Charlie Vannatter throws his weight into his shot during Wednesday’s regional championship match. (Photo by Paige Hayes)
Luke Atkinson goes up strong for a serve against Alexandria. (Photo by Paige Hayes)
Delta boys’ and girls’ tennis players have held aloft a regional championship trophy 46 times, but when that scene repeated itself Wednesday night, it felt a little different.
For the first year since being reassigned to the Noblesville Regional in 2023, Delta claimed the regional title.
To do so, the Eagles edged Westfield 3-2 on Tuesday evening and then defeated Alexandria 4-1 for the title.
That propels the Eagles into the Sweet Sixteen, where they will face Homestead at noon Saturday in the Homestead Semi-State. The winner will advance to the State Finals.
Tennis is Indiana is a single-class sport with 315 schools all entered in the same tournament, regardless of enrollment.
Of the 16 teams to reach semi-state, Delta (with 800 students) will likely be the smallest public school still alive. Barr-Reeve (500 students) has a chance to be the smallest if it can upset Jasper tonight in the finals of the rain-delayed Jasper Regional.
To conquer the Noblesville Regional this year, Delta had to knock off 11th-ranked Westfield, a school of nearly 3,000 students that recently began playing on its new $10 million tennis complex complete with electronic scoreboards. The Westfield Tennis Center includes 15 post-tension concrete tennis courts, lockers, restrooms, a concession stand, and an underground water retention system.
This comes a couple of years after Noblesville (a school of 3,200 students) opened its new $4 million, 12-court facility of post-tension concrete courts, locker room, restrooms and concessions.
Meanwhile Delta allocated about $60,000 to try to repair its seven courts and is still trying to get the project completed correctly!
But as we often say to our players, “grit” is defined as a resolve that is unshakeable regardless of circumstances.
This year’s team has rolled up its sleeves and has gone to work. The Eagles are 21-2 and have climbed to No. 13 in the state rankings after beating seven other state-ranked teams. They have won five championships: the Hoosier Heritage Conference, the Kokomo Invitational, the Delta Invitational, the Delta Sectional and the Noblesville Regional.
And they’ve done it with a varsity lineup of three freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and three seniors. Support from the rest of the 37-player team (the largest in boys’ tennis history for Delta) along with managers, coaches, parents and fans has resulted in being able to achieve the results that were envisioned in the “Big Team, Big Dreams” preseason motto.
After the IHSAA and the state’s tennis coaches association worked together to realign the boys’ and girls’ tennis tournaments prior to the 2023 season, the result is that large Indianapolis suburban schools and private schools are now spread out into more regionals. This wasn’t necessarily an intended goal, it is simply the facts of what happened.
Here are 18 of the strongest tennis schools in and around Indianapolis in Hamilton, Johnson, Hendricks, Boone and Marion counties:
Carmel, Brebeuf, Guerin Catholic, Zionsville, Hamilton Southeastern, Westfield, Park Tudor, Avon, Center Grove, Fishers, Brownsburg, Noblesville, North Central, Cathedral, Chatard, Whiteland, Plainfield, University.
These schools include 10 of the 25 largest enrollment schools in Indiana as well as several private schools with strong tennis traditions. Twelve of those 18 schools are state-ranked this year. Those 18 schools now make up a part of six different regionals. Prior to realignment, they were in four different regionals.
Schools from areas of the state such as Richmond, Marion, Anderson and Muncie that had hosted and/or attended regionals in East Central Indiana in the past now travel to other regional sites outside of East Central Indiana.
Delta is a prime example. The Eagles played in a regional in Muncie at Ball State courts for many years and later hosted a regional at Delta for several years before being assigned to the Marion regional starting around 2011. But that evaporated with the realignment in 2023 and now Delta travels to the Noblesville Regional.
Perhaps all of that helps explain why the latest regional title felt a little more special.
In Wednesday evening’s championship match, Delta wrapped things up quickly against Alexandria (17-5), unlike the day before when the intense battle against Westfield stretched for three hours.
Jackson Darby and his shadow each hit the stroke during Wednesday’s match. (Photo by Paige Hayes)
No. 1 singles freshman Jackson Darby won 6-0, 6-2 over Alexandria senior Owen May, a multi-sport athlete who has had a good career with the Tigers.
No. 2 singles freshman Charlie Vannatter won 6-2, 6-0 over junior Austin Webb.
No. 3 singles sophomore Luke Atkinson overcame a slow start to roll past sophomore Blake Jones 6-3, 6-0.
Tyce Dishman (front) and Aaron Elliott work together in their match. (Photo by Paige Hayes)
No. 1 doubles senior Aaron Elliott and junior Tyce Dishman were in control all the way against senior Brody Sullivan and sophomore Cale Johns 6-1, 6-0.
Things started well at No. 2 doubles as seniors Brady Williams and Ben Miller cruised to a 6-0 first-set victory. But Alexandria freshmen Aryah Hollingsworth and Cooper Morgan found the range on their lobs and turned the momentum around, eventually resulting in an 0-6, 6-4, (10-8) victory for the Tigers.
Delta competed against Homestead back on Sept. 6 in the semifinal round of the Fort Wayne Carroll Invitational. Homestead (18-3) won that match 4-1, with Delta winning at No. 2 doubles.
The regional championship for Delta is the Eagles’ 26th in boys’ tennis, all since 1995. Winning a regional is a difficult accomplishment as the following list will demonstrate. Here are all of the 96 regional titles in the 58-year history of Delta High School by sport:
26 – Boys’ Tennis
20 – Girls’ Tennis
16 – Wrestling
10 – Volleyball
7 – Baseball
6 – Boys Basketball
5 – Girls Cross Country
3 – Football
1 – Boys Cross Country
1 – Girls Basketball
1 – Girls Soccer
0 – Softball
0 – Boys Soccer
0 – Boys Golf
0 – Girls Golf
0 – Boys Track
0 – Girls Track
** Note — Boys and Girls Swimming does not have a regional level.