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Racquetbills Win State

The St. Louis University High School racquetball team won the state championship on February 24th at Vetta Concord Racquet Club. The undefeated Jr. Billikens continued their winning streak against strong playoff contenders, including second-ranked CBC, to earn the school's 10th state title. The team now travels to Oregon to compete in the national championship.

"I had high expectations of my players and had been working on consistency with them since day one," says coach Dr. Joe Koestner. "However, this team's performance at State was truly exceptional."

Some highlights from the state championship include:

  • Captain Joe Hoffmann ‘08 had lost to the CBC #1 twice during the regular season but came back to defeat him in two straight games. After that grueling match he was called almost immediately to play the top-ranked player from Kirkwood. Although Joe jumped out ahead taking the first game, he succumbed to muscle cramps and ended up taking second place.

  • Ray Godefroid ‘08 played a smart high-percentage game and overcame the powerful CBC Seed #2 in straight matches.

  • Though his only loss of the season was to the CBC’s third seed, #3 Spencer Rusch ’09 solidly defeated him in straight matches.

  • One of the most exciting games of the evening came when #2 ranked Jr. Bill Paul Marsek ‘08 took on the top-ranked CBC fourth seed. Paul had beaten him early in the season but had lost twice to him coming into the tournament. In a hard-fought battle, the match went to tie-breaker and stalled at matchpoint with the serve going back and forth between the two players at least six times. With Jr. Bills fans cheering him on, Paul held on to win the match.

  • Top ranked #5 Kevin Kissel ‘09 did not get to play his CBC nemesis because he was defeated early in the tournament by third ranked Varsity-2 player John Duchardt ‘09. It was an all SLUH finish as Kissel defeated his fellow Jr. Bill to take the seed.

  • The persistence and strategy of #6 seed Andrew Zack ‘08 proved too much for his CBC opponent. Andrew, who always seems to relish the extra challenge of taking matches to tie-breakers, took the tiebreaker 11-9.

The euphoria grew slowly as one by one the opposing players dropped.

Much credit goes to SLUH's Varsity2 team, whose members went to the quarter and semifinals of many seeds. The SLUH teams also swept the JV-1 and JV-2 divisions and lost the JV-3 division by only one match. The newly formed Ladder League team took second place in the novice division and Steve Marincel ’09 won the JV division.

“In the end, the win goes to the player that wants it the most and who was willing do to what it takes, not on the day of State but on the first day of practice,” says Dr. Koestner. “The tenacity of these players is a credit to the competitive spirit of SLUH coupled with a ‘men for others’ attitude that made every team member a mentor to the others.”

The coaching staff of Dr. Koestner, Robert Hoffman, Matt Stewart '98, Scott Ziegler ‘99, James Fox, ASC and Don Steingruby salutes this exceptional team. To view photos of the state champions, visit the Racquetball team page in Co-Curriculars by clicking HERE.

SLUH last won the state title in 2005 and has earned national titles in 1998, 2003 and 2004.

Published: February 26, 2008 | Categories: News Section, Sports, Parents, Alumni, Students, Homepage
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