In looking at the match scores of the Men’s 4.0 Doubles playoffs and seeing Midtown-Bannockburn and Northbrook winning their matches 5-1, one may think easy win. But looking at the actual match scores paints a different picture. Midtown-Bannockburn and College Park East 2’s court 1 could not have had a closer match. MTB won that match but the scores were 7-6, 6-7, 7-6(8). Admittedly, courts 2, 3 and 6 were well won by MTB. But CPAC 2 took court 5 and made MTB work for their win on court 4 by making it a 3 setter. The other playoff match was between Northbrook and River Trails 2. Four of the six matches went to three sets and one of those matches was won by RTTC 2. Two of the three setters went to a third set with 2nd set tie-breakers. Court 1 and court 4 were the only 2 set matches. Both were won by NRC. Midtown-Bannockburn and Northbrook will meet in the finals on May 13th at College Park Athletic Club at 12pm.

The Men’s 3.5 Doubles league has 7 teams of which 4 make it to the playoffs. River Trails ended the season in 1st place with a 71.53% win percentage. They played against the 4th place team who had a 50.69% win percentage – a team that wins some and loses some. The other two playoff teams, Libertyville and College Park East had a win percentage of 68.06% and 60.42% respectively. What can be tough when we get into May are players who become unavailable to play. RC Lake Bluff came up short and had to default a court to River Trails. River Trail swept the rest of the matches and won 4-0. Libertyville and College Park East were not going to give in to each other. On court 2, LIB won. On court 4 CPAC-E won. Then came the win on court 1 for CPAC-E. Libertyville needed to win the match in 2 sets not 3 but CPAC took the 2nd set and therefore winning in sets. River Trails and College Park East will meet in the finals on May 13th at College Park Athletic Club at 10am.

The NC Women’s Open league saw some changes this year. Instead of having Open Green and Open Red leagues, the Open leagues were divided into two groups consisting of teams from last year’s Open Green and Open Red leagues. Two Open Red teams went into each group – Group 1 and Group 2 and the Open Green teams were likewise divided between the 2 groups. Each group had 7 teams. In order to still keep 2 sets of playoffs – essentially having an Open Red Playoff and an Open Green Playoff, the top 2 teams from each group and the 3rd and 4th place teams in each group would playoff against one another in two separate playoffs. Confused?
Instead of explaining further, the Open Red playoffs consisted of Group 1’s College Park East playing against Group 2’s RC Lake Bluff and Group 1’s Northbrook playing against North Shore. The Open Green playoffs consisted of Group 1’s other North Shore team playing against Group 2’s Glenbrook and Midtown-Palatine playing against Group 2’s Libertyville.
The outcome was as follows: CPAC-E won 4-2 against RCLB. Unfortunately, CPAC’s Suzanne DeMirjian took a fall and injured herself. We hope she will be able to recover quickly and well!! Northbrook won 5-1 against North Shore (Jerry’s team). The finals between College Park and Northbrook will take place at College Park on May 12th at 10:30am.
North Shore (Leanne’s team) played against Glenbrook. Despite having to default a court on the day of the match, Glenbrook pulled out a 4-2 win over NSRC. Midtown-Palatine also received a default from Libertyville and despite losing on court 1, won the rest of the matches. MTP won 5-1. Glenbrook and Midtown-Palatine will play against each other at RC Lake Bluff on May 12th at 11am.

The NCW4.5 Red league has several very competitive team. Six of the nine teams were within spitting distance of getting into the playoffs. So understandably disappointment abounds when your team doesn’t make it and elation prevails when your team does. The four teams in the playoffs were River Trails against North Shore and Midtown-Palatine against Midtown-Bannockburn. River Trails, who ended the season in 1st place, was challenged by North Shore’s team. Each team took 3 matches each but a match tie-breaker win by NSRC gave RTTC one extra set to put them in the Finals. Midtown-Palatine won 5-1 against Midtown-Bannockburn but looking at the scores, several of the matches could have shifted in favor of MTB. The finals between RTTC and MTP will take place at Glenbrook Racquet Club on May 12th at 10am.

Pictured from L-R: Mike Raymond, Nick Andres, Peter Krizman and John Pucin

In 2012, The Racquet Club of Lake Bluff put a Men’s Singles team together and won the league championship. Fast forward to 2017 and for the 4th year in a row, RCLB has won the championship for the Men’s 4.5 Singles. Congratulations to their team for that accomplishment! North Shore was this year’s opponent. Their captain, Jerry Morse-Karzen, played on court 1 against RCLB’s captain Peter Krizman. While both players had played the day before, Jerry played two matches to Peter’s one 3-set match. And while Jerry put up a good fight, not reflected in the score, fatigue and Peter’s play gave RCLB their court 1 win. Mike Raymond, Nick Andres and John Pucin rounded out RCLB’s team with wins against NSRC’s team of Clay McLaughlin, Steve Rodgers and Joe McCartney. RCLB won the finals 4-0 and took home the trophy for the 4th year in a row!

