Depth is a recurring theme of New Trier High School team-sport success, and it was hidden in plain sight in the Trevians state tennis performance.
Following a recent injury, senior Oliver Coppieters joined with Daniel Matten on the Trevians second doubles team, a duo that fought its way to a sixth-place state finish on May 27 at Palatine High School.
“He’s really our seventh man,” New Trier coach Tad Eckert said of Coppieters. “That just highlights the depth of our team, and we have other guys fully capable of playing at that level too.”
Coppieters and Matten picked up eight team points, four of which came from the backdraw. The pair’s final backdraw win on May 27 gave New Trier its 30th point to clinch second place behind repeat state champ Hinsdale Central (36 points) and just ahead of Fremd (29) and Barrington (26).
Oliver Coppieters (right) reacts to a point for him and teammate Daniel Matten in the state tournament May 27.
It was the Trevians second straight second-place trophy, the 46th state trophy (top three) in program history and 17th runnerup finish. New Trier has 22 state championships, the most recent of which was earned in 2021.
Eckert said his team had a shot at another state title this year, but the breaks didn’t go the Trevs way.
“I think we all wanted to finish first, so there’s a little disappointment,” he said. “We were slight underdogs coming into the tournament to Hinsdale Central and they played really well. Our guys did too, but we needed a couple breaks and help that we didn’t get. All of the sudden we’re in a dogfight for second and came through.”
Ranked first entering the state tournament, New Trier’s top doubles team, sophomores Chris Ackerman and Stan Okesson won its first five matches (12 team points) to advance to the championship bout.
Ackerman and Okesson picked up a three-set victory in the quarterfinals (6-4, 3-6, 6-2 against Stevenson’s Ervin Perkowski and Gautham Kappaganthula) and a tiebreak win in the semifinals (7-6 [6], 6-3 against Hinsdale Central’s Nathan Hernandez and Bodie Teuscher).
Evan Glebov follows through as teammate Blake Gold looks on in the state-title match.
In the title match, though, Ackerman and Okesson could not keep up with Highland Park’s Evan Glebov and Blake Gold, a tournament’s No. 2 seed.
Glebov and Gold won the match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
“They controlled the tempo of the match,” Eckert said of the Giants duo. “We didn’t have enough answers.”
Glebev and Gold lost just one set — to New Trier’s Coppieters and Matten (6-2, 4-6, 6-4) — in their six tournament victories, and they saved their best for last, also winning their semifinal match in straight sets (6-4, 6-2 against Gabe Mills and Shiv Sastry of Barrington).
Highland Park’s Blake Gold celebrates a point in the state championship.
Highland Park’s second doubles team of Andrew Arzac and Andrew Rosenfeld picked up three wins in the backdraw.
New Trier singles entries, Caden Liu and Will Feeley, combined to win seven matches. Liu, a junior, lost in the second round before winning twice in the consolation bracket, while Feeley, a senior, won twice to begin his tournament and then twice more in the backdraw.
