It will be Seymour facing Brownstown Central today in the finals of the Seymour Sectional after both schools won their semifinals matches Thursday.
The Owls defeated Jennings County 3-2, while the Braves were a 4-1 winner over Bedford North Lawrence.
This will be the second match of the season between the Jackson County rivals as the Owls won 4-1 on their courts Aug. 28.
Both Seymour coach Jacob Hunt and Braves coach Donnie Thomas are looking forward to the match and said their teams will need to be at their best to advance to next week’s Columbus North Regional.
“We’ve got to come out here and be sharp to start with,” Thomas said. “We can’t get down quickly. It’s like any sport. We need to get our mind set. We got complacent (at one singles and both doubles against BNL), and they came back. One doubles was down, and they won the second set. We were down 5-4, and we won. Two doubles let that second set slip away, and we can’t do that against Seymour.
“We’ve got to put two good sets together, and we’ve not done that a whole lot this year,” he said. “It’s a game that only goes to four points, and the momentum can swing real quick sometimes.”
Thursday was the third time Seymour and Jennings have played this season, and the Owls won all three matches by 3-2 scores.
Hunt said all three times, the Owls won at No. 2 and No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles.
“They’ve got a really talented No. 1 singles player, and they’ve got a talented doubles duo, but I’m very pleased with the results tonight,” he said. “I didn’t think it was so much of a difference as keeping what we do well and just maintaining that. I think it’s a lot to do with aggression. I think a lot is getting a very early start to be ahead and then from there just apply pressure, not letting up until the match is over, which I think we did really well.”
Seymour’s points came from Parker Thompson at No. 2 singles, Carter Stein at No. 3 singles and Drew Handloser and Xavier DuBois at No. 2 doubles.
Thompson topped Isaac Lighter 6-0, 6-1, Stein was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Rider Ruddick and Handloser and DuBois beat Brady Sentz and Cole Skinner 6-1, 6-1.
“I was very consistent today,” Thompson said. “I kept going to his backhand. His backhand was a lot weaker than his forehand, and my serve was on, too.”
Thompson spoke about today’s match against the Braves in Pierson Wheeler.
“I need to be a lot more consistent in this game and I should be good,” he said.
Seymour is the defending sectional champion.
“As long as we do what we did last time, we should be good,” Thompson said.
In one singles, Parker Bales was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Joe Schmidt, and Ryan Shuck and Ty Zohrlaut beat Shun Takeuchi and Joel Stevens 6-1, 6-1.
Wheeler was the first player off the court for the Braves after defeating Orion Hill 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles.
Wheeler improved his season record to 23-0 for a new school record, breaking the old mark of 22 wins by Sy Zickler.
Wheeler said he worked hard to get the record.
“It means a lot. I had to work for it,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and effort on the court to be undefeated and to grind all season. I just had to stay with it all season. I’m about 85% on my first serve when I get them in. My percentage keeps going up. It just keeps getting better as the season goes on.”
He said in the summer, he plays tennis here and there.
“Mostly, I play baseball and basketball,” Wheeler said.
This is his third season playing No. 2 singles for the Braves. He has won 39 straight matches. He lost his first match of his sophomore season to Jennings County and was 16-1 last fall.
Wheeler has had only one three-set match this season, and that was against Thompson. Wheeler has confidence in his teammates going into today’s match.
“They did well. We had a really good practice (Wednesday), and they came out and played really well,” Wheeler said. “Two doubles got in a little funk there in the second set. We should have gone three sets, I guess. We misunderstood something there, and lost in a tiebreaker.”
Braves Max Peters and Brady Davis fell 2-6, 7-6 (3), 10-7 to Jackson Corey and Gavin Baker at No. 2 doubles.
Brownstown’s Smith Hackman topped Jayden Kemp 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1 singles, Lane Steward won 6-0, 6-4 over Isaac Bridges at No. 3 singles and Chase Brock and Evan Schneider defeated Nate Patel and Drew Stephenson 6-3, 7-5 at No. 1 doubles.
Thomas said Hackman played one of his best matches of the season.
“You’ve got to go out there and play to win instead of just being content getting the ball back. He stroked the ball so much better tonight and served much better,” he said.
“Pierson and Lane are just a fixture. They just don’t get beat,” Thomas added.
The Owls are 16-4 and the Braves are 12-6 heading into today’s match.