Chesterton tennis No. 1 singles player Lukas Sorgic heads into final season with three varsity seasons of experience

By Patrick Mochen
Onwardtrojans.com

Lukas Sorgic, Chesterton’s No. 1 singles player for the third year in a row, used the disappointment of narrowly missing state to fuel him to work harder than ever in the offseason to fine-tune his tennis game.
His history with the sport doesn’t reach back as far as that of some elite high school players, but it doesn’t show. Sorgic started playing occasionally in intermediate school, and he and his sister, Aleksa Sorgic (Class of 2025), started playing more often in middle school. Luke said that throughout middle middle school she was probably a little better than him because she got an earlier start. Then, she said, started to get the better of her consistently in eighth grade. For Luke, high school is where it turned from just a game that he and his sister played to a more serious discipline.
Luke played No. 1 doubles as a freshman and No. 1 singles the past two seasons.
“It wasn't super easy but was cool for me to play solid opponents,” he said of playing No. 1 singles as a sophomore.
He said he was disappointed that his improvement after that season wasn’t enough to get him to state as a junior. He fell one match short.
“Luke’s one of the hardest workers, not only on the team, but in the region,” Chesterton coach Tom Bour said. “He’s one of the top players in the region. He’s on a court at least six days a week. He loves the game, loves to work on it, and it shows.”
In the winter, Sorgic trains a lot in Griffith and even some in Illinois. He traveled to Hinsdale, Illinois in the summer to face solid competition. After a full offseason of work, practicing every day, Sorgic said he “worked a lot on my backhand. That's the biggest weakness.”
He hopes his new confidence in his backhand will make opponents less likely to target that perceived weakness and added that his forehand and serves have always been the key to his success, even if it is, as he says, “inconsistent” at times.
Both Sorgic and Bour pointed out that the senior sometimes struggles to stay zeroed in during matches.
“Sometimes he struggles to get out of ruts, get out of mental downswings,” Bour said. “He might lose a couple games and it shows in the next two games. Maybe we've got to change it up, use some strategy, but mentally he's got to stay focused, stay positive, leave bad shots and bad games behind him.”
Bour said he believes that his top player can compete at a Div. 1 level on scholarship. Sorgic is one of two team captains, along with fellow senior Jake Bell, who is slotted to play No. 1 doubles this year.
“Jake’s the loud one,” Bour said. “When we need to make big announcements Jake’s the one doing the yelling and screaming, but every player out there, all 22 kids, look up to Luke. They see his talent, they see his hard work. Luke treats everyone with the same respect. That’s why he’s a great captain.”.
The coach added that Sorgic’s ability to also play doubles makes him more appealing to colleges. In college, six spots are open for singles and those same six players fill in three doubles teams. His freshman year, Sorgic partnered with then senior Connor Engels as Chesterton’s No. 1 doubles team.
“I love playing doubles. I'm actually more of a doubles player and tend to play better in doubles,” Sorgic said. “Singles is definitely more enjoyable for me to watch and play, but I like how in doubles there's not as much pressure and you can feel pretty free.”
Sorgic is unsure about where he is going to college, since he says he has just started talking to coaches. He is leaning toward engineering, possibly going into mechanical. For now, he’s focusing on the team taking back the sectional title it lost to host Valparaiso by the slimmest of margins, and then winning its first regional championship, plus getting to state as an individual if the team doesn’t make it.