May 14, 2012

The Women’s 4.0 Red Friday league has a few less teams than the Wednesday 4.0 league but no less competitive. Northbrook Racquet Club hosted the Finals between RC Lake Bluff and Libertyville on May 11th. As can happen to the best laid plans or in this case, the best laid lineup, a family emergency caused Libertyville to have to default court 3. Libertyville knew they had their work cut out for them but when they played RC Lake Bluff in the regular season they had beaten them, so anything was possible. But now different players faced off against each other and instead of the matches going Libertyville’s way, The Racquet Club of Lake Bluff came away with a 5-1 win over Libertyville with 4 of the matches decided by a 3rd set. Standing from L-R: Jana Donahue, Sharon Deram, Cati Christiansen, Tami Zylka, Anna Thor, Carrie Travers, Deb Marcussen, Donna Oldenburg; in front from L-R: Megan Jordan and Diane Tice

North Shore has dominated the Open Red league for many years, either winning the Finals or coming up as the Runner-up as was the case last year. College Park East pulled together a very strong team to counter North Shore’s depth. They thought this might be the year. College Park East hosted the Women’s Open Red finals but even with home court advantage they couldn’t counter the depth of experience from North Shore. North Shore won in 2 sets on court 2, 5 and 6. Courts 1,3 and 4 split sets and because North Shore would win in sets even if College Park won the other 3 matches, they opted to not play out the 3rd set. Instead they gathered around the spread that College Park put out celebrated another season of great tennis gone by.

The Women’s 3.5 league is a passionate league full of players who are working hard on their game. They all want to play better, learn how to move on the court, how to counter opponent’s shots and how to win. They are learning how to partner with another person, to communicate (WATCH OUT!! YOURS) with them, and hopefully learning how make the partner feel okay even if they missed a shot. Glenbrook Racquet Club was hosting the Finals of the Women’s 3.5 league and they had a team in the Finals against North Shore. GRC had a slight home court advantage but it was slight. There were no blowout matches. Glenbrok won 3 of the matches in 2 sets and they knew they only needed one more to make it a decisive win. Courts 1, 4 and 6 were in a 3rd set battle. GRC knew that even if they tied in matches, they would win in sets. But everyone wanted to know the full outcome. Court 1 went GRC’s way with courts 4 and 6 going to North Shore. Glenbrook won 4-2 in the end with everyone on both teams giving it their all.

Five Seasons Family Sports Club hosted the Women’s Open Green Championships on May 11th. It is always exciting to see the Finals come down to games. Every match counts, every set counts, every game counts and, really, every point counts. One by one the matches come off the court, ecstatic over their win or disappointed with their loss. They know they have a good team of players on their team so they cheer on their teammates. But now we are down to 2 matches who are playing their 3rd set. Each captain is starting to count games but each hoping they will win the 3rd set so they don’t have to count games. MTB wins court 4 in a 3rd set tie-breaker and RCLB wins court 6. RCLB edged out Midtown-Bannockburn in games 71-61. Kneeling, l-r: Beth Jones, Alison Koopsen, Audrey Koopsen, Rosemary O’Connell, Linda DeBiase. Standing, l-r: Julia Miller, Julie O’Malley, Lisa Massar, Leslie McPeek, Hollis, McPeek, Kathy Logic, Deb Springgate, Margaret Kiela, Pam click, Catherine Batinovic, and Diane Gregg.

My oh My!! It came down to games being counted. CPAC-E won court 3 in 2 sets, MTB won court 4 in 2 sets. MTB won court 1 in 3 sets and CPAC-E won court 2 in 3 sets. Sets were tied at 5 apiece. Everyone was tallying up the games, once then twice then three times to make sure there was no mistake in addition. 6 games – that was the difference. Midtown-Bannockburn won in games 52-46.

On the surface it looks like Midtown-Palatine had a easy win over River Trails as they pulled out a 6-0 win over them. But 4 of the 6 matches went to 3 sets. In 3 of the tie-breakers they were down a set and figured out how to beat their opponents. I often quote from Galaxy Quest the words, “Never give up. Never surrender” to my partners ’cause you never know. You may end up on the winning side of the game. From L-R: Mike Latimer, Ken Raczek, Joe Watkins, Brett Ratay, Joey Tran (down low), Kent Mathis, Doug Gow, Steve Fallon, Rich Gutierrez, Bob Biergans, John Kopsky, and Howard Bushnell.

The River Trails 1 team wanted this win. Their Open team who was solidly in 4th until the last match of the season was knocked out of the playoffs by College Park East. Their 4.0 team who was in the finals against Midtown-Palatine just suffered a loss. They didn’t want to go back to their club empty-handed. They wanted to win. They knew they needed to try to win in 2 sets because if the matches were tied, it would come down to sets. The top court won decisively, then came the next courts – loss at court 5, win at court 2, win at court 6, win at court 4. They had WON. Back Row (L-R): Don Ferris, John Mistro, Steve Weinstein, Kevin Buggy, Barry Dempsey, Marius Biernacki, Clint Newbold, Tom Valverde Front (L-R): Ryan Vasey, John Song, Robin Kiamco, Herb Eng, Brad Wilson

Last place College Park was not a team anyone would have thought would make it to the Finals and win 3 weeks ago. It would take bringing out their best players and getting a bit of default luck to push past River Trails. They were on a mission and knew they had the players to get the job done. First they had to get past Glenbrook who they had played a week before. This time Glenbrook came prepared with a full team but came up short by 2 sets. CPAC-E won 3-3 and won in sets 8-6. Then came North Shore who ousted the defending Champions Midtown-Chicago and ending MTC’s 3 year reign as Men’s Open Champions. North Shore also came up short against CPAC but only by 1 set. College Park East won 3(8) – 3(7) giving CPAC’s 35th Anniversary Celebration an added bonus. In front, l-r: Sean Moran, Brian Wu, Alex Lambropoulos and Uno Lapimaa. Standing, l-r: Mike Hill, Ofir Weintraub, Aaron Rusnak, Ashwin Kumar, Luke Helm, Andy Rice, Ryan Fleming and Mikheil Chudanelli

