St. Charles North moves closer to conference title

St. Charles North's goal for Tuesday's tennis dual meet with St. Charles East was simple, if challenging: move another step closer to the Upstate Eight River Division championship.

Mission accomplished.

Thanks in part to two three-set wins at doubles, the North Stars rallied to defeat the Saints 5-2 in a crosstown clash at North. The victory kept the North Stars in first place in the UEC River standings with 31 team points. East is next with 29 points, and three-time defending champion Batavia is third with 28.

North appears to have a bit of an advantage over the Saints and Bulldogs heading into the final two duals before the conference tournament May 15 and 16 at Larkin. The North Stars finish regular-season play with Elgin May 7 and Streamwood May 11, both of whom Batavia and East swept 7-0 in April, while the Bulldogs and Saints still have to square off Thursday in Batavia.

But North isn't taking anything for granted after coming up one point short of the conference crown in 2014.

"We want to take care of business - keep these leads and preserve our place in the standings and try to keep getting better," coach Sean Masoncup said. "Losing a lead, it can happen quickly. We've got to stay focused. Tomorrow's practice will be the next step for us. I told the guys, tomorrow needs to be our most intense practice of the season. We still have 10 days to go till our final goal."

East (7-1 overall, 4-1 UEC River) nearly drew even in the conference standings with North (14-1, 5-0) behind straight-set wins from Charlie Downing 6-3, 6-4 over Ajay Gustafson at third singles and Alex Winters and Connor Anderson 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) over Matt Ernst and Luke Dunteman at first doubles.

The Saints also won the opening sets at second and fourth doubles, but the North Stars bounced back at both levels to win tightly contested matches that swung the dual meet in North's favor. Trevor Kurtzhals and Tom Ninan beat Chris Horn and Zac Crane 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 at second doubles, and Alex Gruber and Jack Callaghan rebounded for a 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory over Tim Boles and Jackson Dejure at fourth doubles.

"We keep on figuring out ways to win," Masoncup said. "The way we won today tells you a lot about this group of guys we've got. Not many of them are really club players, but they've worked their tails off to get where they are. They're figuring out we can do this. They have the attitude of 'Let's figure out a way.' This is the most coachable group I've had in my 13 years of coaching. It's one of the most enjoyable groups I've coached. Whatever we ask of them they do, no matter how crazy."

Aaron Amburgey got the North Stars off to a fast start with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Nick Hauptmann at first singles, handing Hauptmann his first loss in the conference, while David Montgomery and Dillon Randazzo gave North its second victory 6-0, 6-3 at second doubles over Nick Stellon and Kevin Fortier.

Amburgey rebounded from a three-set setback to Batavia's Adam Maris in which he suffered leg cramps from dehydration in a 2-hour, 40-minute marathon match.

"It was a tough loss, but I took it as a good lesson on the importance of preparing myself to be fully hydrated the day before a match," Amburgey said.

The senior improved to 17-3 overall and 3-1 in the UEC as he gears up for lofty expectations in the conference tournament and postseason. Last season, Amburgey teamed up with Grant Spellman to win the sectional doubles title and advance to the state meet after moving to St. Charles from Kentucky.

"Obviously, getting the conference championship at first singles is a goal of mine," Amburgey said. "Grant and I lost to Batavia in the finals at first doubles last year, which was disappointing to us, so I really want to win this time. And as a team we really want to win conference. We talk about it at every practice. It's a big goal for us. Even when we beat Batavia (April 30), we celebrated the win, then we talked about how we need to keep winning, stay focused and keep getting better. I also want to win at sectionals and get to state. Obviously, the competition at state is really strong, but I'd like to get to state and see what I can do there."

Junior Matt Kramer provided the fourth and decisive win of the day 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) over freshman Kevin Schreiner.

Winters and Anderson claimed one of the most competitive matches of the dual meet, improving to 12-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference in their first year as a doubles team. Anderson and Winters had to fight off a furious comeback from Dunteman and Ernst, who rallied from a 5-2 second-set deficit before the Saints prevailed in the tiebreaker.

"We work really well together," Anderson said. "We have similar styles. We don't excel at any one area. We're just good all-around players."

Winters hopes to return to state after playing there in 2014 with George Spoerl, who graduated last spring.

"We want to win conference and qualify for state," Winters said. "Our goal if we get to state is to make it to the second round. If we stick to the basics and play our game, we'll be fine."

Despite the loss, East coach Rob Livermore liked how his team gave itself a chance to win the dual if a few more points had swung in the Saints' favor.

"We lost a couple of heartbreaking losses at the end," Livermore said. "They were super competitive matches. Kevin (Schreiner) was way down in his match but battled back and nearly took it to three sets. I'm very happy with first doubles; beating a conference and sectional opponent in straight sets is always nice. The final score of the meet doesn't reflect the closeness of the play here today."