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EDWARDSVILLE – The countdown to the Edwardsville Futures Tennis Tournament started off in grand style as some of the top players from around the Metro-East area competed in the inaugural Madison County-St. Clair County All-Star Game Thursday evening at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
The match was the first community event to be held as part of the annual tournament, which this year will be held August 6-12. The wild card tournament will be held July 30-August 2; the qualifying tournament is set for that weekend before the start of the main event. Other community events will be held during the duration of the tournament.
The main idea was for the players to have fun and play with other players that they normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to have.
“Tonight was having about a good time,” said tournament director and Edwardsville High head coach Dave Lipe. “I’ve seen a lot of kids playing doubles with people that they don’t normally get a chance to play doubles with, different schools, I see kids playing mixed doubles, and they don’t normally get to play mixed doubles, and I think that’s a lot of fun.
“It’s great to have the support of all the coaches: I see coaches from lots of schools out here,” Lipe continued, “and they all got complimentary T-shirts for the event as well.”
Of course, it takes a lot of great effort from sponsors and supporters to put on an event such as this, and Lipe thanked everyone for their contributions.
“I want to thank Mike’s Automotive for being a great sponsor, being a great supporter of tennis,” Lipe said. “That’s the Papachrisanthou brothers stepping up and supporting tennis, and I’m very appreciative of them, in addition to McConnell and Associates and also BJ’s Printables for getting behind this night, and First to the Finish for supporting this night as well.
Thanks to Steve Cimarolli for grilling tonight out here tonight,” Lipe also said. “appreciate his work as well. Thanks to the Macaluso family from O’Fallon for bringing cookies for all these kids to enjoy after their matches, some before their matches. But it’s just a fun night. It’s about playing tennis and competing, but more than that, it’s really about making friends and enjoying our sport, and being recognized for being great tennis players. These kids are great tennis players, and we want to celebrate their achievements, and celebrate their skills, and really just have fun tonight.”
Co-tournament director and media coordinator Kirk Schlueter also thought that the match was a great way to get the festivities around the tournament started.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Schlueter said. “You know, couldn’t ask for a better start to the Futures calendar. Madison County-St. Clair County All-Star game, first one we’ve ever had. Players from all over the regions, 50 kids out here, I think eight coaches, a ton of fans, and a great way to celebrate the quality of junior tennis in this region, which is really extensive. And it’s great to have everybody sort of together under one roof here.”
Not only were the players having fun on the court, but playing mixed doubles was very much a real treat for them.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Schlueter said. “and I think the kids are loving this. I think very rarely do juniors get to play mixed doubles; they’re getting to play mixed doubles tonight, they’re getting to play with kids they don’t normally see, so I think it’s always fun for them to do that, to get to play new people. I see nothing but smiles and laughter the whole night, which is great, because that’s what really this event is all about.”
There were three categories in the event – boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles and mixed doubles, each consisting of one set each to the usual six games, and a 12-point tiebreaker if a set reached 5-5. In some cases, players played in more than one match in a certain category.
In boys’ doubles, Max Skaer of Belleville East and Nike Papachrisanthou of O’Fallon defeated Daniel McCluskey of Marquette Catholic and Logan Pursell of Edwardsville 6-2, Edwardsville’s Drake Schreiber and Marquette’s A.J. Bower defeated Quincy Dollison of O’Fallon and Andrew McCullough of Belleville West 6-1, it was Evan Potter of O’Fallon and Cameron Pavelschak of Mascoutah upending Jaren Henderson of Triad and Dylan Bargetzi of Highland 6-1, Nick Hobin of Edwardsville and Sam Kane of Alton winning over Shawn Weinstroer of Mascoutah and Dylan Firestone of Belleville West 6-5, and Corey Erickson of Belleville East and Dominic Macaluso of O’Fallon defeating the Edwardsville team of Pursell and Seth Lipe 6-4.
