Scouting the Cook County and Lake County boys tennis season
Here’s a look at what to expect this spring for boys tennis teams in Cook and Lake County.
ANTIOCH
The Sequoits were sixth in the Northern Lake County Conference a year ago.
Third-year varsity player Nathan Sy, a junior, is back along with senior Taylor Linderman and junior Brian Geiger while freshman Dominic Nawrocki joins the team.
"Our boys have a desire to get better ," said coach Jamie DeAndrea. “We should be competitive and compete well with everyone even with more experience."
BARRINGTON
The Broncos were seventh in the state in Class 2A last year, MSL West champs and Cary Grove sectional winners.
Coach John Roncone's troops return state qualifiers seniors Hadi Dossani, Shian Mittal and Sohan Yousfi.
Others back with experience are seniors Omkar Gowda and Dhruv Patari and juniors Aarush Joshi and Ishaan Gowda. Freshman Derrick Katayama seeks playing time.
“The MSL has great teams which include Conant, Fremd and Hersey,” said Roncone. “We can compete with them. We can compete with the top teams this year and for years to come."
CARMEL CATHOLIC
The Corsairs return Class 1A state qualifier Jack Doyle as Gina Borkowski's team moves up to 2A this season.
“We want the boys competing at the highest level," said Borkowski. ”We made adjustments to our regular season schedule to prepare us for 2A.“
CONANT
The Cougars were second in Class 2A and fourth in the MSL in 2025. Matt Marks’ crew finished 17-5 in dual meets.
State qualifiers back are juniors Kabir Motwani (second in the state in singles), the doubles team of Maximus Rysz-Austin Wu (fifth in state) and the the doubles team of Haruki Watanabe-Nathan Desai (top 16).
Sophomore Carter Strillich also returns while the Cougars add junior Puneeth Chandrasekaran, sophomores Rafael Yamoto Jean, Raj Mehta, Anish Alavandi and Aaryan Asija and freshman Kerim Ates.
"We are turning (our) focus to consistency," said Marks. “We are putting ourselves in position for another deep postseason run. We are in the toughest in the conference. We finished second in the state but fourth in the MSL. We want to take the next step and compete for the conference championship. We return our entire lineup from the second place team in the state. We had a talented group of sophomores last year.”
FREMD
The Vikings (17-5) were second in the MSL, third in the sectionals and 11th in the state in 2025. After losing five 3-year varsity players, the 2026 season will be a rebuilding one for coach Johnny Kent.
Back are seniors Stan Zeng, Mantra Mittal and Kristof Kovacs and junior Leroy Jing.
Newcomers are seniors Aditya Anand, Ryan Lee and Varvan Hegde, juniors Karthik Senthill, Rihaan Ghia, Josh Vergese and Ren Hashimoto and freshman Koki Wakita.
"We need to replace a lot of experienced players," said Kent. “Despite the losses we have to turn the page. The MSL is the toughest conference in the state. Barrington looks like the top team top to bottom. They will be the top team until someone beats them. We need to grow every match. We lost a lot of experience and play a difficult schedule. We are battled test and will be ready for conference, sectionals and state.”
GRANT
Four-year starter senior Kyle McDonough and senior Tyler Roepke are back for the Bulldogs. Sophomore Nate Reimer seeks court time.
“We want to improve our skills and match results as the season goes on," said 13th-year coach Max Boton.
GRAYSLAKE CENTRAL
The Rams, under veteran coach Charles Lawson, were second in the NLCC, won the Lake Park Invitational and were second at the Grayslake North tournament.
Lawson returns a veteran team led by senior Class 1A all-stater Samay Patel. Others back are seniors Eshaan Varma, Andrew Varblow, Shane Mussay, Jaden Beres, Parker Postol, Howie Gomams, Oliver Blenniss and Asher Pelletier. Juniors Riley Taylor and Carter Wentzell and sophomore Taylor Flood join the team.
"We have a number of returning seniors," said Lawson. “We should do very well in the conference and during the season."
GRAYSLAKE NORTH
The Knights, coached by Katharine Cole, are led by senior Aidan Murphy and junior Chris George.
HOFFMAN ESTATES
The Hawks return seniors Jan Tyrka, Chael Clemente, Azhar Ahmed and Bratidra Thati along with junior Rahul Nanna and sophomore Shrihan Kolli.
Newcomers are seniors Erick Fuentes and Hansen Du, junior Sai Sriram, sophomores Mithul Kamal and Hriday Viswanathan and freshman Krithik Prabhu.
“We have young players with real talent,” said coach Edgar Ramirez. “We want to rise to the occasion. We want to finish near the top of conference (MSL). We want to finish with a winning record.”
LAKES
The Eagles were fourth in the Northern Lake County Conference and fourth in their 1A sectional.
Back for Bryan Plinske's squad are seniors Cal Bradley (17-9), Dhruv Patel and Baasim Akhtar along with junior Blaine Lasky (10-9).
Newcomers are seniors Ethan Rodriguez and Dheeraj Sarathy, junior Clayton Barker, sophomores Josh Eickhoff, Christian Hok and Christian and freshmen Arjun Giridharen and Aniketh Balaji.
"We have 11 solid starters and have a great mix of experience and youth," said Plinske. “The season looks promising. He hope to build on success from last year. We have young players pushing the older guys who are trying to hold onto their positions. We have speed at several positions.”
LIBERTYVILLE
The Wildcats return state qualifiers senior Chetham Nickerson and junior Chase Peirce.
Senior Rashaan Mathews, juniors Charlie Sandberg and Ryan Santhoshkumar and sophomore William Mickiewicz also return. Mickiewicz missed his freshman year because of injury.
