Moline wins ninth straight WB6 boys tennis title

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By Christopher Maloney | Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:06 AM CDT | () comments

GALESBURG, Ill. — Moline boys tennis coach Tom Derouin said he came back to coach this year in part because he felt he had something to prove.

What he — and his team — proved Saturday was that the Maroons still are the team to beat in the Western Big Six Conference.

After a key doubles win over Rock Island Alleman, Moline scored 16 points in the first round en route to its ninth straight WB6 boys tennis title, and 12th in 13 years.

The only blip was in 1998, when Galesburg won the conference title.

“I thought I had something to prove. That is why I came back,” Derouin said. “When I asked my family, I got ‘no’s’ from some while others said, ‘Go ahead and try it.’ Neighbors said, ‘You don’t get many second chances.’ That is what this was, a second chance, and now on to sectionals.”

“At the beginning of every season, you have two goals: to win conference and to get as many players to state as you can. Even though we probably won’t have one or two seeds in next week’s sectionals, because of today, we do still have a chance to get all six of our boys to state.”

The Streaks fell four points shy of Moline this season, finishing with 14 points, while Rock Island and Quincy tied for third with 12. Alleman finished with 4 points and United Township closed out the day with 2.

The singles title was won by Quincy’s German foreign exchange student, Christoph Haertel, while Galesburg’s duo of Devon Boydston and Austin Meeker won the conference doubles title.

In singles, Rock Island’s Chris Franco beat Moline’s Ian Golden 6-1, 6-0 to reach the singles title match, while Haertel beat Moline’s Ryan Rosenthal. In the title match, Haertel easily disposed of Franco 6-3, 6-3.

“I did pretty good,” Haertel said. “I had a difficult time at first because of the wind, but with the second set the wind worked for me. It was an awesome match. I feel more confident going into sectionals after a win like this against a player like Franco.”

Doubles was the name of the game for Galesburg as the Silver Streaks were unable to get any points in the singles matches.

“No points in singles did hurt us,” said Galesburg coach Gary Wagher. “They (the singles players) played as good as they could and have stepped up from last year, but they aren’t as competitive as I’d like them to be. I am really happy with how our doubles played. In all my years of coaching here at Galesburg, we had never had two doubles teams in the doubles title match like we did today. When it comes to the sectionals, though, it will be a different ballgame.”

In the doubles title match, Boydston and Meeker beat Alex Foley and Alex Gieryna 6-2, 6-1.

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