Springfield High doubles team leads way for area players at IHSA tennis state finals
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS — The Springfield High doubles team of sophomore Noah Williams and junior David Lu won three matches on Saturday and completed their run with a fifth-place finish at the Class 1A Illinois High School Association boys state tennis finals in the Chicago suburbs.
The 3-4 seed Williams and Lu started the day with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 9-16 seed Marc Foridcoeur and Dillon Henderson of Troy Triad in the consolation quarterfinals. The Senators then needed a third-set tiebreak to get by 5-8 seed Aditya Sabharwal and Andrew Tikhonov of Vernon Hills 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 in the consolation semis.
Williams and Lu breezed past 5-8 seed Miles Whelan and Adrian Larrea of Mundelein Carmel 6-1, 6-0 in the fifth-place match.
The Springfield tandem concluded the tournament with a 6-1 record and catapulted the Senators to an eighth-place team finish, tying five other teams with 11 points each. Chicago Latin won the tournament with 37 points.
Williams and Lu had a shortened day on Thursday and defeated Urbana’s Deep Patel and Jackson Solava 6-0, 6-1 in their first-round match. Due to rain, the ensuing matches were postponed and picked up on Friday, where the Springfield duo collected a pair of straight-sets victories to get to the championship quarterfinals.
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Williams and Lu beat Nate Geurink and Griffin Hammond of Metamora 6-3, 6-1 in the second round before finishing off 9-16 seed Zane Bisharat and Zeke Bisharat of Darien Hinsdale South 6-2, 7-5 in round three. But the Springfield tandem lost to 5-8 seed Will Benford and Sam Cutinho of Chicago Latin 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the quarterfinals.
The loss dropped Williams and Lu into the consolation quarterfinals. Benford and Cutinho went on to win the doubles championship by beating Noah Bobofchak and Andrew Donovan of Lisle Benet Academy 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the title match.
Williams and Lu received the high state seed after winning the Central State Eight Conference and Springfield Sectional doubles championships in back-to-back weekends. The pair came into state with just one loss.
Springfield got two points from freshman Krish Khurana after he ended his singles tournament run with a loss in the consolation’s second round on Friday. Khurana won his first championship bracket match with a 6-1, 6-0 triumph over Peoria Notre Dame’s David Joseph on Thursday.
Chicago Latin’s Akshay Garapati, seeded 9-16, then beat Khurana 6-1, 6-0 in Friday's second round. The loss sent Khurana to the consolation bracket and he fell to Alex Fei of Dunlap 8-2 in a pro-set match.
Two other doubles teams from the CS8 conference concluded their state tournament trips on Friday. Senior Nikhil Gupta and junior Joseph Doerfler of Chatham Glenwood succumbed to 9-16 seed Preston Rutledge and Zuhair Alsikafi of Chicago Latin 6-1, 6-0 in the first round of the championship bracket.
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Unseeded Glenwood won its first consolation match after beating Lemont’s Safin Saraiya and Nathan Svoboda 8-3. Gupta and Doerfler’s tournament came to an end with an 8-2 loss to Jerseyville’s Edward Roberts and Logan Schultz.
The Titans tandem finished second at both the CS8 and sectional tournaments.
Sacred Heart-Griffin's unseeded team of Jeff Wernsing and Luke Harvey went 0-2 in their first state meet in doubles. Hayden King and Abhi Kumar of Bloomington beat the Cyclones 6-3, 6-2 in the championship bracket’s first round. Wernsing and Harvey then lost to Dylan Brannick and Memphis Gallego of Wauconda 8-5 in the first round of consolation play.
The junior Wernsing and the sophomore Harvey placed third at the sectional tournament to advance to state.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA tennis state finals: Springfield High duo leads area players
