How Peoria-area boys tennis teams fared at the IHSA state finals

Dunlap moved into a tie with Rock Island Alleman on Friday for third place in the IHSA Class 1A boys tennis state finals in the Chicago suburbs.

Metamora was in a four-way tie for seventh, two points behind Dunlap. Normal U-High is the leader, with Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge in second.

Both Dunlap and Metamora had doubles tandems reach the quarterfinals of the championship bracket on Friday. Both slipped to the consolation bracket, where they won quarterfinals matches and next will face each other in the consolation semifinals at 8 a.m. Saturday.

The Eagles have a chance for a trophy — awarded to the top three finishers — but can only gain one more point in the tournament.

“Anyone would hate finishing fourth, it’s not fun,” Dunlap coach Pat Gornik said. “That’s a tough one. But all we can do is take care of business on our side of the net and let the chips fall where they fall.”

The Dunlap senior doubles tandem of Alex Fei and Ethan McRaven fell in a tiebreaker, 6-4, 7-6 (8) to Wauconda’s seniors Sean Lenhart and Marshawn Gallego in the championship bracket quarterfinals Friday.

They dropped into the consolation bracket quarterfinals and beat Teutopolis senior tandem Oliver Lee and Noah Thompson, 6-2, 6-0.

That set them up for a consolation bracket semifinals showdown with Metamora tandem Tommy Sopko and Adam Culp on Saturday morning.

The Metamora’s doubles duo of junior Sopko and senior Culp fell 6-3, 6-2, to Toy Triad tandem Joe Cass and Ethan Stewart in the championship bracket quarterfinals Friday.

They headed to the consolation bracket quarterfinals and won a tiebreaker battle over Matoon’s Dalton Short and Will Pullen, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3).

The Dunlap tandem defeated their Metamora counterparts, 6-2, 6-2, during the regular-season.

“We just don’t win (championship bracket) quarterfinal matches,” Gornik said. “Those 4-point matches. We get a ton of points in the back draw, those 1-point matches, and it’s just grinding it out. Overall in this state tournament, we just didn’t have enough when we needed to. We didn’t play bad, it’s just the other teams played great against us.”

How Dunlap fared

• Dunlap juniors doubles tandem Ethan Klemens and William Song were eliminated in a fourth-round consolation bracket match, 6-4, 6-2, by Arnav Patel and Luke Yin of Illinois Math and Science Academy.

Earlier in the tournament, the tandem won a first-round match over Joliet Catholic’s Ryan Streitz and Matt Perez, 6-1, 6-1, and a second-round match over Centralia’s Reed Ashford and Peyton Cole, 6-2, 6-2.

They dropped a third-round championship bracket match, 6-1, 6-1, to Prairie Ridge duo Tim Jones and Cole Palese.

Klemens and Song finished as all-state third-team honorees.

🎾 is great and all, but it’s who you spend your time with that counts!

After a tough day on court that saw 3 more ends of season, this team stands strong 💪🏽

Alex/Ethan going on at 8am at Palatine tomorrow@DunlapAthletics@KurtPegler@hoijim@icetimecleve@ClutchSportsILpic.twitter.com/OMZd9njdMd

— Dunlap Tennis (@Dunlaptennis) May 31, 2025

• Dunlap senior singles ace Andrew Choy lost his opening match of the tournament on Thursday against one of the state’s elite seeded players, but came back to win three straight before being eliminated in the consolation fourth round by Urbana University’s Jameson LaFave, 7-6 (4), 4-6, (10-5). Choy earned all-state third-team honors.

• Dunlap junior singles teammate Harmin Patel went 1-2 and was eliminated in the second round of consolation play by Geneseo’s Benny Robinson.

• Dunlap’s Fei and McRaven opened the tournament with three straight wins to reach the championship quarterfinals. They topped Brother Rice tandem Aidan Alving and Dominic Leodoro, 6-0, 6-2 in the first round. Then they beat Freeport’s JC Herrera and Carlo Delavin, 6-1 6-0, in the second round.

They won a third-round championship bracket match, 6-0, 6-1, over Matoon’s Dalton Short and Will Pullen.

The duo lost its championship bracket quarterfinal, recovered with a win in the consolation quarterfinals and reached the consolation semifinals Friday.

