Familiar faces: Veterans lead Bloomington area boys' tennis teams
The three boys’ tennis teams in Monroe County all bring back a wealth of talent this season.
Here’s a look at where that experience might lead Bloomington North, South and Edgewood:
Bloomington North
Depth is a key word for the Cougars this year.
The bulk of last year’s lineup is back, led by three-time H-T Player of the Year, Nick Shirley. He is one of just two seniors on the squad, along with Connor Shin. Juniors Seth Force, Casey Mcintyre and Connor O’Guinn also return from the varsity lineup, as does sophomore Esteban Crespo.
Freshman Brady Murphy will stick his nose into the starting lineup as well and behind them are several good players looking for a shot. Shirley and Murphy look to be 1-2 in singles. From there, the problem now is trying to find the best way to sort those players out.
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“It’s an interesting experience,” North coach Ken Hydinger said. “Nick has had about as solid a first three years as you could ask for. He’s high quality and has a wonderful personality as a team leader and a teammate. He’s everything you could ask for.
“The rest of it, I can’t figure out a lineup. We have a lot of guys who can play singles and doubles.”
Shirley is 10 pounds bigger and stronger and as relentless as ever as he looks forward to a college career. Hydinger loves the court awareness Murphy brings in and the toughness he already has, yet there’s still room to grow with him. From there, Hydinger will experiment and look for the best chemistry with his doubles squads.
“If we see something that looks like it’s clicking, we’ll stick with it,” Hydinger said. “The name of the game is to get three points.”
Bloomington South
Like North, head coach Matt Corry has a lot of familiar faces around him, but did lose a couple in Luka Jovanovic, who has a conflict with a college-level class and senior Nico Walters, the Panthers’ pitching ace last spring, who suffered a shoulder injury this summer.
However, he has his top doubles team/top singles players back in seniors Michael Asplund and Chris Lian, who will start this year again back at the top singles spots. Last year, they made a run to the final four in doubles and will be leaders again this year.
“Mike’s gained a good amount of power on his serve,” Corry said. “He spent the summer in Zionsville, playing against some of the best in the state. Chris put time in as well and for four years, he’s been a fierce and determined competitor. He’ll be one of the hardest No. 2 players in the state to beat.”
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Also back is junior Evan Kantor, who missed all of last year with leg issues. Corry is being cautious with him to make sure he makes it through the year, so look for him to play doubles this year. Junior David Ciucu is back. He went 11-11 in singles play last year but played every position, usually occupying the No. 3 spot when Asplund and Lian were at singles.
From there, freshman Alex Busch will be in the mix, as will senior Nick Walker. The opener saw Josh Sang (Lian’s brother) and Connor Couch, both freshmen, paired up at No. 2 doubles, so they’ll be working to build up their chemistry this season. Sang is back on doubles while Couch just started playing less than two years ago, but brings good athleticism to the court.
Edgewood
Just two seniors graduated last year so the Mustangs have some experience and greater confidence to bring to their matches and make a run at the WIC title. Most of them are still juniors.
“We’ve finally got a team that has that experience,” coach Jordan Truax said. “We have one senior so we can take what we learn this year into the next. I think we’re getting a lot of confidence. At the beginning of the season last year, our guys wondered how they stacked up and as they got through the season with a lot of competitive matches, several didn’t fall our way, but we feel like this year, they know they have improved.”
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And few have improved more than junior Mitch Deckard, who jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 singles this year, while junior Quinn Norris is back at No. 2 and they’ll push each other throughout the season. At No. 3 is freshman Andrew Paul, who won a couple of challenge matches to earn his spot.
At doubles, the Weisner Brothers are back at the top spot, with senior Zeke and sophomore Dane. “Dane’s gotten so much better,” Truax said. “He didn’t have much experience in doubles but Zeke has helped him out. We’ve worked with them on their strategy and they’ve been receptive to that.”
The new No. 2 doubles combo is returning junior Dannie Chandler and new junior Carter Cheaney. They have similar styles and will work on getting in sync after initially looking for a spot in singles.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IHSAA Boy's tennis standouts for Bloomington North, South, Edgewood
