Mt. Vernon’s Adam Koon returns a shot during his match against Greenfield-Central’s Chris Long, Monday.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — After six years of setting comfortably in the classroom of Delta tennis coach Tim Cleland, the Hoosier Heritage Conference boys tennis traveling trophy has quickly moved from one Hancock County school to another.
Delta had been the lone keeper of the trophy — a tennis racket that has the colors and names of all eight HHC schools around the head — until Greenfield-Central defeated the Eagles last week.
The Cougars had the trophy for one week. They handed it over to Mt. Vernon after the Marauders won a 4-1 match at Greenfield-Central High School Tuesday.
“There was some extra juice in this match,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh said, noting the trophy to go along with county bragging rights. “We were coming off a tough loss at Yorktown and then won the Richmond (Invitational). We wanted to come in here and set a tone. We think we’re the best team in the county and we have to prove it every night. They beat Delta and that was a huge win. To win 4-1, all in straight sets, is big.”
All four Marauder wins were wrapped up within 10 minutes of each other. At No. 1 singles, Adam Koon defeated Chris Long 6-2, 6-1. At No. 2, Manny Downs was a 6-4, 6-0 winner over C.J. Michalek.
“I lost the first game. I was really nervous coming out here,” Koon said. “(Long) has played well and played well against people that have beaten me. To lose that first game and come back and go (6-2), 6-1 that was huge for me.
“Manny played out of his mind (Tuesday),” the Marauders No. 1 singles player added. “That was the Manny we’ve been waiting to see for a long time. It was awesome to watch.”
Mt. Vernon swept the doubles matches. At No. 1, Robbie Moore and Bryndan Wylie defeated Caden Robertson and Elijah Conderman 6-1, 7-5. At No. 2, Matt Jones and Max Orelup defeated Luke Sitzman and Alex Michalek 6-2, 6-1.
The Cougars suffered a setback right before the match started. Michael Kwiatkowski, part of the No. 1 doubles team, suffered an injury. Coach Michael Turpin inserted Conderman to be Robertson’s partner.
Tuesday was the first time they had played together.
“That’s a difficult thing to find out five minutes before that you’re jumping in and filling in a spot,” Turpin said. “The first set was pretty rough, but the second set, they got to 5-7, so you could see they were getting more comfortable.
“If there’s a silver lining, I liked that when we needed somebody to step up, we stepped up to a decent amount. If they had a little more experience, I think that match would have been a lot closer. But, it didn’t come down to that match, it was 1-4 at the end of the night.”
Greenfield-Central had won eight matches in a row. It is 9-2 overall and 3-1 in HHC matches.
The Cougars got their lone win from No. 3 singles player Matt Hyre. He won his match against Tate Cougill 7-6 (8), 6-3.
Mt. Vernon improved to 7-2 and 2-1 in conference matches.
The Marauders have made some switches in their lineup, but have stayed steady at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Koon and Downs are both 9-1 on the season, with their only losses coming against Center Grove, ranked No. 8 in the state.
“Our 1-2 singles, every night, we know what we’re going to get with them,” Muterspaugh said of Koon and Downs. “All of our guys, we came out focused as could be (Tuesday). I was very pleased with our ability to lock in early and jump out on Greenfield. That was a huge key for us at every spot.”
Mt. Vernon will have a match today at Lawrence North and at Shelbyville Thursday. The traveling trophy will be on the line Thursday.
“We wanted that trophy and we don’t want it to leave Mt. Vernon,” Koon added.
Greenfield-Central plays host to Knightstown Thursday.
All four county teams, including Eastern Hancock and New Palestine, will meet Saturday morning at New Palestine for the Hancock County Tournament. The host Dragons are the defending champions.
Instead of head-to-head matches, the county format has five separate tournaments, three for singles and two for doubles. Points are awarded for wins in each round – semifinals, consolations and championships.
First serve is scheduled for 9 a.m.
