Despite the loss of four instrumental seniors last season, LT boys tennis has persevered and prepared enormously to take on their rigorous May schedule to compete to their maximum capacity in sectionals and state.  Taking their game to state, the boys tennis team hopes of placing somewhere in the top 10.

“We are coming off our highest team finish since 2006,” varsity coach David Robare said. “So it will be interesting to see how the boys respond later in the season during sectionals and state. We will have different players in different spots, so we are excited to generate some great results moving forward.”

Last year, LT boys tennis came in second in state. They were runners up to their biggest rivals: Hinsdale Central. While this is unquestionably a recovery season for LT boys tennis, there is also no doubt that Hinsdale is still a top competitor.

“Hinsdale is a great rivalry for LT and they are a team we always look forward to playing,” Robare said. “This season, there should be parity within the conference and many teams will provide very competitive matches.”

LT suffered a greater loss of players with the graduating class last year in comparison to Hinsdale Central, but despite this, this year’s team has more depth, varsity head coach Bill Wham said. Losing brothers Alex Ross ‘15 and Gianni Ross ‘17 was detrimental to the singles lineup for the team, but this year captain Jack Bernstein ‘17 is stepping up and competing as a singles player.

“It’s definitely going to be tough at state because the Rosses had so much experience playing high level tennis,” Bernstein said. “Not only did we lose the Rosses, we also had two seniors graduate who also competed at state last year (Rory O’Donnell ‘15 and Cuyler Burke ‘15). Having said that, I think having so many open spots for the state lineup will allow for other players on the team to do well at state.”

Bernstein has competed the past two years at state as a doubles player and he is one of the two returning players from last year’s state competition.

“Jack is really a complete player,” Wham said. “Now he just has to keep his mind and stay focused, and he’ll do fine. The other guys coming back to help us are Tanner Burke ‘17, who played in the State tournament last year with his brother. So we have some returning guys, but the strength of our team in going to come from Jack.”

From conference onto sectionals (May 21) onto state (May 27-28), the LT boys tennis team have a competitive, busy finish to their season. Players will have to qualify during sectionals in order to become entrants for state. The ambition is to send two doubles teams, and two singles players from LT to the state competition, Robare said.

“Competing at the state tournament is always a main goal for us,” Robare said. “The team finish depends on the performance of each individual singles player or doubles team; if we can win enough matches to be playing on the final day of the tournament, we will be successful.”