Boys tennis: Huntley’s Geske shows off improved power with perfect day at Deerfield quad

Huntley junior ace Will Geske rested his tennis rackets during spring break last week, choosing to visit eight colleges in the New York and Boston areas.

“I’m a little rusty,” said the Red Raider at Saturday’s Deerfield boys tennis quad.

It hardly showed.

Geske, a two-time Class 2A state qualifier, went 3-0 at No. 1 singles against a tough trio in chilly conditions, dropping only 1 set and whacking clean groundstroke winners that turned heads and bruised the courts’ chain-link fences.

“That forehand of his, it’s traveling faster over the net this year,” Huntley coach Kris Grabner said.

“I worked on flattening the stroke, hoping to add a bit more power to it,” said Geske, who defeated Libertyville’s Chase Peirce 6-1, 6-4, Warren’s Archit Prakash 4-6, 6-2 (10-4 super tiebreaker) and Deerfield’s Konrad Piotrowski 6-2, 6-2.

Geske split four singles matches at each of the last two Class 2A state tournaments but played a top-8-state-seed brand of tennis Saturday, particularly when he painted the deep segments of lines with his smooth on-the-rise groundstrokes.

“I was feeding tennis balls to Will in a drill at practice one day and decided to put one in my pocket,” recalled Grabner. “At the end of practice, I took it out and showed it to the team, asking, ‘Who’s responsible for the ball looking like this? They all knew Will was because the ball no longer had fuzz.”

The Blue Devils’ Prakash, a senior and a Class 2A state qualifier in singles two years ago, had sound answers against Geske in their first set, hustling to track down shots to the corners and rolling deep groundstrokes via his cool-looking one-handed backhand — a rare weapon for a teenaged netter.

“Archit likes to play big, likes to go for deep shots,” Warren coach Michael Edler said. “But he also plays good defensive tennis when necessary.”

Libertyville seniors Jack Gerber and Carson Leighton played together at No. 2 doubles against Deerfield’s Steven Jiang/Josh Koyfman. The Libertyville pairing was Wildcats coach Dan Kiernan’s Sons of Tennis Coaches Duo, since Gerber’s father is Vernon Hills coach Doug Gerber and Leighton’s father is Deerfield coach Josh Leighton.

Both dads were on hand, with Mr. Gerber’s Cougars off this weekend and Mr. Leighton serving as helmsman of his Warriors and tournament director of the quad.

“It’s nice having a dad who’s also a coach,” Carroll University-bound Carson Leighton said. “He likes to tell me, ‘Serve and volley, finish the point quickly.’”

“My dad,” Jack Gerber said, “always reminds me, ‘Be aggressive. Aggressiveness is key.’”

Gerber/Leighton, alas, lost 6-4, 6-2 but looked like a formidable twosome at times, pounding overhead winners and punching sharp volleys to the open court. Jiang/Koyfman’s collective consistency was the difference.

Gerber got cleared medically last week to return to the court nine months after suffering ACL, MCL and meniscus tears in his left knee at a summer camp. The popular, fun-loving Wildcat underwent surgery on Aug. 11, 2024.

“It’s good to be back,” Gerber said between his second and third matches.

Deerfield topped the field with a 3-0 record, followed by Libertyville (2-1), Huntley (1-2) and Warren (0-3). Each dual featured two singles matches and three doubles matches.

Libertyville’s Peirce, a sophomore and returning Class 2A state qualifier in singles, won 2 of 3 matches at No. 1.

“Chase chose to play up in summer tournaments, going against the big boys in the 18s (age group),” said Kiernan, in his 30th season at Libertyville. “He wanted to battle older, better players to improve his game.”

Libertyville downed Warren 5-0 in a North Suburban Conference clash Saturday that won’t count in the NSC regular-season standings. The Wildcats’ winners, in addition to Peirce, were Michael Barhoum (No. 2 singles); Gerber/Chethan Nickerson (No. 1 doubles); Leighton/Eric Li (No. 2 doubles); and Jake Sesi/Isaac Biggerstaff (No. 3 doubles).