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Boys Tennis: Trevians load up for defense of state title
Northfield Saturday, 5/19/12 Niles North's Dave Bacalla during his singles semifinal match at Saturday's Sectional meet hosted by New Trier High School. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: May 19, 2012 9:44PM
At New Trier, they are accustomed to seeing two of the Trevians’ singles players or two of their doubles teams battle each another for the sectional title.
But at Saturday’s New Trier tennis sectional, the seeds suggested the singles final would not be an all-Trevian affair.
Yet, thanks to senior Rob Jacobson’s semifinal upset of No. 1 seed Dave Bacalla of Niles North, the home team made up all four championship spots.
In that singles final, New Trier sophomore Alex Galoustian, the No. 2 seed, defeated teammate Jacobson 6-3, 6-3.
In the doubles final, New Trier’s No. 2 team of Nate Jacobson and junior David Laser upset its No. 1 team of seniors Alex Mang and Arthur Ozga 6-4, 6-4.
The Trevians’ two singles players and two doubles teams move on to next week’s IHSA state meet, where they will look to help New Trier capture a third straight state title.
“It’s always the goal at sectional to qualify everybody, which a lot of teams don’t do,” New Trier head coach Tad Eckert said. “Playing each other in the finals is a little bittersweet, but that certainly is the goal.”
Eckert said the Trevians will enter next week’s meet as the underdogs behind favorite Hinsdale Central. In fact, as the coach handed out the medals after the sectional, he jokingly urged all of the other state qualifiers to do their best against the Red Devils.
“(Hinsdale Central) is as good as advertised. They are the big favorite going in,” Eckert said. “We were the favorites last year, and we came through. But sometimes the underdog wins. That’s what we’re hoping for next week.”
Also qualifying for state were: Bacalla and Loyola sophomore Anthony Arocho. Bacalla beat Arocho 6-3, 6-1 in the third-place match.
In doubles, Evanston qualified both its teams, which squared off for third place. In that match, the tandem of juniors Sam Wiener and Connor Woolf defeated juniors Ben Bleier and Adam Collins 6-2, 6-3.
New Trier (36 points) was crowned sectional champs, Evanston (17) finished second and Loyola (14 points) was third.
