WW South duo stays calm
Add "cool" to the list of attributes that describe the Wheaton Warrenville South doubles team of Andrea Kerwin and Melanie Milling.
The Tigers pair, with DuPage Valley Conference and Neuqua Valley sectional title already on their resume, won three matches on Thursday to advance to today's Sweet Sixteen at the state tennis tournament.
The Tigers advanced to today's championship bracket competition with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Helen Alex and Kim Warpecha of Hinsdale South.
"We don't show a lot of emotion on the court," said Kerwin. "We have to win before we get excited."
Earlier they won a tough first-round match 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 over Uzma Ahmad and Jewell Lloyd of Niles West, and then defeated Alyssa Vorel and Lindsay Polke of Lockport.
Kerwin and Milling, who were seeded 9-16 aren't even that excited about playing in Friday's first round, but confessed that they will consider it a great accomplishment if they can win and move on to the quarterfinals.
"Our goal is to make it to the quarterfinals," said Kerwin. "But then we'll probably have to play the No. 1 seed and I'm not too sure about that."
The girls agree that their refusal to get excited on the court is crucial to their success.
"We try to stay calm and hit the ball," said Kerwin. "We're playing more consistently and patiently rather than just hitting winners."
"All our matches were tough today so it feels really good to get here," said Milling. "I think having to play through a tough match and winning just prepares you better as you go through the tournament."
"You could tell they really wanted to win that third match," said Tigers coach Patti Clousing. "There was great positive energy between the two of them. They've worked so hard before and during the season and its paying off in a tournament like this."
The success at state doesn't surprise the partners.
"We've been building up to this all season," Kerwin said. "Today was just a good day, probably one of our best. Mel was really good in that third match. I tried to set her up so she could smash everything down."
"Today we just gave them shots that were hard to return and we were able to win the point," said Milling.
The Tigers' Courtney Burek won a pair of singles matches before losing to the No. 1 seed Elizabeth Epstein 6-2, 6-2 in round three.
Defending state champion Hinsdale Central leads the team competition leads with 24 points. Lake Forest is second with 19. York and Neuqua Valley are among the teams tied for 10th place with 12 points. Wheaton Warrenville South has 10 points.
The Red Devils' entire team, singles Courtney Dolehide and Nida Hamilton and the doubles teams of Kate Klein and Alex Tapak and Taylor Burch and Jenny Porter all advanced to the Round of 16.
Other DuPage players still in the championship running are Kelly Barry of York and Jenny Hois of Downers Grove South.