Boys tennis: St. Charles East claims sectional title
The evenly matched St. Charles East and St. Charles North boys tennis teams battled for supremacy for the second week in a row, with the Saints turning the tables this time around.
St. Charles North collected the Upstate Eight Conference River Division title last week, but the host Saints earned a narrow 24-22 victory in Saturday's sectional by qualifying two singles players and a doubles team to the state meet next week.
Senior Alex Winters and junior Pete Clancy finished second and third in singles, respectively, for the Saints while Charlie Downing and Kevin Schreiner bounced back from a semifinals doubles loss to claim the third place match in straight sets.
"Everyone showed up today and scored points and that was the big difference for us today," said Saints coach Rob Livermore as his squad earned its second straight sectional title. "We have two returners and two newbies going down, so we're real excited."
The North Stars qualified both doubles entries to state, with seniors Matt Kramer and Matt Ernst besting Bartlett's senior tandem of Justin Howes and Brandon Pepa and 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in an intense championship match.
Kramer and Ernst rallied from 15-40 down to win the third game of the third set and reeled off the final five games of the match.
Both players qualified for state for the second straight year with Kramer qualifying in singles last season.
"We needed to be really aggressive and not hold back in the third set," Kramer said.
"Coach has been telling us all season, just rip first serves and returns. Get those in and get to the net. We know we can beat a lot of teams when we get to the net," Ernst added.
Overall it was a satisfying day for Howes and Pepa, who upset St. Charles North's Luke Dunteman and Trevor Kurtzhals 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in their semifinal match.
They became Bartlett's first state qualifiers since Yosh Patel and Kevin Yeatch in 2008.
"With both of us being seniors, it's great to be going downstate and representing Bartlett," Howes said. "We have to put a lot of hard work in this week and try to cut down our mistakes."
After rolling to the UEC-River No. 1 singles title, Streamwood junior Chris Veltkamp won all four sectional matches in straight sets and downed Winters 6-0, 6-2 in the title match.
"I have a lot of tough matches coming this Thursday, so I have to make sure I'm physically and mentally prepared," said Veltkamp, who is 24-1 on the season. "I went 2-2 at state last year and hopefully this year I can make it to day two. That's the goal right now."
Winters qualified for state in doubles the last two seasons and is happy to have the opportunity to close out his career in singles.
"I'm not going to put any pressure on myself, I'm just going to try to have fun," Winters said.
Clancy, who defeated South Elgin junior Raj Patel 6-0, 6-1 in the third place match, will be making his first state appearance. Clancy overcame a 5-2 deficit in the first set to St. Charles North's Ajy Gustaffson Friday night to qualify.
"I guess that's just my competitive nature, I didn't want to lose," Clancy said.
Patel also rallied from deficits in both sets in Friday night's third round match against St. Charles North's Holden Gilkey to advance to state for the first time.
"Once all my teammates came over from St. Charles North and they started cheering for me, that really helped," Patel said. "I was going to play doubles this season and switched to singles, so I'm very surprised and blessed to make it this far."