Boswell leads Naperville North to DVC tennis championship
Right from the beginning of the season it looked as though this was going to be the year for the Naperville North girls tennis team in the DuPage Valley Conference.
In Saturday's conference tournament, the senior-heavy Huskies delivered on their high expectations by winning championships in four flights and wresting the DVC title away from cross-town rival Naperville Central, last year's conference champ.
“We had a lot of seniors coming back and we had a lot of hard workers and good chemistry,” said Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen. “And I felt good coming into this tournament. We had a nine-match winning streak and the girls were super-motivated. Their showing this weekend was proof of all the hard work they've done. They play with a lot of heart, passion and confidence.”
The Huskies finished Saturday with 48 points, adding regular-season and tournament matches together, with the Redhawks finished second with 45.5 points. Wheaton North was third with 24.5, followed by Lake Park with 22, Wheaton Warrenville South with 13.5 and Glenbard North with 5.5.
The Huskies' finals victories came at both first singles and first doubles as well as second-singles and third doubles.
Abbie Boswell, who had been a state-qualifying doubles player early in high school but missed her junior year due to a soccer injury, won first singles for the Huskies with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Katya Shcherabyna of Wheaton Warrenville South.
“I hadn't played tennis for a year, so I was a little rusty when the season started,” Boswell said. “But it was awesome for our team to win conference.”
“We moved Abbie to singles after our first-singles players left the team,” Henricksen said. “She's a great athlete and a senior leader who put our team on her back. She may have been rusty early, but when she moved into that first-singles role, her game just came alive. She plays with confidence and fights for every point.”
While defending state champion Tiffany Chen of Naperville Central missed the DVC tournament because she was competing in a USTA tournament, Redhawks coach Don Bonet didn't think Tiffany's presence would have affected the final team standings.
“Tiffany wouldn't have changed the final results,” Bonet said. “Naperville North has too much depth and senior experience. We have a young team. And I'm thrilled with how our girls played this year. We were 15-2 and we over-achieved all year.”
Boswell's move to first singles gave second-singles Lena Zhu the opportunity to move to first doubles, where she was paired with returning state qualifier Jessica Hu. Those two won the conference title with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Cassie Zhang and Megan Furukawa of Naperville Central.
“We really got a sense of satisfaction by winning conference,” Zhu said. “I worked on my net game this season in order to play alongside Jessica, who is great at the net.”
“We make a good doubles team because we can do different things,” Zhu said. “Lena's groundstrokes are solid and she has really improved her net game. She's also gotten used to the doubles strategy. We cover for each other's weaknesses well.”
The Huskies' Elise Hu won second singles, and the team of Olivia Ryan and Grabija Treciokaite took the DVC third-doubles championship for Naperville North.
The Redhawks' conference champs were second-doubles Hanna Swarm and Sabrina Chow and fourth-doubles Sharon Pan and Naga Vivekanandan.
Lake Park's Kaitlin DeSimone broke up the Naperville championship monopoly with a win in a grueling three-set finals match over Naperville North's Madhura Patil at third singles.