GOSHEN – Wawasee boys tennis coach Vince Rhodes saw plenty of positives, but his team is running out of time to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Goshen was pushed by the visiting Warriors, but the RedHawks were up to the challenge in a 4-1 win at Goshen Middle School.

“It’s a focus thing right now,” Rhodes said. “All year long. Tonight I thought our doubles were more focused, and they got a win. For us to beat Goshen on a court, it’s been a long time. Which is good. We’re turning the corner, but we’re trying to narrow some things down to get fixed up.”

Consistency has been a problem for much of the season for Wawasee. When it’s going good, the Warriors have posted three wins this season. But in instances like Tuesday, Wawasee found itself on the short end of the first set on four of its five courts, which held up throughout the duration of the five courts. In getting behind, Wawasee struggled to string together point streaks and committed plenty of unforced errors as Goshen took advantage both on the baseline and at the net.

The struggles for Wawasee were very evident in the two doubles court, where both Zeke Keim and Colin Rhoades were both super active on their side of the court. But after much consternation, the two were left shaking their heads more times than not. Cormac Liechty basically played Shaq at the net for the RedHawks, just swatting shot after shot for winners as Keim and Rhoades were scrambling to put anything together. Teamed with Moses Sawatzky, Liechty led the Goshen two dubs to a 6-3, 7-5 win.

Holden Babb also looked like his hustle would produce more points, but a host of his clever drops and sends to corners were not only chased down by Carlos Liechty, but returned for winners going the other way. Liechty withstood a tiebreaker in the first set (8-6), then wore down Babb in the second 6-1 in the No. 2 singles match.

Ryan Harmelink did a similar job on Wawasee’s Zach Leedy in the No. 1 singles match. Harmelink didn’t stray too far from his comfort zone, getting in plenty of first serves and playing defense. Leedy wasn’t able to move Harmelink around enough in a 6-0, 6-3 win for the RedHawk ace.

Carter Schmucker and Jack Gibbons battled on the No. 3 court, Gibbons unable to break Schmucker in the first set of a 6-4 score, then after Gibbons used a pair of solid winners to force an extra game, Schmucker made the key decisions to pull out a 7-5 capper.

“The experience is where we lost some ground today,” Rhodes said. “In the case of our two doubles, Colin has played a couple years at doubles, and Zeke has played two years, but it’s getting their shots down on top of communicating, and there were gaps when balls landed between then and neither reacted. Same with Holden, he left a lot of points out there that he’d love to have back.”

Wawasee’s point came from No.1 doubles, with Grant Brooks and Blaine Baut taking out Brenton Pham and Wyatt Fisher 6-3, 7-5. Brooks’ presence at the net afforded points for the Warriors as Goshen couldn’t lob over the rangy sophomore. The showing by the Wawasee one dubs had Rhodes optimistic his other courts can follow suit with the conference tournament just a couple weeks away.

Added Rhodes, “Our guys are close, we just need to put it together. It’s a case of the guys wanting to fix their flaws and staying focused during the matches.”

The two teams had nine JV courts get in work, with Wawasee taking a doubles match and four singles courts. Winning for Wawasee included Devon Kuhn, Taylor Fiedeke, Jay Duncan and Jeb Richey in singles and the duo of Duncan and Kuhn in doubles.

Wawasee (3-7, 0-3 NLC) return home Thursday to host Northridge.