Fremd duo plows ahead
There is always a bit of drama associated with the expectation of which doubles teams will begin to arrive in their school vans at Hersey for the boys tennis state tournament quarterfinals after advancing from the round of 16 at Prospect.
Kenta Shimizu-Ryan Kreis weren't satisfied with just making it to Hersey, though, as they surged forward with a quarterfinal victory in Arlington Heights, stunning No. 2 seed Hinsdale Central (Krishna Ravella-Sam Bloom) in a 3-set marathon that gave the huge crowd a little bit of everything, right up until the the team from Fremd booked its place in today's semifinals against 3-4 seed Highland Park (David Zak-Zach Brint, 25-3).
"I think we're all still in cloud 9," said Fremd coach Ken Goettsche, long after Shimizu-Kreis withstood Central's second straight furious comeback of the day to win the third set tiebreaker when it appeared the Red Devils (31-3) might have a little more gas in their tank at the end than the Vikings.
"Can I honestly say that we would we would still be standing and playing in the semifinals tomorrow? No, not really," said Shimizu with a wry smile. "But we went all out in that match with Hinsdale, and with the heat, the pressure and considering how good that team was, we are playing on the final day with a guarantee of a top-four finish."
After easily going past 5-8 seed St. Charles North (John Mittvick-David Johnson) on Friday morning in straight sets, the Vikings prepared for battle with a superb Central team, which before this weekend had lost both its matches to the defending champions, teammates Ian Tesmond-Dan Ballantine. Ravella-Bloom had been pushed to the limit in their first match of the day with Metamora before prevailing in 3 sets.
Once on with the Vikings, the confident Red Devils recorded a 6-3 win in the first set, but then watched the MSL champs regain their footing to draw even after a 6-4 victory.
"Kenta carried (us) throughout the first two sets, until I actually started to play the way I was capable of," said Kreis.
"When Ryan is on, you see those quick hands and his ability to hit the lines and the angles like nobody else," said Goetsche, who laughed when Shimizu told his partner to wake up and get going during their 10-minute break after the second set.
With both now more determined than ever, the Vikings (32-4) found themselves in the express lane, building a 5-2 lead in the third set - then Shimizu's trademark forehand and Kreis' deft touch disappeared, as did the lead, as 4 match points, several double-faults, and a now cheering and screaming Hinsdale coach whipped the Central fans into a frenzy.
"I really couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Goettsche.
"I had never seen a coach standing up and cheering, sometimes with every point his guys got, and after complaining to the USTA official in the chair, the tournament director finally came over and put an end to it all."
Goettsche was quick to say both Ravella-Bloom had much to do with the Vikings' inability to hold the lead, and after Central pulled even to send the match into a tiebreaker, it was back-and-forth until Fremd took the lead for good at 6-5.
"This is the reason that Ryan and I have played together all season long, so that we could build each week and ready ourselves for a tournament run," said Shimizu.
Tournament runs ended for several area players, but not without more high notes than low. Hersey senior Eric Klawitter finished strong to earn 4 wins in two days, as did Prospect's Jon Kiefer-Sam Pope, and the Barrington doubles teams, which each made a statement by going 3-2 over their two days.
"I am so happy for Eric," said Hersey coach Brenna Ohlson. "He played just unbelievable tennis this weekend, and when it looked like he might be down and out after sectionals, he came back and fought so hard to go out on a high note."
Kiefer and Pope eliminated St. Viator (Dean Tanglis-Taylor Blaney) one match short of equaling their win total of 3 last season. The Knights' duo fell to a fine club from Edwardsville (Jordan-Justin Leskera) in straight sets, one match after ending the run of Barrington (Zack Kasiurak-Joe Gasior) in 3 sets.
The Broncos' No. 2 team of Connor Brownell-Ben Nuckles went out in the fifth round of the consolation after falling 7-5, 6-4 to Effingham, which later lost to Stevenson (Brej-Buxbaum) in 3 sets.
"I cannot be anything but proud of the effort and success our doubles teams had this weekend," said Barrington coach John Roncone, whose club ended the day in 14th place in the team standings.
Cary-Grove junior Chris Federighi was marvelous for coach Bud Lachel, collecting 4 victories, including a straight-set victory over ESCC runner-up Alex Haizel of Marist before 9-16 seed Gordon Zhang of Naperville North ended his stay.
"Chris showed he can stay and hit with very good players, and with another year of training during the off-season and his results here this weekend, his chance to earn an even higher seed (17-32) next spring looks good," said Lachel.