BELLEVILLE – The Edwardsville boys tennis team won two of the three doubles flights on Friday to take the lead after the first day of the Southwestern Conference tennis tournament at Belleville West High School.
The Tigers are in first place with 20 points after the opening day, with Belleville East in second place with 17 points. West is in third with 15 points, followed by O’Fallon with 14, Alton with eight, and Collinsville with seven points.
Gabo Montinari and Seth Lipe won the number one doubles flight with a 6-0, 6-2 win over O’Fallon’s Evan Potter and Gavin Sohn to get the Tigers rolling. Montinari and Lipe won despite a shoulder injury to Montinari first suffered Apr. 26 in a tournament at Arlington Heights, in northwest suburban Chicago. Montinari is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday.
In the number two flight, Zach Trimpe and Drake Schreiber won their second straight title, defeating East’s Max Skaer and Devin Jankowski 6-3, 6-4 in a very good match, and Nick Hobin and Ben Blake dropped the final in the number three flight 6-4, 6-4 to Cory Erickson and R.J. Miksell of the Lancers.
Due to forecasts of rain in the area for Saturday, the first round singles’ matches were played after the doubles’ matches were completed, and will continue at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning, weather permitting. The number one through three flights will be held at Belleville East, while the number four through six flights are at Belleville West. If the matches are postponed because of rain on Saturday, they’ll be played Monday afternoon, starting at 3:30 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
