By Dylan Wallace
After starting the season 1-0, the Brownstown boys tennis ran into a tall and powerful Jennings County team on Tuesday for its home-opener.
The Braves fell to the Panthers 4-1, and head coach Donnie Thomas knew it’d be a tough match because he remembers playing Jennings County last season when he was the head coach at Bedford North Lawrence.
“They didn’t lose hardly anybody, and they got size and they can hit the ball hard on their serves, which we weren’t used to, so we had trouble getting the ball back,” Thomas said.
At one singles, Ethan Davis lost to Owen Law 6-0, 6-0, and at three singles, Smith Hackman lost to Alex Leach 7-5, 6-0.
Bryce Reasor and Connor Gwin lost 6-3, 6-1 at one doubles to Jacob Vogel and Justin Ramey, and Ethan Garland and Grant Elliot lost 6-4, 6-2 at two doubles to Greyson Jackson and Ryan Schuck.
“Doubles started out pretty good, especially at two doubles,” Thomas said. “They were up 3-2 in that first set and then made a lot of mistakes. I thought they played pretty well, but these guys just hit the ball harder. I thought it was hard for us.”
The lone win for the Braves came at No. 2 singles where Pierson Wheeler defeated Jansen McDonald 6-3, 6-0.
Wheeler believes his slice serve was a big reason why he was victorious.
“My slice serve was pretty good,” Wheeler said. “Getting it in every time, no double faults, and he just couldn’t return it very well.”
Wheeler is 2-0 on the season now at two singles. He won 6-2, 7-5 on Monday against Madison.
“It feels pretty good,” Wheeler said. “We’ve been looking good in practice.”
Thomas believes Wheeler played much better on Tuesday than he did on Monday.
On Monday, Wheeler would lob the ball and then come up to the net, but his opponent would just lob it back over Wheeler’s head, which is why the second set was such a tight score.
On Tuesday, Wheeler’s opponent didn’t like to lob, so he was able to use the same strategy and have it be more effective.
“He hit the ball harder with a lot more aggressiveness,” Thomas said. “He didn’t make bad choices. He did so much better at that tonight.”
Moving forward for Brownstown, Thomas wants to see his doubles teams improve at the net.
Much like Jennings County was able to dominate the net in doubles last night, Thomas hopes his four doubles players can learn from that and start to do the same.
“They don’t have to hit it hard, just put it where they’re not,” Thomas said. “I just want them to get to that point. I told them, ‘the guys that take the net are the guys that are going to win.’”
Despite the loss on Tuesday, Wheeler thinks Brownstown’s team is in good shape for the remainder of the season.
He likes what he sees in practice and believes as time goes on and players improve, the Braves should be just fine.
“I think we look pretty good,” Wheeler said. “I think we should be pretty good.”
Brownstown will return to the courts on Thursday at North Harrison starting at 5 p.m.