PREP GIRLS TENNIS: Goshen's Drenth, Detweiler fall in state quarters to Carmel

Austin Hough, Goshen News, Ind.
·2 min read

Jun. 12—INDIANAPOLIS — Goshen seniors Kathryn Detweiler and Joya Drenth had their tennis season come to an end in the individual doubles state quarterfinals Friday, falling to Carmel's Alexa Lewis and Hallie Reeves, 6-1, 6-2, at North Central High School in the state capital.

Lewis and Reeves are the top-seeded team in the individual doubles tournament after going 26-1 this season, including a perfect 8-0 in the postseason en route to a Greyhounds state championship last weekend.

It was Carmel's 11th girls tennis state championship overall.

Detweiler and Drenth advanced to the individual state tournament after winning their team sectional match, qualifying them for the individual tourney. They would then beat pairs from NorthWood and Bremen in the individual sectional and regional, respectively, to make it to Friday's state quarterfinals match.

"I thought we played fine ... (Carmel) played great," Goshen coach Daniel Love said. "They brought more pace than we're used to seeing. Their serves were big, especially their second serves. They were really good on their ground strokes. We just couldn't get chances at the net that we look for."

The first set saw Detweiler and Drenth go down 0-4 through the first four games before the strong serving of Drenth helped the RedHawk tandem win a game. Lewis and Reeves then won the next two to close out the set, 1-6.

As Love alluded to, an area where Lewis and Reeves excelled was in serving. Goshen's duo was only able to break their serve once in seven tries, which came in the second set while trailing 0-4 again.

"I would say their serve was super powerful, and they hit us really wide," Drenth said. "We knew it was going to be like that coming in, but we haven't played any opponent that has that big of a serve. Even when we're expecting it the entire match, we were still trying to get used to it and adjust to it."

With Carmel in a commanding lead in the second set, Detweiler and Drenth showed some grit battling back. They would win two-straight games to pull within 2-4, but that's as close as they would get in the match. Lewis and Reeves won the next two games to advance to Saturday morning's semifinals.

Despite a lopsided score, Detweiler and Drenth were able to push multiple games to deuce point. The Carmel pair was just too much to overcome, though, closing out most of those games with back-to-back points.