FORTVILLE — What a difference a week makes.
One week ago, New Palestine and Greenfield-Central faced off in a regular-season match that the Dragons won 4-1.
Greenfield-Central led early but couldn’t hold on.
That wasn’t the case Wednesday at Mt. Vernon High School. The Cougars rose to the occasion, getting early momentum and holding on for a 3-2 win in the sectional opener to advance to tomorrow’s semifinal.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“We definitely have known all season that we were capable of doing this,” Greenfield-Central coach Michael Turpin said. “Even last week, we lost 1-4, it was a big motivator for us because we had two spots go into third sets and we knew it wasn’t our best match. We knew we were capable.”
While the Cougars jumped out to an early in several spots Wednesday, New Palestine actually struck first, as the No. 1 doubles pairing of Claire Cherry and Josee King earned a fairly smooth 6-2, 6-2 win against the Cougars’ Kaleigh Stephenson and Haidyn Goodwin.
From there, things took a different turn than the regular season match did. At No. 1 singles, Greenfield-Central’s Lindsey McCord cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 win against New Palestine’s Megan Long, avenging last week’s three-set loss to the Dragons sophomore.
The No. 2 doubles pairing of Erin Wright and Alyson Proper earned the Cougars their second point, as a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Sheridan Schowe and Ashley Truman put Greenfield-Central ahead.
That, too, was a bounce back from a loss a week ago to the Dragons.
“That was one that we knew coming in we needed that spot,” Turpin said. “Last time they played New Pal they went to the third set and they lost 0-6. I think that one’s been eating at them a bit. Lucky for us tonight they got up early in both and finished strong in two sets.”
While those three matches concluded, the matches at No. 2 and No. 3 singles pushed ahead with the outcome hanging in the balance. Greenfield-Central took the first set at both positions, but both went back and forth.
After falling behind several games in the first set, Greenfield-Central No. 2 Avery Spencer dug deep and bounced back, earning a hard-fought 7-5, 7-5 victory against New Palestine’s Ivey Simmons.
“She was down 2-5 in the first set, but if there’s one thing she has it’s confidence,” Turpin said. “It was so clutch for her to go 7-5 in that first one, and then same thing in the end. She had the match in her hands and she was able to close it out.”
That early deficit was a key moment in the match for Spencer. It’s something she said the team works on.
She needed to win the eighth game to keep the set going. She did, and didn’t stop there.
“We always have this thing that the set comes down to the eighth game,” Spencer said. “That always motivates me to try to push forward to get that eighth game and go up.”
She didn’t know at the time that she would be the one to clinch the win for the Cougars, but she started to figure that out as the match wore on.
More and more people crowded to that side of the court, waiting to see which way the match would turn.
And the three courts separating Spencer and the No. 3 singles match were long empty.
“I didn’t (know) at first, but then I started to look down and see and hear cheering that we were up, and then I realized it was coming down to me and No. 3 singles,” Spencer said.
Spencer didn’t leave things to the No. 3 singles position. She persevered, earning the win to give the Cougars the match and advance them to tomorrow’s semifinal.
While the match was officially Greenfield-Central’s at that point, New Palestine’s No. 3 Caylie Almond did some persevering of her own. After losing the first set, she bounced back to win a close three-set match with the Cougars’ Grace Hall.
Almond won 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, giving the Dragons their second point as the match neared the three-hour mark.
“We were worried that having beaten Greenfield and Pendleton in the regular season last week, this might be a tall order,” New Palestine coach Des Evans said. “Greenfield came out firing today. They looked as though they wanted it more, so they deserved their victory.”
For Evans, it was his last match as head coach of the Dragons. He said he very much enjoyed his time as New Palestine’s coach and hopes to see the school push forward with a winning culture to come out on top of big occasions like sectionals in the future.
For Greenfield-Central, a semifinal match with Pendleton Heights awaits tonight at 5 p.m. Mt. Vernon and Eastern Hancock will square off in the other semifinal, with the winners meeting Friday night.
Greenfield-Central has some momentum after beating New Palestine for the first time in Turpin’s tenure. Now, Turpin said they need to focus and repeat Wednesday’s performance to have a shot at advancing to Friday’s finals.
“The biggest thing is we have to not come in with too big of a head,” Turpin said. “Pendleton is a good team. We have to play exactly like we played tonight to give ourselves a chance to win that one.”