Singles sweep powers Geneva to UEC River crown
The Upstate Eight Conference River girls tennis championship had a rousing series of doubles title matches Saturday morning at Bartlett.
But Geneva had already taken care of business in the singles finals at Larkin.
The Vikings, undefeated during regular-season league dual matches, swept the three singles championships to create an insurmountable cushion.
Geneva singles players Kirby Einck, Grace Krueger and Elizabeth Prendergast all defended their championships from last season to power the Vikings' 35-point showing at the two-day tournament.
Batavia, which had the first doubles champions in Sydney Unterberg and Julianee Robinson, eased past St. Charles East for runner-up with a season-long total of 67 points to the Saints' 64.
St. Charles East crowned the third and fourth doubles units.
St. Charles North second-doubles tandem Emma Spellman and Lianne Anderson had the last of the seven conference championships with its straight-sets win.
The North Stars were fourth with 53 total points.
“They all had to pull together,” Geneva coach Maureen Weiler said of her squad, which totaled 78 points on the season. “When it comes to winning conference, it takes the whole team.”
Einck epitomized the Vikings' dominance in singles which she capped in the finals with a win over Elgin's Dahlia Keonavongsa.
The West Point recruit was unstoppable, winning 36 of her 37 games in the three matches to improve to 20-2 on the season.
It was her third consecutive conference title in singles.
“I obviously wanted to play my best tennis this weekend heading into sectionals,” Einck said. “All of my strokes were really good.”
Krueger backed up her title with another straight-sets win for the Vikings at No. 2 singles.
“I think it was a pretty good weekend,” said the sophomore, who improved to 21-1 on the season. “I tried working on my game and moving my opponents around.”
Prendergast made it a complete sweep for the Vikings with her hard-fought win at third singles.
Unterberg and Robinson needed to rally to reverse the regular-season result against top-rated St. Charles North doubles tandem Brittany Rohrsen and Morgan Berko.
The Bulldogs' duo broke the North Stars' team three times in claiming the second set, and the pattern continued in the rubber set to earn its first league title.
“We owned the net today,” Unterberg said after the 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory. “We had nothing to lose and left it all on the court.”
Robinson said the first-set result was misleading.
“We did fine in the first set; they just won the more important points,” Robinson said.
The St. Charles North second unit of Spellman and Anderson seized momentum late in the first set and never eased up in its 6-3, 6-1 victory.
“I would characterize (the match) as very intense for every single point,” Anderson said. “None of the points was free, and the key was consistency.”
St. Charles East's third-doubles partners Sonia Ost and Jenna Patzner have combined for six career championships with their triumph over the North Stars' Sarah Oshana and Breanne Warner.
Grace Esler and Allison Smith won fourth doubles for the Saints with a straight-sets win as well.
Larkin was led by Joceline Molina and Tatyana Herdrich; the Royals' fourth-doubles team won their fifth-place match.
Larkin third-doubles teammates Cheyn Altieri and Naomi Menendez failed in a similar bid for fifth place at third doubles.
“This weekend was a rough weekend,” Larkin coach Kevin Schillerstrom said. “We learned a lot from ourselves, from our opponents. What we're taking away from this weekend is experience.”
Elgin, behind singles runner-up Keonavongsa, was fifth overall with 26 points.
The Maroons edged West Chicago, which was sixth with 25 points.
Larkin finished with 20 points, doubling up Streamwood on the season for seventh.