Spartans' Krueger leaves no doubt that she's baaaack
Andrea Krueger showed Thursday that she's back to 100 percent health and solidified her hold on the St. Francis first singles spot.
With a 6-2, 6-2 win, Krueger proved that she's fully recovered from a bout with Lyme disease as she led the Spartans to a decisive 6-1 nonconference victory over visiting St. Charles East.
"I was out early in the season and then it has taken a long time for me to get my energy back," Krueger said. "But now I'm pretty strong. Today, my groundstrokes were solid and I kept the ball in."
Krueger, who missed the team's first 11 practices and six matches, is one of the keys to the Spartans' quest to repeat as Suburban Catholic Conference champions.
"When Andrea came back, we started her off at third singles," said Spartans coach Marcia Bussey. "But she's worked very hard just to get her energy up. I think we have our best person at the first position. Andrea is tenacious on the court, she's got great focus, knows what she has to do to win and never gets down on herself."
Equally pleasing to Krueger's progress for Bussey was the performance of the Spartans (16-3) entire lineup against a strong St. Charles East (6-3)
"This was a great day," Bussey said. "We won the three singles matches and our doubles teams started out playing even for a long time and then one after the other they started to win. They figured out the opponent's and changed strategies and I'm very proud of that. They continue to rise to the occasion."
At second doubles, Genna Armbrust and Emily Jagiela lost their first set 6-3 to Anne Mason and Courtney Vazquez of the Fighting Saints, then bounced back to win 6-2, 6-0.
"In the first set we played timid," Armbrust said. "But we're fierce and competitive so we knew we had to step it up."
"We tried to play more aggressive and limit our errors," said Jagiela. "That made a big difference."
Third doubles Katie Scharnagle and Stephanie Sorensen were tested as they came from behind in the first set to win in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-3) and then rode that momentum to a 6-3 second-set victory over Cyrielle Gauthier and Erin Reilly.
"That was only the second time Katie and Stephanie were together," Bussey said. "They showed great ability to put the ball away."
Martha McDonnell and Molly Holinger won at second and third singles, while Melissa Power and Meagan O'Brien capped the day with a 6-2, 6-2 win at fourth doubles.
Erin Bowman and Stefanie Youngberg, who play the first two singles positions in conference matches, scored the Fighting Saints' only point, defeating Monica Bhatia and Jess Armbrust of St. Francis 6-3, 6-2 at first doubles.
"St. Francis is a fine team, but I'm a little befuddled about this loss," said St. Charles East coach Sena Drawer. "We had a ton of unforced errors and that disappointed me. And we didn't have many effective volleys, which is how you win the game. Our girls just weren't finishing the matches the way they normally do."