Doubles does the trick for St. Charles North
St. Charles North's boys tennis team puts a great deal of stock in their weekend tournament play.
The North Stars make a habit of facing some of the state's best teams in highly competitive invites. And while it's great for a team to hone its skills against tough competition, it's also fun to win the tournament.
Led by a powerful performance by its doubles teams, the North Stars won the West Aurora Invite Saturday afternoon. Playing in a two-singles, three-doubles structure, the North Stars swept their doubles matches.
"We got good performances up and down in our doubles matches, and that was the best thing for us," St. Charles North coach said Tim Matacio said.
St. Charles North's top doubles team of David Johnson and John Mittvick overcame a pesky effort by Glenbard West's Pete Simon and Matt Judson for a 6-1, 7-6 (4) win in the tournament championship.
"We let it slide a little in the second set, but they played a good match," Johnson said.
It was the only true challenge that Johnson and Mittvick (16-2) faced after quick, straight set wins over Joliet Township and Timothy Christian.
"In every match, we seemed to start slow in the first few games, but after that we were pretty much on," Mittvick said.
Nikhil Mehta and Dan Oakes (No. 2), and Patrick Corrigan and Parker Featherston (No. 3) also won their three matches in straight sets.
Over on the singles side, Christian Hoskey won two out of three.
"Christian played really well against some solid players, and had a couple of nice wins," Matacio said.
The North Stars began their day with a 5-0 win over Joliet Township, then gutted out a 3-2, second-round edge of Timothy Christian, before beating Glenbard West 4-1 in the final.
Glenbard West freshman Matt Hirsh was responsible for his team's lone win in the championship, turning in a steady, nearly error-free performance over Felix Nitzsche, 6-1, 6-1.
St. Charles East came up just short in the third-place match against Timothy Christian. Still, coach Sena Drawer was pleased with her players' effort throughout the day.
"I love this tournament because it gives you a chance to mix up your lineup a bit," Drawer said. "We're a very young team, but we saw some great growth today."
St. Charles East's Sam Leopardo and Nick Romano won two of their No. 1 doubles matches, including a key, 4-6, 7-5 (10-3) win over Timothy Christian's Tom Griffin and Will Roeloffs.
"It was frustrating that we lost the first set, because I thought we should've won it," Romano said.
Both of the wins for Leopardo and Roman, beginning with an early morning match against West Aurora, came off tie-breakers, which made for a long day of tennis for the duo.
"We played well, we hit good returns in the first match," Leopardo said.
Geneva's day got off to a tough start with a first-round loss to Timothy Christian in which their top doubles team of Wes Kappel and Collin Rapp provided the only win. But the Vikings bounced back after that by beating Joliet Township in round two, on their way to winning the consolation bracket.
West Aurora freshman Matt Kuntzi won all three of his matches in straight sets. But, unfortunately for the host Blackhawks, it wasn't enough as his team came up short in all three of its matches.
"We have a lot talent, and we're building," West Aurora coach Adam Camp said. "The biggest thing for us now is learning how to win the points that we set ourselves up to win."