Mt. Vernon’s Sophie Maxwell reacts to scoring against Noblesville.
Mike Brown | For The Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE — It was a battle of top-ranked teams on the Mt. Vernon tennis courts Tuesday evening.
And for the Marauders, it proved to be their biggest challenge of the season.
Coming into the night 8-0, No. 14 Mt. Vernon suffered its first loss of the season, falling to No. 17 Noblesville 4-1.
“They’ve been No. 7 in the state almost the whole year. This shows that we can compete with this level of play. If we get a break here or there it’s a different match,” Mt. Vernon head coach Gabe Muterspaugh said. “We told them this match is more mental than physical. I’m proud of the girls. We weren’t scared, we didn’t quit and we went after it.”
Uncharacteristically, the Marauders fell behind early.
Losses at No. 1 singles and No. 2 singles, along with a deficit at No. 1 doubles forced the Marauders to fight from behind.
And while they made it interesting, they came up just short.
A quick 6-0, 6-0 win by Noblesville’s Bella Duncan over Mt. Vernon’s Caroline Allen at No. 1 singles put the Marauders behind 1-0.
At No. 2 singles, after going ahead 4-3, MV’s Ginni Morelli dropped Set 1, 7-5, and lost the following set 6-4 to Noblesville’s Allie Stamm to make it 2-0.
On courts No. 2 , No. 4, and No. 5 Mt. Vernon continued to battle.
After dropping the opening set 6-4, the No. 1 doubles team of Kylie Brandes and Ava Lusby had a dominant second set win 6-2 to tie things and force a third set. In set 3, Noblesville’s Lina Hamashuk and Josie Hinchum were forced to retire due to an injury while ahead 1-0.
With the score 2-1 in favor of the Millers and with two courts still playing, the match was anybody’s to come away with the win.
It took a while to decide who that would be.
At No. 2 doubles, a tiebreaker win 7-6 (8) in the opening set put Addy Lockwood and Sophie Maxwell ahead, but the Millers team of Cami Crist and Ava Shoemaker answered back with a 6-2 win to force a deciding set.
At. No. 3 singles, it was a similar match.
Mt. Vernon’s Maria Downs took the opening set 6-4 but dropped the next set 6-4 to Noblesville’s Jayde Stamm.
Needing both points to win, Downs and Lockwood/Maxwell came up empty in Set 3.
The deciding point came at No. 2 doubles. With the sun nearly set and the lights shining down on the courts, Shoemaker/Crist took the hard-fought set 6-4.
Capping off the match with things already decided, Stamm defeated Downs 6-4.
Mt. Vernon is back in action Thursday at home against Cathedral.
