The Forester handball teams competed at the Illinois Handball Association Singles Tournaments over the weekend. After reaching the quarterfinals as a sophomore and finishing as the runner-up a year ago, Lake Forest senior Dan Cordova claimed the Open Singles title in 2015.
Cordova posted four straight victories, including three over former Lake Forest College players. He knocked off Bill Mehilos (1998-2002) 21-3, 21-4 in the quarterfinals, Mike Munson (1997-2001) 21-15, 21-12 in the semifinals, and David Munson (2000-04) 21-9, 21-19 in the championship match. Cordova was the first active Forester to win the event since David Munson in 2004.
Joining Cordova and the Munson brothers in the Men's Open semifinals was Forester senior C.J. Laffey, who won twice before falling 21-17, 21-13 to David Munson. The only other Lake Forest player in the bracket was sophomore Anthony Collado, who fell in the first round but rattled off three straight victories to win the Open Consolation division.
Lake Forest also had success in the women's Open Consolation bracket, where senior Amber Craghead defeated junior Christi Valicenti 21-9, 21-17 in the final. Junior Lisa Ledvora also posted a victory before falling to Craghead in the semifinals.
Senior Eric Matiasek, junior Matthew Chu, and freshman Juan Canales reached the quarterfinals of the Men's A division. Chu came out on top of a 21-18, 21-16 decision in the round of 16 whlie Matiasek and Canales both needed 11-3 tiebreaker triumphs to get past their opponents to the quarterfinals. Freshman Ricardo Palma was eliminated in the round of 16 but later advanced to the semifinals of the A Consolation bracket.
The women's A/B Division was played in a round robin format between four Foresters with freshman Kyra Vidas winning all three of her matches, including a 21-5, 21-7 decision against sophomore Sophia Goss, who went 2-1. Junior Jessica Chang defeated freshman Bethany Fyffe 21-5, 21-2 to finish third.
Senior Rick Arko advanced to the quarterfinals and classmate Sam Hermann and freshman Max Roberts to the round of 16 in the Men's B division. Junior John Snider dropped his first match but eventually reached the B Consolation final, where he was defeated 11-10 in the tiebreaker.
Freshmen Xavier Higa and Carter Kounovsky posted quarterfinal wins before falling in the semifinals of the Men's C/Novice Consolation bracket.
The next event on the Foresters' schedule in the Circly City Tournament in Indianapolis January 30-February 1.
