Sports

Warriors Win Sectional Tennis Title

All Deerfield High School participants advance to State Meet.

After three years of playing second fiddle to teammate Jason Brown’s first violin, Deerfield High School tennis star Toby Ma moved into the first chair today when he won the Highland Park Sectional championship.

Ma defeated fellow Warrior Jack Kasbeer, 6-2, 6-4, to take the singles title after three years of finishing second in the meet to Brown, the 2012 state champion. Ma and Kasbeer both advance to the State Meet Thursday through Saturday at Hersey High School.

Earlier: Warriors Dominate CSL Tennis Tourney

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“It’s nice to win the Sectional,” Ma Said. “After I lost to Jason (Brown) my freshman year I knew I would lose to him the next two years.”

Playing a teammate with a championship on the line is not new to Ma so he thought nothing unusual when it was a Warrior vs. Warrior title match again. “It’s fine,” he said. “Jack (Kasbeer) has been playing really well. He deserves to be here.”

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Ma and Kasbeer will be joined at the state tournament by the doubles team of Tony Crist and Noah Rosenblatt plus the tandem of Andrew Pekin and George Vanderkloot. Crist and Rosenblatt were Sectional champs as well. Pekin and Vanderkloot finished fourth reaching the semifinals before an injury to Pekin forced them to default.

Deerfield won the team title with 26 points followed by Prospect with 13 and Highland Park with 12. Deerfield has two athletes playing singles and two competing in doubles for only the second time in eight years, according to Coach Josh Leighton.

Four entries is the maximum any school can have at State which gives Leighton hopes for a good finish. “We’re hoping for a trophy,” he said. “We did the little things well this weekend,” he added referring to what makes him optimistic about the State Meet.

According to Leighton, Deerfield will be contending with Lake Forest, Stevenson, New Trier and Hinsdale Central for one of the three trophies awarded.


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