After coming off of a county championship and winning the last three meets, the No. 6 boys tennis team starts play tonight in the opening round MIC tournament at Ben Davis, along with four-time reigning state champion Carmel and last year’s state runner-up North Central.

“I have spent a lot of time preparing for MIC by putting in a full effort at practice. I also got good experience playing teams such as Greenwood and Whiteland in our county. These two teams had a lot of good single and double players that pushed me to manage my attitude in order to get the win,” No. 1 doubles player Glenn Swaney said. ”Individually I want to get up and down the court as fast as possible, and win easy matches that will help our team score more points in the beginning. Our team’s goals for MIC are to win as many matches as possible and finish higher than last year. There will be challenges for our team because we are playing a lot of individuals who are ranked top 30 in the state.”

The Trojans will be playing in a draw format Thursday evening, whoever they draw is who they will play in their matches throughout the tournament. After finishing third behind Carmel and North Central in the MIC tournament last year, the Trojans say they are hopeful for a higher placement. 

“Last year at MIC I played one single and finished third. This year I’m hopeful for a higher placement at MIC as I’m playing two singles against North Central and Caramel players. Our team has learned to adapt to playing different players and challenging matches through our experience at County. Heading into this tournament I have a  personal goal of not losing another match which will help me stay focused and motivated. I also want to help our team achieve our goal of making it to the state tournament,” Senior Lucas Embry said. 

MIC is an important match for them because it is likely No. 6 Center Grove will run into No. 1 Carmel and No. 5 North Central in the upcoming state tournament.

“This year we have a solid chance at beating tough schools like Carmel at MIC because we have played more challenging teams and matches and have gotten more experience of staying solid when playing high ranked teams. I will be playing Ajay and Brock who are both in a competition for number one sede in the state,” Senior Dhrumil Patel said. “Our team has a goal of making it to the state finals and that means individually I will have to start having more competitive scores against high ranked teams. As a team we will all need to get in a set rhythm with the matches and support one another.”