BLOOMINGTON - After dominating the Champaign-Urbana 3.5 league, going 8-1 in the regular season, the Spin Doctors advanced to the USTA District Tournament on Sunday at Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington. Captained by Kai Wang of Champaign, the district title drought for a CU postseason team ended with a 3-2 victory by Spin Doctors over Solty's from Quincy, 3-2.
The Spin Doctors won on the #1 singles court, where Arjun Shah defeated Rick Crider, 6-1, 6-3. The team also picked up wins on two doubles courts to advance to the next round of competition. Shah, who starts graduate school this fall at Stanford University, is unbeaten in 3.5-level play this summer.
Geoffrey Lin lines up a shot during his regular season match with partner Francesco Botticella against Smokin' Aces. Lin and postseason partner D. Comte dropped both sets in a close district match against Bryan Fasano and Roberto Hernandez, 6-4, 7-6.
Paul Cheung and Ben Lee also notched a win for the CU contingent at #2 doubles, defeating Sammy Shumake and partner Martin McCarthy, 6-2, 6-3. Cheung, a doubles specialist, is 6-1 this summer. Meanwhile, Lee boasts an undefeated doubles record at 4-0.
"It's super exciting to be a part of this team and be able to represent CU at state this year after missing out for such a long time," said team member Hans Dee. Playing at #3 doubles with Wang, they easily won their match over Douglas Mallett and Travis Friye, 6-2, 6-1. "We celebrated by going to a great Chinese buffet in Bloomington after the win.
The last time a Champaign men's 3.5-level tennis team won a district title was in 2007. The Quincy team won six out of the previous seven district championships. Before 2016, the district title was won by a Bloomington or Peoria team.
The Spin Doctors advance to the state Championships to face the 19-man roster of Heritage Rustagi, who finished their regular season in a three-way 7-2 tie with Centennial Anderson and 7 River Trails Ciuca. The team match is scheduled at the Heritage Tennis Club in Arlington Heights.
So far this season, the team's only blemish this summer came on June 5 via a 3-2 loss to Smokin' Aces (2-7).
Members of the Spin Doctors are Kai Wang (Captain), Jack Wang, Arjun Shah, Aditya Gopalan, Ben Lee, Paul Cheung, D Comte, Francesco Botticella, Stephen Paul, Christopher Sisson, Geoffrey Lin, Hans Dee, Charles Sikora, Carl Guo, Jun Huang, and Doyeon Kim.
Area teams also advancing to state championships in other divisions include:
- Teri Scaggs 4.0M Adult 18&O
- Renee Brown 3.5W Adult 18&O
- Leslie Hartman 3.0W Adult 18&O
- Sangwon Park 3.0M Adult 18&O
- Spin Doctors Kai Wang 3.5M Adult 18&O
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