BOYS TENNIS: Berries fall to TL in sectional final
Logansport had just defeated Twin Lakes 3-2 two-and-a-half weeks ago at the LHS courts during a regular-season match.
But the Indians were able to reverse that result with a sectional championship on the line Thursday. The Indians defeated the Berries 3-2 to reclaim the Logansport Sectional title.
Twin Lakes won its first title since going back-to-back in 2022-23 and 19th all-time. Logan hasn’t won one since 2021 and has 14 all-time.
“They played well,” Logansport coach Travis Nolte said. “We came out the last two nights the way we competed, I thought we were going to continue to compete that way. We took a little long to adjust. They were a better team I feel like the last two nights than the competition we played. And so it took a minute to adjust. But ultimately they’re the better team and we just fell short.”
The Indians changed their lineup a bit, switching their Nos. 2 and 3 singles players. They also reversed the result at No. 2 doubles from the regular-season match.
The first two matches that were decided were the doubles points as Twin Lakes took an early 2-0 lead.
Austin Robertson and Brayden Rodriguez defeated Taylor Albright and Trace Young 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 doubles. Ellis Losiewicz and Benjamin Pampei defeated Easton Sweet and Kaleb Loman 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.
The Berries got on the board when Blake Pearson defeated Jack Kaufmann 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1 singles.
But the sectional was decided when Joao Rodrigues defeated Owen Hankins 6-4, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.
With the match already decided, Shane Pearson defeated Brody Koppelmann 4-6, 6-4, 10-3 at No. 3 singles for the Berries’ second point.
Rodrigues was just playing No. 3 singles two-and-a-half weeks ago and was able to knock off Logansport’s second best player Thursday. He’s a foreign exchange student who reportedly just starting playing tennis this year but appears to be a natural at the sport.
“Their coach said that their foreign exchange student was their 3 singles the first time we played them. They had a challenge match and then they moved him to 2 singles, so that was the switch,” Nolte said. “I thought honestly that would work out for us. But he’s a good player. It’s tough. He’s a good player.”
It’s the second straight year that a foreign exchange student made a big difference for Logansport’s opponent as Lewis Cass knocked off the Berries 3-2 in last year’s final with a foreign exchange student at No. 1 singles.
The Berries are that close and they’ll have everyone back next year while Twin Lakes will lose their top three singles players.
“You want to be in that position to win,” Nolte said. “We’re sitting there, we only lost 2-3, and you just hope that you can be in position to get that last third point. And it was over unfortunately before Shane got his. So we kind of knew when his finished that obviously we lost already, but I was really proud that he never gave up. He didn’t have to walk away with the win there, and he did. So he made a lot of growth there.
“These last two seasons, honestly, we lose 3-2 to Cass last year, 3-2 this year, tough to lose that way. But knowing that we’re doing stuff right, we’ve just got to figure out how to get us over the hump there. Next year is our year. Blake will be a senior, Taylor at 1 doubles will be a senior, and we’ll have Kaleb and Easton as seniors, so hopefully we can put it together. We’re right there. It’s just so much a mental game that we have to figure out how to have some breakthroughs there.”
The Berries posted a winning season at 10-8 with no seniors in the lineup and playing a difficult schedule.
“We play a lot of tough teams and we like to do that,” Nolte said. “We want to play good teams because that’s the only way you’re gonna get better.”
Blake Pearson will continue on in the state singles tournament with his win at No. 1 singles. The junior has posted the best record on the team while playing the top opponents.
“He’s playing really well. He’s peaking,” Nolte said. “Tonight was a close one, but he still was in command the whole time. He goes to Harrison to continue on the sectional individually and he’ll play even more tough competition. But he’s peaking and he’s playing really well for us right now. So I’m proud of the way he’s playing.”
Nolte is looking for players such as Blake Pearson and Owen Hankins to play more tennis in the offseason.
“They’re looking forward to getting in some USTA tournaments, and so we’re gonna hopefully just continue to put ourselves in position to really hit the offseason a little bit harder,” he said. “We have a lot of multi-sport athletes though. Tennis is probably no one’s No. 1 sport. Maybe Owen and Blake’s, but Owen plays basketball and Blake plays baseball, so it’s right there. They put a lot of focus, especially our baseball players, they put a lot of focus in the summer. So we’re hoping to just get out earlier and see if we can get over the hump.”
