Kosy, Jacobs having a banner girls tennis season

Not all improvements in sports have to be of the physical nature.

Jacobs junior girls tennis standout Ashley Kosy made one important change this season that had nothing to do with that part of her game.

"My mentality has changed," she said. "I used to get too unsettled in matches or I would get upset. Now, I try to improve what I did wrong, get over it and move on."

This season not too much has gone wrong for Kosy, who is fresh off winning the Fox Valley Conference No. 1 singles title. The 31-win Kosy and her FVC-champion Jacobs teammates will compete in this weekend's Huntley sectional where berths in next week's state tournament will be on the line.

"What you saw last weekend was her maturity and improved mental game," said longtime Jacobs coach Jon Betts. "Ashley always has been a steady player, but her dealing with pressure was the key to winning that tournament. She played some tough opponents and was completely in control and stayed on top of her game. She wasn't committing unforced errors or giving up free points in tough situations."

Kosy noted she has improved in a number of physical areas, including her fitness level.

"My fitness has gotten a lot better," she said. "I don't get tired easily and I'm more competitive and focused out there. I've been running a lot more."

Kosy, who would like to play tennis in college, added she's noticed improvements to her forehand and thought her serve was at a higher level in the FVC tournament.

"My serve is faster and I can place it better," she said. "The placement is very important. Overall, I think my game has improved."

Kosy, who has played the sport since she was 5 years old, said an increase in off-season commitment has paid dividends as well. She stepped up her off-season tournament schedule and takes private lessons at Prairie Stone in Hoffman Estates.

"Ashley has the ability to dictate from the baseline using her ground strokes," Betts said. "Her serve has been working really well. She can take over the court and put balls away when her opponents give her the opportunity."

Betts was thrilled to see Kosy win the FVC title in her third season of playing in the always tough league-ending finale.

"She's always played well, but she always would run into tough players," he said. "This year she stayed focused and didn't let history get in the way. She played really solid tennis all the way through."

Betts added Kosy's strong tennis acumen tells only half the story.

"Ashley is a great example for the rest of the team," he said. "Her character is outstanding. It's hard to find another player at her level that is so widely liked by the opponents she plays. She has such a great attitude. She's a humble person and is highly regarded by everybody in the area."

Kosy, whose first high-school tournament win came earlier in the year at the Lincoln-Way East invitational, said being part of an FVC team championship was satisfying on a number of levels. Jacobs won the FVC title for the first time since 2003.

"It was really important to us to win the conference title," she said. "We hadn't won it in a long time. We put in a lot of hard work. We're really happy with the results. We put in a lot of effort at every practice and in every meet and tournament we play in. We're not a team. We're a family. We get along and have a good time."

Jacobs went 25-2 in duals during the regular season (10-0 FVC) and boasts three singles players with 20 or more wins and four doubles teams with 20 or more victories.

Kosy brings a 31-4 mark into the sectional, while Haley Steinkamp will head to Huntley with a 32-5 record.

Betts' sectional lineup is rounded out with the doubles teams of Morgan Vachio and Sara Elliott (24-7) and Hannah Jackowski and Chloe Moders (21-9).

Other key contributors for the Golden Eagles this season included singles competitor Maggie Corbett (26-10), along with the doubles teams of Alexa Azcui-Katie Toomire (29-5) and Kori Kent-Caroline Bayer (28-4).

"We have to stay positive and go point by point and be aggressive," Kosy said.

Betts, who went over the 200 career dual-match win mark this season, noted this is the first time in more than a decade that Jacobs has been taken out of the formerly Elgin school-heavy sectional and moved to the one with many of the same FVC teams it saw a week earlier. The Huntley field features nine FVC schools (including Crystal Lake South, Hampshire and Huntley) and Marian Central. Jacobs has won four sectional titles in a row and eight since 2005.

"There will be a lot of familiar faces there," he said. "It's going to be a tough road because of the depth all these schools have. We are going to be ready."