Coal City stands out at Joliet West quad meet – Shaw Local

JOLIET – In case you haven’t noticed, Will County hasn’t had the prettiest weather lately.

Freezing cold, high winds, rain, snow, it’s all resulted in mass cancelations of sporting events throughout the area. That includes boys tennis, with many teams left unable to even practice the past week.

That all changed Saturday as Joliet West hosted a quad meet between Joliet Township, Plainfield South, Coal City and Joliet Catholic. With blue skies and warm (enough) weather, the four squads did battle and got back in the groove of things.

“Today went really well,” Joliet Township coach Tina Hackett said. “The coaches who took part in the quad were great and amicable. We were all ready to play. We’ve all been in house for a week with the bad weather so we were all looking forward to getting some playing time and more experience. That attitude resonated with all of the coaches and players. We all came out thankful to be out here.”

Joliet Township 4, Plainfield South 0

Against Plainfield South, Paul Coffey defeated Nick Chance 6-2, 6-1 and Aaron Strong defeated Arman Dealba 6-1, 6-2 in singles for a clean sweep. In doubles, Joseph O’Brien and Christian Alexander defeated Jonah Powell and Faadil Syed 6-3, 6-0 before David Contreras and Michael Skole defeated Sergio Martinez and Collin Swank 6-0, 6-2.

Township won the final doubles match by default.

Coal City 3, Joliet Township 2

Things started to Township’s delight with Coffey defeating Martin Ramirez 6-2, 6-0 in the opening singles competition. Strong then defeated Jakob Boegerhausen 4-6, 6-1, (10-7) in the second singles match to pull off a sweep. Things were looking good for JT.

From there, however, it was all Coal City. Deron McVey and Sam Sterba defeated Alexander and O’Brien 3-6, 6-4, 10-5 before Will Thompson and Carsen Hart downed Contreras and Skole 6-4, 6-2. Tanner Shain and Riccardo Marigiotti closed it out with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Jayden Diggs and Exavier Rodriguez.

“Today went really well for us,” Coal City head coach Jeremy Unger said. “We won all three of our matches so that was good. It was a nice bounce back because we struggled last week and we had all of our players today.”

Joliet Township 4, Joliet Catholic 2

The singles success continued for JT against JCA. Coffey defeated Andy Munoz 2-6, 6-2, 10-7 before Strong downed Thomas Dvorak 6-0, 6-0. There was some doubles success as well with Diggs and Rodriguez defeating Roland Frey and Jack Kelly 6-1, 4-6, 10-2.

JCA had their share of success as well, though, with Matt Sojka and Connor Neville defeating Alexander and O’Briend 6-1, 6-6 (7-5). Marco Torrens and Dvorak kept it going with a 5-7, 6-2, 10-8 win over Lleyton Luangsomkhom and Fernando Guzman. The final match between Contreras/Skole and Eli Zelinski/Xander Keating ended with JT winning 6-2, 7-5.

Coal City 3, Joliet Catholic 2

JCA also had some success against Coal City with the Coalers taking their share of results as well. In singles, Munoz took down Ramirez 6-1, 6-2 before Boegerhausen defeated Novak 6-1, 6-3. In doubles, the Sojka/Neville duo defeated McVey/Sterba 6-4, 6-0 before Thompson/Hart flipped the script with a 6-4, 2-6, 10-4 win over Keating/Frey.

Mick Kelly and Kaleb Reinert of Coal City took the final match against Kelly/Torrens 6-2, 6-2 to close it out.

“It feels good to get some early matches in,” JCA head coach Scott Allgood said. “It’s a nice experience to get the kids into a quad like this. We had 10 seniors playing today and that was good just to get them going.”

Coal City 4, Plainfield South 0

Coal City concluded their day with great success against Plainfield South. Ramirez downed Chance 6-3, 6-4 in singles before Boegerhausen defeated Alba 6-3, 6-4.

In doubles, McVey/Sterba downed Syed/Powell 6-2, 6-3 and Thompson/Hart defeated Martinez/Swank 6-4, 6-3.

Joliet Catholic 4, Plainfield South 0

JCA’s day wrapped with a clean sweep of Plainfield South, starting in singles with Sojka defeating Chance 6-3, 7-5 and Zelinski beating DeAlba 6-7, 6-4, 10-5. In doubles, Munoz/Novak bested Powell/Syed 6-2, 3-6, 10-2 and Keating/Neville took down Martinez/Swank 6-4, 6-2.

Despite the result, Plainfield South was staying positive after the quad.

“It felt pretty good,” Powell said. “It took a little while to get warmed up after starting tight…The first game was a mess, but we bounced back. Not many tennis teams were able to practice last week so everyone was getting back into the swing.”