The Northern Indiana Conference is going to be well represented come Friday, Oct. 17, at the IHSAA boys tennis state finals.
League powers South Bend Saint Joseph and Penn saw to that with a pair of impressive semistate showings on Saturday. No. 5 Saint Joe downed No. 4 and host Culver Academy 3-2, and No. 18 Penn beat No. 14 Carroll (Fort Wayne) 4-1 to win the Homestead Semistate.
The Huskies (18-3) and the Kingsmen (21-4) will now travel to Indianapolis to meet each other Friday in a quarterfinal match at 10 a.m. at North Central High School. The winner advances to the semifinals Saturday at 10 a.m., with the state title match at 2 p.m.
St. Joe and Penn, who both competed in the state finals in 2024, met in an NIC matchup in South Bend back on Aug. 26, with the Huskies winning 4-1.
Huskies get payback
The Huskies picked the perfect time to flip the script on a strong Culver Academy squad.
The Eagles had downed St. Joe 3-2 at Culver back on Sept. 13. The Huskies had changed their lineup since that loss, and freshman Jaxson Ashfeld got the clinching point with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win Saturday at No. 3 singles. Ashfeld was playing at No. 1 doubles in the first meeting with Culver with junior Jack Mattison at No. 3 singles.
"I'm just super proud of my entire team," said St. Joe coach Matt Halfpenny by phone Saturday night. "This is a great accomplishment for them and for our program to go to state for the second straight year. We talked about this as being a realistic goal for us this season.
"Our guys have just grinded out our last two matches (including a 3-2 win over Chesterton in the regional final Wednesday night). We are a good team and we're all in this together. It's all about getting those three points. It doesn't matter where they come from."
The Huskies, who lost in the state semifinals 5-0 to eventual state champion Brebeuf Jesuit in 2024, got dominating wins Saturday from the Hix brothers. Junior Jacob won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles and sophomore Oliver won 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.
Culver evened the match at 2-2 with wins on both doubles courts. The St. Joe team of Mattison and junior Ben Brady lost 6-3, 7-5 at No. 1 and the team of junior Cole Halfpenny and senior Noah Dobski fell 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2.
That left it up to Ashfeld. The freshman responded like a seasoned veteran. He lost the second set 7-5 after leading 3-0. He then trailed 3-2 in the third and deciding set before winning the final four games for a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory.
"I felt confident we would win today, 3-2 or even 4-1," Halfpenny said. "Our guys battled. We knew Jacob and Oliver would take care of business. Jaxson and both of our doubles team came to play. Culver is a very good team, and they were at home. We talked about handling the environment and our guys did.
"Jaxson got a little nervous in that second set after being up 3-0. We just talked about consistency with him down 3-2 in the third set and he grinded out a win.
"We had a little adjustment period after moving Jaxson to singles, then back to doubles and then back to singles a couple of weeks ago. I also had a tough conversation with our guys after our Elkhart match. I think that got their attention and they have been really focused since then. We knew the opportunity we had to do this."
St. Joe's three losses this year are to No. 1 Carmel, No. 2 Homestead and No. 4 Culver Academy.
Penn prevails in impressive fashion
The Kingsmen have picked the perfect time to play their best tennis of the season.
That trend continued in the semistate round as they used a singles sweep to roll past a strong Carroll team.
"It was just a great day for all seven of the guys in our lineup," said Penn coach Eric Bowers in a phone interview Saturday night. "Our goal is always to play better at the end of the season, and our guys are really doing that. They are playing with a lot of confidence now. The best we have played since the season started in August."
The Kingsmen, whose four losses have been to top 10 ranked teams, got a 6-2, 6-1 win from senior Quinn Lippert at No. 1 singles. Sophomore Will Denniston rolled to a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles and freshman Dylan Albert completed the singles domination with a 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 6-4 victory on the No. 2 singles court.
"I thought that my guys came out today fired up and our doubles teams set the tone, along with Quinn, with great energy," Bowers said. "Carroll is a great team, but we had our scouting report."
The No. 1 doubles team of sophomore Josh Weaver and junior Aaron Yoon won 6-2, 6-1 for the Kingsmen. Seniors Jacob Kyle and Ben Stambaugh lost 5-7, 6-2, 3-6 at No. 2 doubles.
Bowers pointed to a tough 3-2 win over LaPorte in the regular-season finale as a key to his team's postseason performance.
"We had a tough match with LaPorte, and that was a good wakeup call for us," Bowers said. "To take nothing for granted. I think our guys gained a lot of focus from that match. It's about survive and advance."
Bowers, the longtime coach of both the Penn boys and girls teams, had stepped down from the boys position after last year. He was brought back this fall to coach the boys once again.
"This is nice for the kids to be going back to state again," noted Bowers, a former star player at both NorthWood High School and Bethel College. "We knew we had a lot of talent coming back and a good group. We are all excited about going to Indy and playing St. Joe again. To get to experience State two years in a row like this will take a little time to settle in for me."
Bowers took both the Penn boys and girls team to the state finals during the 2024-25 seasons.
The Kingsmen, who lost 5-0 to Center Grove in the quarterfinals at state a year ago, have lost this season to No. 2 Homestead, No. 3 Brebeuf, No. 4 Culver Academy and No. 5 St. Joe.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Saint Joseph, Penn boys tennis win IHSAA semistate titles
