Seymour tennis head coach Sharon Wood thinks the ultimate goal is to peak at the end of the season, and on Saturday morning as the Owls took on Scottsburg for the sectional championship, Wood said, “We just did.”

All five positions for Seymour played some of its best tennis of the season, and as a result, Seymour swept Scottsburg 5-0 to claim its third consecutive sectional trophy.

“I’m thrilled with the way we played today,” Wood said. “We had some big goals before the season. We wanted to get to our conference final, checked that off our list. Wanted to get to the sectional final and be sectional champion for the third year in a row, and just rededicated ourselves to those goals and what are we going to need to do to get better?”

“I think tonight we fine-tuned our groundstrokes,” Wood continued. “Our doubles were really strong today in their groundstrokes and up at the nets, which gave them a lot of confidence.”

Seymour’s two doubles team of Addison Hunsley and Jessica Hougland was first off of the courts with a 6-2, 6-2 win.

“To have our two doubles team come off first, it just lifted everybody to ‘Hey, this is what we mean by a team. Everybody is going to contribute today.’ It was really great to see that,” Wood said.

Next off was Brooke Schafstall at one singles, winning 6-2, 6-1. When Schafstall finished up, Hougland and Hunsley joked with her that they beat her off of the court.

The vibes were good and fun for the Owls, and once Madalyn Baurle won 6-2, 6-0 at two singles, it officially clinched the match for Seymour.

Elise Hartung fell down 4-1 in the first set of her match, but she battled back and made it 4-4. That’s when Wood knew Hartung was in control of the match. She won the first set 7-5 and followed that up with a 6-3 win in the second set.

The last team to come off of the court for Seymour was one doubles. Caroline Thompson and Ava Sunbury had to go to a tiebreaker in the second set to avoid Scottsburg forcing a third set. Thompson and Sunbury were able to prevail 6-3, 7-6 (4).

“They’ve done an amazing job starting to feel where their partner is,” Wood said of the Owls’ one doubles team. “We’ve seen a huge growth.”

What Schafstall, Baurle and Hartung did on Saturday has been par for the course of what they’ve done all season, but Wood doesn’t want it to go unnoticed.

“It’s just another example that hard work pays off,” she said. “It’s easy to overlook Brooke and Madalyn and Elise because when they come out here, we’re just like do what you do. Each and every night, they know what they need to get better at. They just keep working and working, and your ultimate goal is to peak at the end of the season, and we just did.”

Seymour will now meet Bloomington North on Tuesday in the regional semifinal at Bloomington High School South at 5:30 p.m. If the Owls were to win, they’d play for the regional championship on Wednesday.

Bloomington North beat Bloomington South 3-2 to get to this matchup. After Seymour’s win Saturday, the Owls are now 16-3 this season.

“We’re really ready to go up there and give Bloomington North a shot,” Wood said.