South Elgin breezes to Cary-Grove title
South Elgin boys tennis coach Brett Johnson had every reason to be pleased.
Moving to 14-2 in dual meets for the season, the Storm recorded a perfect 3-0 mark to win the Cary-Grove Invitational Saturday in Cary.
Winning 13 of 15 matches, South Elgin edged rival Elgin 3-2 and whitewashed Cary-Grove and Lakes by identical 5-0 scores.
“Elgin is a very competitive team and coach (Larry) DeHaan has given me a lot of guidance,” said Johnson, who is in his first year at South Elgin. “The kids came here and took care of business. We have a very solid lineup and these kids are learning every match and are developing some good work habits. I like the way we are playing right now.”
Andre Norasith (No. 1 singles), along with the doubles teams of Randy Felker-Sig Somsavath (No. 2) and Michael Lopez-Muhammad Zamir (No. 3), posted perfect 3-0 records for the Storm.
Elgin, which went 2-1 in the invitational for a second-place finish, defeated Cary-Grove 3-2 and Lakes 5-0, got a good performance from No. 2 singles player Rez Khan, who was a perfect 3-0 in the tournament.
“We had a good battle with South Elgin and it is always a lot of fun to compete against them,” said Elgin coach Larry DeHaan. “I am very pleased with the way we competed in this tournament. We are developing a lot of depth and we have kids who love to play tennis.”
Cary-Grove, which lost 9 players from last years team, picked up a 3-2 win against Lakes.
Chris Kinnerk-Mitch Harte (No. 1 doubles) and Brandon Kroeger-Jack Kerlin (No. 3 doubles) posted 2 wins each for the Trojans.
“We are so young and inexperienced and we just need our kids to get experience at the varsity level,” said Cary-Grove coach Amanda Schueltze, “Considering our situation I thought our kids played very well today. South Elgin and Elgin were very tough teams to compete against and Lakes is much improved.”
Lakes, 0-3 for the day, got 2 wins against Cary-Grove. Corey Pomeroy won at No. 2 singles and Jason Adlam-Ben Wayne claimed a victory at No. 1 doubles.
“There were a lot of bright spots today and we are improving with our ground strokes and serves,” said Lakes coach Bryan Plinske. “We competed against three quality teams with excellent coaches. We need to cut down on the unforced mistakes and we hope to learn from this tournament.”