Reuland, Rosary overcome St. Francis

It wasn't enough for Emily Reuland to win a Suburban Christian Conference singles championship. She had to add a degree of difficulty.

"I was playing pretty well," the Rosary senior said Saturday afternoon. "I didn't really have any very difficult matches, and pretty much my goal was to not lose a game and I accomplished that."

Reuland not only swept through the first-singles matches at St. Francis, she led the Royals to their first conference championship since 2004 and the first in the newly revamped SCC.

"It's nice to get back on the winning way," Rosary coach John Tsang said. "All the girls knew how important today was and they brought their best game."

Nobody brought a better game than Reuland, who made it look easy.

"Rosary was way too strong for us," St. Francis coach Marcia Bussey said. "I mean their No. 1 singles, Emily Reuland, is just an excellent player, a state-level player who certainly deserves to win this tournament."

"It's really cool," Reuland added. "I really wanted to win conference as a senior. It's really cool that we won the first of the new conference that we're in."

As it did during the regular season, St. Francis placed second, finishing with 14 points to Rosary's 20.

"Rosary did an incredible job this year," Bussey added, "and we felt that we were very, very close with them, because we both won every other match and the match with us together was so close. It was 2-2 until the final ball was hit and we wound up losing in the third set of our first doubles."

Rosary won at first doubles again Saturday, with juniors Angelina Goheen and Katie King defeating Genna Armbrust and Emily Jagielo 6-1, 6-1.

"Our first doubles had hoped to avenge the loss and that was not to be," Bussey said.

"Today's match really builds a little confidence for them," Tsang said of Goheen and King. "They really played a flawless match and really didn't give their opponents any chance to get into it."

At second doubles LeighAnn Thomas and Kerry Zepeda also took first place for the Royals, winning 6-2, 6-2.

"It was the best tennis they've played all season," Tsang said of Thomas and Zepeda. "All my seniors really played their best tennis today."

Rosary heads next weekend to the West Aurora sectional hoping to defend last year's team title.

"Hopefully, we'll win sectionals also," Reuland said. "It would be really cool to have back-to-back wins."