Putnam County’s tennis teams recently participated in the Region 4-AA tournament and finished well. The Lady War Eagles captured the region championship and the War Eagles finished in second place.
Putnam County tennis coach Christian Keiser said he was “extremely proud” of how his girls’ team took first place.
“Last year, the girls’ team was full of freshmen, so we had a lot of returners this season,” Keiser said. “We finished third last season, but we took first this year. I am so proud of how hard we fought.”
The Lady War Eagles went 10-3 overall with a 7-1 mark in region play. So, they entered the region tournament as a No. 2 seed behind Davidson Fine Arts, which handed Putnam its only loss in league play.
Putnam County and Davidson didn’t square off in the region tournament, though. The Lady Titans of Davidson were upset by No. 4 seed Thomson, which faced the Lady War Eagles in the region championship. Putnam County defeated the Lady Bulldogs 5-0 for a clean sweep to capture the title.
Top singles player Hannah Erickson remained unbeaten in region play, while Vidhi Raiyani, Putnam County’s No. 2 singles player, also fared well in the tournament last week.
“This year, I have a bunch of sophomores, so to win region in my second year was really big,” Keiser said. “Moving forward, I feel confident because everyone will be juniors next year and then seniors. We’re already at the level we want to be, so that’s great. We need to keep getting better, though.”
The Putnam County boys had an up-and-down regular season but finished strong by placing second in the region tournament. They lost a heartbreaker to Johnson-Augusta in the championship round on Monday.
The score between the War Eagles and Tigers was tied 2-2 with the final team point coming down to the No. 2 doubles match. Unfortunately, the duo of Kai Trott and Jayden Trott fell in extra sets.
Still, that was a big win program after not drawing a full team roster last season, Keiser pointed out.
“I wasn’t expecting much out of the boys because last year I just coached girls and this year I got both teams,” he said. “There wasn’t even a boys’ team last year besides one guy that came out. But this year, we fielded a whole team. Throughout the season, we were up-and-down, very sporadic, but we pulled through to win the first round. In the championship round, we lost a tough one. It came down to the wire, but we came up just short. I’m proud of the guys, it was an intense match.”
Top singles player Leland Erickson finished the regular season undefeated in region play and had a strong showing at the region tournament; however, he lost his first conference match of the season on Monday in the championship round.
Robert Thomas, the team’s No. 2 singles player, was right behind Erickson in terms of success. He picked up a huge win for the War Eagles against Johnson-Augusta in the region finals this week.
“Those two (Leland and Robert) have been consistent for us,” Keiser said. “I can always count on them.”
Next, both teams will host first-round matches later this month, but dates have not yet been established.