Stevenson's Bazarnik earns semifinal berth
Blake Bazarnik provided the Stevenson faithful with plenty of anxious moments Friday afternoon before carving out a hard-earned 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory over sophomore Josh Cogan of Batavia to advance into today's boys tennis state tournament semifinals against top seed Robert Stineman (24-1) of New Trier.
The 9 a.m. match at tournament host Hersey is a rematch of the Deerfield Invite final three weeks ago. In that meeting, Bazarnik prevailed in 3 sets (3-6, 6-2, 6-4) on a windy, cold day. This time the stakes are considerably higher, as the winner advances to the state championship match.
Bazarnik is the lone Stevenons player alive after the Patriots' No. 1 doubles team of Richard Brej-Ryan Buxbaum lost back-to-back matches to be eliminated. The first came early Friday when the duo fell in 3 sets to Belleville West (6-2, 3-6, 6-3), and the second in the consolation bracket to Effingham. Freshman Jeremy Bush's terrific run in the backdraw came to an end when Devin Jones (Oak Park) defeated the Patriots' No. 2 singles.
Stevenson finds itself in fourth place, tied with Highland Park at 24 points, while defending champion Hinsdale Central is in a dogfight to win its fourth straight crown after Fremd (Kenta Shimizu-Ryan Kreis) pulled off the first major upset of the tournament when the duo defeated No. 2 seed Krishna Ravella-Sam Bloom of Hinsdale Central in 3 sets.
The Red Devils trail New Trier 37-35 heading into the final day of play.
Bazarnik proved to have too much firepower in his first match of the day with Gordan Zhang (Naperville North) as the Pats' captain recorded a 6-3, 6-2 win. But his next opponent, Cogan (32-1), played hard for nearly 90 minutes before falling in the second set in a tiebreaker after back-and-forth set in which the Batavia star forced the tie-breaker as the usually technically sound Bazarnik suffered to stay consistent.
"I don't know why I was going for so much today, and just not letting the points play out," said Bazarnik, who through several unforced errors found himself in trouble after going up 4-1 in the second set. "Cogan is a nice player, and should do well in the backdraw and next season, but I allowed him to stay in the match by not hitting my shots and making him work for his points."
"Josh fought so hard out there today, but Blake is a great player, and the defending state champ, so when he had to hit a big shot, he did," said Batavia coach Bob Kummer.
"I really needed to be more patient, and so anxious out there today, but I was able to get through (despite) that, and I know that I will be more composed and ready for Robert in the morning," said Bazarnik.
Brej-Buxbaum came back from a dreadful start with Belleville West (36-4) and made a match of things with a strong effort in their second set, only to fall behind in the third set. The pair wasn't able to get on the kind of roll that would have gotten them back into the match.
The Patriots got to within 4-2 in the third after Brej held, but the duo was unable to take advantage of the soft serves from Scott Segobiano and lost the always important seventh game.
Buxbaum held easily with a 40-love game before West closed things out for good.
"I really think the turning point in (that) match came after they got even, and we sat down and just talked about playing relaxed. And once they got back on, there were no jitters and the guys just played serve and volley with a lot of confidence," said West assistant Blake McKinney.
Youth will be served in the North Suburban Conference next season after a trio of freshmen finished their first tourney appearance on a high note.
Warren's Kristiyan Trukov and Libertyville's No. 1, Griffin Pils, both went 3-2 over the two days, with Pils coming back from an opening-round loss to win 3 straight before bowing out.
NSC runner-up Grant Thompson (Lake Zurich) also won 3 of his 5 matches before dropping a straight-set decision to another freshmen, David Bacalla of Niles North, in his elimination match on Friday.
"Grant has come a long way in the past couple of weeks, and he showed he can grind (it) out and dig down deep in order to stay with an opponent, said proud LZ coach Kristin Finnigan.
NSC doubles champions Nikola Trukov-Paul Schlais fell in the backdraw to St. Charles North (Parker Featherstone-Danny Oakes) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to end their tourney run with a record of 3-2.