The Carmi-White County Boys Tennis team competed at the Centralia Sectional on Friday and multiple Bulldogs qualified for the IHSA State Finals.
Gage Atteberry and Cameron Courty have been the #1 Double Team for CWC throughout the season, finishing their season campaigns with a regular season record of 16-3. Atteberry and Courty were given the #3 seed and a 1st round bye at the Centralia Sectional.
Their first match came against Alpesh Soni and Daily Sievers from Marion, and Atteberry and Courty pulled off the 6-3, 6-2 win.
Their next match was against Colin Jones and Grady Simpson from Fairfield. After taking the first set 6-2, Atteberry and Courty would drop the 2nd set 5-7 but would finish it off with a 6-4 win in set 3. With the win, Atteberry and Courty were guaranteed a top-4 finish and a spot at the state finals, they were now searching a sectional championship.
Their next match came against the Cooper Brown and Johnny Lai from Carbondale. Brown and Lai got the best of the Bulldogs, winning 6-0, 6-1.
The loss sent Atteberry and Courty into the 3rd Place match, where they matched up against Logan Bandy and Andrew Tate from Salem. Atteberry and Courty were able to power through and win in 2 sets, 7-5 and 6-3. The Bulldog Duo finished the Salem Sectional in 3rd Place, sending them to the IHSA State Finals.
Atteberry and Courty became the first CWC boys tennis players to reach the State Finals since Sean Courty (Cameron’s older brother) and Mitchell Masterson did so in 2013.
At the end of the day on Friday, it seemed as though Atteberry and Courty would be the only Bulldogs competing at state, but by Saturday afternoon, that wasn’t the case.
Senior Conner Colman was unseeded in the singles bracket, he was given a first round bye and was then matched up with Peyton Owen from Fairfield. Colman pulled off the win in 2 sets, 6-2 and 6-2.
Colman was then matched up with Francisco Neto from Mt. Vernon. It appeared that Colman’s season and career had come to an end after Neto pulled away with a 6-1, 6-1 win.
Neto went on to finish in 4th Place, qualifying him for the State Finals. However, due to a scheduling conflict, Neto is unable to attend the state finals. Since Neto defeated Colman in the quarterfinals, and was defeated in the semifinals and championship rounds, Colman was given Neto’s qualification by default.
Colman will compete in singles and Atteberry and Courty will compete in doubles at the IHSA State Finals later this week in Chicago.
The IHSA will release the matchups for the State Finals on Tuesday, May 23rd.
