Boys tennis: Hersey adds to season of achievement with sectional doubles title
It's been a year of firsts for the Hersey boys tennis program, beginning with a Mid-Suburban League singles championship from freshman Max Sheldon and continuing through Saturday, when the Huskies' top doubles team of Jace Coffaro/Kevin Mi earned a sectional triumph at Highland Park.
"I wasn't able to find out the last time we had an MSL champ at singles, but it likely dates back to maybe the Brad Rosenbaum (1988) or Mark Nasser (1991) eras," said Hersey coach Andy Walton. "And who knows, that might have been the last time we had a doubles team that won a sectional back then.
"Max has been in the headlines, and rightly so. But to see Jace and Kevin have their day in the sun makes all of us here very proud."
The Coffaro/Mi team, recently installed as the Huskies' No. 1, endured a long day of tennis. They first had to win their qualifying match with Fremd (Advay Mahajan/Arjun Srivasta), which was suspended on Friday when rain came in late.
Matches were started near the noon hour Saturday after early morning drizzle ended plans for an 8:30 a.m. start.
Coffaro/Mi were able to finish off Fremd, the proceded to top HP's No. 1 team (Max Baum/Matt Jarvis) 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals.
In the final with HP's No. 2 team (Ryan Lederer/Ezra Miller), the Huskies conceded the first set (2-6) before winning 6-2, 6-2 to seal a memorable victory.
"Those two guys got themselves a real confidence boost when they beat a great 1A doubles team (Prairie Ridge) the other day," said Walton, "and it carried over into sectionals, where you could see them having a very good chance of not only advancing, but getting into the final."
There was more good news on the MSL front with Fremd, which finished second behind Highland Park (24-21) and 3 points ahead of Hersey.
The Vikings will send Casey Hishinuma (17-9) into the state tournament in singles. Likewise for the doubles team of Andrew Yin/Sean Hishinuma, which finished third overall after its 6-3, 6-1 win over Baum/Jarvis.
Junior Jeremy Learner (16-6) earned a measure of revenge with Sheldon, who'd beaten Learner in the Pitchford 32.
at Cary-Grove: Barrington is the sectional champ at Cary-Grove and will take all four of its teams to the state tournament next week Thursday.
The Broncos had two champions: Bradley Yu at singles, and the doubles team of Dylan Er/Kyle Shuff (18-2), who defeated the upset-minded Cary Grove team of Mike Ptaszek/Daniel Sowa in three hard-fought sets before upending the Burton brothers (Kyle and Kevin) from Jacobs for the title.
Barrington freshman Ammar Wazir (21-3) recorded a stunning straight-set victory over four-time state qualifier Kerwin Chong (30-5) of Jacobs in the semifinals
Wazir later fell in the final to his teammate Yu (6-3, 6-3), while Chong came back to take third-place honors over Johnny Wallace of Crystal Lake Central.
"This was a very good day for Barrington tennis," said Barrington coach John Roncone. "(Now) we need to keep it going when play begins Thursday at the state tournament."
The Ptaszek/Sowa team will look to do the same for coach Amanda Schuetzle.
Ptaszek had been the Trojans' No. 1 singles player, while Sowa had been half of Cary-Grove's top doubles team for most of the season.
"When we talked about it, both of those guys were all in on the idea, and today they showed they could play with quality opponents, which Barrington was," said Schuetzle.
"Things were not looking very good for me if I wanted to qualify to state in my last season here, so the move made sense," said Ptaszek, who will enter the pharmacy school at UIC in the fall. "I am really happy that we made the move."
The Trojans qualified after a 6-4, 6-3 victory over FVC rival Huntley on Friday to find themselves up against Er/Shuff (18-2), who have been on roll of late and continued it with a 6-4 first-set win against Ptaszek/Sowa.
"Their big guy (Ptaszek) could really hit hard, and his serve was big and dangerous, but you have to finish a team off when there's a chance to," said Shuff. "And when we didn't, they came back and got us in that second set."
