It had the ebbs and flows that it always does, but host Terre Haute North got a pair of doubles victories Thursday evening that made the difference — and won the Racket trophy — in the annual North-South boys tennis match, with the Patriots winning 3-2.
That’s good, but not quite good enough, said North’s No. 1 singles player James Belmar.
“For something like six years in a row we didn’t win the Racket,” said Belmar, first player off the court after a 6-0, 6-1 win over Terre Haute South’s Tyler Swan. “Last year, we broke that streak. But then we didn’t win in the sectional [with South going on to the regional championship match].”
This year’s goal, Belmar indicated, is easy to figure out.
North had the early lead in all five matches Thursday, but things got tight quickly in all but No. 1 singles. “Always exciting,” North coach Dallas Kelsey said later. “It’s North-South.”
South’s Mannepalli twins reversed the trends in their matches at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, but Parker Higham and Brady Klopfenstein of the Patriots held off their opponents at No. 2 doubles to make it a 2-0 match. Christian Foltz and Garrett Hawthorne of the Patriots then put the match away by winning the last five games at No. 1 doubles, so what the twins did didn’t matter … this time, at least.
“We knew there were gonna be challenges,” Kelsey said, noting that both Mannepallis have played No. 1 singles in the past. “But we’re gonna play who we play and we’re gonna play hard.”
“We lost a lot of key people [from last year’s sectional championship team], and we just don’t have enough pieces to put together a good lineup,” said South coach Ethan Caldwell, who has experimented with quite a few combinations.
“We’ve been mixing it up, and we hope we can put together a lineup that can compete in the sectional.”
That might be the one the Patriots saw Thursday, Caldwell continued.
“With this lineup [on the court now] we have a chance,” the South coach said. “Our one doubles and their one doubles are very close … it’s definitely winnable; it will depend on how we play.”
Belmar, with quite a bit of time to offer moral support to his teammates, liked what he saw too.
“That was the plan,” he said, laughing, when asked about getting finished early to be able to watch the other matches. “I think [the Patriots] played good, especially doubles.
“We’re fighting at every spot and that’s good for a team. Everyone wants to win and they’re all doing what they can.”
Belmar agreed that he wasn’t sure which of the South singles players he’d be matched against.
“I had no idea,” he noted, “but I was ready to do what I had to do.”
Singles — James Belmar (THN) def. Tyler Swan 6-0, 6-1; Vatsal Mannepalli (THS) def. Cam Bacon 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; Vaishant Mannepalli (THS) def. Ben Caddick 6-2, 6-0.
Doubles — Christian Foltz-Garrett Hawthorne (THN) def. Evan Fellows-Jarko Rumbaoa 6-4, 6-2; Parker Higham-Brady Klopfenstein (THN) def. Jaxson Bonham-Nico Noval 6-2, 6-4.
Next — Terre Haute North (5-3, 2-2 Conference Indiana) hosts its own tournament Saturday, including a match against Southport that will be the Patriots’ last conference match. Terre Haute South (1-9, 0-4) also will be at North on Saturday, then will host Avon — the team that beat the Braves last year for the regional championship — on Monday.
