They fought, they worked and a foundation was laid. Cathedral High School boys tennis made significant strides in 2026 – and if a young team didn’t necessarily exceed its preseason goals and expectations, the perennially strong Irish moved in a positive direction for future. “They were just a real fun team to be around,” Jeff Giles said. The Irish in 2026 finished Giles’ sixth season as head coach with a 9-10 record and unranked in the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association rankings. They won the Section 27 Tournament at Lawrence Central, beating Heritage Christian 5-0 in the title match. They beat Lawrence Central 5-0 in Round 1 of the sectional and Lawrence North 5-0 in the sectional semifinal. “They were on it,” Giles said. “Team chemistry-wise and just overall, this was probably my favorite team just because of coachability and how much fun we had. Great character, great leadership, up and down the ladder, both with varsity and jayvee. “They were just a real fun team to be around.” The Irish lost, 3-2, to North Central in the regional semifinal at North Central, also winning the City Tournament by five points over runner-up Chatard. “That was the biggest one,” Giles said of the City title. “It was the closest it ever has been. That was nice to get past Chatard in that.” The Irish’s sectional title was their fourth in four seasons, their ninth overall. They had won the last two consecutive regional titles. “Overall, it was a great season,” Giles said. “We didn't like how it ended. We'll go back and kind of look at that, how we manage the lead up to the postseason and kind of the postseason with a lot of matches in a short period of time. “We'll certainly take a look at that. That was tough because we were projected and had goals of making it to semi-state again. That was tough to go out at regional.” The Irish in 2026 were led by: *Freshman Malachi Edwards, No. 1 singles. *Junior Luke Langfeldt, No. 2 singles. *Junior Ky Mathenge, No. 3 singles. *Senior Tanner Wernke/senior Joey Whalen, No. 1 doubles. *Junior Alec Whelan/sophomore Eli Luna (second half of season)/senior Brady Halum (first half of season). “We were young,” Giles said. “Anytime you just have two seniors out of the seven for varsity, you're getting some experience. I had a lot of positions where it was their first year playing varsity. “You have to get that experience somewhere. This was their year to do that.” Edwards became the first freshman to play No. 1 for the Irish boys since Charlie Coleman six seasons before. Edwards went 15-9 against an Irish schedule that again was among the toughest in Indiana, with Giles calling Edwards’ record “very good against the competition we play against.” “I would say he rose to the occasion,” Giles said. “It’s always a challenge. He has the game to be able to compete with a lot of the top singles players throughout Central Indiana. We talked about this after the season, but really where he needs to grow is really just psychologically getting over that hump when matches are determined by a 10-point tiebreaker. “Overall, he handled it extremely well. He has a real great, calm, focused, fitness-oriented type of game where he recovers very well in between points that he loses. He had the personality of bounce back after tough losses. He handled it really well.” Giles said the goal moving forward remains the same as it was entering 2026, “to flip some of those Top 20-type team matches” and retain the program’s status as one of the best in the area and state. “We had that as a goal this year and knew we had a talented team,” Giles said. “We were preaching that throughout the season, that we lost a lot of close competitive matches last year 2-3 or 1-4 that were a game here, or a point there. “We knew we had the talent and just couldn't quite get over that hump against some of the top 15 teams. We competed well against some of those teams that are ranked a little bit closer to us.” Giles said the key to improving moving forward is continuing to work throughout the offseason. “That is the challenge,” Giles said. “Four of our seven players are non-year-round type players. They're really good athletes. They play other sports and tennis is their thing during the fall. That's a message that I'll have, that it’s important for the guys to play year-round tennis. “We will have the same goals and see how the draws will cooperate with us. We’ll get past that bad feeling [of how the 2026 season ended] and that's all you can do, is get past it and get ready to compete next year.”