By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell and Bluffton girls’ tennis teams opened up the season against one another in a Wells County rivalry showdown Thursday afternoon. The Knights’ got the best of the visiting Tigers with a clean 5-0 sweep.
“It feels great,” head coach Holly Kimball said after the match. “Getting a debut win is always nice, especially when you have young players for them to get a little bit of experience and get the nerves out.”
Kimball is in her eighth season as the head coach for Norwell and has won the Northeast 8 Conference title four years in a row, picking up a sectional title for the first time in three years.
This year’s team is looking for some shoes to fill, as three members of the NE8 all-conference team graduated. Singles player Aubreyan Heyerly and doubles Mackinzie Toliver were on the first team, while doubles Sofia Fernandez was honorable mention.
Replacing talented players will be tough, but the Knights are off to a good start. All five matches were won in two sets with scores of 6-2 or better. New names in the varsity lineup included No. 1 doubles junior Macy Felger, who has paired with first-team all-conference Annabelle Johnson. Foreign exchange student from Spain, Idoia Ochoa in No. 2 doubles, paired with honorable mention Jordyn Xayyachack. Finally, freshman Delaney Hoover at No. 3 singles won in her first career varsity match.
Kimball echoed that it’s nice to get a win, but perhaps more importantly to get experience with new faces, including the eight members on the JV squad making debuts.
“I’d like to see my doubles team get a little bit more experience together because they’ve only been playing together for three or four days here,” she said. “I’m hoping they’re going to improve their communication and working together. Of course, my JV all being new players, I want to see them getting into the right positions and just learning how to play high school tennis and not middle school.”
On the other side of the net, Bluffton is young and a bit inexperienced. Four freshmen were penciled into the lineup against the area juggernaut, and pregame butterflies might have started even before the match.
“I’m very proud of them all with how they — I have four freshmen on varsity — it’s their first time even really experiencing a tennis match,” Bluffton head coach Spencer Schwartz said after the match. “At the beginning, when we were lining up for the introductions, they weren’t entirely positive with what we were doing then, which can reflect a little bit on coaching a little bit there, but they didn’t have a lot of idea what to expect, and I think for having no idea what they were getting themselves into, they did well, and I’m really proud of them all.”
The Tigers players weren’t the only ones with a little bit of nervous energy. Schwartz is taking over as head coach for the Tigers in his first season. The Bluffton graduate suited up on the court for the Tigers not too long ago as he is a 2019 graduate.
“Today was definitely a mix of nervous excitement,” he admitted. “I think I start to question everything you’ve been saying to the girls for the last three weeks, wondering if you said anything that meant anything to them. Watching some of it, I think it resonated with them. With (assistant coaches) Ashley (Xayyachack) and Dharma (Dynes) too, they helped a ton with that.”
Despite some of the jitters, Schwartz isn’t alone and has learned under his former head coach Robert Vanderkolk, who just wrapped up his 19th season with the boys. The two have had a relationship ever since his high school days and now are classroom neighbors, where Schwartz said he has walked right over during breaks for advice.
The team this year returns just Alexis Grover and Gretchen Crist from last year’s team, which can build together with a first-year coach for two seasons and beyond. The rest of the roster is one senior, 13 juniors, and seven underclassmen.
Schwartz wants his team to compete and learn as much as they can throughout the season.
“I think just understanding more of the fundamentals of where we should be on the court. Where we need to hit the ball and little things like that.”
Norwell will host Columbia City to open up conference play at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 11.
Bluffton will host Mississinewa in the first match of a three-day stretch starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 11.
Event results and details:
• Addy Heyerly defeated Emma Schwartz 6-0, 6-1 in No. 1 singles.
• McKenna McNabb defeated Gretchen Crist 6-1, 6-1 in No. 2 singles.
• Delaney Hoover defeated Hazel Pfister 6-0, 6-1 in No. 3 singles.
• Annabelle Johnson and Macy Felger defeated Alexis Grover and Eve Corkwell 6-2, 6-1 in No. 1 doubles.
• Jordyn Xayyachack and Idoia Ochoa defeated Ella Wheeler and Kinzie Fiechter 6-2, 6-2.
Norwell won the junior varsity match 8-0.
Results from the JV match:
• Brooklynn Pine defeated Avery Hunt 8-0.
• Macie Saalfrack defeated Gissel Martinez 8-0.
• Ella Krug defeated Zoe Schmidt 8-0.
• Ciera Hiester and Gracie Rinkenberger defeated Karlie Brown and Zara Eisenhunt 8-0.
• Emma Roembke and Gabbi Hoeppner defeated Madison Murray and Mary Beth Zurcher 8-0.
• Aubrey Meyer and Emmaline Johnson defeated Karli Anderson and Hasanah Pradungsit 8-0.
• Hope Mitchell and Addison Roembke defeated Tiffany Lanning and Aziza Yeleussin 8-1.
• Sam Evans and Campbell Sloan defeated Isabella Rhoderick and Zoe Schmidt 8-0.
sports@news-banner.com
