Boys tennis: Wins, lessons for Pirates during 5th-place finish at Ottawa Invite

OTTAWA – On perhaps the nicest day of weather they have seen this spring, the Ottawa Pirates came away from their power-packed Ottawa Tennis Invitational on Saturday with a few victories, lessons learned and experience gained.

Coach Matt Gross’s squad – a group that has had more than half of their matches canceled because of rain and cold – netted a tie for fifth place in the seven-team event, with fourth-place finishes earned by Sebastian Cabrera at No. 2 singles and Ethan Krafft and Noah Gross at No. 2 doubles.

The Hersey Huskies captured the team title with 29 points, one more than runner-up Lincoln-Way East Black. The Pirates scored 13 points to tie with Normal U-High.

“Everybody got a win for us today,” Ottawa coach Matt Gross said. “I started the tournament today thinking we were somewhere near the top of the bottom half, when you have Hersey and Metamora, and Lake Park turned some heads today. This was just our sixth date, and when you consider the matches, the practice time we and any other team has missed, no, we’re not playing the way we’d like right now, but I think we will be.

“As long as we can get some consistency in the weather and can get outside, we’ll get there. We’re seeing good things.”

Cabrera put up a brave fight in the third-place match against Lincoln-Way East Black’s Will Pangallo, but tired a bit and fell, 7-5, 6-1, to finish fourth.

Earlier in the day, he started out with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Quentin Leak of Lincoln Way East Blue, but then dropped the semifinal meeting to Hersey’s Owen Wellner, 6-0, 6-4.

“Starting out, I was kind of nervous, a lot of good teams here, but I felt good,” Cabrera said. “The third one was one of the best matches I’ve had this year. It was a good first set, but in the second I tired out a little, but it was close.

“I feel I need a little better pace on my ground strokes, maybe have a little better placement and have to make better decisions when to approach the net, but against this competition I’m pleased with fourth.”

The first-time teaming of senior Krafft and freshman Noah Gross at No. 2 doubles captured a 7-6 (6), 6-3 decision over Grant Rafol and Shane Romberg of L-W East Blue. However, the Pirates twosome fell, 6-0, 6-0, to the eventual champion, Metamora’s Bryton Short and Cole Morris.

In the third-place match, they suffered a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Hersey’s Sean Meyer and Vera Kartal to end up fourth.

“I was just trying to get the big serve, and then Noah could finish it up at the net,” Krafft said. “I think we have good chemistry together. I trust Noah. He knows how to get the job done. Overall, I felt we played well.”

“We both had our ups and downs, but we had good chemistry,” Noah Gross said. “It went pretty well for only my second tournament ever. I learned some things. It was a good learning experience, and it was fun.”

Elsewhere for OHS, junior Adam Gross placed sixth at No. 1 singles after falling in his opening match to Hersey’s Sam Yeh, 7-5, 6-2. He then defeated L-W East’s Blue’s Sam Cooley but fell to Metamora’s Alexander Schoff, 6-0, 6-0, in the fifth-place match.

The No. 3 doubles team of Ethan Cela and Daniel Reinhardt also finished sixth after dropping its opener to Ronnie Petrey and Raul Rincon of L-W East Blue. They rebounded nicely with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Matt Meyer and Will Blum of Normal U-High, but then the Pirates lost a 6-2, 6-4 decision to the Lake Park tandem of Dylan Newelski and Bryan Newelski in the fifth-place match.

Ottawa’s No. 1 doubles tandem of William Goetz and Logan Goetsch, in just their second match playing together, came up short in their first match 6-2, 6-3 to Hersey’s Ryan Hegel and Andrew Stan. They then dropped a close 7-6 (6), 6-2 match to L-W East Blue’s Griffin Kostro and Owen Christensen.

However, they finished on a high note with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Coal City’s Colin Hart and Tyler Jackson to place seventh.