FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon kept its long streak alive, by putting an end to another.
The Marauders girls tennis team on Friday won the Mt. Vernon Girls Tennis Sectional title for the seventh straight time.
Mt. Vernon (17-3) beat Greenfield-Central 4-1, ending the Cougars 10-match regular-season unbeaten streak.
Keying the win was junior No. 2 singles player Carly Wilkerson.
Competing against G-C’s Jaclyn Layton, to whom she had lost earlier in the year, Wilkerson won 6-1, 6-3.
It was the Marauders’ third win of the night, sealing the team’s berth into Tuesday’s North Central Regional.
“Carly’s win was probably the most important match of the night for us,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh said. “We knew it going in that if Carly could jump out early — and she’s improved throughout the year — if she gets up early she’s a steamroller. When she gets up early she keeps rolling and she did tonight and that was huge.”
As she had done much of the season, Mt. Vernon’s No. 1 singles player, Lydia Ruegsegger, took care of business quickly, winning 6-0, 6-0 against G-C’s Zoe Starks.
The No. 1 doubles team of Lexi Shelton and Cecelia Bulmahn was second off the courts with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Greenfield-Central’s Ali Knecht and Hallie Smith.
Wilkerson said she had a little extra motivation in what was considered one of the swing matches.
She was 0-2 this season against the Cougars, losing both to Layton and current No. 3 player Brianna McConnell, dropping one match in a dual and the other in the Hancock County Tournament.
Her loss to Layton, in a tiebreaker, was when both were playing the No. 3 spot for their teams.
“I assumed I would be playing a different girl,” Wilkerson said. “When I saw she moved up to No. 2, I was looking forward to it very much. That was one of my first losses of the season. Especially when it’s in a tiebreaker, you don’t let that go. You look forward to (getting a rematch).”
Coming off the court, Wilkerson did not know hers was the clinching win. Then Muterspaugh gave her the news.
“I was amazed. I was shocked, especially since I’ve been looking forward to this match for a while,” Wilkerson said. “I was looking forward to facing her. It feels good to be the third win and know you finished it off and the coaches don’t have to worry any more.
“I’m so proud of my team. I can’t believe we did it. It feels really good to be a part of the win.”
Along with being the program’s seventh straight sectional title, it was Mt. Vernon’s 15th since 1997.
“It’s a true testament to our girls and our culture; over time we didn’t miss a beat,” Muterspaugh said, noting missing last season due to the pandemic. “It’s a culture. If you build a culture, good things happen. Even a night when we were not our best, by any stretch, we got three points. That’s all that matters.”
Following Wilkerson’s win, Greenfield-Central’s No. 2 doubles team picked up the Cougars’ lone point.
Battling back from a first-set loss, Makayla Price and Leah Puckett defeated Maddie Swingle and Anna Hawks, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Like Wilkerson for Mt. Vernon, Price and Puckett had lost to the Marauders’ No. 2 team earlier this season.
At No. 3 singles, McConnell and MV’s Hannah Smith were in the midst of marathon match.
Three matches were completed and the No. 2 doubles match was in its third set, before McConnell and Smith got through their first set. After 90 minutes, Smith won the set in a tie-breaker, 7-6. McConnell jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second, before Smith won the final five games to get MV’s fourth win.
Smith had also lost a singles match in the regular season contest.
Greenfield-Central (12-4-1) had won nine matches and tied one since a loss on April 27 to New Palestine. It avenged that loss in the first round of the sectional.
Five days prior to the loss to the Dragons, the Cougars dropped a 3-2 match to the Marauders.
They weren’t able to make amends for that one, but it didn’t take away from coach Michael Turpin’s praise of his 2021 team.
“I thought we played great, and congrats to Mt. Vernon,” Turpin said. “We knew which matches it could come down to, and they started out big in those.
“We had two players (seniors Knecht and Price) that had never played a high school match until this season. Coming in, we didn’t know what we had. The kids bought in, kept working and pushing each match. To end up with 12 wins, get second in county and runner-up in the sectional, it was an amazing year. You can tell how much they have grown.”
Mt. Vernon, ranked No. 27 in the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association poll, will take on No. 9 Fishers on Tuesday in the North Central Regional.
