Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Before his players hit the courts on Friday morning at Veterans Memorial Tennis Center in Cedar Rapids to start play at the Class 2A state tournament West High coach Mitch Gross had one final bit of coaching.

“We had to do a little bit of state meet 101 before the meet started just because it is a new experience for most of our guys,” Gross said. “It was all new to almost all these guys.”

The late cram session helped Sam Shin make his first day at the state tournament a success.

Shin won the first two state tournament matches of his career on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Class 2A singles field in his state debut.

“There were some nerves but I just thought ‘this is my first time and I don’t really have anything to lose’,” Shin said. “I just went out and played.”

Shin earned the fourth seed in the singles bracket and opened with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Western Dubuque senior Alex Meyer in his state tournament debut.

He advanced to the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Chris Yao of Johnston in the quarterfinals.

“Before the draw came out I was just trying to do everything I could to prepare,” Shin said. “When the draw came out I came up with a game plan for that opponent and just tried to execute it the best I could.”

Shin will face top-seeded and unbeaten Tim Ellis of Ames in the semifinals on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Ellis finished third at the state meet a year ago and advanced to the semifinals with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Ankeny Centennial freshman Will Blevins on Friday.

“When Sam plays smart and keeps his head on his shoulders he is a very, very solid tennis player,” Gross said. “He showed that today.”

Shin brings a 12-match winning streak into the semifinals on Saturday following his two state wins on Saturday.

After starting the season 6-2, Shin hasn’t dropped a match, avenging a regular season loss to Rami Scheetz of Cedar Rapids Washington with a straight set win in the state team quarterfinals last weekend.

“I’ve just got more confidence in myself as the season has gone on,” Shin said. “I got more confident and then that win against Washington booster my confidence even further.”

Junior Sasha Chackalackal won his state tournament debut, rallying for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Zach Glanz of Linn-Mar before falling to second-seeded Rami Hemaiden of Cedar Rapids Kennedy 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

“Obviously you are disappointed you lose but I’m not disappointed in the effort my guys put in,” Gross said. “I have been impressed with everyone’s effort. They have all really stepped up.”

Both West High doubles team dropped to the consolation bracket on Friday.

Eli Young and Brad DiLeo defeated the West Des Moines Dowling duo of Eddie Bening and Jack Drey 6-4, 6-0 in their opener and led the top-seeded Cedar Rapids Washington duo of Scheetz and Ty Sherman 4-3 in the second set before eventually falling 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Jack Wenzel and Mukundan Kasturirangan dropped their opening-round match to the third-seeded team from Bettendorf of Yash Singh and Jozef Porubcin 6-2, 7-5.

“Both of our doubles teams played really well, Eli and Brad were this close to being a Maryland Baltimore County,” Gross said, comparing the duo to the first 16 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament to defeat a top seed. “They played really well it was just a couple of points here and there.”