Bruno's death casts pall over Elgin tennis event

It was a case of survive and dominate for the Dundee-Crown boys tennis team at Saturday's Elgin Quad.

The Chargers won the meet with a 2-0 record, but had to sweat out a 3-2 victory over host Elgin in the opening round, with Dieter Rango providing the difference at No. 2 singles by beating Elgin's Josh Hegel in a three-set thriller, 7-5, 4-6 and then 10-6 in a tiebreaker third set.

Refreshed from that victory — along with the chilly temperatures — Dundee-Crown then breezed past Larkin 7-0 in its next match, with the meet-clinching victory coming from the No. 1 doubles team of Chad Wagner and Albert Dziadkowiec, who defeated Larkin's Eduardo Molina and Miguel Mendoza 6-2, 6-1.

“Elgin was a tough match for us,” said Dundee-Crown coach Sean Howell. “We're really fortunate in the sense that our players are really mentally tough. We had a good comeback from our No. 2 singles player. As far as Larkin, they are usually a tough team. We got a little bit of luck and a lot of skill.”

While Howell was pleased his team won, it was overshadowed by the fact that South Elgin, the meet's fourth team, wasn't present due to the fact that first-year coach Michael Bruno died Friday night, reportedly of a sudden heart attack.

“It's really unfortunate,” Howell said. “South Elgin is a really tough team and we really missed them at this event.”

Elgin coach Larry DeHaan, whose team also defeated Larkin 7-0 to finish the meet with a 1-1 mark, agreed it would have been a much different event had the senior-loaded Upstate Eight Valley powerhouse South Elgin been able to play.

“Oh, absolutely,” DeHaan said. “The one time we won our sectional, it was always South Elgin that was there that was fighting to get it. They are a good team.”

So was Dundee-Crown on Saturday, much exemplified by Rango, who trailed Hegel 5-1 in the first set and came back to win it 7-5. Hegel bounced back to win the second set 6-4 and the pair battled in the tiebreaking final set before Rango got to 10 points first.

“In my case, sometimes it's good for me to be down, because it makes me want to put more effort to my game, and in this case I came back and won,” said Rango, who had an easier time with Larkin's Nathan Wilson in his next match, winning 6-1, 6-0.

Hegel, who beat Larkin's Jose Mora 6-0, 6-0 later in the day, said the first match against Rango provided a mental as well as a physical challenge.

“It was just a really long one, just kept going back and forth,” he said. “Mentally, it was kind of challenging, to keep on hitting back again and again.”

Dundee-Crown's No. 1 doubles tandem of Nelson and Dziadkowiec fashioned identical 6-2, 6-1 victories in their two matches. Beating Larkin's Molina and Mendoza in their second match of the day was arguably the more important of the two because the meet title was on the line.

“We just wanted to carry the momentum over from the Elgin match, and just keep going forward,” Wagner said. “We wanted to crash the net as soon as we could and take it to them, and be aggressive.”

Another top performer for Dundee-Crown was freshman Nicklas Nelson, who came back to beat Larkin's David Bermudez 6-0, 6-1 after losing a heartbreaker to Elgin's Tomaz Cruz 6-2, 2-6 and 10-7 in the third-set tiebreaker.

Cruz was flying high after winning the 10-7 tiebreaker over Nelson, eliciting a hearty “Yeah!” and a fist pump after winning match point. But he was just getting started. He jumped out to a 4-1 lead in his first set against Bermudez, ultimately winning 6-1, then came back after falling behind 1-0 in the second set to win 6-3.

Cruz said his most daunting opponent Saturday may have been the cold and wind. You see, he's a foreign exchange student from hot and sunny Brazil.

“It was really cold,” he said with a laugh. “In my country, it's not cold like that. I'm getting used to it.”

“He's a good, levelheaded ballplayer,” DeHaan said of Cruz. “He's been an unexpected blessing. We have a strong triangle between Tomaz, Andy Chai and Josh Hegel. We have little bit of fire in practice. When we put those challenge matches out there, they want it.”

The most excitement for Larkin came in the No. 3 doubles match against Elgin, where Maverk Lam and Wilson lost the first set 6-2 to Zach Erickson and Jakob Jormula, rallied to win the second 6-4, then lost a close one in the tiebreaking third set, 10-7.

“Both those kids are first-year high school tennis players,” said Larkin coach Kevin Schillerstrom. “Nathan Wilson, today is his first match ever for anybody, he's never played before. It was just fantastic.”