Boys tennis: Benet closes in on ESCC title
Boys tennis
Benet Academy coach Michael Hand, the East Suburban Catholic Conference boys tennis tournament director, made the right call on Thursday when he chose to have the first day of the conference continue as long as there was daylight.
The move paid off for all, particularly the defending conference champion Redwings, Nazareth and St. Viator. They left Friday as the top three teams, with just a few finals left, and those scheduled to be played indoors Saturday.
"It was a very good day for St. Viator tennis," said Lions coach Amy Ritchie, whose team completed play at all five levels and is 6 points ahead of Carmel Catholic (36-30) and in third place. "All three of our teams at doubles were top-four medal-inners, with our No. 1 team of Matt Firestone/Jack Aiello third overall with a terrific performance, and my No. 2 (Matt McManaman/Andrew Kicinski) second to Benet.
"Bobby Douglas/Jack Beletti played really well to get us a fourth-place medal at No. 3 doubles and 18 points overall at that position."
The Lions outscored Nazareth in doubles 18-17.
Still to be decided is the final at No. 1 singles between defending ESCC champ Nick Hebda of Notre Dame and Nazareth sophomore Michael Rooney. Also left is the No. 1 doubles match, where Benet's Danny McGuigan/Casey Schrader takes on the top seed, Marian Central Catholic's Michael Dowlings/Ian Brzeski.
Benet Academy enjoys a slim 42-39 lead in the team race, with two matches yet to complete.
Mid-Suburban League: Rain delayed the Friday start of the MSL tourney at its three venues, including tournament host Hoffman Estates. But once the courts were dry, play began and the top seeds at each of the seven flights advanced into Saturday's 8 a.m. start.
Bradley Yu (Barrington, 13-2) and Max Sheldon (13-4) of Hersey are on a collision course at No. 1 singles after the top two seeds breezed past their first-round opponents.
Yu's teammate at No. 2 singles, freshman Ammar Wazir (16-2), easily advanced, as did the No. 2 seed Kevin Mi (11-3) of Hersey, who needed three sets to go past Phil Kotis of Prospect.
With three starters out of his lineup, Conant coach Dave Koleno was forced to switch a few players around for the tournament, including his top doubles team of Nico Rosas/Kaahan Motwani, with Motwani away at the Business Professionals Association National Tournament.
Koleno installed his terrific No. 3 (Shashank Yerraguntia) alongside Rosas, and the Cougars duo was immediately pushed to the brink by Buffalo Grove's Marko Konjevic/Chris Louras in a three-set thriller.
On the other side of the bracket, the No. 2 seed from Barrington, Matt D'Amore/Aryan Sharma, easily moved its overall record to 14-6.
Finals are scheduled at Hoffman Estates, but prior to that, Schaumburg welcomes Nos. 2 singles and doubles, Conant No. 3 singles and doubles, and the host Hawks has No. 1 singles and doubles in addition to sharing one-half of No. 4 doubles draw with Schaumburg.
- Mike Garofola