Quincy tennis squad qualifies for USTA state championships after winning doubles tiebreaker

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — A group of Quincy tennis players is headed to the USTA state championships in the men’s 3.5 division.

The group won the Mid-South District championship last weekend, first going 6-0 against teams from Peoria and Bloomington to win the Western Division and then knocking off the Spin Doctors, a team from the Champaign-Urbana area which had won the Eastern Division title.

In the district championship, Quincy and the Spin Doctors split their singles matches with the Gem City’s Rick Crider winning 6-1, 7-5 at No. 1 and Troy Fox suffering a 7-5, 6-2 loss at No. 2. The No. 2 doubles team of Joe Laws and Bryan Fasano won 6-1, 6-1, while the No. 3 doubles team of Doug Mallett and Sammy Shumake lost in a tiebreaker 6-2, 6-7, 1-0.

It left the No. 1 doubles match to decide the title. Quincy’s duo of Rob Hernandez and Martin McCarthy won the first set 6-4, dropped the second set 7-6 and won the tiebreaker to send Quincy to the state tournament.

Quincy will face the Northern Division champions at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at John’s Park in Glenview, Ill., and the Chicago Division champions at 3:30 p.m. in the state tournament field.

The Quincy team includes  Joe Laws, Bryan Fasano, Rick Crider, Martin McCarthy, Rob Hernandez, Troy Fox, Doug Mallett, Bob Soltys, Sammy Shumake, Jim Kase, Bob Catalpa, Dave Oakley, Travis Friye and Scott Miller.