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Boys tennis: Kim, Stevenson charge past top foes at state

A stunning performance from Zach Kim and the doubles pairing of Sai Merneedi/Eric Perkowski capped a majestic performance from Stevenson's boys tennis team on Friday.

Both Kim and Merneed/Perkowski brushed aside higher seeds to earn spots in Saturday's semifinals of the Class 2A state tournament.

Kim (25-1) stunned the tournament's top seed, Jack Randall (Lockport, 30-1), in a three-hour, three-set victory. Just 60 minutes later, Kim was at it again, this time sending 5-8 seed Ryan Roegner of Naperville Central into the backdraw.

Later in the day at a steamy Hersey High School, the Patriots (23-1) doubles team outworked the tournament's No. 2 seed from New Trier (Reed Bianucci/Peter Leutz) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to advance into the 8 a.m. semifinals against 3-4 seed Hinsdale Central (Joe Daw/Ansh Shah).

"What a day for Stevenson tennis," said Patriots coach Tom Stanhope, who also still has 5-8 seed Sam Komis (24-2) alive in the backdraw.

Stevenson is in second place behind Hinsdale Central in the team standings. The Red Devils have 36 points, and Stevenson has 31.

New Trier is third overall with 28 points, Naperville Central is fourth with 26 points, and Lyons Township is next with 17 points.

"I always felt I could play with the best players in the state, and thought well enough of my play heading into the tournament to be able to do so," said Kim. "But having the top seed in front of me, then Ryan (Roegner) up next was the big test that I had to pass."

Kim next meets 5-8 seed Dominick Cuchran (19-6), a talented freshmen from Lyons Township.

Kim and Randall pushed each other to the brink during their round of 16 contest on Friday morning, with the seismic shift coming when the junior roared back from a 6-3 first-set loss to take the next two. Kim finished off his foe 7-5 in the third set with a wonderful set-up for match point, coming to the net with pace to take a ball out of the air and finish things off.

Kim retire to the cool air inside tournament central, where he got some attention to his cramping legs. The respite also helped remove the lactic acids that had been built up from the miles of ground he covered against Randall.

"If I had just the usual 20-25 minutes between matches, I'm sure my entire body would have been one giant cramp," said Kim. "But having a nice one-hour break before playing (Roegner) made a huge difference."

Kim said he was then able to take his game to a still higher level in a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Roegner.

Although both Merneedi and Perkowski are freshmen, they played more like experienced veterans Friday.

"Those two have so much experience together on the USTA circuit, but it's a little different in a high school setting where they're playing guys 2, 3 years older, and much more bigger and stronger, so that was the concern heading into this weekend," said Stanhope.

The Patriots did have some challenges, including severe leg cramps for Merneedi at the start of the third set after New Trier had evened it up with a 6-3 victory.

"We knew we had 10 minutes coming to get Sai ready to go," said Perkowski. "So I stayed real positive with him, encouraging him all the time the trainer was working on him (knowing) if we got back on, we could beat them."

"I must have had six or seven bottles of pickle juice, and a bunch of pedialyte to replace the sodium I lost, while Eric kept me energized during that time," Merneedi said.

Refreshed, the Patriots proved too hot to handle. They built a 5-2 advantage, before closing out the Trevians 6-4 in the third.

Komis could not overcome a heartbreaking first set tiebreaker loss to No. 2 Zach Elliot (Hinsdale Central), falling in straight sets 7-6 (7) and 6-1.

"You put so much energy into winning the tiebreaker, and when you don't, sometime there's nothing left in that second set," said Elliot, who will meet 5-8 seed Jeffrey Chen of New Trier in the semifinals.

"Zach was right," Komis said. "I just could not get into any rhythm in that second set. But now it's all about the team, and not me as an individual.

"My job tomorrow is to go out and continue to win and get points for the cause."

Komis will play Anthony Nguyen (Neuqua Valley) in an 8 a.m. consolation quarterfinal at Buffalo Grove.

Wauconda senior Brian Hackman came so close to reaching the Class 1A semifinals, only to fall out of contention for a state final appearance after his 3-6, 7-5, 1-6 loss to 5-8 seed Andy Graf of Mascoutah.

Next up for Hackman is a consolation quarterfinal with Alex Bergendorf from Glenbard South at Rolling Meadows this morning.

"I got off to a great start against Andy and felt really good heading into that second set, but the heat was starting to get to me - it must have been over 100 on the court - and it really effected how I was playing, especially in the way I was able to move my feet," said Hackman, now 22-1. "I have to give Andy a lot of credit because he was cramping so bad in that third set, and needed 15 minutes to get him halfway on his feet.

"He somehow was able to come back and play that last game to win the set, but I know I was feeling so sick to my stomach at the same time, so I'm looking forward to getting home and rest for tomorrow."

The sensational career of Kyle Boudreau came to an end when the Antioch star fell in his consolation fifth-round match with Kyele Mossman (Teutoplis) 6-3, 6-1.

The four-year veteran enjoyed his best state appearance ever, going 4-2 to raise his record to 20-5.

"I cannot tell you how fortunate I was to have a player and terrific young man such as Kyle with us for these last four years," said Antioch coach Jamie D'Andrea. "He was a one-of-a-kind person who put a lot of himself into the Antioch tennis program each and every day, and he will be sorely missed next season.

The three-time state qualifier, who will play at Augustana next fall, earned his first sectional championship one week ago, after two straight second-place finishes.

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