FERGUSON • Hazelwood West doesn't have the best singles player or doubles team in the Suburban North Conference.
The Wildcats are the best team overall, however, which they proved again Saturday.
After already clinching at least a share of the SNC regular season title - it could claim an outright first-place finish with a win at Pattonville on Tuesday -- Hazelwood West won the league tournament at Forestwood Park.
"It was a total team effort," said Wildcats coach Todd Hoffman, whose squad scored 27 points to nip Pattonville which had 24½ points and third-place McCluer which had 23. "We have a deep team."
They needed to be. They were still tied with the Pirates with one match still yet to be decided. However, their No. 2 doubles squad of Kameron Mitchell and Alex Davis overwhelmed McCluer's Corey Wilson and Boston Johnson 6-3, 6-1 to put Hazelwood West over the top.
"They did a great job," said Hoffman of Mitchell and Davis, who helped Hazelwood West win its first conference championship since 2006. "They came through for us."
They weren't the only ones. The No. 3 doubles team of Jim Vigland and Brenden Wicks also finished first after knocking off McCluer's Jesse Tihen and Steven Wolff 8-6, 6-2.
"They're just good athletic guys," said Hoffman of Vigland and Wicks. "Both doubles teams are good, athletic players. They just stuck with it and were determined to win."
The Wildcats' Brenden Rowberry also finished second in No. 4 singles. He dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to McCluer's Casey Wolff. Hazelwood West's No. 1 doubles team of Josh Sutter and Ethan Engel also picked up a second-place finish after falling to Pattonville's Mackenzie Davenport and Tyler Rogers 6-4, 0-6, 2-6.
"It feels good," Sutter said of the team championship. "We struggled a bit in the final match. But as a team we stayed strong. That's how we usually do it. We stayed strong in all of our matches."
Sutter and Engel got off to a good start in the match but then they faltered late.
"We weren't making many mistakes and they were and then we started making some unforced errors," said Sutter. "We started bringing it back at the end but it was too late."
Although his doubles team didn't get first, Sutter was glad the team overall did.
"It's real exciting," he said. "I played last year and we weren't quite all there. This year with good coaches and a lot of hard work we got it done."
Davenport said improved serving on his part and some good net play by Rogers was the key to the win.
"It was a tough match," he said. "I knew we could beat ‘em. We just had to get ourselves together in that first set and it showed."
In the No. 1 singles final, Hazelwood Central's Steven Benedict avenged his loss to McCluer North's Josh Papes in last year's No. 1 singles final with a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
"I felt like I was pretty consistent with my strokes and didn't have a problem with double faulting and I made him make his own mistakes," said Benedict.
