Boys tennis: Neuqua Valley beats Naperville North

Fatigue was starting to creep in on Nolan George and Akshay Dugar. Not just physical fatigue, but mental as well.

As the rest of the Neuqua Valley boys tennis players completed their matches, George and Dugar had to buckle down.

"What it came down to in a lot of those games was staying focused and almost more the mental side of tennis rather than the hitting shots," George said. "It was definitely a longer match than I usually play."

George and Dugar grinded the 6-3, 6-2 victory out and helped Neuqua Valley to a 5-2 win over Naperville North.

Leading 4-2 in the second set, George and Dugar grinded out a 20-minute point with Preston Chao and Ian Guppy before taking the match.

"It was the longest game I've ever been a part of, so winning that game was rewarding," George said.

They did it by not stressing out and keeping composed in tense moments, like that long point.

"One thing me and (Dugar) did is we almost instead of getting down on ourselves because we were missing shots, we almost tried to have some fun with tennis, because it was fun to play that one," George said. "It's not your most conventional point, so I think almost laughing with each other, because it was going so long, helped us focus and not get down on ourselves."

Eddie Neuman got things rolling for Neuqua Valley at No. 1 singles, beating Tarun Vellanhi 6-2, 6-1.

"I just tried to out-rally (Vellanhi)," Neuman said. "I didn't really pull out any big shots. (My) serving was really good and that's what got him on defense really fast and it helped me play out the point."

Neuqua Valley's Tyler Beck beat Rahul Korrapati 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and Jared Bennick beat Zach Xi 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles.

"Singles were awesome," Neuqua Valley coach Trudy Bennorth said. "I was really happy with them. We're just going to keep on building."

At No. 4 singles Naperville North's Vincent Lee rallied to beat Chris Smith 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.

"He's a freshman and tried different ways to play him and he did a nice job," Bennorth said of Smith. "He's really good at changing. Second set he tried a lot of touch shots, which he figured out did not work and the third set, he really tried to mix it up."

Naperville North's No. 1 doubles team of Kevin Zhang and Sam Liu beat Neuqua's team of Arjan Bahel and Alex Neuman 7-5, 6-4.

"We started a little bit slow at the beginning, but we picked it up," Zhang said.

What changed?

"I think it was just really settling into the game," Zhang said. "We were a little sluggish at first. Once we were able to adapt to their pace, we were able to play our game."

Neuqua Valley's No. 3 doubles team of Brian Li and Rohan Sanjay took a 6-0, 6-0 decision over Kevin Mackh and Abid Anwar.

"I think the team, we came out confident," George said. "We knew North was a good team, we had seen some of these guys in the past, but I think we didn't let it get to us. Our confidence carried us to the win today."