BELLEVILLE – The Edwardsville Tigers are sectional champions for the second straight season.
More importantly, the Tigers advanced three of their four entries, including sectional doubles champions Michael Karibian and Jade Dynamic, to the Class 2A state tournament that runs from Thursday through Saturday in Chicago.
“We got five kids through to state,” EHS coach Dave Lipe said. “We have received great performances from all six of these kids throughout the season, and we got great performances from all of them again this weekend.”
Freshman Colton Hulme and the doubles team of juniors Jace Ackerman and Adrian Norcio each finished third for the Tigers to advance to the state tournament. Senior Ben Blake was eliminated on the first day but did go 1-1.
Edwardsville won the Class 2A Belleville West Sectional team championship with 20 points, edging out runner-up O’Fallon with 18 points. Quincy and Belleville East each had 10 points, followed by Belleville West and Alton with two points apiece.
“We were backed into the corner until those last three matches,” Lipe said. “We had to win those three matches and we did. Credit our opponents for pushing up because we could not have played any harder or better. O’Fallon is a great team and we feel fortunate to have squeaked past them.”
Those three matches included Dynamic and Karibian’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over Belleville East’s RJ Miksell and Ben Harris in the final and wins in third-place matches from the doubles team of Ackerman and Norcio and in singles from Hulme.
Karibian and Dynamic advanced to the championship match as the No. 1 seed after topping O’Fallon’s Kaden Vollmer and Nic Strobel 6-4, 6-0 in the semifinals on Saturday morning.
In the championship match against Miksell and Harris, Karibian and Dynamic fed off each other’s energy to outlast their way to a title.
“This is the best feeling ever. I’m really pumped up right now,” Karibian said.
Ackerman added, “This is my freshman year and it feels really good to have come this far.”
A week ago, Karibian and Dynamic won the No. 1 flight of the Southwestern Conference Tournament.
In singles, Karibian won the No. 3 flight and Dynamic finished third in No. 2.
Karibian was even more excited about the pair’s performance in Belleville.
“This was more important,” Karibian said. “It’s all because of who I’m playing with. He’s a really good teammate, player and one of my best friends. I thrilled that I’m going to state with him.”
After losing 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to Miksell and Harris in the semifinals, third-seeded Ackerman and Norcio rallied for a 7-5, 6-3 win over O’Fallon’s Vollmer and Strobel in the third-place match.
Ackerman and Norcio trailed 5-2 in the second set before storming back to win in two.
“We just focused on playing tennis. We tried not to care about the score and just focused on playing each point. There were some tough points but at the end of the day we were able to gather ourselves and finish the point, then the game, then the set and ultimately the match,” Ackerman said.
The Tigers received a scare early in the match when Norcio lost his footing after a point and fell backwards. He hit the back of his head on the ground. After a long break, Norcio was able to regroup himself and return to action.
In singles, Hulme recovered from a marathon 6-4, 7-6 (2) loss to O’Fallon’s Gavin Sohn in the semifinals to win 6-1, 6-3 over Quincy’s Caleb Vonderheide in the third-place match.
Despite playing a two-hour semifinal match, Hulme looked like he was at full strength against Vonderheide.
“I just wanted to regroup myself and stay calm. I told myself that this was the next match and to not have any negativity. I just went with it,” Hulme said.
Hulme entered the sectional as the tournament’s No. 3 seed after a third-place finish in the No. 1 flight of the SWC Tournament.
O’Fallon’s Evan Potter, the tournament’s top seed, won the sectional championship with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Sohn in the championship match.
June 06, 2021 at 10:42PM
https://www.theintelligencer.com/sports/article/Tigers-win-sectional-will-send-three-entries-to-16228496.php
Tigers win sectional, will send three entries to state - The Edwardsville Intelligencer
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