Koenen sisters sweep 3 matches
Six area teams each found something to be happy about in the first day of the girls state tennis tournament.
St. Charles North, Geneva, Rosary, St. Charles East, Batavia and West Aurora all have players who survived and move on to compete Friday morning.
But only one school will be paying close attention to the championship bracket.
The North Stars' top doubles team of sisters Annemijn and Liselot Koenen, a 5-8 seed, swept their way through three matches on Thursday and are now one of only 16 unbeaten teams in the tournament.
"They're playing very well right now, so we'll see what happens," St. Charles North coach Tim Matacio said.
After fast wins over Alaina Johnson and Libby Wolfe of Ottawa, 6-0, 6-1, and Lockport's Jordan Halata and Lauren Vorel, 6-0, 6-0, the Koenens appeared to be headed for a much bigger challenge in round three.
"They drew a seeded team in the third round, and against a team like that you never really know what you're going to get," Matacio said.
That seeded team was made up of Kelly Carney and Elissa Sledz, a tough pair of juniors from Benet. But the North Stars duo proved a great deal tougher, and won the match 6-1, 6-3.
St. Charles North's other doubles team will also be continuing their tournament stay. Jenna Bell and Alecia Natale began their day by beating Heidi Mott and Melissa Carr of Bloomington, 6-3, 6-1.
"It's our first year at state, so we were nervous," Natale said.
But they suffered a major setback, losing a tight second round match to Hinsdale South's Helen Alex and Kim Warpecha, 6-4, 7-5. "That was rough," Bell said. "We almost came back, but just couldn't do it."
After bouncing back to beat Nessa Saeng and Brittany Boelter of South Elgin, 6-4, 6-1, Bell and Natale survived a rough first set to beat Lockport's Alyssa Vorel and Lindsay Polke, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Geneva's Kayla Fujimoto got off the court in a hurry in her first two matches with wins over Erica Bramlet of Mt. Carmel, 6-0, 6-1, and F.W. Parker senior Grace Smith, 6-1, 6-1. But Fujimoto's day took an unwanted turn in round three as she dropped the match to Stagg's Melissa Kopinski, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
The Vikings' top doubles team of Mary Pelling and Krista Panko split their first two matches, then gutted out a 7-5, 7-6 (6) win over Abbey Perl and Allie Zimmerman of Glenbrook South. They followed that up with a two-set win over Glenbard South's Alyssa Zavislak and Emily Kaczmarek.
Geneva freshman Carly Ausman introduced herself to the state tournament with an impressive 6-1, 6-4 win over Heather Nieman of Huntley.
Carrying the banner for St. Charles East, Stefanie Youngberg and Erin Bowman avoided the sort of slow start that they've battled throughout the season and began their day with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Westfield's Kalie Snyder and Kelsey Edens.
"We were just trying to get into our groove and warm up in that match," Youngberg said. "After we got going it was a little easier to hit some clean shots."
A second round sweep of Fenwick's Rachel Canfora and Allison Seyfarth appeared to put the Saints in a strong position to move through day one.
"We were warmed up from our first match, and that made the second one easier," Bowman said.
But a difficult first set loss in their third round match against Lauren Aguilar and Michelle Kunkler of Carmel put them in a hole. Young and Bowman had a chance to win set two until a series of highly contested points got away from them.
"It was a match of momentum swings," St. Charles East coach Sena Drawer said. "The progression of the matches today was exactly what you want, and I think we should've won this match, but we didn't."
Rosary's Emily Reuland followed up a 6-0, 6-0 opening round win over Sterling's Bari Reynolds by beating Amanda Budnick of York, 6-3, 6-0. But unfortunately for Royals' junior, in the third round she ran into Jenny Hois, a 5-8 seed from Downers Grove South and the only player to have beaten Reuland this season. Though the result was closer than their first meeting, Hois still came out on top, 6-3, 6-1.
The Royals' top doubles team of Angelina Goheen and Katie King picked up a second round win against Elise Smith and Colleen Kenney of Homewood-Flossmoor before bowing out in the third round.
West Aurora uncharacteristically sent just one player to the state tournament this year, but Brooke Henry still managed to make some noise on day one.
After dispatching New Trier's Alana Peters, 6-1, 6-0 in the first round, Henry found herself locked in a round two match against Jessica Urban of Lemont that lasted nearly three hours.
"I think Brooke kept hoping (Urban) would go away, but she never gave up," West Aurora coach Brian Brooks said.
The junior responded to the challenge by battling back in both sets to sweep the nail-biter, 7-5, 7-6 (6). Henry then dropped her third round match to 3-4 seeded Annie Sullivan.
"Brooke's legs were tired by then, but that's no excuse," Brooks said. "Sullivan is a very tough, all-court player, and she played an excellent match."
Batavia also got a strong showing from their lone representatives as Alexa Schofield and Kim Sawyer cruised past Anne Christine Tompkins and Alex Judge of Lincoln-Way Central, 6-0, 6-2. The Bulldogs continued their day with a tidy 6-1, 6-0 win over Dunlap seniors Rose Kavanagh and Meredith Kogler.
But their day ended with a loss to higher seeded Alli Linden and Meg Crowley of Barrington.
Weather permitting, Schofield and Sawyer will be back on the court this morning, as will all of the area players who survived the first day of competition.