Motivation was in strong supply Friday morning for the South Bend Saint Joseph’s boys tennis team.
The No. 5 Huskies were not only playing Northern Indiana Conference rival and neighbor Penn in a quarterfinal match of the IHSAA State Finals, but were motivated by some prematch fodder from the Kingsmen according to their coach.
St. Joe rode a convincing singles sweep to down the No. 18 Kingsmen 3-2 at North Central High School in Indianapolis.
The win sends the Huskies (19-3) into a semifinal match versus No. 2 Homestead (25-1) at 4:30 p.m. Friday with the winner advancing to the state title tilt Saturday at 10 a.m. The schedule was adjusted earlier in the week with the semifinals moved to Friday from Saturday due to the chance of rain Saturday in Indianapolis.
Homestead, which beat St. Joe 5-0 on Sept. 24 in Warsaw, beat No. 23 Columbus North 3-2 Friday. No. 1 Carmel topped No. 15 Avon 4-1 and No. 9 Hamilton Southeastern beat No. 28 Silver Creek 5-0. Carmel (23-0) was set to play HSE (16-5) in the other semifinal Friday.
Penn, which lost in the quarterfinals at state for the second straight year, finished at 21-5.
The stellar singles lineup of brothers Jacob and Oliver Hix and Jaxson Ashfeld set the tone from the start Friday for the Huskies. Junior Jacob Hix and sophomore brother Oliver led 5-0 in the opening set at their No. 1 and 2 singles matches respectively, while freshman Jaxson Ashfeld led 4-1 on the No. 3 singles court.
Third-year St. Joe coach Matt Halfpenny, whose team lost in the semifinals at state in 2024 to eventual state champion Brebeuf by a 5-0 count, praised the cohesiveness of his squad.