Elgin's Sirinit wins again; Jacobs team champ

Jacobs' girls tennis team has a knack for winning sectional titles.

After a one-year absence, Jacobs was back in the saddle again as it captured the Elgin sectional title for a seventh time in eight years on Saturday afternoon, doing so in dominant fashion.

All participants at Saturday's semifinals and finals had already qualified for state by advancing from Friday's opening rounds. The state meet begins Thursday at high school courts throughout the Northwest suburbs.

The doubles championship featured an all-Jacobs final as top seeds Marcilyn Rowan and Lauren Steinkamp and No. 2 seeds Kassy Bernardo and Autumn Hackett battled for bragging rights and the title, while the singles championship featured No. 2 seed Sydney Nowak.

Rowan and Steinkamp (27-8 coming in) edged their fellow teammates in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, to capture first place after placing second in last year's sectional.

“We took second last year, so we're pretty excited to take first this year, said Rowan, whose team put a lot of volleys away at the net in its two sets.

“We just got to keep our emotions under control, Hackett said, looking forward to state. “And stay positive, so we don't get down on ourselves.

While keeping with the Jacobs theme for the tournament Nowak, a freshman, was more surprised she qualified for state than being in the finals against Elgin's Jacey Sirinit, the top singles seed and defending sectional champion. Sirinit used three sets to hold off Nowak and a Jacobs sweep, 6-3, 7-6 (5-7) and 6-4 to repeat as champion.

Sirinit said it felt, “awesome. It was very competitive and it was really intense.

“It was a tough match, Nowak said. “It's who wants it more at the end of the day, and (Sinirit) is a great player.

It looked as though Sirinit would finish off Nowak in the second set but Nowak rallied down 6-5 to force a tiebreaker, which she won that set up the decisive third set.

In the third set, Nowak was down 1-0 and rattled off 2 straight points, gaining momentum when she was on serve. The girls went back and forth until Nowak led 4-3. That's when Sirinit dug deep and won the last three points to seal the championship. Sirinit on serve sealed the win with a backhand smash, out of Nowak's reach.

Jennifer Mellenthin of Streamwood won third place over Huntley's Bri Roeser in singles competition and in doubles play, Huntley's Sam Chapman and Lydia Jiang snagged third over Kendall Walker and Taylor Zilch of Hampshire 7-5, 6-2.