TROY — Tippecanoe boys tennis coach Kaci Matthews couldn’t have asked for much more from the team.

The Red Devils took the top two spots in doubles and three of the four spots in singles as all seven players advanced on to the D-I district tournament, which starts Thursday at Mason Middle School.

“I am really proud of these guys,” Matthews said after the semifinal and final rounds were played Friday afternoon at Troy High School tennis courts. “They have put the hard work in all year and gotten the reward. We played a pretty strenuous schedule this year. And the reason for that was to prepare us for these kind of matches.”

The top seed in doubles — Nick Von Krosigk and Cam Davis — had already advanced to the title match with a win Wednesday over Vandalia-Butler.

The second seed — Grant Vonderheide and Roman List — joined them with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Troy’s Kellan Nichols and Michael Burns on Friday in the semifnals.

And while Von Krosigk and Davis defeated Vonderheide and List 6-0, 6-0, both teams played well.

“I thought it was a good match,” Matthews said. “Nick (Von Krosigk) and Cam (Davis) are an outstanding doubles team. But, Grant (Vonderheide) and Roman (List) played well.”

She would get no argument from Von Krosigk and Davis.

“I thought Grant (Vonderheide) and Roman (List) really played well,” Davis said. “It was a fun match.”

And while Von Krosigk and Davis played singles during the year, they are no strangers to doubles.

“We have played in tournaments before,” Von Krosigk said. “And we played some doubles this year. It is just that we played singles most of the year. But, I think we work pretty well together. I think we smoothed things out pretty well.”

In singles, Alex Darner who had played third singles during the year — nearly came away with a sectional title in an epic title match.

Darner never stopped battling the entire match against top seed Kyle Penny of Troy before losing 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (4).

The efforts of the second seed did not surprise Matthews. Darner had actually battled back from a 4-1 deficit to win the first set.

“That is who Alex (Darner) is,” Matthews said. “Alex had not really played at lot of tennis until a year or two ago. We weren’t really sure what we were going to get out of him this year. He has come a long way, he still has things to work on like attacking opponents weaknesses and strategy type things — but, I am so excited about this summer and seeing where his game progresses too.”

In the semifinals, Darner had defeated teammate Ty Hoover 6-3, 6-1 and Deacon Blake had lost to Penny 6-4, 6-4.

In the third-place match, Hoover defeated Blake 6-0, 6-0.

Now all seven will look to impress in another big challenge at the district tournament.

Sports Editor Rob Kiser can be reached at [email protected]