Southeast boys tennis beats Cape Coral to advance to regionals

On Tuesday, the Southeast boys tennis team saw the last four years of hard work pay off as they defeated Cape Coral to advance to the regional finals.

After splitting the first six matches, it came down to the Seminoles' Sebastian Suarez and teammate Konrad Strzalkowskj against Corey Williamson and Max Slater in doubles.

Williamson and Slater took the first set 4-6, but Suarez and Stralkowski battled back to win the second set 7-5, setting up an epic 12-10 win in the final and deciding set.

"It was a fantastic finish," Southeast coach Howard Eberly said. "They had match point, then we had match point and were able to win it. This is the furthest we've gone in the past 20 years, and it's because our guys didn't stop believing."

Cape Coral had multiple opportunities to win on match point but couldn't capitalize. Once Southeast regained control and match point, Strzalkowskj won the game on a corner shot.

"Williamson hit a great serve, we went back and forth for a bit and I was able to get a good shot on the ball and put it out of their reach." Strzalkowskj said. "It was an unbelievable feeling, and I couldn't be prouder to be captain of this team."

Senior Parth Patel defeated Williamson 6-2, 7-6 in the singles matchup, looking sharp all game with his strong serve and returns. Suarez and Tyler Teaford won their singles matches 6-4, 7-5, and 6-2, 6-1 respectively.

"Patel played his best match of the year. He served great and just played consistent all day," Eberly said. "What really won it for us was our three, four and five guys. They played strong and allowed us to be balanced, it was a total team effort today."

Last year, Southeast came up short in the district tournament, but this year with

the district title in hand and a chance to win the regional crown, Eberly credits the team's ability to grow over the years and mature.

"Our top three players, Patel, Strzalkowskj and Jake Mattraw, are all seniors and have really come into their own this year," Eberly said. "It's very exciting, I've coached at Southeast for over 35 years with 13 as the boys tennis coach and this is extremely rewarding."

On Thursday the Seminoles will travel to Fort Myers to play Cypress Lakes. The winner will advance to the state tournament next week.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Southeast boys tennis beats Cape Coral to advance to regionals ."