CROWN POINT | Freshman Lance Noerenberg was excited to play at No. 3 singles in his first Crown Point Invite on Saturday morning.
“Playing varsity as a freshman is an exciting opportunity,” Noerenberg said. “The invite is pretty cool, getting to play different schools and see different styles and techniques.”
Noerenberg validated his varsity standing with a pair of 6-0, 6-0 wins over Griffith and Rensselaer to help the Times No. 3 Bulldogs to their third consecutive title.
“I wasn’t too nervous on the court,” Noerenberg said. “I put in a lot of hard work this summer to get to this point. Today did help my confidence level. It’s always good to get your feet wet with real matches instead of practices.”
The Bulldogs (2-0), who have high expectations this season, won in straight sets both times.
Griffith (1-3) bounced back from their first round 5-0 loss to win the consolation round by beating South Bend Washington 4-1.
“This was good competition for us today,” No. 1 singles player Brett Tauber said. “Crown Point is a very talented team, and I thought we played competitively. We played more consistent in the second match.”
Panther coach Tracy Sines agreed.
“Today was the first time our No. 1 doubles team played together,” Sines said. “Also the first match for Aaron Brown at No. 2 singles. We did well considering the player movement.”
The Bombers (2-1) defeated Washington in the first round to advance to the championship round, where they ran into the Bulldog buzz saw.
“We got off to a good start yesterday when we defeated Kankakee Valley in our first match,” said Coach Dan Hawthorne. “And we carried that over into the first round today. But Crown Point is a very deep and talented team.”
C.P. coach Chris Korzeniewski was looking forward to next weekend’s tough matchup against Culver and Chesterton at the Culver Invite.
“We’ll be playing two very tough teams,” Korzeniewski said. “We hope to give both of them a very competitive match.”
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