Boys tennis: Naperville Central comes close to DVC perfection
Naperville Central is so good this year that the only real suspense heading into the DuPage Valley Conference boys tennis meet was whether the Redhawks could pull off the unimaginable and go through both the regular season and the tournament perfect.
The answer: almost.
After a DVC regular-season run that saw Naperville Central blank every opponent 7-0, the Redhawks won six of seven championships at Saturday's tournament and only a runner-up finish at fourth singles kept the program from perfection. The dominant showing sends the Redhawks into next weekend's sectional on a high and has the team expecting to gun for a state trophy.
"It's amazing (we won every match during the DVC season). I don't think it's been done in school history so we hold the record for that," Redhawks No. 1 singles player Ryan Roegner said. "It's awesome consistency throughout the year. Everybody playing well and just doing their job day in and day out. Except for one match this year and that's not even a big deal."
Roegner (25-2) claimed top honors Saturday after beating Waubonsie Valley's Anthony Nguyen 6-3, 1-0 in the finals. Nguyen defaulted for precautionary reasons after having played a marathon match with Wheaton North's Kevin Li in the semifinals. The Warriors' top player beat Naperville North's Kevin Zhang in three sets in the quarterfinals on Friday, then outlasted the second-seeded Li 7-6, 5-7, 7-5 on Saturday in a match that lasted almost four and half hours.
"Coming back from a four-hour match at the level we were playing at to play even a competitive match and win is tough," said Roegner, who appears to be in line for a top-four seed at state. "Kudos to him for coming out here and trying to grind it out. I don't think it was worth maybe taking an injury if he were to continue playing."
For Nguyen, taking second and avenging a regular-season loss to Li made for a great day, even if he wasn't able to finish off with another big effort in the finals.
"Kevin from Wheaton North, that kid's a grind," said Nguyen, who lost 6-4, 6-4 to the Wheaton North standout in a DVC dual this spring. "He hits every ball back. His backhand is really flat and it just skids. It's so hard to get your timing right, like I always catch it late.
"The reason why the match lasted so long is because he's a grind. I was just really relieved. After that match I just wanted to lie down, but I had another match to play so I couldn't lie down too much. That was probably my longest match. It was really gratifying to pull out such a battle."
Naperville Central's Joseph Li defeated Neuqua Valley's Eddie Neuman 6-2, 6-1 for the crown at second singles, and fellow Redhawk Taher Dohadwala won 6-3, 6-3 in the third singles final against third-seeded Brian Li of Neuqua Valley.
Only a strong effort from Naperville North's Tarun Vellenki at No. 4 singles prevented the Redhawks from pulling off their goal of perfection. Vellenki bested Nathaniel Chavez 6-3, 6-1 in the finals to hand the Redhawks their only DVC blemish all spring.
"It feels good. I didn't know if I could win or not. I just went out there and I played my game and I won," said Vellenki, who has spent some time this spring playing doubles as well as top singles on the Huskies JV squad. "Yeah, I stopped them from sweeping the tournament."
The Redhawks swept through the three doubles flights in impressive fashion. At No. 1 doubles, Bill Zhang and Martin Matov beat Naperville North's Kirk Williams and Sam Liu 6-2, 6-1 and will enter the Naperville North sectional with their sights set high for both that meet and then a deep run at state.
At second doubles the Redhawk pair of Ammaar Saeed and Mark Polowczak knocked off the Huskies' Ian Guppy and Preston Chao 7-5, 6-1 in the finals, and at third doubles, Bailey Chen and Hemanth Kalidindi picked up another crown for the champs after defeating the Huskies' Kevin Mack and Andrew Chao 6-3, 6-4.