Crawbuck went down fighting in second set
By:Sean Moylan
The Crawbuck twins of the Northern Burlington County Regional High School girls’ varsity tennis team came very close to playing each other in the finals at the South Jersey Interscholastic Tennis Championship at Vineland on Sunday.
As it was, Lauren Edelschein, Shawnee’s number one player, beat Devin Crawbuck 6-1, 6-4 in the final championship round. Crawbuck went down fighting in the second set. In a touch of irony, it was Endelschein who had knocked Caitlin Crawbuck (NBC’s first singles player) out of the tourney with a 7-5, 6-3 win in Saturday’s quarterfinal’s round.
Caitlin Crawbuck had already defeated Endelschien earlier in the season, but she couldn’t quite repeat her previous performance this time around.
Devin Crawbuck had a long, grueling road to the championship match. In fact, after beating opponents from Millville and Eastern in the opening rounds a couple of weeks ago, Devin Crawbuck demolished Eastern’s Sunita Desai 6-0, 6-2 on Saturday morning. Then she pummeled Cherry Hill’s Charlotte Negleburg 6-3, 6-2. Crawbuck’s best match, however, was a 6-4, 6-2 win against Moorestown’s Kristen Klepaki in the semi-final round.
"That was a wild match," said Carla Crawbuck, the head coach of the NBC tennis squad. Crawbuck was able to beat Klepaki by employing tremendous strategy and changing up her game to suit every given situation she encountered. She was awesome.
NBC also had four regular season matches this past week.
Northern’s Caitlin Crawbuck (first singles), Devin Crawbuck (second singles), Heather Hatala (third singles) and Alex Ayres and Jackie Melillo (first doubles) all won their respective matches 6-0, 6-0 against Holy Cross last Thursday at NBC. NBC’s second doubles pairing of Jessica Tournquist and Jaimee Simmons won by default.
On Friday at Veterans Park, Caitlin Crawbuck stomped Nottingham’s Denise Duay 6-1, 6-0 in first singles and Devin Crawbuck blanked Kelly Shedebower 6-0, 60 in second singles. Unfortunately, the rest of the Greyhounds dropped their matches to their Nottingham opponents and Northern found itself on the wrong end of a 3-2 heartbreaker.
But Northern came back strong with a 3-2 home win over Lenape on Monday. Caitlin Crawbuck breezed by Joanna Wong 6-1, 6-1 in her first singles match. And Devin Crawbuck shutout Yuvika Sharma 6-0, 6-0.
NBC’s Heather Hatala (third singles) won the decisive match by blowing out Rachel Siman 6-0, 6-2.
"Heather (Hatla) did a good job," added Coach Crawbuck.
Lenape’s Elise Itlinao and Valerie Schneck slipped by Melillo and Ayres 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 in first doubles. And in second doubles, Lenape’s Erica Green and Lauren Boyce got by Jaimee Simmons and Jessica Tournquist 7-5, 6-3.
On Tuesday, NBC won an easy 4-1 home decision against Steinert. NBC’s Caitlin Crawbuck, Devin Crawbuck and Heather Hatala all won their singles matches in straight sets. Melillo and Ayres dropped a tough three-setter, however, to Steinert’s top doubles’ squad.
"They (Melillo and Ayres) gave it a gallant effort," Coach Crawbuck said.
Northern’s second doubles squad of Tournquist and Simmons lost only a pair of games while winning in straight sets. I was happy (with the second doubles’ win)," added Coach Crawbuck.
NBC has locked up second place in the division with its 14-6 record. Caitlin Crawbuck (23-4) and Devin Crawbuck (28-3) each have had fantastic seasons.
NBC is scheduled to complete its great season with a match at Rancocas Valley on Thursday.

