Pattonville Hands Hazelwood West Tennis Its First Conference Loss

CREVE COEUR -- Fate dealt the boys varsity tennis team an unusual blow on Tuesday.

The Wildcats were no doubt one of the pleasant surprise stories of the 2011 tennis season, earning several big-time team wins, including the Suburban North Conference tournament championship, and a share of the regular season league title after swatting away its first six conference opponents.

The only thing left to do for West to make the title theirs and theirs alone was to get past host Pattonville High in its final Suburban North matchup of the season.

And the Wildcats were well on their way to doing that, especially after they won the first three matches of the day against Pattonville.

But then fate stepped in, and so did the Pirates, who took the last four matches in increasingly dramatic fashion, and kept West from earning its undefeated league championship by taking home a 4-3 match victory over the Wildcats.

“We’re still the conference champs,” West head coach Todd Hoffman said. “But it’s a little disappointing. We wanted to go undefeated in the league.”

West seemed certain to get its wish after winning the first two matches in fairly quick order.

The Wildcats’ No. 3 doubles team of Kameron Mitchell and Jim Vigland easily put away the Pattonville pair of Alex Burgess and Isaac Caverly 6-2, 7-6, to get the scoring started.

Shortly after, West No. 4 singles player Brendan Rowberry completed his own individual undefeated conference season by knocking off Pattonville’s Eric Bateman 2-6, 6-0, 6-2.

That victory gave the Wildcat senior wins over every other No. 4 singles player in the conference, something Hoffman was quite pleased to see.

“Brendan’s had a great year,” Hoffman said. “He’s really developed a lot.”

Shortly after Rowberry got the glad-hand from teammates for his victory, West’s No. 2 doubles pair Ethan Engel and Alex Davis finished off a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory Pattonville’s Maulik Patel and Thorten Grobel, giving West a 3-0 team edge.

At that point, all West needed was one more win in any of the remaining matches to claim the day victory and the undefeated conference season it so coveted.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Pattonville just refused to cooperate.

First, Elliot Green pulled out a stunning 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) nail-biter over West’s Corey Richards at No. 2 singles. Then mere seconds later, Pattonville’s Stephen Nicholson put the finishing touches on a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over Luke Hanson at No. 1 singles.

Mere seconds after that, Pattonville’s No. 1 doubles team of Bryant Davenport and Tyler Rogast defeated West’s Nick Ehlers and Josh Sutter 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), and suddenly the team match was tied.

“I was really surprised that our guys played so well today,” Pattonville coach Jeff Grass said. “We’d been (scuffling) a little bit, and Hazelwood West was unbeaten in the league, so I thought we’d have more trouble than we did.”

The 3-3 tie meant that the meet victory would come down to the final match, a No. 3 singles battle between West’s Myles Xanh and Pattonville’s Ellis Breig.

And to most observers’ surprise, Breig was leading 5-2 in the third set at the point when all the other matches had ended.

“I guess that was a lot of pressure on (Ellis),” Grass said. “I’m glad he didn’t know anything about it. It might’ve made him nervous. Fortunately, he just kept playing and he won.”

Xanh actually managed to stretch the match to 5-4, and had two break points that could’ve tied the match at 5. But Breig held strong and eventually was able to close out the win for himself and his team, using a big serve that gave Xanh fits all day.

“Myles really played well,” Hoffman said. “I thought he might be able to come all the way back. Even though we lost, I’m still proud of my team. They played tough.”

Both sides did.

In almost unprecedented fashion, six of the seven matches, all except the No. 3 doubles win for West, went three sets, and several of them went to a third-set tiebreaker.

It was clear, the two teams couldn’t have been more closely matched up.

“I’ve never really been around any kind of meet like that,” Grass said. “It was really exciting.”

The excitement will only ratchet up even more beginning this evening with both Hoffman and Grass will meet with coaches from Parkway Central, Parkway North, and Ritenour to discuss the MSHSAA Class 2 District 5 playoffs, which will begin Monday, May 9, at Parkway North High.

Seedings and matchups will be determine then, as the five very competitive teams begin a battle that will eventually determine the Missouri state team tennis champion.

“It’s a really tough district,” Grass said. “Anybody that’s in a district with a team like (top 5-ranked) Parkway Central is going to be in trouble. But we’ll see what happens.”

Hazelwood West will get one more team meet to prepare for next week’s districts. The Wildcats will play at Parkway North High on Friday, with the action set to begin at 4 p.m.