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Boys tennis: Scouting conference tournaments, Northwest suburbs

Mid-Suburban League at HerseyDylan Er leads a deep and talented Barrington lineup into the MSL Tournament this weekend which has its eyes on an unprecedented eighth consecutive conference title.

The Broncos sent a message to the rest of the league with a spotless regular season record with Er and his doubles partner Matt D'Amore coming in at 7-0 and 20-5 overall.

"This is obviously an exciting time for our team and for myself as it is the final few weeks of playing tennis at Barrington," said Er, who is DePaul University-bound next fall where he will study business administration.

The four-year starter and two-time state qualifier has tasted plenty of success during his career including two MSL titles, a sectional championship last year at doubles, and a memorable win over MSL rival David Chon (Palatine) during his rookie year at sectionals to ensure safe passage into the state tournament.

"There's been so many great memories while playing for such a great program, and great coach (John Roncone) but I have to say that a win over a fantastic player like David is right up there," Er said.

Er says the focus for he and D'Amore as well as his teammates is solely on winning yet another MSL crown and nothing else, with sectionals then the Class 2A state tournament far on down the road.

"This is a very good tennis conference, so we have to take it one match at a time and not get ahead of ourselves," Er said.

Roncone could not agree more.

"Hersey has had a really nice season, Fremd has always played us well and Conant, if they have everyone back and healthy, will present plenty of problems during the tournament as well," said Roncone. "It's always a challenging tournament and you cannot let your guard down against anyone here."

While the Er-D'Amore team was named the top seed and is the favorite at No. 1-dubs, at singles the sophomore sensation from Hersey, Max Sheldon (22-0), is the one everyone will be chasing.

Sheldon hopes to make it two straight MSL titles, but the top seed will have plenty of rivals looking to dash his hopes of repeating.

Bradley Yu (Barrington, 17-2), Fremd sophomore Casey Hishinuma (14-8) and Palatine's Jackson Spurck (11-7) round out the top four seeds.

Conant senior Vera Iyer, a three-time state qualifier was given the No. 5 seed, while Ryan McCoy from Rolling Meadows is No. 6 in this talent-rich bunch.

Central Suburban League North at Highland ParkHighland Park, Deerfield, Glenbrook North and Highland Park have been the favorites in the division since the beginning of time and this weekend will not be any different, although the three perennial state powers are nowhere near what they have been of late.

Each club has been hit hard with graduation losses, giving way to young rosters but at this point it appears Glenbrook North and Highland Park will vie for the North division crown ahead of Deerfield.

The best race individually will be at singles, where Maine West sophomore Kamil Kozerski has a chance to claim top honors should the Warriors' star outplay his two closest rivals this weekend at host Highland Park.

Kozerski's recent three-set comeback win over Charlie Chernawsky proved a breakthrough win for the Warriors' top player, as it not only ensured a top two seed this weekend but also validated the status of one of the up and coming players, not only in the league but the area as well.

"You always feel like you can play with the top players, so when I came back from being down 4-1 in the third set to Charlie to win the set 6-4, then I knew I was right there with everyone," said Kozerski.

"Kamil has improved tremendously since last season. He's bigger, stronger and plays with much more confidence now that he's totally committed to the sport of tennis," says his coach, John Hauenstein.

Kozerski (18-1), who played soccer until last season, continues to follow his favorite national team of Poland, as well as club team Borussia Dortmund still finds plenty of time to watch hours of his tennis hero, Roger Federov, to help fine-tune his game.

Three-time state qualifier Jeremy Learner from Highland Park is the man both Kozerski and Chernawsky will be after while at doubles, the team of Ben Riad-Ethan Park (Glenbrook North) lead the way over rivals Daniel Deborin-Ben Soyter from Glenbrook South.

Warriors sophomore George Ciuca, 16-3 at No. 2 singles, has a very good chance of earning a top-four medal on Saturday.

East Suburban Catholic at Marian CatholicSt. Viator will enter this tournament with just one player back from last year's club, making the Lions' bid for a top three or four finish highly unlikely.

"We're so young this year, but we've come a long way since the very beginning of the season. But right now it looks like Benet Academy is the team to beat once again, followed by Notre Dame and Carmel Catholic having equal chances for a top-four finish," said St. Viator coach Amy Ritchie.

Matthew McManaman, 3-0 in the league this spring, was a runner-up at No. 2 doubles a year ago with then-senior Andrew Kicinski and Ritchie will have him penciled in as her No. 1.

"Matthew has been very strong thus far and he has an excellent opportunity to secure a second or third place medal," says Ritchie, who recently made a change in her doubles lineup at Nos. 2 and 3.

There, the Lions will have Matthew Onischuk-Colin Toomey at No. 2, and Andrew Firestone-Shawn Song the No. 3 team backing up their top team of Connor Flynn-Nathan Kochera.

Liam Harding will handle things at No. 2 singles.

Should Benet Academy carry off the championship trophy, it would be the sixth consecutive title for coach Michael Hand's program.

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