Published Wednesday

September 6, 2006

DeVose fights through illness for singles title

BY DARYL BLUE

WORLD-HERALD CORRESPONDENT

LINCOLN - Papillion-La Vista South junior John DeVose blocked out upper-respiratory problems to win the No. 1 singles title at the Capital City Invitational on Tuesday at Woods Tennis Center.

"Every time I have to breathe hard, I start coughing," DeVose said. "But, I'm not going to give up even though I'm sick."

DeVose, the defending Class A No. 1 singles state champion, didn't give up and defeated Lincoln East's Brandon Videtich 8-6 in the championship match. DeVose took a 4-1 lead in the match then held on when Videtich cut the gap to 5-4. DeVose held serve to go up 6-4 en route to the win.

"Brandon is an awesome player," DeVose said. "It's always a good match between us. When I get better, he gets better. It's always going to be about equal when we play."

Videtich said DeVose played solid tennis despite being under the weather.

"Some of those points were so long," Videtich said. "It was back and forth, but John outlasted me today. He told me he was sick and you could hear him coughing between points, but it didn't seem to bother him that much. My goal was to try and move him and get up to the net as often as I could."

Balanced scoring helped Lincoln East capture the team title. The Spartans' No. 1 doubles team of Alex Neuhaus and Andreas Zimmermann defeated Sean Mills and Taylor Hoskinson of Millard West in the title match. East outscored second-place North Platte 19-15, while Lincoln Pius X and Papillion-La Vista South tied for third with 14 points.

"This was a good tournament for us to win for two reasons," East coach Jeff Hoham said. "One, it's early in the season and two, there was a lot of good competition here. Most notably, our No. 1 doubles team did very well. I think this was a breakout tournament for them because they had lost a couple of close matches earlier."

Hoham said he was pleased with his team's overall showing and praised Videtich for reaching the final match. Videtich defeated North Platte standout Kyle Obermeier 8-6 in the semifinal round. Obermeier, like Videtich, lost in the quarterfinal round of last year's state tournament.

"Brandon deserves a lot of credit for getting to the finals and he played better than the score indicated in the final," Hoham said.

• Team scoring: Lincoln East 19, North Platte 15, (tie) Lincoln Pius X, Papillion-La Vista South 14, Millard West 13, Omaha Skutt 11, Grand Island CC 9, Waverly 1.

• No. 1 singles: First: John DeVose, P-LVS, def. Brandon Videtich, LE, 8-6. Third: Kyle Obermeier, NP, def. Brian Polodna, OS, 8-4.

• No. 1 doubles: First: Alex Neuhaus and Andreas Zimmermann, LE, def. Sean Mills and Taylor Hoskinson, MW, 8-4. Third: Tyler Badje and Kevin Slattery, LP, def. Blake Sekora and Spencer Fahey, GICC, 8-6.

• No. 2 Singles: First: Michael Sambol, OS, def. Jeff Baumann, NP, 8-6. Third: Ross Friehe, P-LVS, def. Matt Dunlap, LE, 8-2.

• No. 2 Doubles: First: Andrew McKeegan and Dan Jenkins, LP, def. Ross Schulenberg and Garth Hamilton, LE, 8-6. Third: Alex Junge and Paul Jackman, MW, def. Eric Van Boening and Jeffrey Olson, NP, 8-3.

East's Videtich can't stop state champ at tennis tourney

BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

Late in their boys high school tennis match, Lincoln East’s Brandon Videtich was doing everything he could to make John DeVose breath hard — working him side-to-side, hitting delicate drop shots and throwing up lobs.

While Videtich got DeVose coughing and wheezing, he couldn’t break the Papillion-La Vista South junior’s stranglehold on the lead. Despite his upper respiratory problems, the defending Class A state champion won the last three games to defeat Videtich 8-4 in the No. 1 singles final of the Capital City Invitational on Tuesday at Woods Tennis Center.

The key game of the eight-game pro set was a DeVose service break that gave him a 7-4 lead. He won two physically grueling rallies in that game, which perked up Videtich’s curiosity when they changed sides.

“I thought you were sick? You’re getting all those balls,’’ Videtich told DeVose on the changeover. DeVose then held serve comfortably to close out the match, hitting an inside-out forehand winner on the first point of that game and a service winner on the last.

DeVose says he’s feeling better now than he was on Aug. 26 for the Papillion-La Vista South Invitational when he lost to Kyle Obermeier of North Platte and defending Class B champion Josh Raymond of Elkhorn. Between being ill and taking a summer English course so he could skip the 10th grade and become a junior this fall, it’s taken time for DeVose’s game to take shape.

In fact, DeVose probably played more soccer than he did tennis this summer, getting in soccer three times a week at Offutt Air Force Base.

His game showed signs of life last week when he beat Omaha Creighton Prep’s Craig Faulk (last year’s state runner-up) 8-3 and Millard South’s Randy Bachle (the Papillion-La Vista South invite champion) 8-0 in dual matches. DeVose continued his winning ways Tuesday by going 4-0 in the eight-team meet, although he struggled to an 8-6 win over Omaha Skutt’s Brian Polodna in his final pool play match.

“My first few matches today, I didn’t play well. I wasn’t sure if I’d get to the finals,’’ said DeVose, who was a freshman last year when he won state, but a sophomore in terms of age. DeVose moved to Papillion from Germany in 2005 between his eighth- and ninth-grade years.

“In the finals, everything worked. I went out, had fun and found my game.’’

Videtich reached the finals with a hard-fought 8-6 pool-play win over Obermeier, avenging an 8-6 loss to the North Platte junior in the same tournament last year. Like the 2005 match, Videtich led 6-3 only to see Obermeier tie it at 6-6. Obermeier had a 40-15 lead to take a 7-6 advantage, but Videtich rallied to win the match.

“That’s a big win, especially after last year,’’ Videtich said. “Down 15-40 at 6-6, I hit a forehand winner and that turned it around.’’

East won the team title with 19 points, four more than second-place North Platte. The No. 1 doubles team of Alex Neuhaus and German foreign exchange student Andreas Zimmermann was the Spartans’ lone gold medalist, defeating Millard West’s Sean Mills and Taylor Hoskinson 8-4 in the finals.

At No. 2 doubles, Lincoln Pius X’s Andrew McKeegan and Dan Jenkins defeated East’s Ross Schulenberg and Garth Hamilton 8-6 in the finals.

“This was their breakout tournament,’’ East coach Jeff Hoham said of his No. 1 doubles team. “They had a couple tough losses early in the year, but they’re starting to come around.’’