Barrington off to solid start
By qualifying one singles player and two doubles teams, Barrington had a legitimate shot of taking home a team trophy heading into the IHSA girls' state tennis tournament.
After play was complete Thursday, the Fillies' hopes remain very real.
Barrington sits in a tie for fifth place with 16 team points. Two-time defending team champion Hinsdale Central is first with 24 points.
"We did what we set out to do today," said Fillies coach Tracy Waters. "Realistically, we did the maximum we could do."
The Fillies' only loss Thursday came when the doubles team of Dana Pierce and Jenny Schnack faced Deerfield's Misia Krasowski and Julia Fellerhoff, the top seed, in the third round.
Waters was very pleased with the play of Pierce and Schnack.
"We were playing very well, and working together as a team," Schnack said. "We've just got to keep a positive mental attitude and put the ball away."
The loss did not eliminate Pierce and Schnack. They will play in the consolation bracket tomorrow and can still earn points for Barrington.
"We're excited about that," Schnack said. "We'll still face good teams, but we definitely want to get those extra points here and there."
Waters said before the tournament she would lay out specific goals for everyone to achieve, and Pierce said her focus was on those goals during the second round match.
"I was basically thinking about the team the whole match," Pierce said. "I was just trying to win it for the team. It was pretty big and important for us to win that match."
Barrington's other doubles team of Alli Linden and Meg Crowley won their first three matches, but their third-round battle against Alexa Schofield and Kim Sawyer of Batavia was not easy.
Linden and Crowley trailed 3-0 in the first set before coming back to win 6-3.
"We got really nervous after that happened," Linden said.
Crowley said she was just hoping they be able to come back.
"I was a little unsure of ourselves. I know we are good at coming back, but I was especially scared because we were supposed to win that match," Crowley said.
Waters talked with the girls after they were down 3-0 and it seemed to settle them down.
"We just decided we were going to play our game, and that we were going to come back," Linden said. "And we did."
After winning the first set, Linden and Crowley fell behind 3-1 in the second set. But they didn't get nervous the second time around.
"We were like, we did this the first set and we came back, so we can do it again," Linden said.
Linden and Crowley will face Caroline Bauer and Molly Montgomery of Loyola, the No. 6 seed, today at Rolling Meadows. Linden and Crowley agreed they can't expect to win if they have a slow start again.
The Fillies' Kristy Dodge rolled through her three matches, winning by scores of 6-1, 6-0; 6-0, 6-0; and 6-1, 6-1. Today Dodge, the No. 6 seed, will face No. 11 seed Hanna Yu of Glenbrook North.
Fremd's Jenna Langhorst, the No. 10 seed, won all three of her matches. Today at Rolling Meadows, she will face Melissa Kopinski of Stagg, who upset No. 7 seed Kayla Fujimoto of Geneva.
Three more area doubles teams will be playing today, all in the consolation bracket. Buffalo Grove's Ashton and Heather Nisbet will play Jenna Bell and Alecia Natale of St. Charles North at Hoffman Estates.
Rolling Meadows' MaryClare Loughery and Kim Martini will play Buffalo Grove's Nell Boyd and Kate Meyers at Buffalo Grove.
Schaumburg's Sophia Lipov, Prospect's Annie Duggan and St. Viator's doubles team of Andree DiVito and Laura Walsh were all eliminated. Duggan and the team of DiVito and Walsh each won one match.