Schaumburg's Early takes singles title at CL South

For Schaumburg's Dillon Early it was a matter of getting control of his emotions.

Once he did the rest of the field at Saturday's Crystal Lake South boys tennis invitational didn't have a chance.

Early whitewashed Crystal Lake South's Nick Thome 6-0, 6-0 to win the singles title.

"It was a matter of calming down," said Early, "I was really sporadic the first two matches. I was really strong the last two matches and played good tennis. Every part of my game was strong especially my serve."

Early, who defeated Rolling Meadows' Andrew Lee 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals, had his toughest match in the quarterfinals against Wheaton North's Jacob Brink. Early outlasted Brink 7-6, 3-6 (10-8).

Thome advanced to the championship match with a hard-fought win over Wheaton North's Buchie Ros 6-4, 5-7 (10-8).

'The semifinal match was a great win," said Thome. "It took a lot out of me. In the championship match (Early) was just better. It was a learning experience for me."

Ros bounced back from the semifinal loss to defeat Lee 6-2, 6-2 for third place.

'I took all the positives out of my loss in the semifinals," said Ros, who was suffering from a cramped elbow. "It was a great match and I learned a lot.

"I was really tired in the third place match but was determined to end the day on a good note."

In doubles action, the Fremd duo of Jonathan Lee-David Ostman placed second. Lee-Ostman advanced to the finals with an exhilarating closely-contested win over Crystal Lake South's duo of Kyle Devlin-Roland Gassensmith 4-6, 6-4 (10-8). Devlin-Gassensmith advanced to the semifinals with a hard- fought win over Elgin's duo of Reza Khan-Josh Hegel 6-7, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Devlin-Gassensmith showed resiliency after losing in the semifinals to finish third, knocking off Wheaton North's duo of Josiah Lindquist-Kevin Tran 6-4.

Reza-Hegel came back after the loss to Devlin-Gassensmith in the quarterfinals to post two wins in the consolation bracket to finish in a fifth-placed tie with the other Maroons' doubles team of Andy Chai-Jacobs Narayan, who won three matches in the consolation bracket. Chai-Narayan lost in their opening match of the day 6-0, 7-6 to Tran-Lindquist of Wheaton North.