BLOOMINGTON — Tuesday night at Bloomington South High School marked the first trip to regionals for Seymour’s Eli Meyer and Jack VonDielingen.

The one doubles duo advanced out of the sectional after defeating Austin’s one doubles team in the sectional finals last Friday despite Seymour’s team as a whole suffering a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat.

Meyer and VonDielingen took on Greensburg’s Abe Tebbe and Jack Mckenzie, which was the first time the two teams have met this season.

Tebbe and McKenzie took the first game in the first set, but the Owls weren’t fazed.

“That happens,” VonDielingen said. “You just gotta get back to what you’re doing, stick to the plan and execute shots.”

Seymour came out and took the second game to even things up 1-1.

“We stayed composed,” Meyer said. “Not letting that get to our head. We played like how we would play in any normal match.”

After getting that first game, Meyer and VonDielingen started to cruise.

They went on to take the first set 6-1 due to a mixture of big shots by VonDielingen at the net and smooth shots down the line by Meyer.

The duo ran with the momentum in the second set as well, winning it 6-1 to win the match and advance.

Communication is key for Meyer and VonDielingen, and sometimes it isn’t all vocal. Before one of them serves, the other will give a hand signal behind their back about the upcoming strategy for that volley.

“I just tell him if I’m gonna poach or if I’m gonna stay and fake,” VonDielingen said. “Sometimes we’ll mix in where we go to the other side and fake. Kind of different stuff.”

The chemistry between the two Owls hasn’t been a problem teaming up this year.

They feel like they’ve gotten better as the season has gone on.

“We grew up together. There wasn’t much trying to get the chemistry down,” Meyer said. “We kind of knew coming into this year we would probably play together a lot. All our teammates got us a lot better and our coach got us a lot better during the season.”

Meyer and VonDielingen will be back in action today against the one doubles team from Bloomington South at South at around 6:30 p.m.

Even though they didn’t play the Panthers this season, VonDielingen thinks it’s the same team that Andrew Levine and Seymour grad Brandon Hubbard played last year from what they’ve told them.

The quality of opponent will only get better as they advance, but they know what they need to do to be successful.

“I just gotta keep getting my first serve in and keep playing well at the net,” VonDielingen said.

“I gotta keep being aggressive and not let a couple bad shots get in my head,” Meyer said.