Boys tennis: Hackman stays unbeaten at Carmel

Vernon Hills and Prairie Ridge dominated the doubles action on Friday in the Carmel Catholic boys tennis sectional, taking all four spots.

In singles, Wauconda senior Brian Hackman looked unbeatable in his two victories to secure a third straight state appearance.

"I'm feeling as good as I possible can," said Hackman (16-0), who will be joined by teammate Dev Patel (17-5) in the Class 1A state field after holding off Vernon Hills standout Rohan Vasudeva in two hard-fought sets.

Hackman, who took nearly 3½ months off last summer to rest and rehab a shoulder he injured last year, has his eye on getting to the state final - much like his sister Sarah did last fall.

"My sister set the bar high after her second-place finish last year, so that's the goal for me - to get in the final, and winning it all," said the Bulldogs senior, who will play next fall at Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Mich.

Vasudeva's heartbreaking loss was tempered by the success of the Cougars' doubles teams. Andrey Shor/Pranav Vaswani (10-3) and Matt Nguyen/Nikhil Mangtani (13-5) both advanced into Saturday's 9 a.m. semifinals.

Shor/Vaswani were pushed to the brink by the top team from St. Viator (Matt Firestone/Jack Aiello) in their qualifying match, which the Cougars won in a third-set tiebreaker to end the Lions' season.

"What an unbelievable match that was, both teams played awesome tennis," said Lions coach Amy Ritchie.

Next up for Shor/Vaswani is No. 1 seed Prairie Ridge (Daniel Lomer/Patrick Nasta).

at Cary-Grove: Mid-Suburban League champion Barrington is way out ahead of the field after collecting four bids to the state tournament Friday afternoon in Cary.

In singles, Bradley Yu (16-3) and Ammar Wazir (20-2) are safely through to the semis. Likewise for the doubles teams of Dylan Er/Kyle Shuff (16-2) and Suven Sinha/Aryan Sharma, who were just put together after Matt D'Amore suffered a season-ending injury at the MSL tournament last weekend.

Sinha, a conference champ at No. 2 doubles with Joe Wolff, took over for D'Amore.

"I'm really happy with our effort today - we played hard, and we'll need to do the same thing tomorrow in order to win the team title here," said Broncos coach John Roncone.

Wazir, a freshman, will be opposite No. 1 seed Kerwin Chong (29-4). The other semi features No. 2 seed Yu against Johnny Wallace of Crystal Lake Central.

While the Broncos doubles teams were dispatching their opponent with relative ease, tourney host Cary-Grove had something to celebrate when its doubles team of Mike Ptaszek/Daniel Sowa (4-0) advanced against conference rival Huntley.

"Those two were a last-minute pairing for sectionals, but they have been two of my hardest-working and most dedicated players on and off the court, so I could not be more proud of those guys," said Cary-Grove coach Amanda Schuetzle.

The semifinals are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cary-Grove.

at Glenbrook South: The hopes Jason Elangical/Kamil Kozerski had of reaching the Class 2A state field came to an end when the Maine West doubles team fell to Central Suburban League rival Glenbrook South (Soyler/Deborin) 6-2, 6-4 in their state-qualifying match at Wood Oaks Park in Northbrook.

The Warriors duo, recently put together by coach Derek Swistak, won twice before being eliminated by the No. 5-6 seed Titans.

It will be an all-Glenbrook semifinals this morning at doubles, with the likely final between No. 1 Glenbrook South (Adas/Blekhman) vs. No. 2 GBN (Riad/Park), now 16-5 after their two victories Friday.

In singles, all eyes will be on an expected final between state runner-up Danilo Kovacevic (Maine South) and Michael Bukhalo (Glenbrook South).

Play is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

at Highland Park: A late afternoon rainshower halted play with a pair of matches still on the court in Highland Park. Action will resume at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

Hersey freshman Max Sheldon (18-4) showed why he was the clear No. 1 seed after two quick results advanced the MSL singles champ into the state tournament. No. 2 seed Jeremy Learner (14-6) of Highland Park.

Freshman Casey Hishinuma (18-7) of Fremd made the singles semifinals, along with teammates Andrew Yin/Sean Hishinuma (16-8) at doubles. They will wait to see if Advay Mahajan/Arjun Srivasta can get by MSL rival Hersey (Jace Coffaro/Kevin Mi).

Another terrific freshman from the MSL, Jackson Spurck (15-8) of Palatine, is in the middle of his qualifier with the No. 4 seed, Charlie Chernawsky of Deerfield.

The host Giants surprised the doubles field with a pair of brand new teams for this tournament, and each advanced to the semis.

at Lake Park: Just as wet weather postponed play at Highland Park, the same fate visited the Lake Park sectional. Play was stopped at about 3 p.m. but resumed a short while later and ultimately was completed.

In doubles, the No. 1 seed from Glenbard West (Griff Foster/Christo Maltby, 17-4) had little trouble in making the semis. Likewise for the No. 3 seed frp, Wheaton Warrenville South (Jack Lillig/Paul Choi). Second-seeded Conant (Nico Rosas/Vera Iyer) struggled in their opener before rolling into the tournament, joining teammates Kaahan Motwani/Andrew Milas in the state field.

"I know I wasn't at my best in that first match with Wheaton North, but Vera picked me up when we needed him to, and once we got it together, we were much better the rest of the way," said Rosas.

Coach Dave Koleno's decision to place Rosas' usual partner, Motwani, with No. 2 singles standout Milas proved to be a stroke of genious with their advancement.

The Foster/Maltby team will be heading to state along with singles standout Alex Kernagis, who did not lose a game during his two matches. Hilltoppers freshman Andrew Immink was equally impressive in qualifying.

"To some, Glenbard West is not recognized much in the sport of tennis, but our team this year has depth and talent, so we could surprise some people next weekend at state," said Foster, a 2017 state qualifier at doubles with Kernagis.

Kevin Li (Wheaton North) and Phasu Sirinit (Wheaton Warrenville South) round out the singles semifinal entrants as the top four seeds held serve.

Tournament officials will begin calling matches at 9 a.m. Saturday.

at Stevenson: The host Patriots easily qualified all four of its teams on Friday at the VHAC complex and hope to close out matches against North Suburban Conference rivals Lake Forest and Libertyville today when day No. 2 begins at 8 a.m.

The Patriots lead the race for the team title with 16 points, 2 more than Lake Forest, and 4 better than Libertyville.

Top singles seeds Sam Komis (19-1) and Zach Kim (19-0) led the way for the league champions. Those two conceded a combined four games on the day in advacing to the semifinals.

Eric Perkowski/Sai Merneedi (16-1) will be making their first state appearance after a pair of straight-set victories on Friday, while Arjun Sheelvanth/Ozzie Viswanathan (17-5) are on their way to a second straight trip to the state tournament following two 6-0, 6-0 wins.

Libertyville's Nathan Valley/Kenny Herrmann made it two straight tourneys themselves after outlasting Lake Forest (Warren/McEvoy) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in their qualifying match.