Fenwick’s Doherty finishes 5th at state tennis 

Improvement is often itself a victory. 

Fenwick sophomore Michael Doherty placed in the top eight in the IHSA Class 1A tennis tournament a year ago. This time around, he finished fifth, and as a consequence was named all-state. 

“I am definitely pleased with how I did,” Doherty said. “I got the wins in the matches I needed to. There were a couple of matches where I lost the first step, but came back to win.” 

The 6-foot-3 Doherty was cruising along, winning his first three matches before he lost 7-6 (4), 6-7 (2), 6-3 Friday to senior Hunter Madigan of Champaign St. Thomas More in an affair that lasted nearly three hours under a hot sun.  

About a half-hour later, and after a drive to a different school, he was in the consolation bracket quarterfinals, where he slipped past senior Samay Patel from Grayslake Central in a pivotal 2-6, 6-4 (10-4) match.  

“It was definitely tough finding the morale after that heartbreaking loss,” he said. “I was just trying to get in as much water and electrolytes as I could.” 

From there, he disposed of Deerfield senior Konrad Piotrowski 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals, Saturday, before needing a tiebreaker to stop fellow sophomore Steven Jiang, also from Deerfield, in the fifth-place match 4-6, 6-4 (10-7). 

“Honestly, my reaction was relief but a mix of enjoyment because he took the first set and I was down 0-3 in the second,” he said of that match. “I wanted to leave it all on the court. I played my best game when I needed to the most.” 

Doherty’s coach, Ron Rogala, said pressure did the job against Jiang. 

“Steven played behind Konrad all year, and he had a stellar record,” Rogala said. “(Michael) realized if he continued to attack Steven’s backhand and forcing him to back off the baseline he could put immense pressure on Steven, and that’s what he did.” 

Start with sophomore Alek Rekucki and junior Nick Vizzone, who were within a hair of advancing to Saturday’s fifth-place match, dropping a 4-6, 6-4 (11-9) heartbreaker to a team from Champaign Central in the consolation semifinals. 

The duo got down 5-2 and 9-6 in the tiebreaker, then won the next three before switching sides. But it just wasn’t to be. 

“It was kind of a tough draw, just disappointed how it ended, and the match against Champaign went tough with the tiebreak,” Rekuki said. 

Added Vizzone: “Overall, it was a good tournament and good year, but a tough way to go out.” 

In the quarterfinals, they disposed of a team from Stevenson 6-2, 6-2 after marching through their first three championship bracket rounds with victories before running into conference opponent and eventual state runner-up Kyle McCain and Nicholas Marringa from Hinsdale Central, losing 6-1, 6-0. 

The Huskies’ other doubles team of senior George Barkidija and sophomore Charlie Bruce advanced to the second round of the championship bracket before losing to a Barrington team. 

Tough loss, of course, but the pair rebounded and got as far as the consolation bracket’s fourth round before losing 6-0, 6-0 to Hinsdale Central’s other doubles tandem of Logan Milton and Amir Kahn, who went on to win that bracket. 

“They did great,” OPRF coach John Morlidge said. “Those two Hinsdale kids are huge tournament players.” 

In singles play, sophomore Naveen Rajagopal had hard luck, losing close in the tournament’s opening round 6-4, 6-0 to Barrington’s Derrick Katayama. But his next match, in the first round of the consolation bracket, was even tougher. He fell 6-3, 4-6 (10-3) to Naperville North’s Ritvik Korrapati.  

“He’s a fantastic baseliner, big serve, moves well,” Morlidge said of Rajagopal. 

“We just had a couple of lapses on defense,” coach Tracy Bonacorssi said. “It was only 6-2 at halftime, not terrible. I felt like we ran out of gas in the second half.” 

Still, though Kure and Cox will graduate, along with attacker Addison Boehm, who will play at Augustana next year, the cupboard won’t be bare a year from now. Junior Tessa Timpone, the team’s top draw taker, will return, along with junior defender C.C. D’Alise, who stepped into a starting role in her first varsity season. 

It was a groundbreaking campaign for the Friars (9-9). They beat OPRF for the first time for Bonacorrsi and the seniors and took down St. Laurence 5-2 in a sectional quarterfinal to start the playoffs after a tough loss to the Vikings a few weeks earlier. 

“It was a group of athletes who came together and learned so much,” Bonacorrsi said.