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Barrington comes up big in victory at Fremd

Historically, there has been plenty of drama when Barrington and Fremd play in the final weeks of the boys tennis regular season.

And it's been the head-to-head battle between the two Mid-Suburban West powers which has decided the division title, often coming down to the final match of the day.

Not this year.

The Broncos swept the host Vikings 7-0 on Tuesday to move a step closer to a divisional crown, with Palatine and Conant standing in the way of a second consecutive Broncos title.

"We've had a great rivalry with Fremd during the past four, five years," said Barrington coach John Roncone. "Sometimes things have not gone our way, and other times they have. But today we were able to get some good performances throughout the lineup to help keep us in the running for the division."

"Barrington was just better than us today," said Fremd coach Matt Duncan, "but even in defeat, there were a lot of positive things that I saw and plenty of things we can correct in time for the conference tournament next weekend."

Long after the outome had been decided, the top two players on the courts were engaged in a highly entertaining contest at No. 1 singles.

Fremd senior Eric Pohl, a state qualifier last season in doubles, was looking to give his club its lone victory on the day against Broncos junior Ishaan Jaglin, who earlier in the year defeated his counterpart in a superbreaker.

Pohl, who next week hopes to earn a fourth MSL title, grabbed the first set 6-3 but dropped the second 6-3 to force a third set.

After both held serve to open the set, Jaglin grabbed a service break and held serve to take a 3-1 lead. Pohl later closed to within 4-3 in a high-energy, hard-fought battle. The final few games were particularly fierce, with most points settled by long rallies and several brilliant winners.

Both players held to bring the score to 5-4, setting up a captivating and lengthy game No. 10. Pohl survived four match points to stay in the hunt, but in the end, Jaglin prevailed 6-4.

"I felt like everything was working and going my way in that first set, using a handful of early breaks to take control," said Pohl, who teamed with Jinwoo Oak for an MSL title at No. 1 doubles last spring. "I just wasn't able to pull out the close points after that first set, but I still feel like I've been playing pretty well this year, without any bad losses. I am really looking forward to the conference tournament next week."

The Broncos' Zach Hennenfent (No. 2) and freshman Mohammed Walji (No. 3) were straight-set winners at their respective spots. Over at doubles, it was more of the same for the visitors as they captured straight-set victories from No. 1 all the way through to No. 4.

The Broncos top team of Dean Carlson and Scott Apmann broke free from Kiran Devarat and David Oh late in the second set to record a 6-4, 6-4 triumph.

"The turning point came at 4-4 when Dean took over with his great serve," said Apmann. "Fremd is always one of our great rivals, so it was good to start our week off."

"Hopefully today kind of sets the tone from here on out, and especially next week at conference," said Carlson. "It's going to be very competitive there, and both of us expect Fremd to be right there as one of our biggest challengers for the conference title."

Vijay Tripuraneni and Matt Mulligan, who lost their fifth-place match to Stevenson last weekend at the prestigious Pitchford Tennis Invite, enjoyed a 6-1, 6-3 win against James Feng and Ryo Saito. Barrington's Henry Kleist/Tino Chiambas registered a 6-3, 6-2 victory as well at No. 3 doubles, and seniors Nick Arder and Brian Cooper did the same at No. 4.

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