Eagles take lead in SWC conference race
By Matt Pawlikowski
Sports
Published May 2, 2007

The Southwestern Conference Championship is North Olmsted’s to lose, following the Eagles’ commanding performance at last Saturday’s conference tournament at Oberlin College.

With only one loss in conference match play, North Olmsted captured 1/3 of the required points needed to win the title after taking championships at second and third singles, along with second doubles.

“I’m very happy, but there are a lot of dual matches left,” North Olmsted head coach Matt DeMain said. “The kids did really well today. It looks good right now, but when you have so many teams so evenly matched, it just depends on the day. Fortunately it came out in our favor today.”

Brecksville-Broadview Heights finished second with 26 points. Most of those points were earned in the preliminary rounds. The Bees advanced to championship matches in second singles and third singles, but lost both. They won third-place matches at first and second doubles, and fell to fourth place in first singles with Avon Lake’s Alex Trzeciak’s victory over Jeff Liang.

The Avon Lake Shoremen edged out Westlake for third place by a single point (25-24). Shut out of the singles championships, the Shoremen fielded teams in both doubles title matches.

“It came down to a couple of matches here and there,” Shoremen head coach Rich Mostardi said. “This is tough to take right now. When it’s this close, I’d rather us have our butts get kicked. There were a couple of matches that we lost in three sets. Not that we should’ve won them, but when it adds up it’s tough.

“We have to win out now. If we lose another match, we’re done.”

The Eagles’ Kevin Stanton and Jesse Kummer beat out Avon Lake’s Travis Crist and Jason Zuberi in three very tough sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Down 1-0 after the first set, Stanton and Kummer—two seniors playing varsity tennis for the first time—gutted it out to pull out the win.

“We just kept playing consistent,” Stanton said. “We kept trying to find weaknesses and attack them.”

“It’s really exciting,” Kummer said about the conference race. “Everyone has a loss right now.”

Avon Lake’s Robert Clayton and Scott Stuckey defeated North Olmsted’s Joe Roeder and Ben Steele in the last title match to leave the courts Saturday, 6-1, 6-4. The Shoremen team had to battle in the final set after a determined effort by Roeder and Steele to get back into the match, but muscled out the victory.

“It was just a matter of putting balls in play,” Stuckey said. “Right now it’s still about winning every match.”

The day proved to be a tough one for doubles players. Rain pushed play inside on Oberlin’s four indoor courts. Doubles teams didn’t play their first matches until around late morning and early afternoon as the outside courts dried.

“It was alright,” Clayton said. “We’re used to waiting around. We’re always ready to play tough, no matter what.”

The Shoremen, in addition to Trzeciak’s third at first singles, scored fourth place points following Adam Wilkinson’s tough 6-4, 6-3 loss to Westlake’s Tim King in third singles. Avon Lake’s Matt Gross placed fifth with an 8-1 pro-set win over Berea’s Tony Certo.

The Westlake Demons, paced by Brad Noel’s championship at first singles, rounded out the list of top-four teams. All four have one conference loss.

“You really have to win every first round match, and that’s something not many teams could not do,” Noel said about the close team finishes for second-fourth places. “It hurts because we didn’t do as well. We had our opportunity.”

Though the Demons fell short of their team goals, Noel’s championship marked a very tough milestone for the senior. Matched against North Olmtsted’s Kevin Bus, Noel beat Bus 6-1, 6-1 to win the first singles championship. It is his fourth SWC championship.

“I was really looking forward to today,” Noel said. “It’s a team event and it’s nice that they’ve moved the tournament to one place so we can see all our teammates play. It was great, but tired. It was a long day.

“(Winning four titles) wasn’t something I set as a goal, but I knew I was capable of doing it. It’s great to do something that few people have done.”

Also scoring for the Demons: Mike Cook placed third at second singles. Bill Barnes and Brent Anstead finished fourth in first doubles. David Fleisher and Rakesh Pattel placed fifth at second doubles.

North Olmsted’s Brad Sinko beat Brecksville’s Andrew Wene by default after Wene went down with a leg injury in the second set of their title match. Sinko won the first set 6-3.

“My opponent was good, but fortunately I was able to come out and play as hard as I could,” Senko said. “Unfortunately it isn’t the way you want to win, with the other guy going down with an injury.”

The Eagles’ Alex Kearney beat the Bees’ Alex O’Dell 6-3, 6-2 to win a championship at third singles.

“It feels good,” Kearney said. “I hit the ball hard. The last time we played each other, I didn’t hit the ball hard enough and he beat me. I played well today. Overall, it’s an amazing feeling for all of us. The team came to play.”