Walters, Terada regroup, cruise through backdraw
The "wow" factor.
That seems to be the best way to describe the day that the No. 1 doubles team from Naperville North enjoyed Friday at the boys state tennis tournament.
After being forced to part company from the championship bracket following an early morning straight-sets loss to Highland Park's second-seeded duo, the Huskies' Matt Walters and Yasufumi Terada vaulted themselves into the express lane and roared past two other foes to find themselves alive and well and playing today.
The Huskies duo will meet the 9-16 seed Downers Grove South tandem of Rahul Kamath-Brian Sorich at 8 a.m. today at Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, where a victory will pull them within one match of the consolation semifinals and a step closer to a fifth-place medal.
"Amazing," said Naperville North coach Heather Henrickson. "What really impressed about those guys is how they came back from their loss this morning. It's always tough to regroup after realizing you're headed to the backdraw and no longer in the championship bracket, and after picking themselves up, they really got going and beat two very good teams."
In their opening loss 7-5, 6-4 to Josh Berman and Tyler Manci, the Huskies (29-3) were unable early to handle the service of the left-handed Berman, who fluttered several change-of-pace serves during that first set.
"We didn't adjust well to Berman's serves, and after starting out so tight, we found ourselves in trouble," Walters said.
But the Huskies bounced back to go up 5-4 and began to exhibit some terrific doubles play, including a 14-ball rally that was a thing of beauty to behold.
"The guys began to play doubles the way it should be played," Henrickson said.
The Huskies then traveled to the Rolling Meadows venue, where they needed three sets to dispose of Oak Park-River Forest (3-6, 7-5, 6-3). That set up their final match of the day against the 9-16 seed Hinsdale Central duo of Josh Sink-Paul Cooper.
The sectional champion Huskies battled through another long three sets until finally ending Hinsdale Central's tournament stay -- while also throwing a dart into the Red Devils' hopes of a second straight team title.
"It's all about staying alive for another match at this point," Walters said.
Benet's Tim Martin-Mark Angel (15-7), who proved to be giant killers Thursday, failed to upend the biggest giant of them all -- the No. 1 seed Highland Park's pair of Ben Woldenberg-Sam Barnett in their opening match in the championship bracket.
But after dropping a 6-2, 7-5 match that saw the Redwings close to grabbing the second set from the top seed, the Martin-Angel duo ran off a victory over 17-32 seed Barrington's Matt Barns and Alex Nemz in three sets -- before 5-8 seed Oak Park-River Forest's Tim Martin and Devin Jones earned a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
"I guess we'll never know how the boys might have done if they would have stolen that second set from Highland Park," said Benet coach Michael Hand after watching Angel hold serve to put the pair up 5-2.
Woldenberg, who last season earned a fourth-place medal along with Justin Lewis, ended the match with a booming ace as the Giants won the next five games.
"We gave 6 set points," said Martin, who with his partner had stunned 9-16 seed Rockford Auburn in their second-round match Thursday before turning out the lights of 17-32 seed Latin 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
"We came back from being down 0-4 in our third set with Auburn, then thought we were hot when we went up 4-0 against Latin," Angel said.
"It was like a dream come true for Mark and I this weekend," the Notre Dame-bound Martin said. "We were the only unseeded team in the final 16, and we played some great three-set matches that we'll never forget.
In singles Wheaton Warrenville South sophomore Jimmy Li won a pair of matches in the backdraw before his tournament ended with a loss to 9-16 Ben Mirkin of New Trier in straight sets.
Kyle Dawson of St. Francis was defeated in his only backdraw match 6-4, 6-2 to 5-8 seed Matt Goralka of Payton.
In addition to the 8 a.m. backdraw matches today, semifinal play in the championship round at both singles and doubles starts at 9 a.m. at tourney host Hersey.
In the team standings, Hinsdale Central trails Stevenson 34-33, with New Trier third with 32 points.