The Wildcats add seniors Gabriel DeCroes, Sarper Dogan, Karl Tyll, Josh John and Jeremy John and sophomores Surya Melyappan and Lukasz Ilkow.
“We want to qualify at least two spots for the state finals," said coach Dan Kiernan.
LAKE ZURICH
The Bears were fifth in the NSC a year ago and bring back seniors Aarav Amin, Jack Draghici, Szymon Mikowski and Josh Kabarical to join senior newcomers Ed Demyanov and Max Bryer, sophomores Mihir Shrivathsa, Luke Miles and Ben Orentes and freshman Aarav Patel.
"We want to be in the middle of the pack in the conference," said coach Mike Byrd.
MAINE SOUTH
The Hawks finished fifth in the CSL South, third at sectionals and 30th in the state.
Sophomore Jovan Stoja returns as a state qualifier. Also back are juniors Aaron Kulesza and Alex Kolev along with sophomores Nick Channon and Conrad Stanek.
Newcomers are senior Jack Gallagher and freshman Krystian Kostav.
“The CSL South is the toughest conference in the state top to bottom," said coach Gerald Smith. ”We want to improve on our fifth-place finish in the conference. We return many of our top players from last year. We are hungry to compete and are optimistic about the season."
MUNDELEIN
The Mustangs were 10-9 overall and were fifth in the NSCC.
Returners are seniors Spencer Sauer (Illinois Wesleyan), Dirk Anderson, Rishi Sahu and Conner Schoo along with juniors Alan Fisher, Ben Emso, Sneh Shah, Anthony Vynnyk and Ivan Petkov and sophomore Bruce Dumblauskas. Newcomers are freshmen Ben Klugman and Tyler Snowden.
"We are strengthening our nonconference schedule," said Ryan Jump. “We want to play multiple good teams on the state. We can flex our depth. We don't have any courts on campus set up for success. We have 11 starters back and two new freshmen will make an impact."
PROSPECT
The Knights were fourth in the MSL, third in sectionals and 32nd in the state last season, going 11-8 in dual meets. They return seniors Ondrej Subr, Channuri Park, Colin Hinchey and David Collas and add freshmen Kyle Zhang and Arthur Seta.
"We want to ride that positivity from last season's postseason," said coach Patrick Weber. “We are grateful and we return a group of motivated, experienced players ready to compete. We have one of the most stacked conferences in the state. We are focused on perfecting the process day in and out. We want a strong showing in the conference and beat last year's results."
ROLLING MEADOWS
Coach Jesse Burleson returns nine players from last season.
Seniors back include Marcel Stankiewicz, Peter Coon, Evan Kallas, Dylan Paddock, Kevin Malick, Zach Walter and Christian Kuo along with Peter Chmiel and sophomore Tyler Clark.
Senior Jack Dieden, sophomore Adam Orzechowski and freshman Jonathan Seagram are new to the lineup for coach Jesse Burleson.
The Mustangs finished sixth in the conference a year, and they join a division this year with powers Conant, Barrington, Hersey and Fremd.
ST. VIATOR
The Lions return the Class 1A state qualifying doubles team of senior Chad Carlson and junior Leo Kostov, plus seniors JP Wong and Blake Majerczak and junior Matt Herves.
Tenth-year coach Mary Louise Blaney adds junior Miles Waddell and freshman Thomas Howard.
“We have a strong team," said Blaney. ”We want to do great things in the last season of the ESCC. We want to qualify guys for the state meet."
VERNON HILLS
The Cougars, second in the Central Suburban League North a year ago, were fifth in Class 1A sectionals.
They return seniors Max Amjadi, Brendan Handoka, Jim Kim, Advit Mangal and Harrison Fischoff, juniors Nathan Lee and Gabe Villacis and sophomore Gabe Tawrel.
Senior Roman Stukov and sophomores Erick Bautista, Meet Rathod and Alex Vaysberg are new to the team.
“We were second in the conference to Highland Park," said coach Doug Gerber. ”We hope to challenge for the conference title. We graduated a core of our team. We want to make another deep run in 1A."
WARREN
The Blue Devils, coached by Mike Edler in his 25th year, return senior Ryan Juarez, juniors Ian Trukov, Kellan Trukov, Sam Ross, Brayden Song and Luke Rand and sophomores Will Clements-Whelan and Aadhan Sivasankar.
They add senior Edwin Rivera Alleman, juniors Ramses Cavanong, Ethan Mo, Rohan Notinrao, Gavin Williams and Caleb Wojuado and sophomore Kavin Ramesh.
"As usual Stevenson is the team to beat in the conference (North Suburban)," said Edler. “We always want to be competitive and find wins where we can. We return a lot of our lineup from the previous season. We have grown since summer camp. We want to make noise at the sectionals. This group is close and spends a lot of time together. It makes my job easier. We have so many leaders."
WAUCONDA
The Bulldogs are defending Northern Lake County Conference regular season and tournament champions. They won the Spirit of NW championship and were sixth in Class 1A. Wauconda has won five straight NLCC regular season titles and three straight tournament championships.
The senior doubles team of Noah Kosiek and Noah Schmidt were 23-11 a year ago and finished Top 32 in 1A.
Junior Greyson Miglans was 16-9 at No. 1 singles. The doubles team of seniors Logan Kehoe and Charlie Friedrich and doubles team of senior Tim Yu and sophomore Calvin Jandula also are back.
"We lose two of the top three players in school history," said coach Ben Volheim. “Replacing Sean and Marshawn is no small task. This team is deeper than ever. We are committed to the process. We want to improve every day. We want to have multiple state qualifiers in singles and doubles.”