DVC title comes down to No. 1 doubles

No. 1 doubles proved to be the decider once again for Naperville Central as the Redhawks defeated Naperville North for the DuPage Valley Conference title on Saturday at Glenbard East.

In the regular-season meeting between the two Naperville rivals, Central's Wesley Lo and Daniel Delgrosso defeated North's Rohit Rastogi and Kirk Williams earning an extra two points for the Redhawks at the start of the tournament.

Lo and Delgrosso took another win off the Huskies duo with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory, and those two points from the regular season turned out to be huge for Naperville Central. The Redhawks tallied 63 points in the tournament, 2 more over Naperville North, for its fifth straight conference title.

"Coming down to No. 1 doubles just like it did in the conference, I had a lot of confidence in Wesley and Daniel," Redhawks coach Dan Brown said. "Two seniors who have been playing doubles for all four years that they have been here, to be able to pull it through for us."

Despite coming in second by 2 points, Naperville North had four individual champions, one more than Naperville Central. The Huskies had individual champions at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles and No. 3 doubles.

"I'm really proud of our guys that we got four conference champions," said Naperville North coach Heather Henrickson. "We picked up four, so today was a good day. Today was a great day to be able to have that many kids to be able to walk away with the conference championship individually."

In No. 1 singles Naperville Central freshman Bill Zhang defeated Wheaton Warrenville South sophomore Charlie McDonough 6-4, 6-3.

McDonough was the only player to make it to the finals who wasn't from Naperville Central or Naperville North, thanks to a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 three-set victory over Naperville North's Aneesh Natarjan in the semifinals.

"He played really well," Zhang said of McDonough. "I know that it was tough coming back from that three-setter he had over there. It was a pretty long match, tough on fitness. I thought I played pretty well today. Feels good to get the win."

Wheaton Warrenville South finished in third place with 35 points thanks to three third-place match victories, while Wheaton North finished in fourth place with 27 points.