Conant masters the field at 25th Dundee-Crown Invite
At the 25th Annual Charger Invitational girls tennis tournament at Dundee-Crown Saturday, Conant got back to its winning ways as the Cougars defeated McHenry 4-0 in the dual championship match.
"It has been a long time for us," said Cougars coach Jennifer Mogge. "I was a little surprised but, I am very proud of the girls."
The Cougars defeated Jacobs in their first match of the day on tiebreaker. Conant then played Elgin and defeated the Maroons 3-1.
At No. 1 singles, Conant's Jess Genuso defeated Emma Romme. Taylor Graham defeated Lauren Vannoy 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 singles while at doubles, the Conant teams of Lindsey Johnson and Ikaku Hattori defeated Kim Blanchard and Mary Wiser 6-2, 7-5 and teammates Erika Kranz and Ernesta Ignotitate defeated Ariel Creutz and Alex Waszak 6-1, 6-4.
"I let the girls pick who played where and they stepped up," added Mogge. "We had three girls sitting all the time that could have easily been in there playing."
McHenry advanced to the championship match defeating the host Chargers 3-1. Romme defeated the Chargers' Ale Ballester 6-4, 4-6 11-9 (tiebreaker). Vannoy defeated D-C's Sabrina Saleem 6-1, 6-1 while the No. 1 doubles team of Blanchard and Wiser defeated the Chargers' Kathleen Fahey and Yessemia Meija 4-6, 6-0 and 10-5.
Elgin defeated the Chargers for third place with a tiebreaker decision. The two teams split the match with the Maroons winning both singles matches and the Chargers the doubles matches.
At No. 1 singles, Maroon freshman Jaceey Sirinit (12-1) easily handed Ballester her second loss on the day with a 6-1, 6-3 decision. At No. 2, Elgin's Jordaizn Castanos defeated Dundee-Crown's Nikki Heredia 6-1, 6-0 to help the Maroons to a third-place finish.
"For being a freshman she really doesn't give into the pressure like others would," said Elgin coach Jan LaBar of Sirinit."She has no fear, has not lost a tiebreaker yet. She seems to step it up when others would fold."
The Chargers' Fahy and Meija defeated Angel Certeza and Carleen Krieb 6-2, 6-4 and teammates Maretic and Bieri defeated Aayeshi Patel and Debbie Baeder 6-3, 6-4 in doubles play.
"The girls really stepped up," said LaBar. "It is the first time in a long time that they have come home with a trophy of any kind in tennis."
The Chargers cruised to an early 4-0 win over St. Edward in their opening match of the day. At No. 1 singles, Ballester defeated St. Edward's Kailey Durkin in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Heredia also won her match in straight sets 6-2 and 7-5 over the Wave's Mia Sidlin at No. 2 singles
"Our first match went pretty much according to plan," said D-C coach Janet Malachek. "I had no prior knowledge of how St. Edward would be. I was pleased to win all four matches."
McHenry defeated Schaumburg in its opening matches with Romme losing to Schaumburg's Monica Lin 1 and 0. Vannoy defeated the Saxons' Simona Du 6-1, 7-5 at No. 2 singles and at doubles Blanchard and Wiser defeated Joyce Park and Kane McClure 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) and 10-8 at No.1. At No. 2 Cruetz and Waszak defeated Schaumburg's Megan Hard and Haemi Miyakama 2-6, 7-5, 10-5.
"McHenry played us really well," said Saxons coach Jason Campbell. "We had a lot of girls playing up a position except for our No. 1 Singles. We were working on our consistency."