Girls tennis: Delay doesn't deter Lake County's best from advancing at state

Wet courts forced a lengthy delay to the start of the girls state tennis tournaments Thursday morning.

Some qualifiers stared at their phones in chilly conditions. Others sat and chatted. Other netters texted, texted, texted.

And texted some more.

"You know what Athena and Alaina (Kolli) did?" Stevenson assistant coach Gregg Winter said, referring to the Patriots' top doubles team and the reigning Class 2A state runner-up duo.

"They ran up and down a flight of steps several times."

The Kolli sisters, seeded 5-8, then skipped to three easy victories at Rolling Meadows, dropping a combined 6 games in 6 sets to earn a state quarterfinal berth Friday morning (at Buffalo Grove) against top-seeded sisters Sienna and Shannele Lopez of Glenbard West.

They stepped up their level of play considerably - along with their post-point celebrations - after downing Neuqua Valley's Sofia Ramos/Emiley Piao 6-2, 6-2 in the first round. Kolli/Kolli dismissed a Downers Grove South pair 6-0, 6-0 and then solved Highland Park's Kathryn Murphy/Anna Raab 6-1, 6-1 in the Round of 16.

Their loopy, heavy-topspin groundstrokes and action-packed serves (high kicks, hard slices) set up aggressive finishes at the net.

"We wanted to be ready, because you never know what kind of match you're going to have to play at state," Alaina Kolli, a 5-foot-7 sophomore, said of their decision to attack the outdoor steps.

"We treat every opponent the same," Athena Kolli, a 5-8 senior, added.

Pleasant and easygoing off the court, the Kollis regard every match as a winnable one and battle fiercely from the first serve of the first set until the end of match point.

"They're such competitive athletes; they thrive on competition," Winter said. "Athena … what a role model. All the girls look up to her. She's a coach on the court. And as soon as both sisters get off the court, they're quick to ask, 'How's the rest of the team doing?' "

Stevenson, with 12 points, was in fourth place after the first day of the three-day gathering behind Lake Forest (24), Hinsdale Central (18) and New Trier (18). Pats freshman singles players Sonia Mehta and Ainika Hou combined for three wins, and the doubles team of seniors Maggie Gong/Ellen Ma went 1-2 in the double-elimination format.

Meanwhile, in Class 1A action at Buffalo Grove, Lakes junior Megan Heuser - the two-time reigning third-place state finisher in singles, as well as the reigning runner-up in the Girls 18-and-under doubles (with Cincinnati native Elizabeth Fahrmeier) division at the USTA National Championships - raced to 6-0, 6-1; 6-0, 6-0; and 6-0, 6-1 triumphs.

The top-seeded Heuser and Eagles coach Bryan Plinske "chilled and hung out" together during the morning delay.

"We relaxed, did a little reminiscing," said Heuser, who will face Kaneland's Piper Schrepferman, a 5-8 seed, in a quarterfinal Friday morning at Buffalo Grove.

While watching Heuser defeat Charleston's Rachel Thomas 6-0, 6-0 in the second round, Plinske remembered the days he'd see a precocious grade-schooler rallying with her father, Kevin, on a Lakes tennis court.

"We'd hear the ball blasting off her racket - thump, thump, thump - and it was an unusually good noise, the kind only an outstanding player makes while hitting," Plinske said. "We'd ask, 'Who's that?' But Megan is not just a great baseliner with super-solid groundstrokes.

"I'm most impressed with her serve this year. She has such a variety, and when she throws in a change-up, like a high kicker, after cracking a few fast ones, her opponents don't know what to do with it."

Freshman and reigning Stevenson sectional singles champion Margaret Forkner, a Libertyville freshman seeded 9-16, had little trouble in her first two matches Thursday. Wildcats junior Lily VanDixhorn had to face reigning Class 2A singles champion Kiley Rabjohns of Lake Forest and bowed 6-2, 6-0. But Libertyville's No. 1 singles player rebounded nicely, cruising to a trio of easy victories in the back draw.

Libertyville sisters Lauren and Alexandra Berns won twice in the back draw after a 6-3, 6-4 first-round loss at the rackets of Belleville West's Kaitlyn and Taylor Fiedler.

Lake County's other Class 2A state doubles qualifier, Mundelein's Mikayla Edquiban/Alexis Hyde, split a pair of championship-draw matches.

Grayslake Central sophomore Karishma Bhalla, seeded 9-16 in 1A, reached the Round of 16 at Palatine on Thursday, matching her feat at state last fall. The 3-4 seed Emma Davis of Providence Catholic topped the Ram 6-3, 6-2 to advance to a quarterfinal.

"She was aggressive, consistently," Bhalla, a steady and smart netter, said. "She'd step in often and take the ball early."

Bhalla had warmed up with friend and state singles qualifier Claudia Bilkey of Vernon Hills during the delay Thursday morning. Bilkey, a junior, won two consolation-round matches after a first-round loss. Cougars freshman Isabella Domenech went 1-2, as did VH's doubles team of Anjali Parande/Ritika Dashaputra.

Wauconda's Megan Hackman and Sophia Esquivel lived up to their 9-16 doubles seed with a pair of front-draw wins in 1A; Carmel Catholic's Reilly McGinn/Emma Thomas sandwiched two losses around a consolation-round doubles victory; and the Antioch tandem of Natalie Labicki/Sierra Ward went 2-1 and will take on a Normal University High doubles team Friday morning at Schaumburg.