By RYAN WALKER
It will be a Wells County battle in the boys’ tennis sectional Saturday morning.
After three schedule changes due to weather delays during the week, Norwell and Bluffton advanced to the championship round in their wins Friday afternoon at Norwell High School.
The Knights won handily 5-0 over South Adams, while the Tigers completed a comeback to win 3-2 over Adams Central.
Head coach Noah Tobias was pleased with what he saw from his group, having been over a week since its last match and still coming up with a sweep.
“Today was a good win for our guys, especially because we haven’t played the past couple of days due to rain,” Tobias said.
The final two matches didn’t come easy, though Norwell already had clinched a victory with three team points.
Gavin Reynolds dropped the first set at No. 3 singles but was able to crawl back to win in three sets.
Grant Mishler edged out his opponent at No. 1 singles but had a hard-fought effort to do so.
“I was especially proud of Gavin (Reynolds) because of how hard he fought after losing the first set,” Tobias said. “It looks like every match. It’s just coming together more and more, and it’s coming together at a really good time.”
“Grant (Mishler) did an excellent job tonight planning against some really good competition,” Tobias said. “He did a great job just focusing on winning his serve and knowing that he was going to get a break here and there, but he wouldn’t get every break.”
For Bluffton head coach Robert Vanderkolk, he didn’t sweat being down 2-0 against the Jets.
The Tigers had to win the final three matches at No. 2 singles and both doubles teams, which has answered the bell throughout the season.
“I really wasn’t that worried,” Vanderkolk said. “We’ve leaned on Ben (Maggard), Kade (Abbett), and Nolan (Lambert) quite a bit this year, and especially these last couple of weeks. Nolan is a notorious slow starter. I was confident he would settle in and take care of business.”
At No. 2 singles, Lambert won his final two sets after dropping the first one.
At No. 1 doubles, Abbett and Maggard won the first set, then failed to keep a 5-2 lead to win the second before sweeping the third.
Finally, Coy Lantz and Dane Schlagenhauf took care of business at No. 2 doubles.
The two teams will square off for the sectional crown at 11 a.m. Saturday morning. In the first meeting, the Knights won 4-1. But now, the stakes are higher. This is the sectional final.
Both Tobias and Vanderkolk are alumni of their respective schools and understand there’s a bit of a rivalry between the two.
“Playing against Bluffton for the sectional championship is going to be a lot of fun,” Tobias said. “I think there’s going to be a decent amount of people there, which will also make the atmosphere fun. To play against a county rival for something like this is going to make tomorrow extra fun so that we can show off Wells County tennis.”
Regardless of who won between South Adams and Norwell, Vanderkolk and his group were seeking another crack at either.
“We didn’t care who the opponent is for tomorrow,” Vanderkolk said. “Whoever won that match is someone who we are looking to gain revenge on anyway. … We’ll be ready to go against Norwell tomorrow. It’s not going to be easy, but there’s no fun in easy. We want to beat the best teams to win a title, and even if we aren’t able to pull it off, we’re going to make sure Norwell has to earn it. My guys are peaking at the right time, and we’re going to embrace the moment, attack it with everything we’ve got, and hopefully come home with some more hardware.”
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