By RYAN WALKER
Bluffton’s tennis season officially came to a close at the hands of Adams Central Wednesday night.
The Tigers fell 4-1 in Round 1 of the sectional hosted by the Tigers. Adams Central will advance to face South Adams in the second round Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Even though the score doesn’t indicate a close match, the Tigers and Jets were in a seesaw battle. Two of the games went to a third set, and two tiebreakers occurred.
Bluffton was up at all three singles games early on. Eve Corkwell took care of business and got the Tigers their only point at No. 3 singles. Hazel Pfister won her first set at No. 2, and Emma Schwartz took one of the better players in the area, Hilary Tobias, deep into the first set before falling in a tiebreaker.
“I know it’s early in the match, but we were up in three places and fighting in the other two, so it was there early,” Bluffton head coach Spencer Schwartz said after the match.
But Adams Central came storming back at both No. 2 singles and Tobias played up to her standard in the second set. Bluffton lost both doubles matches and quickly the match went from hopeful to doubtful.
Schwartz’s Tigers were rolling with an entirely new lineup in the sectional. The reason behind the sudden change is the strength of the doubles teams in this tournament field, and he thought the best chance to get three points was to get all three singles players into singles matches. Schwartz and Pfister were down at doubles over the past few weeks, but were placed back into their natural spot.
At first, it looked as if it might have worked, and even the No. 2 doubles team of Alexis Grover and Gretchen Crist were close in the first set, but it might have been the inexperience that caught up in sets two and three.
“You hate to say it now, but if I would have put this lineup together 2-3 weeks ago, I’d like to think we win this match,” Schwartz said. “If I had two-three more weeks of practices, but that’s part of growing and figuring it out.”
Even with the new lineup, Schwartz thinks this was “probably our best match we’ve played all year.” It’s a Tigers’ team that is young and has two years of experience under their belt at the varsity level. Five of the starting seven are returning and most of them have two years of playing up to varsity as sophomores. Sophie Eisenhut, at No. 1 doubles, was the only one that doesn’t, but she’s a freshman.
Admittedly, Schwartz is happy with where the program is right now, increasing their win total from last year and still returning the majority of his lineup, but he didn’t forget the two graduating seniors Crist and Grover.
Crist has been a staple as a singles player since Schwartz took over the program last year, and Grover has played on varsity in chunks this year. The two were his captains and led the underclassmen-heavy roster and left their mark.
“I want to make sure that Alexis and Gretchen get their props,” Schwartz said. “Over the last two years, they led this team so much. They’re my team captains. They knew what was expected of them from me. They relayed that to the team. I didn’t even have to say things sometimes — they just took care of it. Any future success that we have over these next two years with this younger squad, we’re going to be able to track this back down with Gretchen and Alexis and leading them and showing them the way.”
ryan@news-banner.com
Individual results:
• Hilary Tobias (AC) defeated Emma Schwartz 7-6 (7-3), 6-2at No. 1 singles.
• Melanie Bertsch (AC) defeated Hazel Pfister 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.
• Eve Corkwell (B) defeated Macy McClure 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3 singles.
• Anna Leyse and Alexa Brotherton (AC) defeated Kinzie Fiechter and Sophie Eisenhut 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles.
• Alaina Bertsch and Alayna McCullough (AC) defeated Gretchen Crist and Alexis Grover 6-1, 7-5.
