Meadows prevails over Hersey for 3rd

At the Hersey Huskie girls tennis invite on Saturday, two Mid-Suburban League East Division teams enjoyed solid performances against a field that featured some pretty stiff competition.

Hersey and Rolling Meadows squared off for third place in the dual-format tournament - where teams played head-to-head in a best-of-five format. Each team played two singles and three doubles matches.

Hersey's Kim Wasielewski defeated Rolling Meadows' Sara Dolan 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, and Andrea Perkins of Hersey beat Kristin O'Brien of Rolling Meadows 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles.

But the doubles matches belonged to the Mustangs.

MaryClare Loughery and Kim Martini defeated Hersey's Erica Borst and Saori Chiba 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles. Rolling Meadows' Kelly Benko and Emily Ciesil beat Monica Mustain and Sara Hill 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 3 doubles match.

That left the score tied at 2-2 with the No. 2 doubles match between Hersey's Alison Hoesli/Rossy Ioutchera and Rolling Meadows' Sara Shumaker/Colleen Sullivan to break the tie. Shumaker and Sullivan prevailed 6-3, 6-3 to lift the Mustangs into third place, with Hersey taking fourth.

"Our doubles have been pretty good for us so far," said Mustangs coach Jim Gumz. "Not that our singles players haven't played well either. We've had a nice start to our season, so we'll see what happens."

Gumz said Hersey and Rolling Meadows met each other in an MSL East dual meet earlier this week and the result was the same, with the Mustangs winning all the doubles matches and the Huskies winning all the singles.

"Right now it is (the strength of our team)," Gumz said of his doubles play. "That's where we have more experience right now."

Hersey coach Brenna Ohlson said she was proud of her teams' effort at the Invite.

"I think we played hard," Ohlson said. "I think we are really putting out a lot of effort."

Hersey was competitive in most of its matches - even if the scores didn't always reflect it.

"Our matches were really close, and I think that's really fun for the kids," Ohlson said. "I think its fun to coach kids in that sense."

Prairie Ridge defeated Carmel to win the tournament, but the Corsairs boasted the best player - perhaps not just in the tournament, but the state.

Sophomore Jasmine Minor of Carmel is playing her first year of high school tennis, but not because she is a newcomer to the sport. Minor played at the national level last year and has aspirations of going pro. She won all three of her matches 6-0, 6-0 on Saturday.

"I kind of wanted a little bit of a break from the traveling, and of course I'm having fun with the team and everything," Minor said of choosing to play at the high school level.

Plus, she had a goal she wanted to accomplish.

"And I wanted to try to win state," Minor said. "Our state is pretty hard, there are a lot of other top girls out there. So we'll see what I do."

Minor said her run at the high school level will only last for this tennis season. She said during the second semester of the school year she will go back to playing at the national level - which might cause her to be home schooled due to the extensive travel that comes with playing at a higher level.