Glenbard East wins on tiebreaker

After about four hours of tennis on seven courts at Addison Trail High School on Saturday, it came down to the final match as to who would win the Blazers’ quadrangular.

Glenbard East’s No. 1 doubles team of Brandon Nasti and Kevin Osburn were battling Addison Trail’s Dan Winterrose and Hemal Patel, and the battle went the distance with the Rams’ pair finally prevailing 0-6, 7-5 (11-9).

That victory gave Glenbard East eight team wins, tying it with Fenton in the standings. The championship plaque went to the Rams on a tiebreaker; Glenbard East finished with more match wins head-to-head against Fenton. The hosts were third with five team wins and Willowbrook was fourth with three.

“No, I didn’t think it would come down to us,” Osburn said of the final match. “It’s just good cooperation, good communication, and we just know where the other is at.”

Rams coach Bill Burt was not surprised the competition was so tight with four evenly matched teams competing.

“It’s always close. There’s always a tiebreaker to decide who gets the plaque,” he said.

Nasti and Osburn finished with two wins on the day as did the No. 2 doubles entry of Jason Hwang and Shehdad Khundmiri. No. 2 singles player Nathan Delawder finished 3-0.

Fenton enjoyed sweeps at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles. Sophomore Erwin Lavric won all three of his singles matches and senior Freddy Lavric and junior Dan Franchi went undefeated.

The two Lavric brothers return this spring after qualifying for state in 2012 where they reached the second round of the consolation bracket.

“There are high expectations. You need a lot of determination to repeat it, and I want to go back and go further,” Freddy said.

“For our first varsity invite of the season, every one played real well,” said Bison coach Adam Peterson. “Our No. 2 singles player, Remington Bedoya, is a sophomore. He finished 1-2 but did very well.”

Addison Trail coach Chris Grice complemented the play of his two singles players, senior Len Lin and junior Camden Knights. Both finished 2-1.

“I think my game has improved all-around. My serving has improved and serving is the most important part of my game,” Knights said.

The Blazers and Willowbrook return to the Addison Trail courts Tuesday for a night meet that starts at 6:30 p.m. Grice said it’s the first time that the two District 88 rivals have competed under the lights. A night meet scheduled last season was wiped out because of weather.

“We’re excited. We’ve talked about it a lot,” Knights said.

Willowbrook coach Eddie De La Cruz said senior Chris Storck made the upcoming sectional seeding discussions interesting with his straight-set No. 1 singles victory over his Glenbard East opponent, Nick Cornell. Storck had lost to him in a dual meet Tuesday.

“It’s usually decided by head-to-head competition. Chris has been our No. 1 singles player since sophomore year. He’s gained experience and hopefully that experience leads him to a successful season,” De La Cruz said.

“I think I was a little nervous on Tuesday,” Storck said. “Today, I was more confident and made less mistakes.”

As Willowbrook packed up its gear, De La Cruz said he saw some good things but knows the Warriors have room for improvement.

“Team chemistry is our best asset. As far as our skill level, there are some things to work on,” he said. “We didn’t meet our goals, but I saw some positive results.”