Hersey, Fremd show big progress at Hersey Invite

The Hersey girl's tennis invite on Saturday was about progress for the Huskies and the Fremd Vikings.

Hersey took fourth place in the eight-team field - the highest finish of three MSL schools in the invite.

No. 1 singles player Andrea Perkins paced the Huskies by winning two of her three matches. Her only loss came against Prairie Ridge's Hannah Gummerson - a state qualifier as part of a doubles team last year - in a tiebreaker, basically overtime, by a score of 6-3, 4-6, 10-5.

Unlike a standard meet, Saturday's invite did not call for a third set, instead going straight to a tiebreaker where the first player to 10 points wins.

"I think actually the tiebreak hurt me," Perkins said. "I'm not as good in tiebreak situations. I wish I could have played a third set. I thought it was a good match."

Overall, Perkins was pleased with her game on Saturday, even though she said lately she had been in a slump.

"Today I came out and I was hitting harder and following through," Perkins said. "I had my feet moving a lot more, so I just got to a lot and was really into the matches."

She said she worked a lot during the past week on her forehand game to break out of her "slump."

"Yesterday (Friday) I worked a lot on what we call cranking it," Perkins said with a laugh. "Hitting it hard and following through."

Hersey coach Brenna Ohlson said that some of Perkins' so-called slumps are self-perceived, but Perkins' level of play has been really good all season.

"I think over time she's just getting better and better, and as the season goes she's just getting stronger and stronger," Ohlson said. "She's an all-around athlete. So it's hard to come back to tennis from basketball and soccer."

Ohlson has seen improvement in her team throughout the season and she hopes Hersey can surprise some people when the conference meet rolls around.

"I see us just improving over the season," Ohlson said. "I think we're going to be a team that works hard all season and shows up at conference really playing our best."

Fremd dropped its first match of the tournament to Downers Grove South, which finished third, but was able to rebound and win its final two matches against Plainfield Central and Rolling Meadows to finish in fifth place.

"It was a rocky start," Fremd coach Ken Goettsche said. "I don't know if it took them a while to get woken up or what, but they should have won their first match. Not that Downers Grove South was bad, we just did not play well at all."

But the bounce-back was encouraging for Goettsche, especially defeated Rolling Meadows in four of the five matches that took place.

Fremd had defeated the Mustangs in a dual meet by a score of 4-3, but to win 4-1 in this invite showed Goettsche that his team is improving.

"They did not slack off," Goettsche said of his players. "They turned it up."

Prairie Ridge won the invite, with Carmel taking second.

Rolling Meadows wound up in sixth place, and Leyden defeated Plainfield Central to finish seventh.

Power-8 Invite: An overwhelming performance in doubles play helped lift Buffalo Grove to the title at Prospect with 45 points, ahead of runner-up Naperville North (35), Crystal Lake Central (32), Lake Zurich (31), Prospect (30) and St. Charles East (23).

Ashton and Heather Nisbet lost only a total of 3 games on their way to the first doubles title, which they clinched by beating St. Charles East's Lexi Baltes and Erin Bowman 6-2, 6-0.

The Bison also picked up championships at second and fourth doubles, and Nell Boyd placed second at first singles, falling to Crystal Lake Central's Nelle Youell 6-2, 7-5. At third singles, Allie Wieland prevailed with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Prospect's Maryclare Rosemeyer.