Boys tennis: Rain wipes out finals of Pitchford Invitational
The long running and prestigious Pitchford 32 tennis invite signals the start of what will be the most exciting and thrilling part of the 2023 spring season.
It's called a mini-state meet as brings together 32 teams from around the state, and nearly every top singles and doubles teams for two days of play scattered through six venues.
What this tournament also does is clearly define who will be the top seeds at both flights - many of which go on to play in the state finals during the last weekend of May.
Hersey junior Mitch Sheldon looks to be the man to beat at singles after cruising through and into the finals on his home courts before the rain came through and dashed the hopes of an all-MSL final between Sheldon and Barrington senior Deven Carse.
The No. 1 seeded Sheldon beat 3-4 seed and good friend Alex Kotarski of Hinsdale Central in the semifinals, needing just 54 minutes to record a 6-0, 6-1 victory, while Carse roared back from a 5-0 first half deficit to defeat No. 2 seed Andrew Spurck (Fremd), 7-6 (5), 6-3.
"Every point I wanted to work for today against Alex. Right now I feel mentally strong, and my confidence is up where it needs to be which will allow me to stay in the toughest matches ahead of me," said Sheldon, who mixed a variety of shots, a big-time left-handed serve, and the ability to paint the lines with blistering returns.
"Mitch has worked so hard, he puts in the extra time away from school, yet still never misses our team practices, where he grinds out a couple more hours of tennis with his teammates," says Huskies coach Andy Walton, who watched his No. 2 doubles team of Luke Bouvier and Carson Koclanis extend the No. 2 seed from Hinsdale Central (Nathan Hernandez-James Theriault) before dropping a three-set marathon, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-0 in their two-duoubles semifinal.
"Luke and Carson fought so hard. They'll have a chance to play on a big stage and compete at state if they keep playing the way they are," said Walton of his 2022 state qualifiers.
The aforementioned No. 3 seed Carse, still not 100% after suffering a broken thumb earlier in the season, appeared to down and out of the front draw. He found himself chasing a 5-0 deficit to Spurck, then found new life, coming back to draw back level at 5-5, then 6-6, before taking the first set tiebreaker - and then taking control in his second set.
"In the first 10 minutes of my first set with Andrew I was already down 5-0. But after I won that first game (it) was like a 180 mindset change. And with each point, serve and game won, my confidence just grew and grew, and it really never stopped," said Carse, who lost to Spurck in the third-place match a year ago at state.
When the tournament was abruptly ended, Hinsdale Central would be crowned champion with 56 overall points, followed closely by New Trier (50), Barrington (44) and Stevenson (38). Hersey and Lyons Township were next with 36 a side.
Fremd was just off the top five with 35 points.
The lone team still alive from Stevenson when the rain arrived was its No. 2 doubles team of Yunseong Jang-Dustin Zhao, who were about to begin their third set with the team of Oliver Coppieters-Daniel Matten after the two clubs split sets.
"Those two guys (Jang-Zhao) are so coachable and willing to put the work in. And in that second set, which we were up 4-3, they did a lot of very good things, but (then) so did New Trier, only they were a little bit better than us when they needed to be," said Stevenson assistant Jerry Franklin.
Over at No. 1 doubles, it was going to be a New Trier (Chris Ackerman-Stan Okesson) vs. Lyons Township final at No. 1 doubles after the Lyons junior duo of Mason Mallone-Jack McLane stunned the No. 2 seed (Nate Hernandez-Bodie Teuscher) in straight sets after doing the same against to 5-8 seed from Barrington of Gabe Mills-Shiv Sastry, both of whom were state qualifiers at doubles last season.
"We're kind of under the radar here as the 9-16 seed, but doubles is so wide open this year, so we feel like we've shown we can play with everyone," echoed Mallone and McLane from Lyons Township.