East gets four finalists to win tennis tourney

BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007 - 12:10:25 am CDT

At the beginning of his No. 1 singles championship match Tuesday, everything was working for Lincoln East tennis player Brandon Videtich.

The 6-foot-4 senior was spanking aggressive approach shots and then knocking off short replies from John DeVose at the net. His lefty serve was also giving the Papillion-La Vista South senior problems, allowing Videtich to control the points.

All of that, however, disappeared for four games. With Videtich leading 4-2 and up a service break, the steady DeVose reeled off 16 of the next 17 points to turn a deficit into a 6-4 lead. DeVose then relied on his own big serve to hold two more times, countering a late Videtich charge and claiming an 8-6 victory for the gold medal in the eight-team Capital City Classic boys meet at Woods Tennis Center.

East landed finalists in all four divisions on its way to the team title, edging second-place Papillion-La Vista South 44-39.

Down 4-2 in No. 1 singles, “I didn’t get nervous and I didn’t change anything,” said DeVose, the 2005 Class A state singles champion and last year’s state runner-up. DeVose is 10-0 this season after four wins Tuesday.

“I like playing under pressure,’’ he added. “I just relaxed, got more balls in play, and Brandon started missing some. You lose more points and start playing tentatively when you get nervous.’’

The beginning of the championship match was a continuation of Videtich’s strong play in his final pool-play match, in which he blew out North Platte standout Kyle Obermeier 8-1. Videtich, fresh off a visit to New York to watch the U.S. Open, said he’s “never played better’’ than he did against Obermeier.

“My groundstrokes were working and I was slamming the ball pretty good against Kyle,” said Videtich, who pushed DeVose to deuce twice in the final game of the championship match before back-to-back errors closed out the Titan’s win.

The Spartans’ Matt Dunlap took the No. 2 singles crown with an 8-4 victory over Lincoln Pius X’s Garrett Sutton. At No. 2 doubles, East’s Garth Hamilton and David Meagher overcame the Thunderbolt combination of Andy Rice and Michael Pommer 8-3 in the finals.

East took second at No. 1 doubles, where the Titans’ Ben Williams and Caleb Palensky defeated Alex Neuhaus and Ross Schulenberg 8-6.

“We met our goal of getting everyone into the finals,’’ East coach Jeff Hoham said. “We played well, but we still have to improve to get where we want to be at the end of the season.”