Williamson gets it done

Mike Williamson was frustrated. He was yelling at himself, his racquet and even the wind.

Williamson's perfect record was in jeopardy.

The Dundee-Crown senior was struggling in the first set Saturday in the championship match of the Larkin sectional against Streamwood's Yuto Tsukida.

But after being tied 3-3 with Tsukida, Williams regained his form and won 9 of the final 10 games to beat Tsukia, 6-4, 6-0, and capture the sectional title.

"I usually don't have a problem with the wind, but when it changes every game, I couldn't get used to it," Williamson said. "Every time I hit the ball it felt like it was going a different way."

Tsukida kept the ball in play in the first set and let Williamson make mistakes.

Tsukida broke Williamson at love in the sixth game to even the first set at 3-3.

Williamson, who is now 27-0, broke back in the next game and then held serve to take a 5-3 lead. Tsukida saved three set points and held his serve to make it 5-4.

Williamson closed out the set on his serve and broke Tsukida in the opening game of the second set. That game lasted 14 points and included four deuces.

"That game was definitely very important," Williamson said. "If the game went the other way, it could have gone either way in the second set."

That seemed to deflate Tsukida, who will make his first trip to the state tournament. The junior won only seven more points in the match. Williamson closed out the match with two big serves that Tsukida could not return.

"I don't know anything about (the state tournament)," Tsukida said. "I'm really excited. I don't know what to expect."

This will be Williamson's fourth trip to the state meet. His best performance was going 3-2 last year.

"My realistic goal is to get into the top eight and make it to Saturday," Williamson said. "I've never done that before and it's a great honor to make to Saturday at state."

Joining Williamson and Tsukida in the singles bracket at state will be Elgin Academy's David Kaufman and Dundee-Crown's Andy Schuessler.

Kaufman beat Schuessler in the third-place match, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Kaufman, a junior, is the first player from Elgin Academy to qualify for state.

"You know the saying, 'Being on Cloud 9,' it was like Cloud 11," Kaufman said of how he felt after qualifying.

Barrington won the team title with 26 points thanks to a 1-2 finish in doubles.

David Martin and Greg Mulligan defeated teammates Matt Barns and Alex Nemz, 6-3, 7-6 (5) as they won their first sectional title.

"It's tough (playing teammates)," Mulligan said. "You hold your emotions back because at the same time they're your team. At the end, you might celebrate and let out a little shout, but you don't want to do that and put your teammates down."

This will be Martin's and Mulligan's first trip to state.

"I'm definitely excited," Martin said. "We played some of the big tournaments so we think we have the experience that we need."

Elgin's Eric Meuangkhot and Kevin Baccam beat Larkin's Tyler Compere and Scott Shriver, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the third-place match. Both teams qualify for the state meet.

At Crystal Lake Central: Prairie Ridge had a big day competing in the Crystal Lake Central sectional. The Wolves finished second overall with 19 points behind Crystal Lake Central (26 points), and will send both Craig Greenwald and Matt Miller to state.

Greenwald advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Central's Jim Capalbo, while Miller defeated Tommy Nelson 6-2, 6-1 to continue his 2008 campaign at state.

Cary-Grove came in at No. 3 overall with 16 points, and will be represented at the state level by the doubles team of Jake Szybowicz/Chris Federighi.

With 4 points, Crystal Lake South finished in a 3-way tie for seventh place.

At Lake Park: Bartlett was second with 17 points as a pair of singles players, senior Yosh Patel and Kevin Veatch, had to play each other for third and fourth place.

"They've been playing practice matches (against each other) every single day and they train together all season, so it was very relaxing for them," Bartlett coach Brian Page said. "They are pretty happy they made state."