Zavislak, Raiders nip Glenbard N.

Occasionally a coach has to tell a little white lie to one of his players.

That's what Glenbard South coach Marc Woodcock did Thursday during the third set of the first-singles match that decided the meet.

With the team score deadlocked at 3-3 and the Raiders' Alyssa Zavislak leading 5-4, the junior came to the sideline and asked the coach if the team was depending on that match between her and Glenbard North's Ami Modi.

Woodcock said, "No way," leaving Zavislak with the impression that the outcome of the meet had already been decided.

And Zavislak returned to her match and continued to fight off Modi's repeated challenges to win the third set 7-6 (9-7) tiebreaker and give the Raiders a 4-3 win. The victory preserved Glenbard South's undefeated record, which now stands at 6-0.

"He didn't want me to choke," Zavislak said. "I thought we had already won the meet, but it didn't affect my intensity. I still wanted to win because every match counts. But if I knew all the pressure was on me, I could have lost."

Zavislak led by one or two games throughout the third set and kept getting the advantage in the tiebreaker, but Modi wouldn't let her off the hook.

"When I was behind I kept trying to get myself back together," Modi said. "I tried to have patience and concentrate on getting the ball over and waiting for the chance to win the point."

"It was frustrating," Zavislak said. "She kept coming back. She's a great player, so I had to play with consistency to win."

The 2 hour and 45 minute match that decided the meet was the natural conclusion of a battle between two evenly matched teams with close contests at almost every flight.

"We were down 3-2 and we pulled out the last two matches, both of them three-setters," Woodcock said. "That's the way it's been all year. We play tough and find a way to win."

Both Woodcock and Glenbard North coach Claudia Richards were expansive in their praise for the performance of both teams, especially for Zavislak and Modi, the pair of left-handers at first singles.

"At practice we've been preaching patience. Stay in the point," Richards said. "Ami went out and followed that principle. Add her determination and skill and I don't even consider that match a loss for her. She lost the first set, came back in the second and in the third set she had her back to the wall many times in the later games and in the tiebreaker. But she kept coming back. Ami grew as an athlete tonight."

"The poise and the energy that those girls showed in that third set tiebreaker was amazing," Woodcock said. "The best things about Alyssa's game are that she doesn't make mistakes and she's a tiger. She won't give up. And she's getting better coming to the net."

Zavislak, who played first doubles last year, is undefeated, thus far, at first singles.