St. Charles N. claims sectional title

The St. Charles East boys tennis sectional turned into a hometown affair Saturday afternoon, as North and East finished first and second in the team competition.

The North Stars dominated the doubles side, which led to showdown between their two teams in the final. While St. Charles North coach Sean Masoncup did his best to avoid the match, unable to coach either team over the other, his players were showing why there are high hopes for both duos at next week’s state tournament.

Parker Featherston and Pat Corrigan got off to a fast start against top-seeded John Mittvick and Danny Oakes, and took control of the opening set.

“We played as well as we have all year, and they felt the pressure of being down against the second team,” Featherston said.

After a rain delay, Featherston and Corrigan picked up where they had left off and won the set 6-4.

“I think we lost a little momentum after the rain delay, but I was pleased with the way we played,” Corrigan said.

But the loss served as a wake-up call for Mittvick and Oakes who battled for every point in the second set, and won it, 6-3.

“It’s tough playing your teammates,” Mittvick said. “They played outstanding in that first set, and our only option was to take it to them after that.”

Mittvick dialed up the power, while Oakes turned back every shot that came his way, and the third set was theirs from start to finish, as the 6-1 final score would suggest.

“They’re a great team, and we knew going in that it was going to be a tough match,” Oakes said.

The singles final was a rematch of the St. Charles East Invite championship match, which was played back in April.

Wheaton Academy’s Devin Moore won that first meeting against Jasper Koenen, 6-4, 6-2, and the Saints’ freshman had that match on his mind as he took the court Saturday afternoon.

“He was the first player who gave me a challenge this season, but my confidence has improved a lot since then,” Koenen said.

But when Moore won the first set by the same 6-4 score as their last meeting, Koenen’s confidence wavered just a little.

“I had to just to forget that set and just start over,” Koenen said.

Koenen rebounded to win the second set, 6-3, thanks to some masterful ground strokes. The two were knotted up 4-4 in the third, and Koenen knew he had to dig deep to put away his opponent.

“I knew it was now or never and I had my big chance to win the match,” Koenen said. “And that’s what I did,”

Going on the attack, Koenen knocked the talented and experienced Moore on his heels to win the set, 6-4, claim the sectional singles title, and clinch second place for the Saints in the team competition.

“This sectional was very competitive and we were trying to beat Geneva today for second place,” St. Charles East coach Rob Livermore said. “It’s extra special for us to beat Geneva for second because we lost to them by one point last year, and they took second from us at conference.”

The third place singles match featured a pair of familiar names as St. Charles North’s Dominick Amalraj squared off against St. Charles East’s Justin Bowman, who came out attacking and dominated the first set, 6-2.

“He was dictating the points, and that’s one of the reasons I lost the first set,” Amalraj said.

Amalraj began to assert himself midway through the second set, and by the time he finally put it away, 7-5, the momentum had swung in his direction.

“It was a tough set, but I won it somehow and that really helped me going into the third set,” Amalraj said.

Controlling the third set in the same way Bowman had the first, Amalraj finished the match with a 6-2 win.

“We had four goals coming into the season,” Masoncup said. “The first was that we wanted to have a great dual record, the second was the conference championship, and the third was the sectional championship. We’ve accomplished those and now we move on to the next goal, which is state, where we’ve set individual and team goals.”

Glenbard North’s doubles team of Ronak Patel and Matt Mistro had to win 3 matches on Friday, beginning with a play-in, to secure a place at the state tournament and advance to Saturday’s rounds. The Panther duo did just that, and after dropping the semifinal match to Featherston and Corrigan, they survived a strong effort by Geneva’s Colin Rapp and Ryan Doeckel to win the third-place match, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

“They’re a solid team, and this weekend they played great,” Glenbard North coach Doug Clark said. “There were five teams that were all pretty even for the last four spots, and we lost out on getting seeded. Our kids were on today more so than Geneva, but it could’ve gone either way.”

IMSA sectional: At the IMSA sectional, Batavia’s Josh Cogan began his day with a 6-1, 6-0 win over West Aurora’s Matt Kuntzi.

“We both played well, and I was fortunate to come out on top,” Cogan said. “I was moving well, and forcing a lot of errors.”

Cogan then beat Sam Swamy of Naperville Central, 6-4, 6-3, in the finals, as the Bulldogs finished second in the team competition.

Marmion’s doubles team of Will Graft and Jackson Rettig took third place.