Huskies raise their level of play

For Naperville North it was a great test going into next week's DuPage Valley Conference boys tennis tournament.

While the five final matches amounted to a dual meet between Oak Park-River Forest and Hinsdale Central, the Huskies took third place at this weekend's Naper Valley Invitational sparked by a pair of third-place finishes.

Oak Park swept the Red Devils in the three doubles finals to finish with 82 points, while Hinsdale Central's Augie Bloom and Krishna Ravella defeated the Huskies at first and second singles, and the defending state champions finished second with 78 points.

Naperville North was third with 48 points.

"I'm really proud of how the boys came out strong last night," said Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen. "They get excited about this tournament because of the talent that's in it. And they raised the level of their game to give themselves the opportunity to play for those final four spots."

Leading the Huskies with third-place medals were first-doubles Matt Walters and Yasafumi Terada, who defeated Rahul Kamath and Brian Sorich of Downers Grove South 6-4, 6-1 and the ever-improving Aniket Patel, who defeated Jason Roy of Wheaton Academy 7-6 (4), 7-5 at second singles.

"I'm really not used to this kind of weather and I had to make adjustments in my game," Patel said. "But I was serving well and my backhand and groundstrokes were working fine."

Patel landed in the third-place match after losing to Ravella in the semifinals..

"(Ravella) plays with confidence and aggressiveness throughout the whole match," Patel said. "I tried to pick up on his serve as early as possible and come up to the net to put away volleys."

Patel found that consistent aggressiveness in the third-place match.

For Walters and Terada, who are expected to be seeded second at the DVC meet this week, Naper Valley was another step in their development into a top-flight doubles team.

"I played singles my first two years," Terada said. "So I'm still learning how to be a doubles player. I'm leaving too many balls for Matt. I still have to step up and go to the net and be more active there. I'm getting the hang of it."

"Matt and Yasafumi were in every game in their semifinal loss to Oak Park," Henricksen said. "They were right there with them, they just have get a little quicker and kick the ball a little sooner."

Host Waubonsie Valley and Wheaton Warrenville South were tied for fourth in the tournament with 32 points each, followed by Downers Grove South with 30, St. Charles North with 29 and Benet with 28.

Also earning third-place Saturday were Benet's Mark Angel and Tim Martin at second doubles and Wheaton Warrenville South's Brooks Thacker and Ben Tietze of Wheaton Warrenville South at third doubles.

Thacker and Tietze defeated Grant Johnston and Alex Enskat of St. Charles North 6-4, 6-4 in the consolation match.

"Grant and Alex were 8-2 coming into this tournament," said North Stars coach Tim Matacio. "They've done a good job all season. Dan is very quick and Alex is very steady, so they make a good team."

"We played really well today," Johnston said. "We knew we'd be against top competition and we were able to bring a balanced game. Alex is good at the baseline and I'm more of a volleyer. We work well together and we've been improving all year."