Conant tandem rallies into state field
It hurt so badly, Amar Patel could hardly watch.
The Conant coach could do nothing as his top doubles team of Spencer Fang and Connor Saks were hanging on by a thread against Glenbrook North’s Bill Angel and Adam Spector. The Spartans pair was cruising and well on its way to a straight-set victory and a trip to the state tournament.
“I told those guys to basically throw caution to the wind, and said, go out there, hit the ball hard as hard as you can, and keep it in play, and if you’re going to go down, go down fighting,” said Patel.
Patel’s pep talk was just what the doctor ordered. The Cougars duo roared back to overturn a 4-3 deficit to win the second set (6-4) before going on to grab the third and final set 6-3 to defeat the Spartans and advance into the semifinals this morning, while punching their ticket to the state finals next weekend.
“Last week I missed their meltdown at the MSL tournament while driving around to see our other guys, and today, I had to watch what looked like another disappointing end, this time to their season, so I had to say or do something,” joked Patel, who earlier celebrated the effort from Peter Itskovich (17-7) at singles, which ended with a straight-set win over Josh Galvin (Rolling Meadows) to qualify Itskovich into his second consecutive state appearance.
“We figured if we get beat by a better team, than (that) was just our fate, but we wanted to give it everything that we had,” said Fang, a senior.
Barrington’s George Coll-Varun Parekh (17-6) will join the Cougars pair in the semifinals at Schaumburg today, as will both teams from Glenbrook South, including Michael Sellitto-Michael Levin, who are well on their way to a 1-2 seed at the state tourney.
The Titans will meet Fang-Saks, while the Broncos will take on Glenbrook South’s Will Lyon-Luke McCanna, which sent the Glenbrook North No. 2 team, Miguel Perez-David Zahhodin, home after a straight set victory at Conant.
“My No. 2 team had lost just 3 matches this season, (two) of them to this same Glenbrook South team, and today, their guys played terrific tennis, and we couldn’t match their play,” said Glenbrook North coach Jeff Jordan, who will have Perez and Zahodin three more years.
Another Spartans freshman, Will Sauser (12-17), outlasted Schaumburg senior Ben Brito (28-10) in one of the state-qualifying singles matches, ending a wonderful four-year career for the Saxons captain, who fashioned a memorable comeback of his own to get one match closer to advancing.
Brito fell behind Barrington’s Ishaan Jaglan 4-love after winning the first set 6-2, then reeled off 7 straight to outlast the Broncos freshman before falling in straight sets to Sauser.
“I’d like to think that his long, emotionally charged, and physically demanding match with Jaglan might have taken something out of Ben, but he’s in such great shape, and he’s so mentally strong, so you have to give credit to (Sauser) because he played a very nice match, and was a deserving winner,” said Saxons coach Jason Campbell. “Ben is a great kid, who worked so hard to make himself into the player that he was for us all season long, and we have been very fortunate to have someone in our program like him.”
The Saxons’ top player, freshman Vincent Lin (16-0), easily qualified for his first trip to the state tournament after getting past his two opponents on Friday at his home courts, conceding just one game on the day. That sets up a semifinal with Itskovich and possibly a final with Sam Hoogland (Glenbrook South), who was just as dominant on the top half of the bracket.
“I wasn’t all together happy with my play today,” said Lin. “I am kind of changing a few things this weekend, including the height on my returns and volleys, so I wasn’t as sharp as I thought I could have been.”
Hoogland, who was a state qualifier last season for the Titans as a freshman and trains and plays at the same club as Lin, looked sharp in his two matches. Like Lin, Hoogland looks forward to a possible finals match Saturday morning at Schaumburg.
“It’s been a while since Vincent and I play each other, but he’s obviously a very good player,” said Hoogland, whose goal is a top-eight finish next weekend.
After the semifinals are completed, finals, and third-place matches will take place before the noon hour, with higher seeds at the state tournament at stake at both singles and doubles.