OMAHA – Revenge proved to be a successful motivating factor for Millard North's David Liu and Lincoln Southwest’s No. 1 doubles team of C.J. Sjulin and Justin Brinkman at the Papillion-La Vista Boys Tennis Invitational on Monday.
Liu, the two-time defending Class A state champion, avenged the only loss of his high school career with a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) wind-swept victory against Papillion-La Vista South sophomore Chris Dean in the No. 1 singles finals. The senior was upset by Dean in the first tournament of the season – the Papillion-La Vista South Invitational – late last month.
Sjulin and Brinkman took care of some unfinished business on a couple counts in breezing past their competition. The seniors won the final eight games of the championship match in posting a 6-2, 6-0 conquest of Lincoln Southeast’s Danny Clare and Ben Termaat, handing the Knights’ senior duo their first loss in 18 matches this season.
Southwest won its first team crown at the 24-team event dubbed as “the mini-state meet.” The Silver Hawks had 48 points, four more than defending state champion Creighton Prep. Papillion-La Vista South was third with 42.
Sjulin and Brinkman are 17-0 this fall after surrendering just four games in four matches Monday.
A year ago at state, they lost in the semifinals to Clare and graduated senior Andrew Plamann in a third-set tiebreaker. The Silver Hawks also lost in last year’s Papillion-La Vista Invitational final in a third-set match tiebreaker to a Creighton Prep duo.
“It’s good to finally win a big tournament and get some redemption at the same time,” Brinkman said. “We were so close last year, and to win in the finals over Southeast today just made it even better.”
Both Clare and Termaat were playing singles earlier this season before Southeast coach Tim Tidball put them together at the request of the players.
“We’ll see them again a few more times, and I’m sure they’ll improve,” Sjulin said. “We’ll have to keep getting better, too.”
Southwest finished third in the other three divisions – Jon Meyer at No. 1 singles, Alex Woodward at No. 2 singles and the No. 2 doubles combination of Cameron Spurrier and Christian Hedstrom.
“We lost some tough semifinal matches, but those guys bounced back in the third-place matches and picked up the points that turned out to be the difference,” Southwest coach Denny Hershberger said. “I thought C.J. and Justin did a nice job of managing their matches today. They were very consistent, they served well and they got into the net and closed points out.”
After rolling through the first set of the finals, Liu had to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the second set to finally overcome the scrappy Dean, who continually kept points alive with his quickness and ability to counter Liu’s power game.
“You have to play well to beat him,” said Liu, now 75-1 in his high school career. “He’s a tough match for me because he gets so many balls back that eventually you miss trying to hit too good of a shot. He knows my game pretty well after all the clinics we’ve done together (with Omaha pro Rick Faust).”
Source: southwest - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFEmGJ6RmGaCPQkFpMf_TWOejn_yQ&url=http://journalstar.com/sports/high-school/tennis/southwest-wins-its-first-papio-invite-tennis-title/article_d0c80a09-672c-5da0-bf0c-9abf8edce753.html
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