Boys tennis: Tourney starts on a high note for Rolling Meadows' Galvin
The boys tennis state tournament is all about harmony and how things begin on the first of three important days.
On Thursday, things went about as well as they could for 3-4 seed Mack Galvin. He was in tune with the surroundings at his own high school, where even a long break proved beneficial to the Rolling Meadows senior.
Galvin (37-0) put himself one step closer to his hoped-for finish after claiming three impressive victories to set up his round of 16 match with 17-32 seed Tom Bickel of New Trier at 8 a.m. Friday at tourney host Hersey in Arlington Heights.
In an effort to avoid potentially nasty afternoon weather Friday, the tournament will begin one hour earlier then the original start time of 9 a.m. in hopes of getting two rounds of the front draw completed. For the latest details during the day Friday, visit IHSA.org.
For Galvin, it was more of the same for his unfortunate opponents. The four-time MSL singles champ conceded a total of just five games during his first two contests, setting up his third win of the day against Chicago U-High's Jonathan Kutasov.
A three-hour, three-set marathon win by Kutasov over Wauconda sophomore Brian Hackman scrapped Galvin's plan of a quick and easy day.
No matter, according to Galvin.
"I finished my first two matches as quick as I could - then I realized that I might be in for a long wait because of that earlier three-setter by Kutasov," said Galvin. "But while some might think waiting almost two hours to play would be tough, I thought it was great.
"I got out of the sun, ate something, hydrated, stretched and just waited - while he had just 20 minutes after his first match. He was obviously tired, and I felt refreshed and ready to go."
Ready to go was the key word for Barrington freshman Dylan Er (22-14), who avenged a loss by topping MSL rival Vera Iyer of Conant before dropping a hard-fought two-setter to 17-32 seed Jeremy Learner of Highland Park.
The Broncos' top player then bounced back to win his next two in straight sets to advance for an opportunity against Kevin Li of Wheaton North schedule for Friday morning at Wheeling.
"Dylan put in four terrific matches today in the heat and humidity, and with each one he played better than the last one," said Barrington coach John Roncone. "It's been great to watch the growth of this young man who has been playing a patient but aggressive style of tennis for the last few weeks."
Sectional champion Conant has one of its three teams still alive after Nikhil Modak/Nico Rosas (7-2) bounced O'Fallon's Riley Muran/Shree Patel out of the tournament with a 6-2, 6-3 result on the Cougars tandem's home court.
"It was a big day for those two who played before a home crowd that cheered them on all day long," said Conant coach Dave Koleno, who saw Iyer and doubles team Ryo Ishiyama/Arjun Rao finish 1-2 for the day. "The goal was to be playing on Friday, and those two played great all day long, even in their lone loss of the day to Wheaton Warrenville South, which went three sets."
Schaumburg first-time state competitors Kevin Eberhardt/Max Brito (7-4) opened well on Thursday in Hoffman Estates with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Illiana Christian before being sent into the backdraw by 5-8 seed Glenbrook North (Austin Klapman/Nick Marino) in straight sets. The Saxons were then eliminated in a tightly-contested two-setter with Timothy Christian.
"Our guys came back from being down 1-5 in that first set of the first set to win it, and after that, they played with so much confidence," said Saxons coach Jason Campbell. "I told them to just go out and play the way you did to get here, and everything will be fine."
"We didn't take anyway lightly today, especially teams we don't know anything about," began Marino of GBN. "In this early part of the tournament, you can get surprised for doing (that) and that was not the plan for us today with Schaumburg, or anyone else."
The Spartans advanced into the round of 16 against Naperville North's Jason and Kirk Williams at Buffalo Grove.
MSL and sectional runner-up Kazuki Matsuno (22-9) saw his sensational rookie come to a close after going 2-2 before a friendly home crowd.
"It was a very good day for 'Kazu' - he did very well in all four of his matches, and the future of Fremd tennis is looking up because of his play and leadership that he showed from the very first day he came to us," said Fremd coach Matt Duncan.
Around the tournament, the top four seeds at both singles and doubles moved on, including 3-4 seed, Brett Meyers (30-1) of Neuqua Valley, who next faces 5-8 seed Jack Geissler of Joliet Catholic in Arlington Heights.
"I got out of here as fast as I could, and right about when the heat and humidity just took off," said a relieved Meyers, who played his first three matches of the tournament at Wheeling.
The Neuqua Valley senior will be a part of the singles round of 16 at Hersey, while at the same time, all of the doubles matches will be contested at Buffalo Grove. Once the doubles matches at BG have been decided, the winners will move over to Hersey for the quarterfinals.