That assures them a top-eight finish in the state, for which they have earned all-state first-team honors.

How Metamora fared

• Sopko and Culp led the way for Metamora, reaching the consolation bracket semifinals on Friday. They will be just the fourth Metamora doubles tandem to play on the state tournament’s final day in school history.

Their tournament run includes a win over Jacksonville’s Collin Knollhoff and Bennett Karr, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round, then knocked off Flora tandem Adam Pietz and Jordan Gocey, 6-3, 6-0 in the second round.

They won their third-round championship bracket match in a tiebreaker, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-2 over Wheaton Academy partners Eddie Dykema and Elliot Poland.

The championship bracket quarterfinals loss to Triad followed, then a recovery with a win over Matoon in the consolation bracket quarterfinals. They await Fei and McRaven in the semis. With a top-eight finish in the state assured, Sopko and Culp are all-state first-team honorees.

• Metamora’s junior tandem of Weston Lange and Jack Hessing went 2-2.

They won a first-round match over Lemont’s Marco Pavlica and Mitch Sowa 2-6, 6-4, (10-7), lost a second-round match Champaign Centennial’s Tyler Luchinski and Ryder Perry, 6-3, 4-6, (10-8).

Then they recovered for a second-round consolation win over St. Francis’ Jackson Zeman and Brendan Leegan 7-6 (3), 6-3, before elimination in the third round to Rock Island Alleman’s Leo Acker and Chase Baird 7-6 (3), 6-4.

All four of the tandem’s matches included a tiebreaker.

• Metamora freshman singles player Hunter Poole won his opening-round match over Sacred Heart-Griffin’s Kaden Smith (So.), 6-4, 6-2. Poole lost his next two, 6-1, 6-0 to Timothy Christian’s Hudson Tseng, and 6-0, 6-0 to Fenwick’s Michael Doherty.

• Metamora junior Dane Hutchinson also went 1-2 in singles play. He opened with a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Glenbard South’s Jordan Abbott (Sr.), then recovered to beat Coal City’s Martin Ramirez (Jr.) 6-0, 6-3.

Hutchinson was eliminated in the second round of consolation by Centralia’s Alkis Sekas (Sr.), 6-2, 6-2.

How Richwoods fared

• Richwoods’ terrific freshman singles player, Daniel Nathan, picked up four wins in six matches before elimination in the consolation quarterfinals.

He opened with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Marc De Vandiere De Vitrac of Lycée Français, and followed that with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Geneseo’s Benny Robinson.

Nathan lost his third-round championship bracket match to Chicago University’s Dash Smith, 6-0, 6-2. Smith has since reached the third-place match in the championship bracket.

He fought back for a fourth-round consolation win over Lemont’s Sean Svoboda, 6-1, 6-1, and a fifth-round consolation win over Highland’s Grant Fleming, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Nathan’s first state tournament run ended with a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Grayslake Central’s Samay Patel in the consolation quarterfinals.

All told, the Richwoods freshman faced four seniors and two juniors in the draw. He finished with all-state second-team honors.

How East Peoria fared

• Senior singles player Connor Watson went 2-2, collecting wins over Sterling’s Aron Rivera and Jacksonville’s Cole Nebel before exiting in the consolation third round with a 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6) loss to Mascoutah’s Eli Woodrome.

How Peoria Christian fared

• The junior doubles tandem of Ian Durst and Samuel Loeb went 1-2 at state. They won their middle match, 6-4, 6-0, over Jacksonville’s Collin Knollhoff and Bennett Karr. They were eliminated in the consolation second round by Salem’s Juan Diez (Sr.) and Jarett Rushing (Jr.), 6-2, 1-6, (10-7).

IHSA boys tennis state finals Saturday schedule

Dunlap doubles tandem Ethan McRaven and Alex Fei will face Metamora tandem Tommy Sopko and Adam Culp in one of the two consolation semifinals matches at 8 a.m. at Palatine High School.

The two semifinals match winners will advance into the state’s fifth-place match. The IHSA championship match and third-place match will also be played at Palatine. The same goes for the singles draw, where the matches are set for the state championship and third-place duels, and the consolation semifinals will feed into the fifth-place match.

The IHSA maintains the brackets, team standings and match scores on a newly-created tracking site.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA boys tennis: Dunlap, Metamora lead Peoria-area at state finals