Boys tennis: Barrington tied for sixth after Day 2

Dylan Er and Kyle Shuff got the win they needed in order to reach the round of 16 on Friday morning, but the Barrington duo then bowed out of the front draw of the Class 2A high school boys tennis state tournament against 3-4 seed Naperville Central on Friday.

The 9-16 seed Broncos (21-3) earned a straight-set victory over 5-8 seed Glenbard West (Griffin Foster/Christo Maltby) in a third-round contest and seemed to be on level ground with Martin Matov/Ammaar Saeed of Naperville Central (28-4) after a first set tiebreaker loss.

But Matov, who was one-half of the Redhawks' top doubles team from a year ago that finished fifth overall, unloaded too many unstoppable serves in the second set. And Saaed, who played for the Redhawks' No. 2 team last season, complemented his partner with a variety of shots in the second set.

The result was a 7-6 (6), 6-2 defeat, sending the Broncos into the backdraw at 8 a.m. Saturday to face another 9-16 seed, Glenbrook North (Ben Riad/Ethan Park) at Buffalo Grove.

"Dylan and Kyle played very well this morning to beat a really strong Glenbard West team," said Barrington coach John Roncone. "But Naperville Central is at another level than nearly everyone else in the field, beginning with Matov, who with his partner can turn around errors in their favor so quickly. And that's what they did to us."

Er/Shuff will look to collect as many points as it can in the backdraw, with the hope of earning at least a Top 10 finish. The Broncos were tied for sixth after Friday's hot and steam second day of tournament tennis.

Hinsdale Central and Stevenson are 1-2with 36 and 31 points, respectively, followed by New Trier (28), defending champion Naperville Central (26) and Lyons Township (17).

Barrington and Glenbrook South are next with 13 points, followed by Loyola Academy at 11.

"Naperville Central has been on this big stage before, and it showed in the way they won the big points," Shuff said. "But we'll look to come out tomorrow to try and get some of those same big points, and hopefully continue on in the backdraw.

"We were playing so well in that first set, but that tiebreaker loss was a tough one to overcome, especially with the way Matov was serving, and with us not matching the energy we had in the first set."

While the Broncos remain the lone club from the Mid-Suburban League competing on Day 3 of the tournament, four others from the conference were in action on Friday.

Conant and Hersey met Saturday morning in Mt. Prospect in third-round consolation doubles action, with Conant's Nico Rosas/Vera Iyer defeating the Huskies' Jace Coffaro/Kevin Mi 6-2, 7-5.

The Cougars were then elimnated in the following round by the Riad/Park team from Glenbrook North.

"It's been an amazing four years at Conant for me, I feel very fortunate to be on four great teams during my career, and to be able to make it to state all four years as well," said Rosas, who will attend Iowa next fall.

Iyer, who served as the Cougars' No. 1 man at singles, is among the players who will be back next for coach Dave Koleno. Joining him will be Kaahan Motwani, Rosas' partner during the regular season, and Andrew Milas, the No. 2 singles behind Iyer and also Motwani's doubles partner here at state.

Coffaro and Mi are also back next spring, as is Hersey's freshman sensation Max Sheldon. But on this day, the Huskies' state tandem saw its first tournament appearance end with a 2-2 overall record.

"That first-match loss yesterday was a tough one for us, but we battled back to win the next two to get us into the second day of the tournament, which is something we were very proud of," said Coffaro.

Fremd freshman Casey Hishinuma (19-9) impressed coach Matt Duncan during his two-day performance, which ended at Wheeling when four-time state qualifier Kerwin Chong recorded a straight set victory over the Vikings' best man.

"You kind of saw Casey grow up before our eyes last week at sectionals and here at the state tournament, and hopefully he learned a lot about playing those who have been here before and will use this knowledge next year to help lead a team that has almost everyone back from this year's team," said Duncan.

Barrington sophomore Bradley Yu (20-5) had a tough singles draw and saw his season come to an end with a 6-4, 6-1 loss to 9-16 seed Phasu Sirinit of Wheaton Warrenville South.

"That was a crazy good group in my draw, but to be honest, I was looking forward to playing really good players, and didn't look at it as bad luck," said Yu, who opened with a tough three-set win over talented Glenbard West junior Alex Kernagis before taking a straight-sets loss to Dominick Cuchran (Lyons Township), who is in today's championship semifinals.

Yu continued to advance in the backdraw with a victory over Johnny Wallace (Crystal Lake Central) before a bad blister on his left foot, plus the first-class skill of Sirinit, was too much to overcome.

All the Class 1A and 2A semifinal and finals will take place at host Hersey today, as well as the trophy presentations in each class.

Chicago University, Normal University, the Latin School of Chicago and Wheaton Academy are all in the race for the top team spot in Class 1A, separated by 1 point.