Naperville North wins DVC title
Glenbard East tennis player Hannah Geoffrey had the opportunity to make up for a bad loss three days after it happened, and she took full advantage of that opportunity.
Geoffrey was beaten soundly Wednesday by West Aurora's Haley Henry, but in Saturday's DuPage Valley Conference tournament finals the Glenbard East junior turned the tables and defeated Henry 6-2, 6-3 to win the second-singles conference championship.
Naperville North won the team championship with 48 points, ahead of Wheaton Warrenville South with 46, West Aurora with 41 and Naperville Central with 40. Wheaton North was fifth with 36.5 and Glenbard East was sixth with 29.
It was Geoffrey's second conference championship in two years. Last year she was the conference titlist at third singles.
"Today, I was determined to come back," Geoffrey said. "I needed to trust my shots and play with confidence. This is some of the best tennis I've played."
"The most impressive thing today is how Hannah was able to bounce back from a decisive straight-set loss and play up to her potential," said Glenbard East coach Bill Burt. "Today she used her athleticism well and her decision-making was great. She always hit the right shot at the right time and she was able to put the negative things that happened completely out of her mind and focus on the present."
It was a sweet victory for Naperville North, which finished fourth in conference last year because of its inexperience and inability to finish off opponents.
"We needed every point in every match during the season and in the tournament to win this championship," said Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen. "And I'm proud of this team. Going into this tournament, I had some questions about our mental toughness. But the girls came through and they proved me wrong."
The Huskies took the conference championships at two positions, fourth singles and third doubles, and both were hotly contested battles.
At fourth singles Sacha Sanallah defeated Wheaton Warrenville South's Ellen Cornelius 7-5, 7-5 in the finals, while third-doubles Kanika Garg and Tiffany Oken won their championship with 6-4, 7-5 over Kim Kunz and Maddie Sibon of Wheaton North.
Garg and Oken, a third seed, are undefeated since their partnership formed at midseason.
Sanallah was a No. 1 seed who went through the DVC regular season undefeated.
A pair of freshmen won the first- and third-singles championships.
Emma Li of Wheaton Warrenville South defeated West Aurora's Brooke Henry 6-2, 6-3 for the first-singles title, and Maria Mihailescu topped Marissa Russmann of Wheaton North 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at third singles.
Wheaton Warrenville South's senior first-doubles Andrea Kerwin and Melanie Milling won their second straight DVC title at that flight with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) win over Naperville Central's Meghan Griffin and Taylor Space, who had beaten them in a dual meet earlier in the season.
West Aurora's Lizzie Griffin and Nicola Pajonkova won the second-doubles championship.
The tournament was hosted by Wheaton North but played at West Aurora because of construction work being done on the Falcons tennis courts.