Elgin snags 1st sectional title since 1988
Elgin’s Eric Chai and Sakda Kethdy were momentarily distracted during their third-place match on Saturday at the IHSA Elgin boys tennis sectional.
The duo couldn’t help but cheer as teammate Mikel Canovas won his first singles title by pulling off an upset of South Elgin’s Andre Norasith in 3 sets (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).
Chai and Kethdy quickly refocused and scored a 3-set victory over Jacobs’ Kingsley Bernardo and Kristian Bernardo (7-5, 2-6, 7-5).
The victories sent Elgin to its first sectional team title since 1988 on its own court with the Maroons (21 points) just edging out defending sectional champion South Elgin (20). Dundee-Crown (16), Jacobs (14) and Hampshire (14) rounded out the top 5.
“It all came down to that third-place match for the team title,” Maroons’ coach Larry DeHaan said. “That’s a great win for Mikel. Andre is a great player. That goes down as one of his best wins ever.”
Norasith had defeated Canovas three times earlier in the season. The sophomore looked to do the same jumping out to a 6-4 victory in the first set. Then Canovas, a senior, endured the 90-degree heat to defeat Norasith in the final two sets.
“In the second and third sets, I was getting more balls,” said Canovas, who finished third in last year’s sectional. “Andre, we’ve played three times before and he’s beaten me every time.”
South Elgin and Elgin were tied for first place after the Storm’s No. 1 doubles team Francis Manzano and Aayush Patel used their quickness on the court to take a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Dundee-Crown’s team of Eric Martin and Brad Spangenberg.
“That was pretty high quality match,” Chargers’ coach Harlan Miller said. “I enjoyed the sportsmanship. (Manzano and Patel) were excellent players.”
After the No. 1 doubles win, South Elgin needed Elgin to lose the final two matches in order to win the team title.
“I’m happy for them,” said Storm coach Brett Johnson, who played for Elgin. “They came out and did exactly what they needed to do. We have three excellent gentlemen going to state.”
Elgin Academy’s Charlie Vogel advanced to the next weekend’s IHSA state meet with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Hampshire’s Christian Dela Cruz in the third-place match. Vogel fell 6-2, 7-5 to Canovas in the semifinal match, but marks his third-straight trip to the state meet.
“I played a really good match against Mikel,” Vogel said. “I felt like I was playing on my game. It was super hot and everyone was dying, but there was a lot of good tennis out there.”