St. Charles East takes 2nd at Geneva invite

The boys tennis teams from Geneva, St. Charles East and Marmion had a daunting challenge trying to compete with Lincoln-Way East on Saturday afternoon.

But the Griffins ended up playing flawless tennis at the Geneva Invitational.

Lincoln-Way East won all 12 of its matches to earn a perfect score of 24 points in capturing the six-team event.

St. Charles East was second with 14 points, followed by Geneva, IMSA, Marmion and DeKalb.

The Griffins' players were not the only issue some of the program had to overcome.

"We didn't have our regular starters due to ACT testing," said Marmion coach John Tsang.

St. Charles East first singles player, senior Connor Anderson, made the championship match for the Saints.

But Anderson ran into a buzzsaw as Lincoln-Way senior Rohan Piska dropped a mere game in his three matches.

The only other local players to reach the finals were St. Charles East second doubles partners Zac Crane and Kevin Fortier.

But they, too, were dispatched by their counterparts from Frankfort.

"We gave up some easy points that we normally get," said Fortier, a senior.

The duo survived a third-set tiebreaker against the Geneva duo of Adam Said and Seth Dickinson.

Crane and Fortier ultimately prevailed 6-3, 3-6 (10-6).

"We kept them on their toes and attacked the net," Fortier said of the match. "We made sure we got our serves and breaking theirs."

Senior Nick Hauptmann and freshman Kevin Shriner are the Saints' first doubles unit.

"I'm real happy with how our guys did today," St. Charles East coach Rob Livermore said. "Everyone was playing on the front half of the draw."

For host Geneva, Canan Ciesielski had the finest performance for the Vikings. The junior was third at first singles.

Mike Guffy, the Vikings' No. 2 singles man, and first singles mates Brad Burgess and Nick Simone lost their third-place matches.

"The first match we played well," Simone said. "The second match we went up against a great team (Lincoln-Way East). The third match we fell apart, but we'll learn from it and move on."

"There were a lot of good matches going on today," Geneva coach Zack Evans said. "I think we played extremely well today. I'm looking forward to seeing St. Charles East again in the next week in (Upstate Eight River) Conference play."

Marmon essentially fielded its JV team.

"This is a great tournament, so we always want to bring a strong lineup," Tsang said. "This gives us an opportunity for other kids to play, and they had a good time."