Hinsdale Central roars to Hersey crown

With sophomore sensation Augie Bloom away at the prestigious Easter Bowl and top doubles player Dan Ballantine still on the mend from a bout of appendicitis, defending state boys tennis champion Hinsdale Central traveled north Saturday to test some of the best the Mid-Suburban League has to offer.

The Red Devils conquered them all -- including Buffalo Grove 7-0 in the championship match -- to captured the team title of the annual Huskie Invite hosted by Hersey.

Veteran coach Jay Kramer, who celebrated his 40th year at the helm last spring with his 14th state title, watched the short-handed Red Devils defeat MSL favorite Prospect 5-2 in their opener, then beat Fremd 6-1 before sweeping all 7 flights over BG in the final.

"We're missing a couple of key guys in Augie and Dan, and a potential starter at singles, but it's nice to get three matches in today on a great day for tennis," said Kramer, whose Red Devils, Stevenson, and Oak Park-River Forest, are considered perhaps the top three teams in the state this season.

The most anticipated match of the day came when Hinsdale sophomore, and state qualifier Krishna Ravella met Bison senior Jonah Schwartz.

Schwartz is back with BG after spending the past two seasons away from high school tennis, playing on the circuit to improve his game and USTA ranking.

Schwarz, who was an MSL champion at No. 2 singles as a freshman, began fast against the steady Ravella going up 3-0 in the first set.

But he soon found himself even at 3-3 before falling 6-3.

It was more of the same in the second set. Although the Emory College (Georgia)-bound Schwartz showed signs of life to get within 4-2 on a well-placed lob, Ravella won in straight sets after a 6-2 victory.

"Two years ago (Jonah) beat me 2-and-0 at a tournament, so I was anxious to see where the both of us were at today in our progress," said Ravella, who was eliminated by Glenbrook South sophomore Michael Moore in the consolation quarterfinals after going 5-2.

"This season I think I've added a lot more topspin (and depth) to my return shots and I feel more confident after a pretty solid freshmen year."

"I just wasn't consistent," admitted Schwartz, who will follow former Stevenson star Lee Friedman to Emory to continue his tennis career in the fall.

"I am going to have to go back this week and work a little harder and try to correct a few things and get myself ready for our next weekend tournament."

The Bison were missing No. 2 singles player Yuriy Nartov, but coach Kevin Schrammel adjusted well on the fly.

Most of BG's success came at doubles, where -- except for the match with Hinsdale Central -- the Bison prevailed.

"There's depth at (doubles) for us this year, and with Jonah and Yuriy hopefully giving us a lot of wins at singles, we'll be looking for some good things at doubles to help carry us through," Schrammel said.

Prospect ran over both Freeport and Glenbard West by identical 6-1 results after dropping its opener to Hinsdale.

Sophomores Sam Pope and Jon Kiefer fell 10-8 in the tiebreaker of the second set against the Red Devils' No. 1 team of Ian Tesmond and Will Kragie.

But teammates Zack Adamovic and Kevn Baumhart won in the tiebreaker at No. 2 to give the Knights the victory.

"We are so young this year, in fact we had three sophomores and one freshman in our lineup today, and you could see every combination at doubles have a lot of success in their matches," said Prospect coach Rick Huffman.

No. 1 Tom Kujawa, who fell in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to Ravella, bounced back to win his next match before teaming with Adamovic to defeat Glenbard West in the finale.

MSL runner-up Fremd earn third place when it defeated Cary-Grove 6-1.

The Vikings' top two singles players, Brian Piotrowski and Kenta Shimizu, instead combined to go 2-1 at No. 1 doubles for coach Ken Goettsch.

Included was a marathon match with Hinsdale Central which saw the duo fall 11-9 in a tiebreaker after splitting 2 matches 5-7, 6-4.

"Obviously those two guys were unhappy with their loss to Hinsdale," Goettsche said. "But this is also their first time together and you'll see those guys get better and better with each tournament match together."

Tournament host and Hersey coach Matt Norris was pleased even after his Huskies dropped a pair of 4-3 decisions to Cary-Grove to open the tourney and later lost to Freeport.

"Our No. 1 (doubles) team of Irving Gonzalez and Ryan Leverenz were outstanding, freshman Yuki Chiba (No. 2 doubles) and our top eight guys all stood out in their first tournament action of the season," Norris said.

Cary-Grove coach Bud Lachel watched his two best singles players, senior Jake Szybowicz and freshman Chris Federighi, debut as the Trojans' No. 1 doubles team after the pair each played a match at singles against Hersey.

"Sometimes you cannot just put two very good players together and expect very much," Lachel said. "But those two guys played well together in two matches and may have the makings of something after getting more matches under their belt on the weekend."

The Szybowicz-Federighi team was on cruise control in its match with BG's Alec Martino and George Foutris before the Bison came back to draw even at 5-5 in the second set.

Cary-Grove broke Martino to go up 6-5 and won it all when Szybowicz unloaded a piercing forehand up the center.