Senior Luke Sorgic looks to punch ticket to state in tennis regional at North Central High School

Patrick Mochen
Onwardtrojans.com

Senior Luke Sorgic will compete in today’s individual tennis regional tournament. Sorgic, in Chesterton’s No. 1 Singles spot for the third year in a row, moved on to the individual tournament with a win against South Bend St. Joe in the team regional, where Chesterton lost, 3-2. The following day, Sorgic competed in the individual sectional tournament, defeating the Andrean No. 1 singles quickly. In the individual regional matchup, Sorgic will be competing in the North 1 regional, facing undefeated freshman Nick Vukas from Illiana Christian in the first round. The team state tournament will be played at the same time as the four individual regionals, and both the team state tournament and the individual regionals will be at North Central High School in Indianapolis.
This stage of the postseason is nothing new for the Sorgic family. Last spring, Sorgic’s older sister, Aleksa (class of 2025), competed at the regional at North Central with current senior Amelia Smith in the No. 1 doubles tournament. Luke will look to go beyond the regional and advance to state, where any remaining undefeated No.1 singles players from the team state tournament will be added in. Sorgic will look to avenge his loss last year, where in the second round since graduated Joseph Foster from Munster defeated him. Falling one match short of going to state fueled Sorgic in the offseason to train year round and come back much improved, and it has culminated in today and possibly the next week. Any match from now on could be Sorgic’s last.
“Even if I drop a couple games, I just need to stay relaxed,” Sorgic said. “Just trying to stay composed against my opponent, especially the tougher ones. Against Valpo at sectionals, I kind of lost composure a bit.”
Although he may have had a rough patch against Valpo, Sorgic is playing his best tennis of the season right now.
“It’s had ups and downs. It started a little slow and I’ve played better near the end of the year,” Sorgic said. “Staying after practice to practice serves and other things has really helped me to pick it up at the end of the year.”
Sorgic’s only two losses came vs. South Bend St. Joseph in the regular season, but he came through when it mattered most. When facing possible elimination at regionals, Sorgic defeated St. Joe to guarantee his season would continue.
“I lost to St. Joe twice, so the week beforehand I was thinking this could be my last match of high school,” Sorgic said. “I focused on my serves and not making mistakes, and I went into it with a good gameplan, just trying to attack the forehand, get it deep.”
Sorgic also cited training against teammates as a reason for winning the match.
“(Junior) Peyton Belegal is similar to the St. Joe kid,” Sorgic said. “He makes it on me to win every point. Same with (junior) Shane Henry.”
In the other regional match, senior Elias Grimm of International School of Indiana faces junior Blake Pearson of Longansport. Every matchup in the individual state tournament pits two opponents with perfect postseason records against one another.
“I’m not expecting to sweep them 6-0, 6-0,” Sorgic said. “I’m looking to play a clean match, and try to win in straight sets.”