Nothing was going to keep the NorthWood girls tennis team from reigning as sectional champions Saturday.

Not even more rain.

The Panthers outlasted the inclement weather to top host Goshen 4-0 in the sectional finale contested at Goshen Middle School.

NorthWood prevailed after having the final postponed by rain Friday night. The Saturday finale feature more rain drops, which delayed the start of the morning match.

The Panthers claimed the third sectional title in program history and the first since 2009. NorthWood (14-3) advances to play conference foe Concord (11-2) Tuesday at 5 p.m. in a semifinal matchup of the Northridge Regional. Angola will face Central Noble in the other semifinal Tuesday with the winners playing in the regional final at 5 p.m. Wednesday for a spot in the Homestead Semistate on May 27.

NorthWood defeated Concord 4-1 in a very tightly-contested Northern Lakes Conference match back on April 13 in Nappanee. The Panthers won three of the matches in three sets. Concord has come on late in the season, claiming the program’s first sectional championship since 2003 on Thursday at Northridge.

The Panthers, who had beaten Goshen 4-1 in a regular-season meeting April 25, rolled to the title Saturday.

The No. 1 doubles team of senior Jama Rice and junior Kennedy Wiens topped seniors Elsie Koop Liechty and Claire Penner 6-0, 6-0 to get the ball rolling. Rice and Wiens qualified for the State Finals for No. 1 doubles teams in 2016.

The Panthers also got a big win from its No. 2 doubles team of senior Katie Troyer and junior Betsy Nunemaker. The pair topped freshmen Anna Podgorski and Brooke Grewe 6-1, 6-1.

Freshman Alex Jesse defeated senior Kayleigh Crowder 6-1, 6-2 on the No. 1 singles court.

Sophomore Reegan Miller beat senior Lineth Alvarez 6-3, 6-1 in the No. 2 singles match.

The No. 3 singles match between NorthWood senior Hannah Walter and Goshen senior Cheyenne Kalb was tied at 1-1 in the third set when it was suspended. The match will not be completed.

“We are very excited to have our season continue on into the next week,” said NorthWood coach Tif Schwartz. “These girls are very deserving of this title. They have put a lot of hard work in to this season and are a great group to work with. We are looking forward to playing at regional.”

Goshen finishes its season at 4-15.