Marmion tops tough field

Marmion’s boys tennis team came into Saturday’s sectional finals at West Aurora poised to cap a stellar season.

The deck appeared to be stacked, however, as the Cadets found themselves surrounded by conference champions and players who had already punched a return ticket to the state tournament.

But those descriptions fit this year’s Cadet squad just as well they do Naperville Central, Batavia, and Waubonsie Valley, the other top teams at the sectional.

“We were very confident coming into the season, and we went undefeated in the regular season,” Marmion coach John Tsang said. “I think we proved to a lot of people that we can hang with the biggest schools.”

Marmion did more than just hang with the big boys, they outperformed all of them to win the sectional title with 24 points, while qualifying two singles players and a doubles team for next week’s state tournament.

“The boys had a lot of confidence, that’s what’s important, and we came in here playing our best tennis,” Tsang said. “A lot of times in tennis it’s a little like Survivor, you have to outlast, outplay, and outwit. Our boys did just that and I’m so proud of them.”

They did it without winning either the singles or doubles championship, relying instead on contributions from the entire lineup, as every Marmion player won at least one match in the tournament.

“In competition at this level you’ve got to have depth,” Tsang said. “We’ve had it the past two seasons. This year all the boys on our team elevated their game and we showed that we’re very strong at every level.”

Waubonsie Valley finished tied with Naperville Central for second by capturing the doubles title as Deep Chatterjee and Abhi Singh beat Danny Albert and Wesley Lo, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

The two teams had played earlier in the week and Naperville Central won that match.

“They beat us pretty badly, but this time we were more into it and came out ready to play,” Chatterjee said.

The Warriors were impressive from the start, and overcame a few mishaps to nail down the first set, then dropped a seesaw second.

The two squads battled through an even third set until the Warriors managed to break serve in the ninth game thanks to an impossible backhand shot by Singh.

“When you’re in the middle of an exchange like that it’s all instinct,” Singh said.

“It was extremely crucial that we got that break.”

It will be the fourth trip to state for Singh, though his first three were at singles, and the first for Chatterjee who is the more experienced doubles player.

“This is huge for us,” Chatterjee said. “I have to thank my partner, he’s incredible, and we both came up with some big shots when we needed them today.”

Marmion’s Chris Pattermann and Jackson Rettig beat the heat and turned in an impressive final set to win the third place match against Matt Mason and Justin Gillette of Naperville Central, 6-7, 7-5, 6-1.

On the singles side, Batavia’s Josh Cogan continued his dominance, riding a crushing serve to repeat as sectional champ with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Marmion senior Will Graft.

“Josh has a strong sense of purpose and played a really solid match,” Batavia coach Bob Kummer said.

Cogan led 3-2 in the first set, but was getting a little frustrated with his game.

“He figured things out, settled down, and just kept getting stronger from there,” Kummer said.

The Batavia senior never let his opponent get back into the contest, and was playing his best tennis at the end of the match.

Marmion added the third place match to its win column as younger brother John Graft beat West Aurora’s Matt Kuntzi, 6-2, 6-4. Despite the loss, Kuntzi will be making a return trip to state after an impressive win over Mateo Valley’s Kyle Chin in Friday’s qualifying round.

“He really came to play in that match,” West Aurora coach Adam Camp said. “This is a hard sectional to come out of, and I’m proud of him.”

While all five of the teams that qualified players for state had something to celebrate on Saturday, when the last scores were posted it was the Cadets who had the most to cheer about as they posed for photos in just about every imaginable player combination — the entire team, the state qualifiers, the returning state qualifiers, the seniors, the Graft brothers, you name it.

And why not? They certainly earned it.

“We had an awesome season and worked really hard for this,” Will Graft said. “There are some really good teams in this sectional, and to win here is just great for us.”