How’s your math? Huh? In one of the playoff matches between Lincolnshire and Five Seasons, the captains were employing their mathematical skills to come up with a game total. Court 1 went to FSSC but court 6 went to LINC. Courts 2-5 were all matches decided by 10-point match tie-breakers with courts 2 and 3 won by LINC and courts 4 and 5 won by FSSC. Everyone wanted to make sure the scores were recorded correctly because it mattered. Five Seasons ended up winning by TWO GAMES 55-53. Talk about a nail biter. Manny Velasco said it was “fun watching close matches and seeing players step up and challenge themselves”. Of course what he didn’t say was he rechecked his math multiple times. The other 4.5 Green playoff match was between Lakeshore and RC Lake Bluff. This year Lakeshore restructured their teams moving out of the 4.0 Friday league and moving into the 4.5 Green league. RCLB made it to the playoffs last year and was hoping to advance to the finals this year. But Lakeshore had a slight advantage when RCLB defaulted a court. Lakeshore pulled out a 5-1 win over RCLB. They will play against Five Seasons on May 12th at Five Seasons Sports Club at 11am.

From L-R: Jeff Berns, John Flayter, Jon Stauffer, Matt Sargent

The teams from Libertyville and Midtown-Palatine came ready to play. Last year, Libertyville nearly got to the finals but lost in sets despite having a player fall ill before the match and another player injuring himself during the match. And last year, Midtown-Palatine didn’t make it to the playoffs. So both teams were working it for their respective teams. Libertyville took the match lead with Libertyville captain Jeff Berns winning 6-3, 6-2 against Mike Spors (MTP). Then, John Flayer (LIB) came off the court against David Smith (MTP) winning 6-2, 6-2. But they saw their courts 1 and 3 were not doing as well. Kyle Stagnito (MTP) had a 6-3, 6-2 win over Matt Sargent. That left court 1. Robert Bieniek (MTP) and Jon Stauffer (LIB) were finishing off their match while the other players were counting up the games. Robert Bieniek won 6-4, 6-3. Jon Stauffer kept himself on the court despite tweaking his knee in order to get the extra games needed to get a win for Libertyville. Jeff Berns said, “Midtown-Palatine showed up to play and every competitor left it on the court. We were fortunate to come away with the victory by a very narrow margin. We are taking a moment to enjoy the victory and know that each team will be ready to play next year.”

There are two North Central Women’s 4.0 leagues. One takes place on Wednesday and the other Friday. Most of the teams who play on Wednesday also have a team on Friday. What’s interesting to note is that the teams who made it to the Finals in the 4.0 Wednesday league are not the same teams that made it to the finals for the 4.0 Friday league. In both sets of playoff matches, the match score was 4-2. Midtown-Palatine, who lost in the finals last year, came up against Glenbrook. Three of the six matches went to a 10-point match tie-breaker with one of the tie-breaker’s ending the match at 15-13. MTP won all three of those match tie-breakers. Two of the 2 set matches had a 2nd set 12-point tie-breaker. These matches were close with players super competitive with each other! The other playoff match was between Midtown-Chicago and College Park. Midtown-Chicago is in the finals of the 4.0 Wednesday league and they wanted to do the same in the 4.0 Friday league but College Park East stood in their way. While CPAC-E lost on courts 1 and 6, their middle level players won their matches, putting CPAC-E in the finals with MTP. The finals will take place at Northbrook Racquet Club on May 12th at 12pm.

The start of the season was a bit bumpy for the NC Women’s 4.5-Open Singles League. The season started with six teams but Northbrook wasn’t sure they had enough players to fully compete (they did thanks to Terri Gordon who made calls and rallied everyone to support the team) but Glenbrook decided to drop their team after 3 matches in the season. Thankfully, the league pulled itself together. Midtown-Bannockburn 2 started the season in last place but started to move into 4th place in January, then 2nd place and then 1st place in February which they held all the way to the end of the season. The addition of Bright Phakamad to their team helped secure their wins so when Northbrook, who ended the season in 4th place, came into the playoffs against Midtown-Bannockburn 2, they knew they would need a strong lineup against them, especially since they lost to MTB 2 in their last regular season match 9-3. For the playoffs, NRC secured a win over MTB 2 in hard fought matches. MTB 2’s lineup was without Bright but everyone stepped up their game and left everything on the court. The other playoff teams were Libertyville and North Shore. On court 1, Rita Lilydahl (LIB) and Becky Moffatt battled it out to a 3rd set tie-breaker. Becky prevailed as did the rest of her team. The Finals between North Shore and Northbrook will take place at Northbrook Racquet Club on May 11 at 12pm.

Midtown-Palatine has a dedicated group of singles players. While they do not currently have a 4.5-Open Singles team, they do have 2 teams in the 4.0-4.5 singles league. Both teams ended up in the playoffs by securing the #1 and #2 spots in the regular season. The other two teams in the playoffs were RC Lake Bluff and Midtown-Bannockburn. MTP 1 played against MTB and scored 4 matches against them which is not to say the wins came easily. MTP 2 played against RCLB. Each team scored 2 matches each. All matches went 2 sets which meant the sets were tied. It came down to counting games. RCLB came out ahead by 11 games – 42-31 – and has advanced to the Finals against MTP 1. The Finals will take place at Midtown-Bannockburn on May 11th at 12pm.