Saline No. 1 doubles player Karl Winsor during one of the few outdoor matches of the Saline Hornet Invitational on Saturday.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

Some of the best tennis teams in the state fought it out in the Saline Hornet Invitational, which roamed all over Washtenaw County due to rain on Saturday. Detroit Catholic Central finished first (18 points), Saline a close second (16), followed by Greenhills (9), and Canton Salem (3). This week both Catholic Central and Saline were ranked in the top 10 of Division 1 tennis, and Greenhills was top-ranked in Division 4.

More coverage at MLive.com: Results

Saline's singles players led the way for the Hornets. No. 1 singles player Will BeDell had to withdraw before the competition began, but besides his three forfeited results, Saline singles were 7-2 on the day.

Play began in the morning, with matches held at both the old and new Saline High Schools, but afternoon rain forced the tournament to shift to Chippewa Racquet Club in Ypsilanti. Some matches were suspended in the middle of play, then resumed indoors.

In perhaps the most intensely contested match of the day, Greenhills' second doubles team of David Goldfarb and Shamik Ganguly came back to win a tooth-and-nail struggle in a third set tiebreaker against Catholic Central's Greg Pilchak and Peter Hariri. After Goldfarb and Ganguly failed to break the Shamrocks' serve in the first set, they got an early break of serve in set two, which gave them a boost of confidence.

After Goldfarb and Ganguly won the second and third sets, both teams battled nerves in the final tiebreaker, with the teams trading errors until Goldfarb stepped to the baseline to serve, leading 5-4 and needing two points for the win.

Goldfarb had double faulted both of his previous services in the tie breaker.

"I didn't want to go out that way," Goldfarb said of his service struggles.

What he did instead was spin first serves in on the next two points. The Greenhills duo won the first of those points on a smash at the net from Ganguly. Hariri's return of the next serve sailed long, and the Gryphons prevailed.

For Goldfarb and Ganguly, the win over a top-ranked division 1 opponent felt good.

"We're Division 4, so people often don't give us much respect," Goldfarb said.

"It's always fun to play those matches because we go in with nothing to lose," said Ganguly.

With BeDell missing for Saline, the marquee matchup of the day involving local players came at No. 2 singles, with Saline's Blake Ahadi against Greenhills' Mithun Saha. After Ahadi won a close first set, Saha came out in the second and put the heat on Ahadi, making a number of spectacular shots for winners. Ahadi had to dig deep to respond.

During the match Ahadi received counsel from his older brother Andrew, a Saline assistant coach, but Ahadi acted as a coach unto himself.

Clinging to a 4-2 lead in the second set, with Saha serving, Ahadi determined himself.

"This is it," he would say to himself between points, his breath hardly above a whisper. "This game. Give yourself opportunities."

It worked. Ahadi fought hard to get the break of Saha's serve he was looking for, and pushed his lead in the match to 5-2.

"I didn't want to give (Saha) an opportunity to get back in the match," Ahadi said after the match. "I wanted to close it out. " With the key service break in hand, Ahadi served out to win the set and match.

Also tallying narrow victories for Saline was the Hornets No. 1 doubles tandem of Karl Winsor and Will Heider. After losing their first match to Catholic Central, Winsor and Heider rebounded to gut out a 7-5, 6-2 win over Greenhills' A.J. Gay and Ben Froehlich. In their final match against Salem, Winsor and Heider won in two sets that each ended in a tiebreaker. On the twelfth point of the second set tie break, Winsor closed out the match in style with a strong overhand smash.

Paying no heed to his team's third place finish, Greenhills coach Eric Gajar was thrilled to get his team experience against top Division 1 teams.

"At this point in the season it's not so much about winning and losing as it is seeing a different gear and playing from behind so that we have to raise our game or make some different shots that we aren't used to," Gajar said.

Both Gajar and his players realize that playing these matches is good preparation for making a run at the state championship.

"We've had enough success," Gajar said, "that guys come into this program thinking that the goal is not just to make it to the state tournament, but to win the thing."

Saline coach Andy BeDell was also encouraged with what he saw from his team.

"We cut down on our errors, which is the most important thing," said BeDell, who acknowledged that his team also has its sights on competing in the state tournament.

Saline's No. 4 singles player Joon Shin went 3-0 to win his flight. The duo of Spender Kennedy and Donovan Main also went 3-0 for the Hornets, winning the No. 2 doubles title.

Court space was at a premium after the matches moved to Chippewa, and with many matches yet to even get underway, the rest of the proceedings moved at a snail's pace. In order to expedite matters, Salem left early and forfeited all its remaining matches against Greenhills and Catholic Central, with whom they are not competing for regional seeding. Salem played out all its matches against Saline.

-- Bison Collins Messink