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Morris’s Connor Barth wins third straight Class 1A singles tennis sectional championship · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Morris's Connor Barth wins third straight class won a singles
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  tennis sectional championship. Written by Brian Hoxey, this article is
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  being read by an automated voice brought to you by
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  Everlett Morris. Connor Barth was the top of his game
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  during play at the Class one A La Salle Peru
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  Sectional on Friday at the LP Sports Complex. This was
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  a good day for sure, Bart said. Honestly, everything in
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  both matches was on today. From my serving and serve receive,
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  playing at the baseline or at the net, playing aggressive
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  or just to keep the ball in play, everything was
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  just clicking for me. Barth started his day with a
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  six six to zero victory over Princeton senior Jackson Mason
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  in the semimes. In the semifinals, then went on to
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  a solid six to one victory over Metamora sophomore Matthew
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  Pool to claim his third consecutive sectional championship. Against Mason,
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  my game plan was to just keep it in and
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  keep it deep, just keep rallies going until he made
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  a mistake, Barth said. Then against Pool, I wanted to
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  be smartly aggressive. Both guys had pretty different play styles,
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  so you have to adjust All competitors in Friday's semifinal
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  and title matches had already qualified for the State tournament,
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  which begins Thursday in the Chicago Suburbs, while pairings are
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  expected to be released Tuesday afternoon. I'm excited for State,
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  and I have some pretty high goals set for myself
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  this last go around Barth. Said. Mason. Rebounded from the
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  semi final loss to Barth with a six to one,
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  six y three triumph over Morris Junior Andrew Ochoa in
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  the third place match. Ochoa had dropped a six to
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  one to sixty one decision to Pool in his semifinal.
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  In the semifinals, Connor is just so consistent. He just
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  doesn't miss, said Mason, who advanced to State in doubles
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  last season. He makes it so tough to get consecutive
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  points against him. It's almost like when you do get
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  a point from him, it motivates him even more and
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  he comes back super strong the next three or four points.
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  In the third place match, I was playing to win,
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  but I was also trying to work on some things
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  that I'll need to be better at next week at State.
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  I was switching things up one game. I was trying
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  to work on just keeping the ball in play. Then
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  the next I was trying to take some chances on
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  first serves. I felt my serving, while not as good
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  as Thursday, was the best part of my game. Again.
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  Today I'm going to State to compete the best I
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  can and see what I can do. Ochoa, who will
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  be making his first estate, said, while the day was frustrating,
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  he'll regroup and be ready to go next Thursday, I
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  was playing the third place match on the court right
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  next to Connor's championship match, and he was just playing
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  so well, so I was just trying to do the same,
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  Ochoa said. I felt like I played hard, but it
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  just didn't work out. I'm happy with my first serves.
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  I feel like I was putting most of them right
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  where I wanted them. Mason is a very good player,
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  and he was just better than me today. I'm a
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  little disappointed right now, but very excited for next week.
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  The Ottawa doubles team of seniors Caiden Araujo and Aiden
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  Sexton fell sixty three six y three to Metamora senior
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  Dane Hutchison and sophomore in the semi finals, before coming
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  back and outlasting Pontiac senior Zach Legner and junior Cole
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  Don's four six six four sixty three. I feel like
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  the third place match was all about mental and physical toughness,
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  Araujo said. We lost the first set, so right there
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  we knew it was going to be a hard fight
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  if we wanted to come back and win. I felt
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  a step slow in the first set, but losing that
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  set really motivated me to pick up my game and
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  just play better tennis. We just weren't playing as consistent
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  as we needed to be in the first set, Sexton said.
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  We just had way too many unforced errors and weren't
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  playing smart. We talked before the second set about how
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  we knew neither of us played really well and we
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  need to get things going. It wasn't our best match
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  we've played this season, but I think we both are
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  happy with how we were able to come back from
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  being a set down. Metamora thirty points won its eighth
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  consecutive team sectional championship, with Morris twenty placing second.