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Benet wins tiebreaker over Naperville Central

As the tournament director, Sena Drawer knew it wasn’t practical to split the St. Charles East Mary Carlson Invitational girls’ tennis championship plaque in half Saturday afternoon, so the St. Charles coach employed traditional tennis tiebreakers to determine whether Benet or Naperville Central would take home the title hardware.

Benet Academy’s 52 points came out on top of Naperville Central’s 52 on the strength of winning three of four head-to-head matches against Central and capturing four first place finishes — fourth singles and second, third and fourth doubles.

And the Redwings did it with a jumbled lineup, as Benet coach Bob Comerford chose to approach the tournament like a poker player not willing to show his full hand because bigger stakes lie ahead.

“I had to move my top singles player, Cassie Kovach, to second doubles because she has a stomach muscle strain that made it hard for her to serve,” Comerford said. “But all six of my doubles players are (capable of) a sectional lineup team.”

Batavia finished fourth with 39 points, having the tough luck of drawing a major dose of Benet in the opening round.

“What surprised me most was the draw,” Batavia coach Brad Nelson said. “Benet was clearly the favorite here, and we drew Benet four times in the first round, and we drew Naperville Central three times in the second round.

“But we played well throughout the first round and had some good accomplishments in the tournament,” Nelson added. “Playing this kind of competition will help us in the long run because we went toe-to-toe with some of the best competition in the area, if not in the state.”

Geneva settled for fifth with 32 points, with freshman standouts Kirby Einck and Emma Hazel taking second in No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively.

Einck fell to Wheaton Warrenville South junior Emma Li 6-3, 6-2, while Hazel was stopped by Naperville Central sophomore Sara Furukawa 6-2, 6-2.

Li wore Einck down with powerful baseline shots and an array of serves that had Einck off balance much of the match.

“My on-the-run shots were a little bit better today, I was playing around with serves today, trying slice, topspin, flat, different angles, and it went pretty good,” Li said.

Einck was pleased to reach the final match, but knows where she’ll have to get better in the coming years.

“I like a hard-hitting game, so it would be kind of nice to keep developing that,” Einck said. “Her (Li) serves were hard because I didn’t know if they were going to spin, come flat, or jump up at me.”

Geneva coach Maureen Weiler is looking forward to watching Einck and Hazel in the coming years.

“With two freshmen reaching the finals, the future looks pretty good,” Weiler said. “(Kirby) Needs to improve being more offensive, because the girl that beat her in the finals was just more experienced and much more offensive.

“She took control of the point early and imposed her game on Kirby, and Kirby needs to start imposing her game on her opponent.”

Batavia landed its only champion in third singles when Liza Fruendt topped Tesha Coker of Wheaton Warrenville South 6-3, 6-4.

Shea Gallagher dominated fourth singles for Benet, losing only two games in three matches, while rolling 6-0, 6-0 in the finals against Anya Marchenko of Naperville Central.

Wheaton Warrenville South placed third at 41 points, thanks in part to the No. 1 doubles team of Keisha Clousing and Emmie Chan securing the title 6-3, 6-2 over Benet’s pair of Madeline Carney and Mary Beth King.

Wheaton Warrenville South coach Patty Clousing felt the experience of her No. 1 singles and doubles players paved the way for the victories.

“They are very experienced players who play a lot of USTA tournaments and they build on that experience and it helps them in these Saturday tournaments quite a bit,” Clousing said. “Winning at both No. 1 spots shows the high level of play these kids are at, and the time they put in the other 10 months of the year really is what makes them so good right now.”

The hit parade for Benet at doubles started with the No. 2 doubles team of Cassie Kovach and Leah Tzakis rolling to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Naperville Central’s Jennifer Lee and Meaghan Bedigian.

At No. 3 doubles, Kim Simmons and Daniella Reyes of Benet notched a 6-2, 6-0 win over Naperville Central’s Lydia Fern and Priyesha Bijlani, while the No. 4 doubles team of Olivia Watson and Maggie Wilhelm gave Benet a 6-1, 6-0 win over Naperville Central’s pair of Katie Roth and Vivi Leon.

Naperville Central coach Don Bonet was pleased with how his team fared, but he knew that Benet was not throwing its best lineup on the court.

“Across the board we did very well, but Benet is very strong,” Bonet said. “If he (coach Comeford) had run his normal lineup out there today, they would have won this tournament pretty handily.”

Wheaton North finished with 26 points, host St. Charles East had 25 and Marian Central tallied 21 to round out the eight-team field.

  Kelsie Roberton, returns a Geneva shot during the St. Charles East Mary Carlson Varsity Invitational in St. Charles Saturday, September 10, 2011. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Batavia’s Miranda Grizaffi, returns a Naperville Central shot during the St. Charles East Mary Carlson Varsity Invitational in St. Charles Saturday, September 10, 2011. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Naperville Central’s Maria Mihailescu, returns a Batavia shot during the St. Charles East Mary Carlson Varsity Invitational in St. Charles Saturday, September 10, 2011. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Naperville Central’s Maria Mihailescu, returns a Batavia shot during the St. Charles East Mary Carlson Varsity Invitational in St. Charles Saturday, September 10, 2011. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Hayden Jones returns a Geneva shot during the St. Charles East Mary Carlson Varsity Invitational in St. Charles Saturday, September 10, 2011. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com