O’Fallon boys tennis rolls past Althoff, defeats Belleville East, places 3rd at tourney

The O’Fallon Township High School boys tennis team recently defeated Althoff Catholic High School 9-0 in a non-conference match.

Here are the results.

Singles

• No. 1: Gavin Sohn of O’Fallon defeated Jack Nester of Althoff 6-1, 6-0.
• No. 2: Kaden Vollmer of O’Fallon defeated Tyler Schmidt of Althoff 6-2, 6-0.
• No. 3: Nic Strobel of O’Fallon defeated Stephen Land of Althoff 6-0, 6-0.
• No. 4: Cameron Woll of O’Fallon defeated M. Ruocco of Althoff 6-0, 6-0.
• No. 5: Rowen Brunner of O’Fallon defeated E. Schillinger of Althoff 6-0, 6-0.
• No. 6: Ben VanAlstine of O’Fallon defeated R. Schillinger of Althoff 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles

• No. 1: Vollmer and Strobel defeated Cole Curtis and Nester 8-5.
• No. 2: Sohn and VanAlstine defeated Schmidt and Land 8-0.
• No. 3: Brunner and Woll won 8-0.

The Panthers then defeated Belleville East on Friday, May 6, to improve to 19-3.

“All the boys played awesome and had great matches,” OTHS coach Erin Thoman said. “This was a nice win!”

VanAlstine prevailed in singles action while Volmer and Strobel and Woll and Brunner won in doubles competition.

O’Fallon then competed in the Eugene Hill Invitational in the Normal-Bloomington on Saturday, May 7.

Rain forced the cancellation of the doubles tournament, but singles were played, with everyone playing four matches.

As a team, O’Fallon finished third out of 16 teams. New Trier and Naperville Central tied for first.

“Saturday was a good day of tennis,” Thoman said.

Overall, five out of O’Fallon’s six singles players advanced to the semifinals, with Sohn securing first place at No. 1 singles while earning a medal.

“Gavin played fantastic all day and played awesome matches against tough opponents,” Thoman said.

Sohn had wins over Bloomington, Naperville Central, New Trier, and Sacred Heart Griffin. In the semifoinals, he won 12-10 in a third set tiebreak over Naperville Central and then in the finals he beat Bloomington in three sets.

Meanwhile, Vollmer finished in fifth at No. 2 singles, while Nic Strobel at No. 3, Cameron Woll at No. 4, and Rowen Brunner at No. 5 all earned fourth place. VanAlstine finished third at No. 6.

“Congrats to the boys on a great day of singles tourney play,” Thoman said.

This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 12:00 AM.