"We could tell right from the start they had skill and talent, so we didn't take them lightly at all," Er said. "We just didn't hit the shots we needed to in order to finish off points and games."
Cary-Grove won a second set tiebreaker but was unable to keep pace as the Broncos reasserted themselves in a 6-1 third set.
Later, Ptaszek/Sowa defeated Barrington's Suven Sinha/Aryan Sharma in the third-place match.
And Jacobs' team was thrilled with the outcome of the day.
"Just a great effort from the Burton boys - not bad for just getting together as our doubles team, wouldn't you say?" said their coach, Jon Betts.
Jacobs finished second overall to Barrington (34-23), and Huntley (14) was third.
at Lake Park: Glenbard West put the finishing touches on its second straight sectional championship when the doubles team of Griffin Foster/Christo Maltby recorded a fourth straight-set victory to win the top prize over Wheaton Warrenville South's Jack Lillig/Paul Choi.
The victory ensured the Hilltoppers' a 26-19 advantage over second-place Conant, which fell short in its bid to win a fourth consecutive sectional crown.
"Despite losing out to Glenbard West, we're excited to have both of our doubles teams represent Conant and our tennis program at the state tournament, and they both have the ability to do very well when play opens up next Thursday," said Conant coach Dave Koleno.
The Cougars' top team of Nico Rosas/Vera Iyer dropped its semifinal to Wheaton Warrenville South, then defaulted to its No. 2 team of Kaahan Motwani-Andrew Miles in the third-place contest.
In singles, Wheaton Warrenville South's Phasu Sirinit sailed into his second state appearance after dropping just two games over the two-day tournament. One of those losses was against runner-up Alex Kernagis (Glenbard West, 16-7), who after losing the first set 6-1, defaulted the second set to Sirinit when trailing 3-0.
Wheaton North junior Kevin Li will be in his third straight state tournament after qualifying on Friday easily, and ending his sectional tournament with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Hilltoppers freshman Andrew Immick (16-5) in the third-place matchup.
at Carmel: Vernon Hills stayed with Fox Valley Conference power Prairie Ridge until the very end, falling just short in its bid for a second consecutive sectional title against the Wolves in the Carmel sectional.
The Cougars were outscored 27-22 in the final tally and were 2 points ahead of third-place North Shore Country Day and its fine singles player, Evan Fedin.
Fedin was unable to solve Wauconda senior Brian Hackman (18-0) who defeated the NSCD sophomore 6-2, 6-3 to capture his second straight 1A sectional title.
Hackman's teammate Dev Patel (17-5), a terrific No. 2 player in his own right, heads to state following his third-place performance.
Prairie Ridge used a championship effort from its top team of Daniel Lamar/Patrick Nasta, a third-place medal from its No. 2 team of Devarsi Rawal/Ben Linger and a fourth-place finish from Max Kueller to earn the top spot.
"We've been talking about winning a sectional title the day after we were unable to qualify last year at the Cary-Grove sectional, when Barrington, Deerfield, Highland Park and Stevenson were all there and it was impossible to get out of the sectional," said Lamar, who will attend Brown University next fall.
"We worked on all the little things during the off-season," said Nasta, "and Daniel and I are feeling real good about our chances at state next week."
The Wolves duo defeated Nikhil Mangtani/Matt Nguyen (14-6) of Vernon Hills in the final, but it was a remarkable comeback win in three sets in the Cougars' semifinal that had Nguyen excited.
"I am very proud of our effort, and ability to fight back from a 6-0 loss in our first set to win the next two sets (7-5, 7-5) - we did a great job of regrouping between the second and third sets, keeping the vibe real positive throughout those two sets to help get us through," said Nguyen, who will attend Wisconsin next fall.
This will be the second state appearance in a row for the Cougars' top team, and the first for its No. 2 team of Andrey Shor/Pranav Vaswani (12-5), who dropped a two-set match for third place with Prairie Ridge.