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Ottawa slips past La Salle-Peru 3-2 on the courts

In tennis, any successful doubles team is built on chemistry, complementary skills and disciplined strategy.The Ottawa No. 1 doubles team of seniors Kaden Araujo and Ayden Sexton would check all three boxes and it showed in Tuesday’s Interstate 8 Conference dual against rival La Salle-Peru at the Henderson-Guenther Tenis Facility at Ottawa High School.The Pirates topped the Cavaliers 3-2 as a team, with Arajuo and Sexton leading the way with a solid 6-0, 6-1 victory over Diego Mondragon and Erick Sotelo 6-0, 6-1.“I think we played very good complimentary tennis, and our strengths really align perfectly,” Arajuo said. “Ayden is a very solid player at the baseline, and I feel my strength is at the net. I feel like we are able to set up each other’s shots well. Ayden is also a really good server with good velocity and because of that it gives me more opportunities to make shots at the net.“I felt like another big thing for us, and really, it’s a big thing every match, is we want to control the play at the net. We want to be aggressive and really put as much pressure on our opponents as we can. I feel like we did a good job with that today.”Sexton said he felt the gameplan the two had and sticking to it was another key to the win.“Like Ayden said, we complement each other well, but I think we both would like to improve on the aspects that the other does well,” Sexton said. “I feel the fact that we are strong in different areas is a plus for us, but I know we’d both are working on being well-rounded players. “I feel like the biggest thing for us today was just keeping the ball in play. We always want to play consistent, but after the first couple of games today we both knew just hitting smart shots was going to be key. I felt like we both played solid and hopefully we can keep this momentum going.”Ottawa also swept the singles play with Bentley Thumm defeating L-P’s Jason Lu 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 and Eli Jeppson hitting past Aden Molina 6-1, 6-1.The L-P No. 2 doubles team of sophomores Kevin Guo and Evan Downey trailed Ottawa’s Gabe Zeglis and Hendrix Link 5-4 in the opening set but fought back for a 7-5 win before taking the second set 6-0.“In the first set they took advantage of our positioning,” Guo said. “They just seemed to know where we were going to go on almost every point. We also weren’t playing as aggressive as we should have been. “We talked down 5-4 in the first set about how we needed to really pick up our pace. We did that and also just played smarter tennis. I also think Evan used his lob shot very well and it led to us winning some key rallies.”Downey felt some of the stumbles early in the first set were due to not capitalizing on the chances they had.“We weren’t finishing our shots and not taking full advantage of our opportunities early in the first set,” Downey said. “We weren’t adjusting to how [Ottawa] was playing against us. “We also started doing a better job of forcing them to return the ball to the center of the court. That allowed us when we were at the net to cut off a lot of shots and get some easy points. Alot of that happened because of how well Kevin served ... He was really nailing then today.”The Cavaliers No. 3 doubles of Carson Sellett and Isaac Adams outlasted Ottawa’s Charlie Thiry and Leo England 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in the final match of the day.Both teams are scheduled back in action on Saturday with Ottawa hosting its own invite, while La Salle-Peru will host a quadrangular against IMSA, Dixon, Normal West at the L-P Sports Complex.

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