Crystal Lake South happy with second at FVC
With Prairie Ridge loaded with talent, Crystal Lake South coach Don Nead thought a second-place finish was a realistic goal.
Nead was happy with the outcome.
The talented Wolves, who placed first in 6 of 7 events, won a fifth straight Fox Valley Conference championships with a score of 160. The Gators were right behind with 137 points.
"Prairie Ridge has the super players," said Nead. "We don't have the superstar players this year. We have 6 kids who are very close in talent level. I am very happy with the way we performed."
The Gators' best effort came from Rachel Boorom at No. 3 singles. Boorom knocked off Lindsey Gardeck of Jacobs in the title match 7-5, 6-4.
"Rachel has been very consistent all season long," said Nead. "We have played her at number 1 and 2 this season. We played very well today."
Placing second for the Gators were Stephanie Brunetti (No. 2 singles) and Laura Roeslein-Liana Semchuk (No. 1 doubles). Mary Anne Piel-Ariel Stach placed third at No. 3 doubles.
PR, which played all season without top singles player Allison Murphy (torn ACL), rallied behind coach Jessica Fetzner. Fetzner lost her mother Judy Elder, who was the longtime coach at Crystal Lake Central. Elder died of leukemia last week.
"With all that has happened this team has become very close," said the Wolves' Julie Schwartz. "We have been through a lot of adversity but we wanted another conference championship."
Jackie and Julie Schwartz won a second straight No. 1 doubles title with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Roeslein-Semchuk.
Other championships for the Wolves were claimed by Carolyn Huerth (No. 1 singles) and Niki Cernikova (No. 2 singles).
Jacobs placed third with a score of 122. The Golden Eagles got a second-place finish from Gardeck at No. 3 singles. The No. 3 doubles team of Samantha Thomas and Sarah Powers was second along with the No. 4 team of Caitie Quitschau-Katarina Makridakis.
The No. 2 doubles team of Heather Graham-Amy Neilan placed third while Kelly Stoka-Melissa Blunk was fourth at No. 1 doubles.
"We were awesome today," said Jacobs coach Jon Betts. "I thought we would battle Central for third. First and second were out of reach, but I am very happy with third. We had some unseeded kids really step up."
Heavy-hearted Crystal Lake Central placed fourth with a score of 117, followed by Cary-Grove, which placed fifth with a score of 102.
C-G's No. 2 doubles team of Hayley Prihoda-Elizabeth Lehnertz placed second while Rachel Taddy (No. 3 singles) and the doubles teams of Erin Aiello-Margaret Anderson (No. 3) and Laura Sparks-Alayna Pierce (No. 4) placed fourth.