Schools

Brown Tops Ma for Sectional Tennis Title in All Deerfield Match

Both Warriors qualify for State Meet.

defeated Toby Ma for the Sectional tennis singles championship Saturday in what has become an intramural affair for the tennis team.

For the third year in a row the two Warriors met for the title after both had secured a return trip to the State Meet Thursday through Saturday in Arlington Heights. Brown, a senior, topped Ma, a junior, 6-2 in the first set when Ma defaulted after falling behind, 1-0, in the second.

“I can’t beat him,” Ma said. “It’s impossible.” With the top four finishers in singles and doubles qualifying for the State Finals, the only suspense left when the semifinals began Saturday was individual accomplishments.

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Deerfield tied for second with Highland Park. Each team had 22 points. Lake Forest won the team title with 26. The Scouts had both their singles players and doubles players in the semifinals.

Before Brown and Ma could secure a return match for the third straight year, Brown defeated Scott Christian of Lake Forest, 6-3, 6-2 while Ma needed three sets to outlast the Scouts’ Peter Tarwid, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0.

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“I was really tired,” Ma said of his condition facing Brown after a three-set semifinal. “Any time you come on in the third set so strong, even if you’re tired, you’re really excited you won it.”

Though the only times they have played in high school competition are in the three sectional finals, Brown sees a lot of benefits playing his teammate.

“When you play someone from your team you can work on different shots,” Brown said. “I was able to do that today. Though Toby wasn’t 100 percent, he could work on stuff too.” When teammates play each other, the Warrior team score is secured.

On Friday, both Brown and Ma took their two matches. The Warrior doubles teams of Jack Kasbeer and Andrew Pekin along with Anthony Crist and Noah Rosenblat won their first match and dropped their quarterfinal contests.

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