Neuqua dominates field, qualifies entire lineup
Neuqua Valley got almost everything it wanted out of Saturday's West Aurora boys tennis sectional finals.
The Wildcats easily won the overall team competition with 24 points, and sent all six of their players through to next week's state tournament.
"We've been very fortunate over the years in how we've performed at the sectional," Neuqua Valley coach Trudy Bennorth said. "We felt like we were prepared for it, and ready for the matches to start."
But the sectional's individual highlights belonged to Waubonsie Valley's Mandela Shepard who cruised through the first three rounds, then swept Neuqua Valley's Amrit Bhaskarla, 6-2, 6-2 in the finals.
Neuqua Valley owned both halves of the doubles final as Skeeter Plowman and Chase Perry rallied from a shaky start to beat Joe Pulka and Brent Handy, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
"Both of our doubles teams are very strong, and we're excited about how well they're playing," Bennorth said.
Waubonsie Valley's Gary Sheng and Chris Utterback made fast work of IMSA seniors Jae Kim and Ashwin Ugale to win the third place match, 6-0, 6-1.
The Warriors finished second in the team standings with 13 points.
The top four finishers in doubles as well as singles qualify for the state tournament, and that means Marmion's Tom Weiler will be making the trip for the first time after beating IMSA's Joe Ou, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
"He's a good player, but I played (Ou) earlier in the season and beat him," Weiler said. "So after I lost the first set I knew I just had to stay focused and stay in the game."
The Marmion senior went on to capture the third place title by beating Neuqua Valley's Jose Cadena in one of the sectional's few close matches, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6.
To win the match Weiler had to rally from a 5-1 deficit in the third set, then win a tie-breaker.
"We're thrilled to see Tom make it through," Marmion coach Pat Maurer said. "He's been our team's leader for a long time."
Weiler's performance led the young Cadets to a third place finish with 11 overall points.
"We got all four of our teams through the first round, and we're very exited about that," Maurer said. "Luke Birant, our sophomore singles player, played a very good first match, then ran into Mandela Shepard in the second round, but that was good experience for him."
The host Blackhawks, another team that like the Cadets will be returning most of its sectional lineup, won three of its four first round matches before going up against players from the top two teams in the quarterfinals.
West Aurora collected 6 points, to finish in a fourth place tie with IMSA.
Batavia earned 2 points. Those came when Jordan Broadway beat East Aurora's Gus Campos, 6-0, 6-2 in the opening round.
Broadway dropped his next match, however, getting eliminated by Cadena, 6-4, 6-3.