St. Charles N. qualifies 5 for state
All the area boys tennis teams extended their seasons on Friday, as St. Charles North, Batavia, West Aurora, Geneva, St. Charles East, Marmion and IMSA all qualified players for next week’s state tournament, and advanced to Saturday’s semifinal rounds in sectionals at IMSA and St. Charles East.
As expected, top-seeded Josh Cogan will once again be representing the Bulldogs at state after sweeping both of his matches at West Aurora.
“He was focused, and all over the court today,” Batavia coach Bob Kummer said.
Cogan began the tournament by beating Marmion’s Kevin Hoss, 6-0, 6-0, before taking care of IMSA’s Nolan Maloney, 6-0,6-1.
“The key was to just keep doing what I’ve been doing the entire season,” Cogan said. “When you get on the court you still have to play your match and win twelve games.”
On Saturday, Cogan will be competing to repeat as sectional champ. His opponent in the semifinals will be West Aurora junior Matt Kuntzi, who won a challenging three-setter over Mike Mihailescu of Naperville North.
“He earned it,” West Aurora coach Adam Camp said. “There were a lot of times when he was down and he managed to pull it out.”
After dropping the first set, 6-0, Kuntzi trailed 4-3 in the second when he broke serve and went on to win.
But whatever momentum Kuntzi might’ve had vanished as he started cramping on in the third set, forcing a temporary stoppage in play, and trailed 5-4 before rallying to win the set, 7-5.
“Matt left everything on the court today,” Camp said.
As big as it was for the Blackhawks to send a player to state after a long drought, the excitement was just as huge in the Marmion camp as the doubles team of sophomore Jackson Rettig and junior Will Graft needed 3 sets to beat higher seeded Mike Cioffi and Patrick Zhao of Waubonsie Valley, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.
“I knew coming in that if they played their game they could go far in this tournament,” Marmion coach John Tsang said. “There was a lot of ebb and flow to this last match, but they really held it together in the third set.”
The Cadet duo played the match they had to play, as they attacked the net and forced errors, while keeping their own mistakes to a minimum.
“The first set was pretty intense,” Graft said. “The tiebreaker was just solid, clean tennis.”
After quickly winning the tiebreaker in the opening set, the Cadets became somewhat tentative in the second, but got back into a groove in the third to close out the match.
“We just had to stay positive and hit our shots,” Rettig said.
Batavia’s doubles team of Connor Propp and Luke Kuzmanic won their opener over East Aurora before getting eliminated by Naperville Central’s Danny Albert and Gautham Bala.
Bulldog freshman Ryan Sterling won his twentieth match of the season by beating first round opponent Rickey Angsten of Marmion, 7-5, 6-3, after trailing 5-2 in the first set.
“It was my first sectional match, so I was a little nervous and I started out kind of rough,” Sterling said. “I started moving my feet in the second set, and moving into the net a lot more.”
Sterling bowed out in the qualifying round, losing to a solid, disciplined performance by Waubonsie Valley junior Abhi Singh, a three-time state qualifier.
“It was hot out there, and he was a very good player, so the key was to stay focused,” Singh said.
Marmion’s doubles team of Chris Pattermann and John Graft also notched a win before getting eliminated in the qualifying round with a loss to IMSA’s Gary Sheng and Nathan Yan.
At the St. Charles East sectional, the North Stars qualified both doubles teams, and Dominick Almaraj, who beat Geneva’s West Adelman 6-4, 6-3.
“Dominick has improved every day this season,” St. Charles North coach Sean Masoncup said. “West is a great player, and they both battled today.”
Top-seeded John Mittvick and Danny Oakes will be returning to state, though this will be their first trip as a doubles team.
“Their serves and returns were on,” Masoncup said. “When they play the way they did today they are very hard to beat.”
Parker Featherston and Pat Corrigan will also be advancing to Saturday’s semifinals and to next week’s state tournament. It will be a return trip for Featherston, but the first time for fellow senior Corrigan.
“I’m so happy for Pat,” Masoncup said. “It will be a great experience for him.”
St. Charles East’s singles players Jasper Koenen and Justin Bowman also won both of their matches to qualify for the state tournament and move on to Saturday’s semis.
The Saints, Vikings, and North Stars will also be battling for the sectional team title Saturday.
“We got ourselves into a good position,” Masoncup said. “Now we will see where the chips fall.”