North Stars blank Saints
The North Stars needed to do more than simply beat their cross-town rivals in Tuesday afternoon's showdown at St. Charles North.
In order to keep pace with Upstate Eight leading Neuqua Valley and maintain their hopes of winning this weekend's conference tournament, the North Stars (16-3, 9-1) needed to win every match.
And that's exactly what they did, despite a game effort by the Saints (5-7, 5-4) and a brisk breeze that turned ordinary volleys into unpredictable thrill rides.
"Usually, wind like what we had today works as an equalizer," St. Charles North coach Tim Matacio said.
But there was nothing equal about the two squads, as the far more experienced North Stars won every match in straight sets.
"We saw the effect of our being a young and inexperienced team playing against a North team that is exceptionally strong this year," St. Charles East coach Sena Drawer said.
The North Stars' dominance began at the top, where Felix Nitzsche fought off Paul Reiff, 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 1 singles match.
"Felix played very smart on both sides of the net and he was able to control the wind," Matacio said. "Paul is a good player and Felix had to play well to beat him."
Christian Hoskey made fast work of his No. 2 singles match against Nick Maze, 6-1, 6-1, while Alex Enskat survived a strong second set performance by Nick Niemiec to win at third singles, 6-0, 7-5.
On the doubles side, David Johnston John Mitvick got off to a fast start and quickly put away Sam Leopardo and Nick Romano, 6-0, 6-0.
"With this wind today, we just had to play consistent and keep putting the ball in play," Johnson said.
The North Stars' top duo improved to 23-4 with the win, and were already looking forward to the conference meet as soon as the match was over.
"Our games are coming together, but we can push ourselves a little bit more, and that's what we need to do," Mitvick said.
Nikhil Mehta and Dan Oakes beat Ryan McNally and David O'Dell, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 2.
The Saints' youngest duo, the No. 3 doubles team of freshman Connor Davis and sophomore Sam Decker, turned in one their team's best performances, dropping a pair tightly contested sets to Patrick Corrigan and Parker Featherson, 6-4, 6-4.
"They were the team that handled the pressure best today," Drawer said. "Connor has grown by leaps and bounds as a tennis player, and that is encouraging Sam, who looked great today."
Ludvig Runestam and Kyle Pashan closed out the sweep by beating and Justin Liss and Charlie Schukas, 6-3, 6-0.
Despite the lack of competitive balance between the two teams this season, the rivalry has grown into a fun, and good natured family feud.
"You always want to step it up and play a little bit better against East," Johnson said, then headed over to join his teammates and members of the Saints' team for some postgame pizza.