Marmion's Weiler headed to state
Neuqua Valley got almost everything it wanted out of Saturday's West Aurora boys tennis sectional finals.
The Wildcats easily won the overall team competition with 24 points, and sent all six of their players through to next week's state tournament.
"We've been very fortunate over the years in how we've performed at the sectional," Neuqua Valley coach Trudy Bennorth said. "We felt like we were prepared for it, and ready for the matches to start."
But the sectional's individual highlights belonged to Waubonsie Valley's Mandela Shepard who cruised through the first three rounds, then swept Neuqua Valley's Amrit Bhaskarla, 6-2, 6-2 in the finals.
Neuqua Valley owned both halves of the doubles final as Skeeter Plowman and Chase Perry rallied from a shaky start to beat Joe Pulka and Brent Handy, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
"Both of our doubles teams are very strong, and we're excited about how well they're playing," Bennorth said.
Waubonsie Valley's Gary Sheng and Chris Utterback made fast work of IMSA seniors Jae Kim and Ashwin Ugale to win the third place match, 6-0, 6-1.
The Warriors finished second in the team standings with 13 points.
The top four finishers in doubles as well as singles qualify for the state tournament, and that means Marmion's Tom Weiler will be making the trip for the first time after beating IMSA's Joe Ou, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
"He's a good player, but I played (Ou) earlier in the season and beat him," Weiler said. "So after I lost the first set I knew I just had to stay focused and stay in the game."
The Marmion senior went on to capture the third place title by beating Neuqua Valley's Jose Cadena in one of the sectional's few close matches, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6.
To win the match Weiler had to rally from a 5-1 deficit in the third set, then win a tie-breaker.
"We're thrilled to see Tom make it through," Marmion coach Pat Maurer said. "He's been our team's leader for a long time."
Weiler's performance led the young Cadets to a third place finish with 11 overall points.
"We got all four of our teams through the first round, and we're very exited about that," Maurer said. "Luke Birant, our sophomore singles player, played a very good first match, then ran into Mandela Shepard in the second round, but that was good experience for him."
The host Blackhawks, another team that like the Cadets will be returning most of its sectional lineup, won three of its four first round matches before going up against players from the top two teams in the quarterfinals.
West Aurora collected 6 points, to finish in a fourth place tie with IMSA.
Batavia earned 2 points. Those came when Jordan Broadway beat East Aurora's Gus Campos, 6-0, 6-2 in the opening round.
Broadway dropped his next match, however, getting eliminated by Cadena, 6-4, 6-3.
Naperville N. sectional: Winning the team sectional championship wasn't even part of the Naperville North gameplan, but that's exactly what the Huskies did Saturday.
With Matt Walters and Yasufumi Terada winning the doubles title and Reid Mutschler qualifying for state in the singles bracket, the Huskies took home the gold in the Naperville North sectional, in one of the most balanced fields in memory.
"These boys had such a fantastic season," said coach Heather Henricksen of Naperville North. "We didn't even talk about winning the sectional. We just tried to make sure to get everyone prepared and get them qualified for state."
The six teams that finished in double figures in team points all qualified at least one singles player or doubles team for the state tournament that begins Thursday. The first four singles and the first four doubles in the sectional qualify for state.
Walters and Terada's 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 finals victory over Naperville Central's Neal Walters and Kevin Bauman clinched the title for the Huskies giving them 20 points for the tournament.
The Redhawks, who a week ago edged the Huskies for the DuPage Valley Conference (DVC) championship, finished in a second-place tie with Wheaton Warrenville South with 16 points. Benet and Glenbard South were tied at 13 and St. Francis scored 10.
Jimmy Li of Wheaton Warrenville South won the singles final on a default when St. Francis' Kyle Dawson had to retire due to a hip flexor injury, with Li ahead 5-4 in their first set.
"It's real unfortunate that this happened," said Li. "Every time I play Kyle I know I have to pick up my game a level in order to play him. I have lots of respect for him and I hope he'll be able to play next week."
According to St. Francis coach Marcia Bussey, Dawson, who suffered the same injury early in the season, was going for X-rays Saturday to help determine if he will be able to play at state.
"There was no way Kyle could have continued," Bussey said. "But give credit to Jimmy, who's always such a great opponent. They were both playing great throughout this tournament."
-- Neil Shalin
Ed Lee/elee@dailyherald.com
St Francis' Kyle Dawson finished second in the Naperville North sectional Saturday. Dawson suffered a hip flexor injury and had to retire during the championship match.