Girls tennis: Geneva blanks South Elgin

The four doubles matches were long finished by the time Grace Kruger and Corrine Hildebrandt had a third-set tiebreaker for Geneva and South Elgin on Monday afternoon.

The first singles match was a marathon affair, a physically and mentally draining affair that lasted over two hours.

But with Kruger, the Vikings' junior, exploiting several Hildebrandt mistakes, the Vikings earned a clean sweep of the Storm in an Upstate Eight Conference girls tennis crossover in Geneva.

Kruger had a clean winner on match point to give Geneva a 7-0 triumph with the 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2) triumph over the top-ranked Storm senior.

Points came in every conceivable fashion as the two braved the punishing heat with backhands, forehands and overhead smashes.

But it was Kruger who persevered in the end of the exacting match.

"I was just focusing on one point at a time," Kruger said. "(In the tiebreaker) I was focusing on hitting my stroke and playing to her weakness."

Second singles proved to be an equally demanding match as Geneva senior Liz Prendergast overcame a 2-5 first-set deficit by winning 5 consecutive games.

The momentum carried over in the second set, with Prendergast stopping Storm freshman Bri Barconi, 6-1, for the straight-sets win.

"I realized that I had to push her back (to the baseline) and let her make her own mistakes," Prendergast said. "In the beginning she was pushing me back and I didn't know what to do."

"Both of them played phenomenal," South Elgin coach Melissa Tuftedal said of her two singles players. "They both gave their best effort."

The Storm was further hampered at third singles when Geneva senior Kayleigh Barnaba was awarded a forfeit victory when South Elgin could not field an entrant due to illness.

The doubles matches were the antithesis of the singles matches.

With Geneva coach Zach Evans experimenting with new lineups in all four matches, the Vikings steamrollered the Storm.

Winning 48 out of 51 possible games, none of the Vikings' four partnerships dropped more than a single game.

At first doubles, freshman Taylor Hayes and senior Madi Corda were formidable for Geneva.

"We have been practicing for this match," Corda said. "It got over pretty quickly. Our net game was going pretty well tonight, and our serving was (solid)."

The Vikings' second doubles tandem of Maddie Krafcisin and Grace Hahn also had few issues in their straight-sets victory.

"Switched it to play with other girls," Krafcisin said of the Vikings' doubles teams.

The Geneva partnerships of Ashley King-Jaden Ciesielski and Emily Drake-Lauren Burgess completed the Vikings' sweep with almost identical scores at third and fourth doubles, respectively.

"It was only our second match of the season," Tuftedal said. "I'm pretty pleased with what I saw today."