Seeded players all advance in Div. II tennis

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Seeded players all remain alive after the first day of the Division II boys tennis sectional tournament.

Two matches will be played today to complete the quarterfinal-round matches in singles.

The semifinals and finals in both singles and doubles will be held Saturday at Boardman High School.

In singles, No. 1 seed Michael Fredericka of Warren JFK and No. 2 seed Ben Brocker of Poland both won three matches to advance to the semifinals, thus qualifying for next week’s district tournament in Canton.

Fredericka did not lose a game all day, while Brocker lost just three.

The other seeded players have to win today to qualify for the district tournament.

The No. 3 seed, Mitch Maroscher of United, won two matches and will play Kenny Duncan of Poland in a quarterfinal match. The winner of that match advances to play Brocker on Saturday in a semifinal.

In the other half of the bracket, No. 4 Luke Spahija of Cardinal Mooney will play Liberty’s Anuj Kwatra today, with the winner advancing to face Brocker in the semifinals.

All four seeded doubles teams advanced to the semifinals and will play on Saturday for district seeding.

Top-seeded Mark Pelini and Mike Rotar of Cardinal Mooney had a first-round bye and won two matches, losing just two games in the process.

They will play Taylor Fredrickson and Jay Linam of Salem, the No. 4 seed, who won three matches and survived a second-round, three-set match against Chris Polivka and Steve Cribley of Lordstown, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.

In the bottom half of the bracket, Matt and Zach McDivitt of Lakeview, the No. 2 seed, won two matches, and will face Mike DeVito and Zack Fortunato of Poland in the semifinals.

The Poland duo won three matches on Wednesday, including a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 decision over Ryan Sarchet and Nate Huffman of United in the quaretrfinals.