The Women’s 4.5 Red league has the most teams in the league and teams that are closely competitively to one another. It was anyone’s guess who would be in the playoffs as several teams were within a point or 2 from one another. Northbrook eeked out a win against North Shore 2 in the playoffs and went on to edge out the #1 regular season team Midtown-Bannockburn in the Finals. Every match was close with 4 of the matches going to a 3rd set. Kneeling L-R: Mary Ann Simpson, Linda Redstone, Olga Ovnanyan, Nicki Kott & Liesel Jankelowitz; Back Row L-R: Sharon Yagoda, Jan Gaines, Jim Doessel, Barb Lafasto, Penny Naal, Tammy Levin, Michele Lustig, Steve Heaviland & Ania Snape.

Midtown-Bannockburn hosted the NC Women’s 3.0 Thursday Doubles Finals on 5/10. While The Racquet Club of Lake bluff and Glenbrook were in the finals, they, along with the rest of the teams in this league, have been slowly nurturing their players’ level of play and teaching them the fine art of doubles. Rules had to be learned and explained and a lot was done by everyone to ensure their players were ready when they stepped out on the court. The RC of Lake Bluff was more than ready as they swept all 4 matches. From left to right: Georgene Loos, Susan Moorman, Mihaela Polander, Andrea McCardl, Lisa Hunt, Coach Leslie McPeek, Anna Rogewicz, Donna Mazur, Kelli Ventling, Anne Carlins.

The Women’s 4.0-4.5+ Singles matches were different from the 3.0-4.0 singles matches in that there were no split sets. No one strayed from their mission of taking it in two sets. So when it came down to deciding who the winner was, a bit of addition was needed. The hosts, Northbrook Racquet Club, had to start counting games since the matches were tied and the sets were tied. North Shore, unfortunately, had to default a court which made the difference in how close the game count was, less of an issue. Midtown-Bannockburn came out ahead 50-39 in games.

Not only is singles a physically challenging game but it is a mentally challenging game. You’re up a break, then down a set, then down a break and up a set and now it’s up to the 10-point match tie-breaker to decide the outcome. The singles matches were hosted by The Racquet Club of Lake Bluff who also had a team in the Finals. Of the 4 matches played, three of the matches went to a match breaker. The match on court 1 was a 2 set win for Midtown-Bannockburn. But then it was crunch time. If Midtown-Bannockburn won one of those match tie-breakers, the matches would have been tied and they would have won in sets. But the players from RCLB, gathered their focus and won all of the match tie-breakers which allowed them to be the Champions once again. Kneeling: left to right – Paige Clifford, Holly Field; Standing: left to right – Sharon Deram, Kate Amaral, Fauzia Alsifiki

Midtown-Bannockburn were the hosts of the NC Women’s 4.0 Wednesday League Finals on May 9th and also had a team in the finals. While the MTB 2 team strong-armed their opponents (North Shore)6-0 it was not without a fight. Three of the matches split sets and everyone out on the courts gave it their all. In the end, the players from both clubs came together to socialize after the matches which was a pleasant way to end the competition. From left to right: captain Jeff Bernales, Deb Kunz, Kris Blaser, Jaime Sylvan, Diane Egan, Christy Greeley, Andrea Brown, Julie Walsh,

The NC Men’s 4.0-4.5+ Singles matches were played on May 6th at The Lincolnshire Club with Libertyville pitted against Midtown-Palatine. All but one match went to a tie-breaker. Midtown-Palatine and Libertyville were tied in matches, but Mike Joung was able to pull out a straight set win which put Midtown-Palatine’s team ahead of Libertyville’s team by 1 set. From left to right: Peter Johnson, Mike Joung, and Trevor DeSilva

It was Libertyville’s first year participating in the Girls High School League and they came out on top as Champions of the league. The Finals of the Girls High School league took place at College Park Athletic Club East on May 5th. Their opponents were Midtown-Palatine who came into the playoffs as the team to beat. Libertyville won Court 1; Midtown-Palatine won Court 2. Court 3 would determine who would be crowned champions. The first set went to Midtown-Palatine 6-2; the second set went to Libertyville 6-0; it all came down to the 3rd set with 6-4 win by Libertyville. From left to right: Coach Alex Donkor, Mel Solheim, Amy Dolan, Fenia Kaporos, Paige Merritt, Michelle Kannenberg and Megan Merritt. Congratulations to all.

The Midtown-Palatine team finished first with an undefeated record in regular season play in the CITA Girls’ High School League but came up short against Libertyville’s team in the Finals. Libertyville won 2-1. The players from left to right are Suffia Alvi, Sanaa Walia, Callie Schmit, Cassidy Seo, Lucia Stumbras and Christina Rao. Not pictured are Analise Donaghue, Erin, Guarnieri, Carly Kasicki, Stephanie Roatis, Mel Wilson and Sam Wilson.

The Boys High School League FINALS will take place at College Park Athletic Club East on Saturday, January 28th, from 6pm to completion.

The College Park East 1 team will square off against the North Shore 2 team on Saturday, January 21st at College Park Athletic Club West (formerly Marriott Racquet Club) at 6:00 PM

The College Park East 3 team will square off against the North Shore 1 team on Saturday, January 21st at North Shore Racquet Club at 7:30 PM.