St. Charles North rolls by Batavia

It’s still early in the season, but if Tuesday’s match was any indication the St. Charles North boys tennis team is going to be a force in the Upstate Eight Conference all the way to the end.

The North Stars made fast work of visiting Batavia, winning 6 of the 7 individual matches, each in straight sets, to improve to 2-0 in the conference.

“They took it to us,” Batavia coach Bob Kummer said. “They were more experienced than us, and had more swagger.”

The Bulldogs’ lone win came in a battle of players with state tournament experience at No. 1 singles, where Josh Cogan beat John Mittvick, 6-1, 6-1.

“Josh took control of that match right away and he was very efficient,” Kummer said.

For his part, Mittvick turned in a strong performance, but against one of the top players in the state, it just wasn’t enough to make the match competitive.

“He’s a top singles player, so I wanted to make him work for the points,” Mittvick said.

After that match, it was all North Stars.

Dominick Amalraj won a majority of the deuce points to sweep the No. 2 singles match, beating Ryan Sterling, 6-2, 6-1.

“This was only my second match playing two singles, and I played really well today,” Amalraj said.

Ian Walden cruised through a quick first set against Tim Murat, 6-0, before having to battle through the second for a 6-3 capper.

“We were able to dominate the net today, and once we do that we’re good at finishing points,” St. Charles North coach Sean Masoncup said. “We played hard and aggressive up and down the lineup.”

Parker Featherston and Danny Oakes got off to a fast start and had little trouble with Connor Propp and Luke Kuzmanic, winning the top doubles match 6-1, 6-0.

“We did what we needed to do, didn’t make a lot of errors, and put balls away,” Oakes said. “We wanted to make a statement early.”

That impressive win helped set the tone for the rest of the doubles side.

“As a senior, I hope that other players will follow what we do at doubles,” Featherston said.

Pat Corrigan and John Terwilliger posted the same 6-1, 6-0 final score against Alex Mizikar and Kyle Stiffler at No. 2, while Eric Pashan and Eli McCray beat Matt McFarland and Garrett Grant, 6-0, 6-2, at third doubles.

Chris Hvasta and Chan Jeon closed out the doubles side with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Grant Spellman and Cam Staroske.

“We expect to be able to compete at every single slot, and today our whole lineup played very well,” Masoncup said. “I’m very happy with our performance, but we’re definitely not satisfied, and we won’t be until we win the conference. There’s still room for improvement.”

Though it turned out to be a tough afternoon for the Bulldogs (3-4, 1-2), after it was over Kummer stressed that there is still a long way to go, and that his team will get better.

“There’s nothing wrong with getting knocked down as long as you get up and keep playing,” Kummer said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”