Trinity Lutheran’s Nathan Finke returns a ground stroke during his doubles match in the Seymour Sectional on Wednesday. Finke and Jonathan Naewedde won their match to advance in the IHSAA Tournament series.
Nathan Finke and Jonathan Neawedde made history for the Trinity Lutheran boys tennis program on Wednesday afternoon.
Finke and Neawedde defeated Bedford North Lawrence’s Neal Patal and Drew Stephenson 7-5, 6-1 to advance in the IHSAA individual tennis tournament.
Trinity coach Brad Emerson said they are the first male players from Trinity to ever advance individually. The Cougars lost the match 3-2, and their season ended with a record of 10-9.
Neawedde and Finke will play a doubles team from another sectional next week. The match site will be announced later in the week. Finke is a junior, and Neawedde is a sophomore.
They said they have been playing together for most of the season and are pleased to be moving on.
“I think we were in it more mentally,” Finke said. “We were mentally there, thinking and making the right shots the entire match. I think that just really put us in a good spot. I had a little bit of trouble with my serve, but we locked down enough and won enough of the other points to make them count.”
Finke said he felt like communication between him and Neawedde was amazing.
“I can’t think of any mishaps that we had,” he said. “We really zoned in and just really pounded it back at them and really made them work for their points. I’m very excited we’re going on.”
“I thought our performance was really good,” Neawedde said. “I thought my serves were looking good. (Finke) was playing well at the net, and we were putting points away really well. Iwas much better at the baseline. I thought I was solid. (Finke’s) net game is better than mine. I felt like we communicated really well. I thought that is where we did better. They were really good players. We just communicated better.
“We just really wanted it a lot. We just really wanted to get the second set done,” Neawedde said. “We’re just looking for some good competition (next week). Hopefully, we can hang in there.”
Neawedde said he needs to be stronger at the net.
“My net game was not great. It was OK,” he said. “I had some good shots, but some I just missed and hit them deep.”
Emerson said, “I’m real proud of the way (Finke and Neawedde) played. They stayed aggressive. They hit the shots when they needed to. I know there were some nerves in the beginning. Overall, I’m real pleased that they got out of the sectional.”
Jack Stuckwisch picked up Trinity’s other point with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Orion Hill at No. 2 singles.
Emerson said, “He did what Jack does well all the time. He battles. He’s a pain in the backside of the opponent. He comes up with some good shots, and he did that tonight.”
Trinity’s Solomon Hall lost 6-4, 6-4 to Jayden Kemp at No. 1 singles, and Will Gausmann fell 6-0, 6-0 to Isaac Bridges at No. 3 singles.
Emerson said the No. 2 doubles of Drew Kerkhof and Luke Schepman nearly had match point in the second set against Jackson Corey and Gavin Baker, losing 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.
Emerson said the Trinity players held a 5-4 lead in the second set.
“It was close. I thought we had a pretty good year. I’m proud of the kids,” he said.
Today at 4:30 p.m., Seymour will play Jennings County, and Brownstown Central will play BNL. Seymour has defeated Jennings 3-2 twice, and BNL topped the Braves 4-1 during the season. Winners of today’s matches will play for the championship.