Prairie Ridge in command of FVC meet

Death and taxes are about the only certainties these days.

You can add the Prairie Ridge girls tennis team winning Fox Valley Conference championships to that list.

With the tournament only partially completed, the Wolves, winners of 6 straight conference championships, had advanced 3 singles players and 3 doubles teams into semifinal action. Competition was still in the preliminaries for

fourth doubles.

The FVC finals, which will be concluded Monday beginning at 9 a.m., were held at Crystal Lake Central, Prairie Ridge, Crystal Lake South and Cary-Grove Saturday in cold and windy conditions. The meet was hosted by Woodstock High School.

PR, which posted a perfect 12-0 mark during the dual meet season, recorded 8 shutouts.

"Prairie Ridge just seems to get more and more talented kids every year," said Cary-Grove coach Bud Lachel. "They pretty much know what freshman tennis players are coming in next year."

Advancing to the semifinals in singles play for the Wolves were Hannah Gummerson (No. 1), Hannah Locher (No. 2) and Nyssa Fetzner (No. 3).

Moving to the Final 4 in doubles play were Allison Murphy-Carolyn Huerth (No. 1), Carrie Keahl-Hayley Llunggren (No. 2) and Emily Bruksch-Jackie Sievers (No. 3). All were top seeds.

Crystal Lake South, which was 11-1 during the dual meet portion of the season, advanced Marisa Thome (No. 1 singles), Rachel Siemon (No. 2 singles) and Rachel Boorom (No. 3 singles) to the semifinals.

At No. 2 doubles, second-seeded Abby Kolarczyk-Stephanie Brunetti moved to the semis.

For Cary-Grove, Rachel Taddy (No. 2 singles) and Laura Sparks (No. 3 singles) moved on as did the No. 1 doubles team of Elizabeth Powers and Elizabeth Lehnertz.

"I was very very pleased with the way we played today," said Lachel. "We have gotten better as the season goes on and we have turned ourselves into a better than average program."

Grayslake North's only entrant in the semifinals is Kelly Poggensee-Wei at No. 1 singles.