Saints, Marmion tie for second at Geneva invite
Lincoln Way East proved to be just a little bit better than Marmion and St. Charles East.
The Cadets and Saints tied for second place with 13 points and the Griffins finished with 14 points to win Saturday's 17th annual Geneva boys tennis invitational.
Marmion did most of its damage by picking up a pair of championship victories. Chris Patterman beat Oswego's Ben Petkus 6-2, 6-1 in second singles and Bubba Weiler and John Mason defeated Geneva's Colin Rapp and Filip Ivkovic 6-3, 6-4 in first doubles.
"I was very proud with what we did," Marmion coach Pat Maurer said. "We were very close to winning."
Patterman had little trouble putting away Petkus who appeared disinterested and agitated in the match.
"(Patterman's) worked on his game and gotten stronger," Maurer said.
The first doubles finals certainly had local flavor and offered standout singles player Ivkovic the opportunity to give doubles a spin.
"He hasn't played much doubles before," Geneva coach Peter Burkhardt said. "He's learning that game and that's what these invitationals are for, to see if they have chemistry."
The powerful serve of Mason and the chemistry of the Marmion duo proved too much for Geneva.
"It was really windy today so we focused on serves and returns," Mason said. "I thought we hit some nice shots and did a nice job of setting each other up."
St. Charles East fell short in its two championship matches as Paul Reiff was knocked off by Lincoln-Way East's Kamil Cwikla 6-0, 6-2 in first singles and Sam Leopardo and Nick Maze fell in the second doubles finals 6-1, 6-4 also to the Griffins.
"I was happy overall with getting second place," Saints coach Rob Livermore said. "Overall the guys had a good day and played well and it was a tight finish only losing by one point."
The host Vikings finished in fourth place with 9 points. The second doubles team of Peter LeGrand and Ryan Barnard won a hard fought match against DeKalb 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 before falling to Leopardo and Maze from St. Charles East 6-0, 6-1.