Bulldogs settle for second place, Vikings third Western Sun
GENEVA -- The Batavia's boys tennis team entered Day 2 of the Western Sun Conference meet in the mix with Glenbard South in the race for the team title.
And the Bulldogs had three head-to-head matchups with the Raiders to help determine the outcome. But Glenbard South won all three of those matches, plus two other individual titles, to edge Batavia for the crown, 28-24. Geneva, which entered Saturday with the conference lead, wound up third with 18. Yorkville was fourth with 11.
Tyler Stoffel/Special to the Beacon News
"I'd like to give Glenbard South a lot of credit today," Batavia coach Bob Kummer said. "They had to win matches, and they did. They played well across the board against us and against everybody else. To come over here and have a shot at it, that's what you want. Whoever shows up the best, gets it. That's kind of what happened today."
Batavia did manage to win a pair of individual titles in doubles play, led by its senior duo at No. 1 doubles, Colin Bohr and Jim White. They topped Yorkville's Kyle Pamson and Tyler Merkel in a hotly contested battle, 7-5, 7-5. The only time a team won two consecutive points was when Bohr and White earned the final two of Game 2.
"When we played them earlier this year, they took us to three sets, so we knew they would play us tough," White said. "It was back-and-forth the entire match. We fought there at the end. It was kind of a relief that it was over. It was nice to finish out as a conference champion my senior year."
Batavia's Adam Ying and Tom Joyce edged Geneva's Robby Parker and Richie Michaels for the crown at No. 3 doubles, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. Geneva's only other entry in Saturday's finals was Joey Rasich and Neil Hogan at No. 4 doubles, another Vikings loss. But after taking three third-place finishes in Friday's preliminaries, Geneva knew it could not finish anywhere but third no matter what happened Saturday.
"With that said, we were coming into today looking at grabbing two individual titles, and unfortunately fell short of both," Geneva coach Doug Ross said. "They're very disappointed in that. They had a nice crowd here to support them. It wasn't like they didn't come out and didn't care, they did. They came out very hard, but they unfortunately fell short."
Yorkville had one other player in the finals, Tom Ratos at No. 1 singles. He was beaten soundly by Pat Clark of Glenbard South, 6-1, 6-0.
Batavia was left looking at what could have been with its second-place finish. There were a handful of dual meets during the season, including a tough 4-3 loss to Geneva, that could have provided the points for the Bulldogs to jump up to first place Saturday.
"I wouldn't say that I'm satisfied, because there were matches during the season where we could have gotten points," Bohr said. "Hopefully it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the underclassmen."
WILL ADD DVC, UEC and SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE
Western Sun Boys Tennis Meet