After Wednesday’s Sectional semi-final win over Tecumseh, the Titan men’s tennis team took the courts in the Sectional championship. The guys faced off against the Pike Central chargers at Princeton High School.
Filling in the singles roster for Gibson Southern were seniors Noah Kiesel and Lucas Church and sophomore Jaxon Curl. In the doubles category were sophomore Brogan McClellan and junior Landon Schmitt, along with sophomores Brayden Campbell and Carter DeBord.
At the number one singles position, Kiesel lost his match, while both Church and Curl picked up the wins in theirs. In doubles, both duos scored victories. Overall, the Chargers were outmatched by Gibson Southern, as Pike Central never took the lead in any of the matches other than Kiesel’s.
Kiesel was outplayed against the Chargers’ Eli Arnold, only scoring one point. Kiesel dropped his match in two sets, 6-1 and 6-0.
“There was no pressure on me to win,” Kiesel said. “I had confidence that the rest of the team would take care of business as they had previously in the season. Arnold is a standout player for Pike Central. He was consistent in placing shots and keeping the ball in his possession.”
Despite his loss, Kiesel has been an instrumental player for the team.
“… for Noah, some nights he is the reason we win because he wins, and other nights, he will play the best player and allow the rest of the team the opportunity to win it for the team,” head coach Kyle DeBord said.
The rest of the team enjoyed the match against the Chargers.
“Brogan and I were 6-0 and 5-0, and we needed one more point for the shut out,” Schmitt said. “And then, we lost that one point to finish 6-1 in the last set. We basically had fun that game.”
Curl took his win in two sets, 6-1 and 6-0, though in the long run the easy win was not a good thing.
“It was kind of just practice for Regional,” Curl said. “It wasn’t really good playing that kid going into Regional because I played down to his level.”
There were a variety of factors that led to the boys capturing the Sectional title.
“For singles, we tried to stay with what we were comfortable with,” DeBord said. “We like to drive the ball into the opponent’s backhand and force them into errors. We can come into the net and finish points quickly if the opportunity arises. For doubles, our goal was to pressure them with our serves and then get easy put-aways at the net.”
DeBord went on to explain how the entire Sectional played out in favor of Gibson Southern.
“I can highlight a few matches that went well for the entire Sectional,” he said. “First, versus Tecumseh, Noah … avenged his loss earlier in the season. He came out and played very determined tennis. He was in control of the match. Also, [the] 2D combo of Brayden and Carter avenged a loss from earlier in the season. Those two wins swung the match in our favor. For the championship round, everyone had a great day. Pike Central did not have a good matchup for our depth. The only spot that we lost was to the 1S, who is a highly-ranked player in our area. Each person on this team had to do their job in order for us to win that trophy.”
This Sectional victory was special to the boys and one for the history books.
“It means a lot to me and to the team,” Campbell said. “[It is] My personal first Sectional championship, and it was the first time in men’s Titan tennis history where we won the Sectional [in] back-to-back years.”
The men travel to North High School for the first round of Regional play on October 8. The Titans take on North Posey in the Regional semi-final.
