Springfield High graduated five seniors from last year’s boys tennis team, including a doubles pair that finished top eight at the Class 1A state finals.
The Senators haven’t regressed this season – they’ve recreated themselves.
Springfield scored 24 points and for the second straight season hoisted the Central State Eight Conference plaque on Saturday at the Velasco Tennis Center in Washington Park.
“It feels really good,” Springfield sophomore Noah Williams said. “We lost a lot of people to graduation. We had two doubles to get fifth place and two singles got fifth place (on Friday). That gave us the momentum to close out the win (Saturday).
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Williams and junior David Lu morphed into the No. 1 doubles seed and defeated No. 2 Nikhil Gupta and Joseph Doerfler of Chatham Glenwood 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the championship match on Saturday.
And it was Springfield freshman and top-seeded Krish Khurana, playing in his first CS8 tournament, placing second in singles after falling to No. 6 seed Abhay Hiredesai of Normal U-High 6-2, 6-1 in the final. In all, Springfield racked up 13 points in doubles and 11 in singles.
“They’ve really come together and stepped it up at the time we really needed to,” Springfield coach Jarod Ingebrigtsen. “It’s great just to see the up-and-coming freshmen and underclassmen that are going to be coming up for our future and getting the examples set by (current and former players).”
Becoming a force
It was just last season when the conference witnessed Williams win the CS8 tournament in singles, take second at the sectional, finish in the top 24 at the state meet and become The State Journal-Register’s Player of the Year. Lu was fourth in singles in the CS8, third at sectional and won a match in the consolation rounds at state.
Pairing the two in doubles for the first time has been a learning experience, said Ingebrigtsen.
“It’s been a little bit of a transition for them, but it shows their versatility as players and their ability to come together,” he noted. “They’ve worked hard together in the offseason and during the season to jell to find their rhythm together as partners, and really bring out the best of each other in a doubles setting.”
Lu was in favor of playing doubles with Williams, now that the two have gotten their feet wet at the high school level.
“Coach told us we should try doubles this year,” Lu said. “Singles is obviously a great start, but we’re solid enough in our high school experience that we thought to try doubles. We only took one (loss) against Normal Community and hopefully we’re going to play them again. ”
After defeating Paxton Garland-Sutter and Preston Koontz of Rochester 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals, Lu and Williams moved on to face Glenwood for the championship and was tested early. Gupta and Doerfler pulled ahead 5-4 and had two set points in the first set. But the Senators tandem extended the set and eventually won it in a tiebreak 7-5. With a couple breaks of serve and some strong holds early in the second set, Springfield closed out the match comfortably.
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“I don’t know how to explain it, it’s mainly mental,” said Lu of facing two set points. “As long as you don’t kick yourself over your mistakes, you just have to get through it. The tiebreaker was a real momentum-changer. Once we won that tiebreaker, we had to step up and capitalize. ”
Williams explained the changes made from the first set to the second were pretty simple.
“We were giving them free points in the first set,” Williams said. “If we cut down on our unforced errors and keep the ball in play, and let them make the mistake.”
Freshman serves notice
The start of his freshman season wasn’t what he had envisioned Khurana said, when he began the season 0-5. Yet, his turnaround of him is what the Senators were expecting. Khurana defeated Sacred Heart-Griffin’s Jeff Wernsing 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals before running into the savvy Hiredesai for the championship.
Hiredesai, uncharacteristically seeded sixth, won his first CS8 singles title after having to retire last season to Williams in a thrilling three-setter due to a hamstring injury.
The loss wasn’t a devastating one, said Khurana, considering the knowledge of the U-High junior.
“He definitely had more experience at conference because it’s my first one,” Khurana said. “I played good, but I couldn’t follow through and finish.”
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Khurana mentioned he took two seasons off due to COVID and his last major tournament was on the USTA circuit in January 2020. Lu, though, likes Khurana’s game and is a big supporter of his teammate.
“Once he gained high-school experience, he got a lot stronger,” Lu said. “You started seeing the work ethic actually show up and he started winning more games. It’s good to see him improve. ”
Second singles seed Ubaydah Mahmood of Glenwood beat Wernsing when he retired (6-2, 3-2) in the third-place match, and the Titans finished tied with U-High for second place with 19 points each. Yajath Narra and Chase Boester of U-High took third in doubles with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Garland-Sutter and Koontz.
SHG finished with 15 points and Rochester followed with seven.