In the girls matches, Kate Macaluso of O’Fallon and Kaitlyn Fiedler of Belleville West defeated Abby Cimarolli of Edwardsville and Abby Fischer of Alton 6-1, Olivia Melichar of Belleville Althoff Catholic and Emily Fritz of O’Fallon won over Mady Schreiber of Edwardsville and Hannah Macias of Alton 6-3, it was Taylor Fiedler of Belleville West and Jordyn Roper of Althoff over Kirsten Plocher of Highland and Caitlyn Smith of Triad 6-3, Grace Bauer of Belleville West and Mary Nester of Althoff got by Meghan Dulaney of Triad and Taylor Fleming of Highland 6-4, Sara Kreuztrager oof Roxana and Morgan Marshall of Edwardsville defeating Abbey Burnside of O’Fallon and Maddie Hamilton of Belleville East 6-2, Taylor Fiedler of Belleville West and Ella Mostoller of Mascoutah over Nikki Lowe of Alton and Alyssa Wilson of Edwardsville 6-1, and Joanna Skaer of Belleville East and Mylee Brunner of O’Fallon winning over Natalie Karribian and Grace Desse, both of Edwardsville, 6-4.
In the mixed doubles matches, Lipe and Desse defeated Dominic Macaluso and Joanna Skaer 6-3, Max Skaer and Kate Macaluso defeated McCluskey and Karribian 6-3, it was Papachrisanthou and Brunner over Bower and Fischer 6-2, Dollison and Kaitlyn Fiedler over Drake and Mady Schreiber 6-1, Erickson and Melichar defeating Pursell and Macias 6-5, Potter and Roper upending Henderson and Plocher 6-2, and Ragetzi and Dulaney over Pavelschak and Nester 6-2.
In other mixed doubles matches, Weinstroer and Bauer defeated Kane and Smith 6-2, it was McCullough and Fritz over Hobin and Kreuztrager 6-4, Potter and Burnside topped Drake Schreiber and Marshall 6-4, Pavelschak and Mostoller over Kane and Wilson 6-3, Dollison and Taylor Fiedler winning over Bargetzi and Lowe 6-1, Firestone and Hamilton over Henderson and Kreuztrager 6-3 and Dominic Macaluso and Joanna Skaer topping McCluskey and Cimarolli 6-3.
The tournament is fast approaching, and Schlueter is looking ahead to the festivities.
“We’ve got the wild card tournament sponsored by TheBANK of Edwardsville starting July 30 through August 2,” Schlueter said. “Great opportunity for those guys, always a lot of fun to see those guys up close. And then the qualifying right after that, and then the tournament itself, starting that week, August 6. Going to be a great time, going to have community events every night. Three dollar to five dollar admission every day; every kid out here gets free entry. So I think that it’s a great event to be kind of the centerpiece of the summer tennis calendar here. And I know that we’re really proud to put it on again.”
And the night itself couldn’t have gone any better.
“Oh, definitely. I think tonight has been a dream,” Schlueter said. “No rain, the temperature has been wonderful, you’ve got probably, all told, I think we have 200 people out here under the lights. And it’s just been a wonderful tennis event, and every coach, every parent I’ve talked to has said how much fun they’ve had. So I think that for us, this is the perfect opening chapter to hopefully what’s going to be a really, really great story of the next three or four weeks of tennis.”
Lipe also felt that the All-Star match was a great start to the tournament festivities.
“It’s a great intro to the Futures tournament, to the pro circuit event,” Lipe said. “It’s our first community involvement night. We offer free admittance for all high school tennis players throughout the entire tournament. So kids who play high school tennis are allowed to come free. That’s a good thing too we do for high school tennis players. We want to encourage them and inspire them with that tournament as well. So we’re here to have a good time, and we think the players are having fun tonight.”
And the fun that the players were having was the main idea behind the match.
“Yeah, I’m very happy,” Lipe said. “Things look good, kids are playing well, kids are having fun. And I’m very appreciative of all the help. All these events take a lot of help and a lot of support from lots of people. So we think we got that tonight, and I know that the kids are having a lot of fun.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
