Belleville West takes early lead at Belleville East Invitational Tennis Tournament

The Belleville West Maroons advanced all three doubles teams into finals and took a narrow lead late in the opening round of play on Friday at the Belleville East Invitational Tennis Tournament.

The Maroons were led by the play of their No. 1 doubles team of Drew Boyles and Derek Henke, who after splitting their semifinal match with Carbondale’s Alex Lescoulie and Zach Pereira, rallied to win the third set super-tiebreaker 10-7.

The Maroons tandem trailed 7-5 but won the final five points to advance into the final where they were playing Peoria Richwoods’ Kiran Patel and Zach Settlemeyer.

“They (Boyles and Henke) actually trailed 5-0 in the second set only to tie it at 5-all, before losing 7-5. To come back a second time and win the super-tiebreaker shows a lot of determination on their part,’’ West coach Andy Brunner said. “I’m pleased, we gear our schedule so that we’re ready to play these kinds of tournaments and these kinds of matches. Today, I would say this kind of work has paid off.’’

Henke and Boyles weren’t the only Maroons to shine in doubles. In No. 2 doubles, the team of Nick Harry and Ian Burger were taking on Richwoods’ Alex Cheng and Arpi Sahoo, while in No. 3 doubles, the Maroons’ Sam Calhoun and Austin Quandt were playing Cameron Cagas and EThan Pickard of Belleville East in the final.

The final results in doubles were not available at press time.

Singles on Saturday

The singles competition will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Matches will be played at Belleville West, Belleville East, Althoff, O’Fallon, Southwestern Illinois College and Lindenwood University-Belleville.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Belleville West takes early lead at Belleville East Invitational Tennis Tournament."