Incoming Crown Point freshmen win 16U doubles title at P-T Tennis Classic
By Josh Lichtenfeld Post-Tribune correspondent July 26, 2012 11:22PM
Abbey Hamstra hits a forehand volley while play at the net during the championship match of the girls doubles match at the Post-Tribune Tennis Classic in Valparaiso Thursday July 26, 2012. | Andy Lavalley~Sun-Times Media
Updated: August 28, 2012 6:24AM
VALPARAISO — Crown Point freshmen Anthony Kendall and Lance Noerenberg will begin tennis practice for the Bulldogs on Monday.
But as they look to gain positioning in one the area’s stronger programs, they’ll enter with bragging rights following Thursday’s performance at the Post-Tribune Tennis Classic. After a 5-7 loss in the first set of the boys 16-and-under doubles championship, the tandem rebounded with a 6-4 second set and 10-6 tiebreaker to defeat the CP upperclassman-laden team of Dominic Peretin and Carson Hoogewerf.
“We kept telling each other to keep going and we came back,” said Kendall, who completed a busy schedule of five matches in two days at the Classic. “We could count on each other, that’s what it was.”
The duo fell behind quickly in the first set, going into a 5-2 hole, but continued battling from there.
“We just found their little flaws and attacked them,” said Noerenberg, who fused his attacking strategy with Kendall’s setup abilities.
However, while that match lingered on a while, the other two results on Thursday came in much quicker. In the boys 18 doubles championship, partners Luke Sanderson, 16, and Bryce Bonin, 13, played up, but age had little to do with their 6-1, 6-1 win over the Wheeler duo of Jack Hibbard and Drew Heinold.
“We had good communication and we know each other’s games real well,” Sanderson, the reigning Post-Tribune boys tennis player of the year, said.
Other than a 1-0 deficit to start the second set, Sanderson and Bonin continued to exploit open chances.
“He’s got good hands for a little guy and he holds his own on the baseline,” Sanderson said with a slight laugh while describing his partner who is more than a foot shorter than Sanderson.
“It’s just fun playing with him; he’s got a lot of fire and passion for his playing and I can count on him,” Bonin said.
In another pairing of players typically in different age groups, recent Kankakee Valley graduate Abbey Hamstra and KV Middle School student Molly Sanderson won in girls 18 doubles play, going 6-3, 6-1.
Molly Sanderson and Hamstra dropped the first game of the first set, but they generally rolled on against Danielle Weems and Ashley Pabey.
“We played pretty well the whole time, we got off to a slow start and lost the first game,” Hamstra said.
