Warriors cruise past Chargers

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McHENRY – Szymon Linette simply played consistent tennis to get the win at No. 1 singles for McHenry on Thursday.

Linette defeated Carlos Meza, 6-1, 6-1, to lead the Warriors to a 5-2 Fox Valley Conference win against Dundee-Crown. McHenry’s top player showed a solid net game and kept the ball in play throughout the match.

Warriors coach Kyle Funkhouser said Linette had the ability to play several different styles of tennis and was not always as conservative as he was against Meza.

“If he needs to mix it up, he will,” Funkhouser said. “He tries to adapt his game to how his opponents are playing.”

D-C’s Evan Spangenberg and Tony Loch earned a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles. Spangenberg said the second-set loss was the result of McHenry’s Jason Roessling and Daryl Quitalig playing better.

“They stopped making all the mistakes they made in the first set,” Spangenberg said.

In the third set, the D-C team was up, 5-2, but dropped the next two games to let the Warriors back in the match. Loch said he and Spangenberg got a little too cautious.

“We weren’t taking shots when we had them,” Loch said. “We had to pick it up.”

D-C (1-9 overall, 0-6 FVC) has struggled this season, but Chargers coach Harlan Miller has been pleased with his team’s effort.

“We’ve shown some good hustle,” Miller said. “We’re in a learning phase. Hopefully each time we go out we come back a little bit stronger.”

Funkhouser said McHenry (5-3, 3-2 FVC) had been playing well enough to make a lot of matches competitive but hasn’t always been able to turn that into wins.

“We’re just having trouble closing [matches] out,” Funkhouser said. “We’ve got plenty of experience; we’re just tightening up in matches.”

The Warriors will travel to Champaign today to play in the 16-team Centennial Invitational. Funkhouser said the invitational was a great opportunity to see a variety of players from across the state and get some tournament competition to prepare his team for the conference and sectional meets.