The wins keep getting bigger -- and so do the schools.
Delta survived an intense matchup against Westfield and pulled out a 3-2 victory on Wednesday evening to earn back-to-back Noblesville Regional titles.
With 826 students, sixth-ranked Delta is one of the smallest schools left in the chase for the IHSAA state championship.
Westfield, ranked 11th, has an enrollment of 3,064 students.
Delta now advances to the Homestead Semi-State, where they will meet the 10th-ranked Penn Kingsmen at noon Saturday for the right to advance to the State Finals.
Penn is the seventh-largest school in Indiana with 3,475 students.
This will be an intriguing matchup for many reasons:
- Despite building two of the most dominant tennis programs in the northern half of Indiana over the past 30-plus years, Delta and Penn have never met in boys' tennis.
- Penn has competed in the boys' tennis state finals six times, including in each of the last two years. Delta has reached the boys' tennis state finals five times, the last one being in 2016.
- Delta is 21-2 with losses only to No. 2 Zionsville and No. 5 South Bend St. Joseph. Penn is 24-1 with its only loss to No. 5 South Bend St. Joseph. Both the Eagles and the Kingsmen lost 3-2 to St. Joe.
- Both Delta and Penn feature complete teams from top to bottom of the lineup with standout singles players and strong doubles teams.
- And in an ironic twist, Penn is coached by Eric Bowers, the Bethel College tennis roommate of Josh Grubbs, the father of Delta No. 1 doubles player Brandon Grubbs.
Brandon Grubbs was among the heroes of Wednesday's regional championship.
He and partner Tyce Dishman repeatedly rallied from behind to prevail 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 over Westfield's Charlie Juleen and Finn Ryan.
After dropping the first set, Grubbs and Dishman trailed 1-3 in the second set and were in serious trouble before Grubbs made some amazing plays to help turn the tide and force a third set. Then the boys again fell behind 1-3 in the third set and were in deep trouble before Dishman caught fire and made big shots to held the Eagles advance.
Their victory clinched the team championship and improved their record to a team-best 24-2 for the season.
No. 2 doubles players Roman Ashcraft (junior) and Easton Duckworth (freshman) had gotten the evening started with an outstanding 6-2, 6-4 victory over Westfield seniors Matthew Legeay and Callaghan Ryan. The Delta players showed excellent poise throughout the match with calculated strategy and decisive shot-making. Ashcraft played the most complete match of his career and improved to 15-1 for the season. Duckworth is 19-4. A third member of the No. 2 doubles crew, sophomore Kiptyn Schwartz, is 10-3. Altogether, the Eagles are 22-4 at that position this season.
The sweep of the doubles can be attributed to lots of hard work in practice throughout the season among all of those players as well as extra players Owen Zacek, Jacob Tokar and Denys Krushenytskyi. Another key factor is the terrific practice and in-match coaching of longtime assistant coach Tate Dishman.
Delta then grabbed a 2-0 lead when sophomore Jackson Darby finished off a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Westfield senior Ajay Prasanna at No. 1 singles. Prasanna held a 4-3 lead in the opening set before Darby took control, rattling off nine straight games for the victory. Darby, an All-State Singles player as a freshman, now has 20 wins and only 5 losses this season against a rugged schedule that has included 11 opponents from state-ranked teams.
But Westfield still put up a big fight despite trailing 2-0 in the team score.
No. 3 singles player Payton Paramoure picked up the Shamrocks' first point with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Delta junior Luke Atkinson, who had entered the evening with a 20-match winning streak. Atkinson led 4-2 in the opening set before Paramoure rallied for a 6-4 win. Atkinson then re-established control and built a 3-0 lead in the second set, but shortly afterward he began to experience leg and arm cramps. Paramoure turned up the pressure and finished off the match.
At that point, Delta led 2-1, but No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles each were in dogfights.
The first set at No. 2 singles lasted 90 minutes, with Westfield junior Luke Stoecker winning 7-5 over Delta sophomore Charlie Vannatter. Charlie hung tough and led throughout most of the second set while the No. 1 doubles teams battled on a nearby court.
With Vannatter and Stoecker still deep in the second set, the No. 1 doubles team of Dishman/Grubbs won the final three games of their match to clinch the team victory.
Shortly afterward, Vannatter took the second set from Stoecker, 6-4. At that point, the match had been going on for 2 hours, 45 minutes. Since the team match was decided, both teams agreed to play a 10-point match tiebreak. Stoecker pulled out the victory 12-10, ending the 3-hour marathon.
Despite the loss, it was a huge display of progress for Vannatter. A year ago, he lost 4-6, 0-6 to Stoecker in the regional. This time, the score was 5-7, 6-4, 10-12.
This was indicative of the overall improvement of the entire Delta team.
A year ago, when Delta edged Westfield 3-2 in the regional, the Eagles won 54 games while Westfield won 63.
This year, Delta claimed 57 games and limited Westfield to 46.
Here are the remaining 16 teams in the tournament as we reach the semi-state round (NOTE: Delta has competed in a dual or Invitational against 7 of the other 15 teams this season!)
School -- State Ranking -- Record -- Enrollment
Bloomington South -- #7 -- 16-2 record -- 1,784 students
vs.
Jasper -- #9 -- 17-3 record -- 1,059 students
Center Grove -- #3-- 21-2 record -- 3,042 students
vs.
Seymour -- #24 -- 21-2 record -- 1,644 students
Penn -- #10-- 24-1 record -- 3,475 students
vs.
Delta -- #6-- 21-2 record -- 826 students
Providence -- #26-- 17-3 record -- 442 students (private)
vs.
Evansville Memorial -- unranked -- 15-3 record -- 658 students (private)
Fort Wayne Carroll -- #14-- 21-2 record -- 2,586 students
vs.
Bluffton -- unranked --- 15-2 record -- 548 students (smallest public school still alive)
South Bend St. Joseph -- #5-- 20-1 record -- 922 students (private)
vs.
Culver Academies -- unranked -- 15-6 record -- 831 students (private)
Zionsville -- #2-- 19-1 record -- 2,314 students
vs.
Kokomo -- #16-- 23-3 record -- 1,359 students
North Central -- unranked-- 8-10 record -- 3,661 students
vs.
Hamilton Southeastern -- #1-- 18-1 record -- 3.383 students
