Benet, Carmel fit to be tied again
Quite simply, Benet and Carmel are fit to be tied.
The evenly matched boys tennis teams deadlocked during the East Suburban Catholic Conference regular season - and they did so again when the conference tournament concluded Saturday at Harper College in Palatine.
The Redwings and Corsairs each earned 13 points during the two-day competition and 46 overall.
Benet captured crowns at No. 2 doubles behind Andrew Herrmann-Andrew Caniglia and at No. 3 doubles, with Bobby Martin and Mike Schutt holding onto their pre-tournament No. 1 seed.
But the stunning finals victory at No. 1 doubles by the St. Viator duo of Taylor Blaney-Dean Tanglis over Carmel's top-seeded Chris and Geoff Butler by scores of 7-5, 6-2 helped lift the Redwings to their 18th title in 20 years.
"I said before this tournament that we would need some help to get past Carmel, and what do you know, it was St. Viator who came through for us when they beat the No. 1 team and a team that we had been chasing all throughout the tournament," said Redwings coach Michael Hand.
The Lions' Blaney-Tanglis had survived a long three-set semifinal match to beat Benet's Mitchell Roemer-Phil Denys by scores of 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
"Today, all phases of our game were right on and when both of us began to serve really well and we were hitting (winners) down the alley and we just broke away from them," Blaney said.
"There were about 5-6 deuce when I was serving and we were up 6-5 in that first set, so when we finally won the set our confidence just rose up," said Tanglis, who along with Blaney are looking for a top-four seed in this weekend's Palatine sectional.
"It's a little disappointing to being so close to winning an ESCC title without sharing with Benet, but we still have a lot to be proud of, plus Michael does such a great job with his boys and their program, so you have to give them a lot of credit for their success this weekend as well," said Carmel coach Nancy Fehn, who led the Corsairs to their first-ever ESCC tennis title.
The Corsairs fell short in head-to-head matches against Benet, dropping straight-set decisions at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. They also suffered a tough loss in the third-place match at No. 2 singles between their junior Dan Park and Benet junior Chris Siemann - who prevailed 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
"I am real proud of our guys today, because at the start of the day we told them there was a lot of work to do in order to overtake or even catch Carmel and although we caught a little bit of a break from (St. Viator) in that doubles final, we still came back to win important matches and points when we needed them most," Hand said.