Mostly smooth sailing for Stevenson at Deerfield
The Stevenson pair of David Packowitz and Ross Putterman took the air out of yet another challenger Friday afternoon as Day 1 of the Deerfield Tennis Invite came to a close.
The Pitchford 32 champs rocked last spring’s state runner-up from Highland Park, David Zak-Zach Brint, in straight sets during the second round to advance into today’s semifinals.
The Stevenson duo will meet the No. 4 seed from New Trier, Rob and Nate Jacobsen, when play is scheduled to resume today at the Warriors’ home courts. If there’s rain, play will move indoors to various sites.
Stevenson’s Jeremy Bush, who entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed behind Jason Brown and Jared Hiltzik (New Trier), won both of his matches Friday at the Lake Forest site. Bush will face a junior from Deerfield, Josh Brown) in the semifinals. On the bottom half of the bracket it will be Hiltzik taking on No. 4 Toby Ma (Deerfield), who was the runner up at No. 2 singles at the 32.
After the Patriots rolled over their first round opponent 6-0, 6-0, the senior pair put the pedal down on Zak and Brint and never let off the gas until Putterman held serve for the match in a second set which took under 20 minutes to complete.
“It’s hard to explain sometimes how you get in that type of zone, but in that second set, Ross and I were returning and closing, and we were serving really well also, which made it very hard for Highland Park to do anything, especially in that second set,” said Packowitz.
The Patriots opened the second set by breaking Brint. Then, after Putterman held, the No. 1 seed broke Zak, and the Giants began to slowly fade.
Putterman is eager for today’s test against New Trier.
“They are a good team,” he said, “so we’ll need to keep them out of their comfort zone, and continue to play our game, and hit our shots (and) hopefully get past them and into the final.”
The No. 2 team of Deerfield (Ben Shklyar-Alex Siegel) registered an impressive straight set victory over No. 7 New Trier (Thomas Fawcett-David Myers) 6-3, 6-4, and would like nothing more than to have a similar result against No. 3 Highland Park (Tyler Manci-Jason Hainsfurther) for the second time this week in order to have a chance to avenge a third-round loss (6-1, 6-3) to the Patriots last weekend at the 32.
Manci and Hainsfurther had a scare in their quarterfinal match with Stevenson’s Ryan Buxbaum/Andrew Komarov, which saw the Patriots’ No. 2 team get to within 1 game of winning the first set (5-2) only to have the No. 3 seed Giants reel off 6 straight to win the first set 7-5. Manci/Hainsfurther won the second set 6-3.
“We needed to close them out quickly when we had that big lead,” said Stevenson coach Tom Stanhope, “but when we weren’t able to, they got back into the match with a lot of emotion, and some big shots to help get them going.”
“We didn’t close well when we had to, and (HP) kind of woke up, and it triggered something in them, and it was tough to stop them after that,” said Buxbaum, a doubles state qualifier last season. “Even though it was a tough loss, we showed we could play with a team that was a top 16 team at state last year. Along with that, and our good showing last weekend at the 32, both Andrew and I feel that if we continued to work, we can have a strong finish in the final weeks of the season.”
There were no such surprises at the Lake Forest venue, as all of the top four seeds advanced with ease, including Bush. He cruised by Peter Tarwid in his second match 6-0, 7-6 (6).
Lake Zurich senior Mike Volk, who took over the No. 1 spot in the lineup for the Bears after Grant Thompson decided to leave the team, was sent to the consolation bracket after falling to Tarwid in straight sets in his tournament opener.
“Yeah, it was kind of surprise when I found out that I was going to take over for Grant after being our No. 2 all of last year, and at the start of this season,” said Volk. “It’s been a big adjustment, as you can imagine, but I am finding out with each match how to play all of the top players from the teams that we’ve been playing, and I feel that my confidence is improving after playing another top player. I’m hoping for a top 5-6 finish at the NSC conference tourament next weekend, then going out and doing my best at the sectionals the following weekend.”
Volk, who went 0-3 at the 32 with an opening loss to eventual seventh-place medalist Josh Cogan of Batavia, will be attending Wisconsin next fall and will major in biology, with an eye on becoming a physician after his undergraduate work is completed.