Lyons doubles tune up for sectional

Updated: May 9, 2011 6:59PM

Lyons’ top doubles team is likely to take this weekend off, but it’s a temporary break until the Downers Grove South Sectional May 21.

Senior Danny Schuster and sophomore Jake Elliott have been a potent combination on the tennis court with a 14-3 record this season and a runner-up finish April 30 at Hersey’s Pitchford 32 Invitational. Schuster and Elliott lost 6-4, 6-3 to what many consider the state’s top doubles team -- Stevenson’s Ross Putterman and David Packowitz.

For Saturday’s West Suburban Silver meet at Hinsdale Central, Schuster expects to play No. 2 singles with Elliott at No. 1 singles for the day.

“We’ll do the same thing as dual meets. The lineup is three singles and four doubles. It’s basically a point-strategy operation,” Schuster said. “If Jake and I play singles, we could score two points instead of one.”

Lyons will battle Hinsdale Central for second place in the conference meet. Oak Park-River Forest is favored to win the team title. Hinsdale Central finished second at the Naper Valley Invitational Saturday at Benet.

Downers North is Lyons’ only opponent from the West Suburban Silver, which will appear at the sectional one week later.

Schuster and Elliott will be looking for a top eight seed in the state meet after going 4-2 at state last year. Besides Stevenson, the duo’s only other losses this season have been to Highland Park’s Tyler Manci and Jordan Hainsfurther and Glenbrook North’s Bill Angel and Josh Sawyer.

Schuster and Elliott avenged an earlier season loss to Highland Park by beating Manci and Hainsfurther in a 2 1/2-hour match, winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, in the Pitchford semifinals. Lyons finished seventh (36 points) at Pitchford.

“Pitchford was absolutely huge,” Schuster said. “We went into it hoping to get top teams. That was our biggest invitational of the year. We wanted to play good, coming off a big weekend [at Hinsdale Central].”

Lyons’ doubles team defeated Manci and Hainsfurther in the title match April 23 at Central.

Both Schuster and Elliott played together over last summer in a league at the Oak Brook Park District. They have different styles that have clicked with Schuster as a left-hander and Elliott as a right-hander.

“He’s such a good athlete. He’s so fast,” Schuster said of Elliott.

Elliott is not a full-time tennis player. During the winter, he’s a point guard for the sophomore basketball team. While growing up in Western Springs, Elliott also played soccer and baseball. One of his best friends is Keith Lehmann, the only sophomore playing third base and pitcher for the school’s varsity baseball team, which is currently ranked No. 2 by YourSeason.com.

Elliott and Lehmann were teammates on a travel baseball team at age 13.

At age 11 and 12, Elliott remembered winning back-to-back state championships for his youth baseball team.

To play tennis and basketball in back-to-back seasons, Elliott works on his conditioning year round.

“Absolutely, I miss [playing] all of them, but I feel I made a good decision about what teams I’m playing for,” Elliott said.

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