NEW PALESTINE — Sophomores Ezra Schwier and Jackson Havel are buddies.
They just haven’t played tennis together, until Wednesday.
The New Palestine pair played together for nearly two and a half hours at No. 2 doubles for the Dragons and were the deciding factor in a 3-2 victory against Greenfield-Central at the New Palestine tennis courts.
An injury in warmups — one of two for the Dragons — put Schwier’s usual doubles partner, Clayton Wesley, on the shelf. Havel, who had played just one varsity match prior to Wednesday, stepped in and paired with Schwier to defeat Greenfield-Central’s Nick Grandstaff and Corbin Tilley, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
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The win upped the Dragons record to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. Greenfield-Central dropped to 1-2 and 1-1 in the HHC.
“It’s the first time we’ve played together this year, including practice,” Schwier said.
“We’re good friends in school, so that helped our chemistry,” Havel said.
Coach Jean Graham had to make a pair of last minute changes to her lineup. Along with Wesley being unable to play, No. 3 singles player Zach Au was also sidelined.
She chose Havel because his style of play was most similar to Wesley.
“I started off pretty slow,” Havel said. “I was nervous. Normally, I’m not. I wasn’t nervous for my first varsity match, but I guess, with this being a conference match, it made me a little more nervous.”
Greenfield-Central won the first set in three of the five matches and led 2-1 after getting a victory at No. 1 doubles and No. 3 singles.
In doubles play, seniors Seth Kirkpatrick and Kane Bradley defeated New Palestine senior Jeremy Wagoner and junior Ethan Haeberle, 6-2, 6-2.
"They came out and did what they needed to do tonight," Greenfield-Central coach Michael Turpin said of his doubles combo. "They followed their game plan. I was very impressed with the way they played tonight."
Cougars’ junior Garrett Neumeister downed New Palestine sophomore Zayden Stiller, who usually plays No. 1 for the junior varsity, 6-2, 6-2.
New Palestine’s No. 1 singles player Ben Blachly was the first off the courts on Wednesday. He improved to 4-0 on the season with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Greenfield-Central senior Collin Hunt.
In a tight match at No. 2 singles and a battle between two talented sophomores, New Palestine’s Colin Darley defeated Greenfield-Central’s Robbie Dye 6-3, 6-4. It knotted the match up at 2-2, putting all the pressure on the teams’ No. 2 doubles groups.
“When I made mistakes Jackson picked me up,” Schwier said. “We got behind each other. I played against (Grandstaff and Tilley) before and they’ve got a lot better."
The teams were on serve in the third set, but the New Palestine team broke serve, on their second match point, to take the decisive set.
“Last year, we lost 1-4,” Turpin said. “To come down to the third set, it shows how much we have improved. We’ve got some young guys that stepped into some big roles and we’re only going to get better.
“I think we showed that we’re ready to play this season.”
Graham was pleased with her team, too. The Dragons are in a bit of a rebuilding mode. Winners of nine straight county titles and seven straight sectionals, New Palestine graduated all of its singles players and one-half of one doubles team from last year’s group.
"It’s a very good, athletic group, but they’re young," Graham said. "We’ve got good kids, but it’s going to take time to improve their skills."
