By RYAN WALKER
The Bluffton girls’ tennis team earned its first victory on the season 4-1 over Blackford Wednesday afternoon at home.
Not only was it the first win of the season, but the first in the young career of new head coach Spencer Schwartz. For him, it all came full circle winning as a former Tiger tennis player himself and assistant coach prior to the hiring.
“It’s exciting,” the 22-year old coach said after the match. “It feels like a lot of the things that you’ve worked on the entire year now, three weeks of the season and the first two matches, we learned from it and were able to put it in. Not only finally to get a win, but to win some sets which resulted in the win. We’ve kind of had some rough ones to start, but I think it helped us for tonight.”
The team went 0-2 to start the season without picking up a team point against Norwell and Mississinewa, but got four on a team filled with first-year players with three freshman helping the Tigers
Gretchen Crist, Hazel Pfister won in singles, while No. 1 doubles Alexis Grover and Eve Corkwell and No. 2 doubles Ella Wheeler and Kinzie Fiechter picked up wins as well.
The Norwell loss may have been expected due to the program that has won multiple conference championships and a handful of sectional titles over the past few seasons. Against Mississinewa, the team was hurt by that loss and by that many points and knew they had more in them, and so did Schwartz.
“I feel like yesterday was slightly dejective a little bit,” he said. “I think we all agreed that we could have played better than we did (Tuesday). It was not even close. I thought we could have made it closer, but I think tonight, they came to practice beforehand with a good attitude and it showed on the court. It was nice to see a win.”
Before the season started, Schwartz was going to move practice indoors due to the weather temperatures and a drizzle of snow in the forecast. The girls refused, and wanted to get out to the courts because of their excitment and willingness to get better.
The program now has 25 players on the roster with only one senior. Schwartz will have an opportunity to bring experience over the next few seasons, especially now that he has win No. 1 under his belt.
Results for the varsity match.
• Blackford’s only win on varsity was Chloe Wicker over Emma Schwartz 7-6, 6-2.
• Gretchen Crist defeated Meeka Stalker 6-2, 6-4 in No. 2 singles.
• Hazel Pfister defeated Jaelyn McCaffery 6-0, 6-0 in No. 3 singles.
• Alexis Grover and Eve Corkwell defeaed Emily Ellison and Allyson Henderson 6-1, 6-2 in No. 1 doubles.
• Ella Wheeler and Kinzie Fiechter defeated Jessica Brinkerhoff and Loralie Hile 6-0, 6-2 in No. 2 doubles.
Bluffton won the junior varsity match 3-1.
Junior varsity results:
• Blackford’s lone win was Karlie Pitts over Zoey Schmidt 8-5.
• Karli Andeson defeated Lilly Leach 8-6.
• Madison Murray defeated Ava Overby 8-1.
• Tiffany Lanning an dAziza Yeleussin defeated Lilly Leach and Karlie Pitts 8-6.
Bluffton will host Jay County at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 13.
