WARSAW – Not one upset. Not one. That was about the only major talking point for day one at the Northern Lakes Conference boys tennis tournament. That being said, it was complete ends of the spectrum for the Warsaw and Wawasee programs.

Warsaw was all business in the first of three days of the tournament, which opened at Warsaw and will continue tomorrow on the Tiger courts. Saturday’s final rounds will take place at Northridge. For the Tigers, the home courts were host to some super fast matches.

Both Warsaw doubles teams were very impressive against Wawasee. The one doubles team of Chris Herendeen and Cole Baker shrugged off a formidable challenge from Jake Hutchinson and Nate Haines to claim a 6-3, 6-3 victory. In about the same amount of time, the Tiger two doubles tandem of Justin Stout and David Homme cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win against Brayton Fretz and Leonard Cline, who were overmatched throughout.

“It was a good night, it really was,” stated Warsaw head coach Rick Orban, whose team is seeking its third straight NLC title. “The kids played smart and limited the errors. I liked what I saw, and we had a good draw. Tomorrow is really where it is going to start getting tough.”

The third Warsaw-Wawasee matchup was at three singles, where Warsaw’s Caleb Ray and Wawasee’s Cal Heinisch were mirror images of each other. Ray managed to steady a 6-2 result in the first set, but Heinisch powered back to take a 5-4 lead in the second set. Ray broke serve during an eventual leadup to a tiebreaker, then posted a 7-4 score in the tiebreaker to claim the winning set, 7-6.

“We’re to the point where tonight we were up against the best draws we could get, and our kids are slowly getting there,” Wawasee head coach Vince Rhodes said. “We scored some points tonight, but head’s went down when things didn’t go right. That’s still something we need to turn around, but I saw a lot of progress tonight.”

Warsaw’s one and two singles were overpowering in swift wins. Sam Rice at No. 1 needed just over 40 minutes to blow past Northridge’s Landon Arnold 6-0, 6-1 while Nic Jansen at No. 2 was even keel in a 6-2, 6-1 win against Ridge’s Ted Field.

Wawasee’s No. 1, Todd Hauser, didn’t fare well against Goshen’s Hudson Kay, falling 6-1, 6-1. Kay’s teammate, Evan Beck, rang up the exact same score against Nate Perek at two singles.

Warsaw moves all five of its courts into the championship bracket, with Rice and Kay set to meet in the semis. Jansen will face NorthWood’s Ryan Menzie and Ray earned a date with Plymouth’s Nate Knapp.

Warsaw one doubles will meet Plymouth and two doubles will challenge Goshen.

“The kids are confident right now,” Orban said. “Right now we are playing the best tennis we have played all year, from one singles to two doubles. Good timing. The kids talked about the fact they are trying to defend the conference title. They are aware of the situation, but it didn’t bother them. We’ll see, Plymouth is the No. 1 seed and they have everyone alive.”

Wawasee can fare no better than fifth in any bracket, but Rhodes is optimistic his kids are heading in the right direction. Hauser and Arnold will square off, Perek will play Riley Hoffer of Concord, and Heinisch will meet Northridge’s Simon Grevengoed.

The Warrior one doubles will take its cuts against Concord and the two doubles will look to best Northridge.

“They will have to refocus,” Rhodes said. “They have played fairly decent, but they need to finish out. The younger kids are dealing with experience. Other than Todd, we don’t have a lot of it.”

Play for round two of the NLC tournament will begin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Warsaw.