Benet’s doubles teams finish strong

Updated: May 7, 2011 9:29PM

At Saturday’s Naper Valley Tennis Invitational, Benet got results at both second and third doubles, that were huge both for now and for the future.

Third doubles Grant Gatto, a sophomore and Noah Reed, a freshman, came from a sixth-seed to finish third with a 6-1, 7-5 win over St. Charles North in the consolation match, and the Redwings’ second doubles Bobby Martin and Michael Schutt finished fourth.

The Redwings came in sixth in the 16-team field with 32 points and Naperville North, which was led by Gordon Zhang’s third-place finish at first singles, were tied for seventh with 30 points.

The team title was won by Oak Park-River Forest, which scored 80 points by winning the championships in first singles as well as first and second doubles.

Hinsdale Central was right behind with 76 points sparked by victories at second singles and third doubles.

“This was a sort of coming out party for Grant and Noah,” said Benet coach Michael Hand about his young third-doubles players. “Because they understood the level of the competition and they brought their game to that level. This is a great long-term result, because we can keep them together as partners for three years.”

Reed, a lefty, and Gatto, a righthander, have worked well together during the season, but they looked like veterans in this tournament, especially in Friday’s win against Edwardsville that got them to the semifinals.

The Redwings duo lost the first set 6-2 to Edwardsville, and then went down 5-2 with an 0-40 score before mounting a charge and winning the second set 7-6 and the third 6-3.

“We stayed positive and talked to each other,” Reed said. “We tried to get our first serve in and that helped us with our poaching.”

Reed and Gatto lost in a three-setter to Oak Park’s Graham Lehman and Mitch Rasley in the semifinals and then bounced back and defeated St. Charles North’s John Terwilleger and Grant Spellman in the third-place match.

“This tournament showed us that we’re really better than we thought we were,” said Gatto. “We have a good chance of being on Benet’s sectional team next year.”

For long-time second doubles partners Martin and Schutt, the two wins on Friday that set up their fourth-place finish was an encouraging segue into the postseason that starts with this coming weekend’s conference tournament.

“Mike and Bobby have that chemistry that develops when you play together for a long time,” said Hand.

Zhang was outplayed by Hinsdale Central’s Sam Bloom 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals but won the third-place match against Downers South’s Joey Leto (6-2, 6-4).

“All credit to Sam today,” said Zhang. “He beat me and he made me change my game. We had a lot of deuce games in the second set, so I played pretty well. I lost to a great player.”

But then Zhang bounced back and defeated another great player, Joey Leto of Downers South, 6-2, 6-4 for third place. Zhang rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win the second set.

“This is a big tournament for Gordon regarding state,” said Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen. “He hasn’t gotten a lot of matches in due to the weather. He had good opposition here in Sam and Joey that will help him get a good seed at state.”

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