A little over a year ago, Case Birlew and Hunter Creek had never played competitive tennis before. Now they’re headed to the state tournament.
Birlew and Creek teamed up to defeat Jordan Gangemi and Cade Chrastina of Ozark, 6-3, 7-6 (7-0) at Gillenwaters Tennis Complex in Springfield Tuesday. The sectional victory earned Birlew and Creek a berth in the state tournament at Cooper Tennis Center in Springfield on May 26-27.
The victory avenged an earlier 9-7 loss to the Ozark pair during the regular season.
” remarkable run for two guys that have been playing tennis competitively for only two seasons. Last year, they started together as a doubles team for Republic–now they are sectional champions,” says coach Dan Vales.
This is the second consecutive year that Republic has landed a doubles team in the state tournament. Last year, Michael Nacy and Brad Hendrix competed at state.