Perrysburg tennis defends NLL title

Northview s Bill Rachwal keeps his eye on the ball. He and Adam Jurski won the NLL title at No. 1 doubles Friday at BGSU and remained unbeaten.

BOWLING GREEN Perrysburg sophomore David Hoops stepped up when it counted for the defending Northern Lakes League tennis champions.

Hoops stopped Southview s Darren Ng 6-0, 7-5 in the NLL tournament s No. 1 singles championship match to help the Yellow Jackets edge Bowling Green for the title Friday at Bowling Green State University.

It s a pretty big deal, Hoops said. We won it last year and we ve won it this year. We worked hard all year and this is our reward.

Brad Merrillat and Tom Phillips also came through for Perrysburg by knocking off Northview s Will Forrester and Spencer Georgetti 7-5, 6-1 in the No. 2 doubles championship match.

The league championship is determined by a point system based on dual meet results combined with tournament results. Perrysburg, Bowling Green and Rossford finished the league dual meet campaign tied for first with 6-1 records.

However, with Hoops and the Merrillat-Phillips doubles team leading the way, the Yellow Jackets held off the Bobcats in the final points standings 36-33. Rossford and Southview finished tied for third with 24 points, followed by Northview 19, Maumee 13, Anthony Wayne 12 and Springfield 3.

Last year we won every league match, so this year was unexpected, said Perrysburg coach Al Rava, whose team lost 3-2 to Rossford in a match earlier in the week to leave the three teams tied for first heading into the tournament.

Bowling Green s Dadood Dadfar and Justin Makley, both juniors, paced the Bobcats to their best finish in three years under coach Bruce Fenn. Dadfar defeated Southview s Vinnie Thepsourinthone 6-0, 6-2 for the No. 2 singles title and Makley disposed of Perrysburg s Jack Carter 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 3 singles title match.

I wanted to win and we had a chance to win, Fenn said. It s bittersweet but we ended up fourth last year and we re second this year. I m happy with that. Everyone played hard. They played with heart and they didn t give up.

To say we can compete with Perrysburg is good for BG. BG hadn t been in the hunt before.

Northview s Bill Rachwal and Adam Jurski rallied to defeat Southview s Suohil Sudershan and Anit Prasad 6-7, 6-4, 6-0 to claim the No. 1 doubles title.

We had high expectations coming, Rachwal said. He and Jurski have not lost a doubles match this year.

They just played their style and we played our style and they played their style a little better, Sudershan said. They became more aggressive with their serves and returns.

Hoops, who won the NLL at No. 2 singles last year, said the season defeat to Rossford remained on their minds over the two-day league tournament. It kept the defending league champions on their toes.

When Rossford beat us that kind of opened the door for everyone else to realize we could be beat, Hoops said. It made us buckle down for the tournament.

Contact Donald Emmons at:demmons@theblade.comor 419-724-6302.