Redhawks tame Huskies

Naperville Central girls tennis player Taylor Spence went into Thursday's match against cross-town rival Naperville North imagining a headline in today's newspapers that would read something like "Redhawks tame Huskies."

"This was the first time we beat them in a long time," Spence said. "We were really pumped and we came through."

The Redhawks swept the three doubles matches and picked up a singles victory from No. 2 Sonia Nilakhe to take the meet 4-3 and remain undefeated at 6-0 in the DuPage Valley Conference standings going into next week's final dual meet.

With the team score tied at 3-3, Spence and her first doubles partner Alyssa Girgis sealed the victory, rebounding from a horrendous second set to top the Huskies' Cleo Stephanides and Deepthi Ramachandran 6-0, 0-6, 6-0 in the only match of the day to go three sets.

"We totally lost focus in the second set," Girgis said. "We kind of died out there. Maybe we got a little cocky, but we just weren't playing our game. We just started over and played the way we did in the first set."

Girgis said the duo wasn't aware that their match was the decider for the meet victory.

"It was good we didn't know it was 3-3," Girgis said. "That would have been a lot of pressure."

Don Bonet, the coach of Naperville Central (13-5), praised his doubles teams for the consistent play they've been turning in all year.

"We have no superstars," Bonet said. "Our talent is very even, but our doubles have been our strength. On a given day our second doubles is as good as our first."

Second-doubles Meghan Griffin and Michelle Fern won 6-2, 6-4 to keep their conference record perfect.

"We were patient today," Griffin said. "When we had to put it away we did."

"Meghan is aggressive at the net and can put away points," Fern said. "I work well at the baseline. We communicate well and have fun out there."

Bonet knew that one of his singles would have to come through against the Huskies' strong singles lineup, and Nilakhe, who has only one loss in conference, stepped up with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Surbhi Agarwal.

"Sonia has had a good year," Bonet said. "You can tell by her demeanor on the court that she's matured from last year. This was one of her better matches and it was against a good player. She was able to move the ball around and keep it deep."

Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen was pleased with her team's performance because the 4-3 score keeps the third-place Huskies (10-10, 4-2) within striking distance of DVC leaders Naperville Central and Wheaton North with the conference tournament coming up.

"Getting 3 points off Naperville Central is a big thing," Henricksen said. "It gives us hope going into conference just a few points behind."

Henricksen was especially happy with the play of first-singles Ashley Ferkol, who won 6-1, 6-3.

"It was the best Ashley has played all season," Henricksen said. "She finally looked free of injuries. She was confident and under control throughout the match."