Pollard Proves He Can Play With The Big Boys

He checks in at about 5-feet, 8 inches and 130 pounds, which means that no one’s choosing Finn Pollard first when picking sides for a pickup football or basketball game.

But put a tennis racquet in the Evanston junior’s hands and he’s nothing but lethal.

Pollard proved he could play with the big boys in his second straight trip to the Class 2A Illinois High School Association state tennis tournament this weekend, winning 3 of 5 singles matches against the elite players in the state.

Pollard won one more match than a year ago and turned in one of the deepest runs for an ETHS state qualifier in years as the Wildkits totaled 6 team points over the first 2 days of the tournament. The finals in singles and doubles will be held Saturday at Palatine High School.

Another junior, Evan Gerbie, won 1 of his 3 singles matches while also representing the Wildkits.

A 6-4, 7-5 loss to a familiar foe --- Glenbrook South’s Dominik Kaminski --- in the second round of consolation bracket play Friday at Fremd High School in Palatine sent Pollard to the sidelines for the season. He finished with a won-loss record of 22-10 --- and gained some self-confidence in the process.

Pollard earned victories over Shay Sweigard of Lyons Township (6-0, 6-2), Ankit Rajvanshi of Moline (6-2, 6-0) and Akshay Baid of Metea Valley (6-2, 6-4) while losing to a player seeded in the 5-8 range, Aiden Lam of Waubonsie Valley, by a 6-3, 6-2 margin.

“Now, I think I belong with these guys,” said Pollard, who was seeded in the 9-16 range in the estimation of the coaches’ committee prior to the start of the 3-day tourney. “Now, I think I’m at their level.”

The defeat at the hands of Kaminski, a longtime rival, was particularly hard to take. There might not be two players more evenly matched in the entire state of Illinois and when the two collide on the tennis court, it’s always a match that could go either way.

Friday, it went Kaminski’s way after the Titan standout lost 3 times to Pollard during the season.

“I was the one who knocked him out of the state tournament last year. It’s tougher to lose to someone you know like that,” Pollard said, ‘but he played well. Obviously we’re very competitive when we’re on the court, but we’re friends off the court. I’ve been in that situation before when I’ve knocked friends out of a tournament, and they’ve done it to me.

“Dom served really well today and he just grinded me down (after upsetting New Trier’s Caden Liu, a 5-8 seed, earlier in consolation play). I was up on him throughout the second set and yet he didn’t let himself get down mentally.

“I was nervous for the whole tournament, more than I was last year (when he finished 2-2 as a sophomore). It was partly expectations (accompanied by that high seed) and partly the pressure that I put on myself. I wasn’t scared when I went up against Dom, but I was definitely nervous. No one wants to lose.”

The Evanston junior piled up too many hitting mistakes to even force a 3rd set, as is typical in most recent matchups between the two standouts. The pair reached deuce a staggering 8 times in one game in the first set, with Pollard finally prevailing and pulling to within 5-4. But Kaminski regained the momentum thanks to a couple of misses and took the set.

In the second set, Pollard misfired when he came to the net for a game point that lifted the GBS player to a 6-5 advantage, and Kaminski then applied the knockout blow minutes later.”

“Dom wasn’t feeling too well today, so he didn’t overexert himself and make mistakes like he usually does,” said ETHS head coach Marcus Plonus regarding the South star’s strategy to linger on the baseline for both sets. “The last couple of matches they played, he’d make mistakes and Finn was able to take advantage of them. But today he was steady and out-patiented Finn.

“Dom is probably the best athlete out there (in the tournament) and he just didn’t make any mistakes. Still, it was a match that could have gone either way.

“There was a lot of pressure on Finn for this tournament. He’s such an amazing guy and a bunch of guys from other schools were rooting for him (over the 2-day test). There’s no reason he can’t make it to Saturday (finals) next year. He’s the epitome of a great high school player because he’s steady, he has the (offensive) weapons, and his mental game is right there with everyone else’s. He’s really a standup guy.”

Pollard also learned some valuable lessons in his first match Friday morning versus Baid. The Metea Valley junior’s unusual playing style proved a challenge for the ETHS dynamo, who had to rally from a 3-0 deficit in the second set to stay alive.

Pollard’s superb passing shot at game point gave him a 5-4 advantage, and he emerged triumphant when Baid hit a volley too long to decide the set.

“This was one of my worst matches. Thankfully, I got through it,” said Pollard. “I tried to play to my strengths as much as I could, and I tried showing him stuff he didn’t like. I tried to mix it up. But he’s a really crafty player with a really deceptive style (change of pace shots).”

Gerbie, who placed 3rd at the sectional tournament, was eliminated Thursday with losses to Jess Hattrup of Edwardsville (7-5, 6-3) and Jonathon Spicer of St. Charles North (6-1, 6-0). Sandwiched in between those defeats was a 6-2, 6-0 triumph over Tiernan Price of St. Charles East.

“I thought Evan had a nice tournament after his breakthrough at the sectional,” Plonus praised. “I’m really proud of how he’s developing as a player. I expect big things from both of them next year, and maybe we can get a doubles team here, too.”