Conant second; Langhorst rolls

The temperature for Saturday's girls tennis invite at Fremd might have been a bit higher than expected.

As the afternoon went on, the competition rose even higher and a tight tournament came down to some of the final matches played.

In the end it was Fenwick taking home the trophy with a final score of 41, but the Friars had their share of teams close behind.

Conant, which placed second, had two girls vying for first-place finishes in singles. Shiori Nishida advanced in second singles but would eventually fall to Jacobs' Jen Ruther.

"When you play a girl like Shiori you have to go in ready," said Ruther. "It's like playing a wall."

The other first-place advancer for Conant was Stephanie Fang. Fang went on to defeat Jacobs' Marlena Aleksiejczyk 6-3, 6-2 to win third singles.

"Everyone brought their game today," said Cougars coach Jennifer Mogge. "It looks like they practiced a lot over them summer and came back more mature. I'm very proud of them."

The winner at first singles belonged to host school Fremd. Junior Jenna Langhorst rolled through her matches and defeated Jacobs' Annie Smith 6-3, 6-2 for the victory.

"I thought I played pretty well. I was down 3-0 but then I mentally got back into it," said Langhorst. "I just need to be a little more consistent with closing out points but I'll work on that."

Fremd coach Ken Goettsche had a very positive outlook on his singles winner.

"Jenna's game has continually improved. She's getting smarter as far as what she can do on the court," said Goettsche.

Fenwick's true forte was in doubles. All four teams advanced to their first place matches with Amanda Krug and Sara Hill winning fourth doubles.

"Any quality win is a big confidence boost," said Fenwick coach Gerald Sullivan. "The points just fell out way today and that's great."

One of the most interesting stories to come out of Saturday's meet was from Hersey, which placed sixth overall. Shortly before the meet Alison Hoesli had a change of partners and took the court with teammate Andrea Perkins for second doubles.

The late change would ultimately pay off for the Huskies as Hoesli and Perkins took first place, winning 6-2, 6-2 over Fenwick's Bridget Mulhern and Katie O'Brien.

"I play singles so I was worried about going to doubles, but it worked," said Perkins

"Annie and I played together a little bit last year and it was a lot of fun for us today," said Hoesli.

Huskies coach Matt Norris said he will look into having the combo paired up again this season.