Boys tennis: Barrington tops Fremd 5-2
Barrington's Broncos kicked out to an early 4-0 advantage before finishing off host Fremd 5-2 in a key Mid-Suburban West boys tennis dual meet on Tuesday in Palatine.
The Broncos (2-0-0) secured their victory when Grant Bernero won in straight sets at No. 3 singles while his teammates at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 doubles did the same.
Those wins provided the visitors a cushion the hosts could not overcome in what has historically been the decisive match to decide the MSL West crown.
"I mentioned to you that we did not look particularly sharp and in synch at the start, and that it might be a long day because of that," said Broncos coach John Roncone, whose team faces Palatine on Thursday before taking on Schaumburg, then Hoffman Estates next week. "But the boys showed a lot of heart and gave us great effort when we needed it to beat a very good team from Fremd today.
"Fremd, much like us, is very young, so we came here today cautiously optimistic about our chances. And even though I saw some things today that we've got to address and try to fix and sort out before the conference tournament, I thought for the most point, we did what we had to in order to get a win."
The Broncos' No. 2 team of Samit Sinha and Alex Slager needed three sets to defeat Chris Stavrou and Advay Mahajan (6-4, 0-6, 6-3). Their teammates at Nos. 3 and 4, Rohan Ahuja/Stephen Levy (No. 3) and Vinay Tripuraneni/Joe Wolff had an easier time registering straight-set wins.
The Vikings swung things in their favor at No. 1 doubles, albeit in three sets, as James Feng/Justin Piotrowski outlasted the Broncos 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to stave off a sweep at doubles.
The Vikings duo came out strong, using a variety of shots to put away points.
Sometimes it was with great ease while playing with plenty of zest and purpose to put their opponents on their heels.
However, unforced errors and some inspired play from the Broncos' pair of Cam Holzman and freshman Kyle Shuff put the visitors right back in it as the extra-long match went to a third set.
"All the both of us could think of before that third set was our match with Prospect, and how that match and this one were so much alike," Piotrowski said. "Only we lost that one in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 4-6) and we couldn't let it happen again."
Piotrowski was in the Vikings' starting lineup last season at singles for coach Matt Duncan.
"It was all about staying positive after that second set," Piotrowski added. "And we both knew if we could stay that way, we could win the third for the match," Feng added.
"This was the first time together for (Kyle) and myself, and it really showed in that first set," said Holzman, who was an MSL champ at No. 3 doubles a year ago. "But I thought we did so much better in that second set after getting to know each other in that first set. So even in this loss, I felt good about the way we played - and I know we'll improve each time out from here on."
The future looks bright for both teams at singles and for the MSL with two terrific freshmen players at No. 1, Dylan Er of Barrington and Kazuki Matsuno of Fremd.
Matsuno won a marathon three-setter, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, after his freshman teammate Sean Hishinuma lost to 2015 state qualifier Mohammed Walji in three sets at No. 2.
"It's exciting to see what we have to look forward at singles, as well as doubles, where we had just three seniors in our lineup today," Duncan said.
A see-saw first set finally ended in favor of Matsuno.
But Er fought back to force a third set after going up 2-0 in the second set when the Broncos' top player broke his opponent to open the second set.
"I feel we're so much closer to Barrington this year compared to where we were last season at this same time," Duncan said. "So there was a lot of encouraging things to take out of this day, even in defeat."