As the Indiana High School Athletic Association tennis sectionals get under way this week, the Highland Scots have more on the line than ever before.

The Scots, who posted a 20-0 regular season, will put that perfect mark on the line today at 4:30 p.m. when they face the Frankton Eagles on the Highland courts. At the same time, Anderson will face Elwood on the Southside Sports Complex courts.

The championship match will be held at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

The perfect record wasn’t a big surprise to Highland coach Jim Hostetler.

“I thought we’d be pretty close,” he said. “We lost the Columbus tourney, and that sometimes was a loss, but I had everybody coming back and we were 19-4 the year before.”

The top player back was No. 1 singles player Alex Hammel, No. 2 Mercy Scott and No. 3 Abby Beard. Scott suffered a knee injury a few weeks back and had to retire from a match against Frankton, but she has returned to the fray with no problem.

“We played a tournament on Saturday, and then she played all day on Sunday,” said Hostetler. “It got inflamed. She tweaked it a little bit, but she’s fine now.”

Highland’s consistent sectional nemesis has been Anderson, but the Scots have won that matchup 5-0 the last two times the teams crossed paths. Now the Indians are without their four-year No. 1 player Alisha Cummings, who quit the team.

Still, Hostetler isn’t taking anything for granted.

“If we get to play Anderson, they’re still going to be a tough team,” he said. “They’ve moved Meaghan Ellis up to No. 1 and loaded up their doubles teams. With that lineup, they might be even tougher than when they had Alisha. This wouldn’t be a gimme match.”

To get that far, the Scots must get past the Eagles today.

“(Frankton coach) Ginger’s (Thomas) done a great job with that team,” Hostetler said. “We won’t go in over confident.”

At Alexandria, Matt DeVault’s Tigers have fashioned a 15-4 record and a third straight Central Indiana Conference championship. But the Tigers also have a tall test at 4:30 p.m. today at the Delta Sectional against the host Golden Eagles.

For the first time in many years, the perennial state contending Eagles aren’t ranked in the state poll. “They’ve won several years,” DeVault said. “They’re still pretty good. We played many of the same teams they have, and our scores have been comparable. They’re ranked sixth in the district and we’re ranked seventh.”

The Tigers have been bolstered by the play of No. 1 singles player Melissa Montgomery and others such as Abbe Cox, Rachael Sayre, Bri Foster and Hanna Davis.