York, Libertyville tops at Buffalo Grove
York's girls tennis team topped seven teams competing at the Buffalo Grove Invite on an unusually cold September Saturday morning.
The Dukes tallied 37 points to win the title with Libertyville and Maine South collecting 35 points.
Libertyville took second thanks to an edge in the tournament's tiebreaker against Maine South, the head-to-head matchup between teams.
Hersey grabbed fourth place with 32 points while the host Bison placed fifth.
Libertyville saw all four of its doubles teams reach the championships.
Three of the four took home first place medals. Libertyville's No. 2 doubles team of Ola Grabowski/Tanui Patel defeated Buffalo Grove 6-4, 6-3, Maine South 7-6, 6-1, 7-4 and then York 6-3, 2-6, 10-5.
The Wildcats' No. 3 doubles team of Roseanna Chen/Gabby Struik and No. 4 Arthi Sekharan/Grace Benner also claimed first place.
Libertyville's No. 1 doubles team defeated Cary Grove 6-0, 6-1 and Warren 6-2, 6-3, but fell in the final against Maine South for a second-place finish.
“Our No. 1 and 2 doubles have been doing pretty well, so I wasn't surprised by their performance,” said Wildcats coach Dan Kiernan. “Our No. 3 is a new team and they won. We have good players all the way down the lineup.
“A lot of times you see teams in your conference in these weekend invitationals and it's a good test that we see them before we play them head-to-head.”
Libertyville (1-3 in duals) was coming off a seventh-place finish at the Fremd Invitational.
Kiernan enjoyed the week-to-week turnaround from his team.
“It raised our confidence,” Grabowski said. “It's all about practice. (Tanui) Patel and I have a good chemistry together. Hopefully this will help for next week in the Prospect Invite.”
Hersey (6-3) garnered strong performances from its singles players.
Huskies No. 2 Tyler Ann Valerio, a senior, and No. 3 Ana Karapetiani, a sophomore, won their finals. They also posted championship finishes at the Fremd Invite.
In Valerio's championship run, she routed Lake Zurich's Paige Savarese 6-2, 6-1, York's Maja Shaw 6-3, 6-1 and Maine South's Julia Benbenck 6-3,6-1 in the final.
Karapetiani beat Libertyville's Lauren Paulson 6-0, 6-2, BG's Jessie Jarosz 4-6, 6-1, 10-1 and York's Claire Meyer 6-0, 6-0 for the title.
“I go into each match thinking I'm going to win as opposed to last year when I didn't,” Valerio said. “All our platers get along with each other really well. We've been through everything together and progress together for three years.”
“I feel confident in myself,” Karapetiani said. “I know it will be tougher in each match, so I have to be ready physically and mentally every time.”
Other Hersey top performers were senior Sara Magnuson, who finished in third place at No. 1 singles as did the No. 3 doubles team of Jackie Stassen/May Napora.
“We're still trying to get in the right groove,” said Hersey coach Sharon Meintzer. “Now we're just refining our skills. We are ahead of the progress from last year but we're not quite ready for the big matches.
“Our goal is to get in all of the final matches with Barrington at conference. It is possible to get there; we just need to get our confidence levels up.”
Host Buffalo Grove (4-2) got third-place finishes at No. 3 singles (Jessie Jarosz) and No. 4 doubles (Danielle Allaire/Denny Dimitrova).
Everyone in the Buffalo Grove lineup went 2-1 in the invitational. Bison coach Kevin Schrammel continues to make swaps to the lineup to see what will be the best fit during the postseason.
“Our No. and 2 singles were playing at No. 1 and 2 doubles (Saturday),” Schrammel said. “Our No. 1 doubles had a tough match in the first round, but they came back strong in the back draw. We usually have a tough schedule in the beginning against Highland Park and Stevenson so our girls can play the top competition early.”