Fillies' tandem wins -- and grins

Barrington's Kristy Dodge has been smiling ever since she qualified for the state tennis tournament.

Even when she and doubles teammate Kelsey Linden found themselves in their first adverse moment of the tournament on Friday, Dodge kept the mood light. After taking a 4-0 lead over Prairie Ridge in the quarterfinals, the Fillies lost four straight games and found themselves on the verge of the losing the set.

The situation was no laughing matter, but Dodge made it one. She continued smiling and dropping her self-described "stupid" comments to Linden to make her laugh.

The duo stayed upbeat and in the fifth game turned the match around again. Barrington went on to win the next eight consecutive games and defeated Prairie Ridge 6-4, 6-0 to advance to today's state semifinals.

"I just give her a look and say something stupid," Dodge said. "I'll saying something like, 'What are you doing?'"

"It's hard not to laugh at her," Linden said. "It's contagious. She makes me get excited out there."

The pair continued to have a laugh after their match. While talking to reporters, Dodge's cell phone went off. Linden watched as Dodge flipped open her phone to read a text message. Linden closed it on her.

"Put away your phone away," Linden said.

The phone rang again and Dodge opened it up.

"I just got seven text messages," Dodge said.

Linden shook her head and laughed.

The Fillies hope today will be as joyful. Barrington will play Hinsdale Central's Emily Lombardi and Alex Tapak in the semifinals at 9 a.m. at Prospect. The winner will face either Hinsdale Central's Courtney Dolehide and Nida Hamilton or Lyons' Elise Woulfe and Tina Harazin in the finals.

Fremd junior Jenna Langhorst also advanced to today's play. She will play in the consolation quarterfinals at Rolling Meadows.

For the first time in three years at state, Langhorst got through the fourth round on Friday. She defeated Lake Forest's Nicole Lipp 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-3 to reach her first quarterfinals.

Fremd coach Ken Goettsche was surprised at his star player's reaction afterward.

"I was so excited," he said. "She just had a small grin on her face. I said, 'You have to have more than that in you.' "

Langhorst said she did, but couldn't express it.

"I was kind of drained," she said. "I was really tired at that point. I was happy."

Hinsdale Central's Hanna Mar made her a bit less happy in the quarterfinals. The second-seeded Mar made nearly no mistakes against Langhorst in high-wind conditions and won the match 6-2, 6-3.

"She was like, 'What can I do?' " said Goettsche of Langhorst. " 'I'm hitting well and Hanna's hitting well.' Hanna just happened to be hitting a little better today."

Buffalo Grove coach Kevin Schrammel had reason to be excited for his team's future after seeing freshman Nell Boyd advance to the fifth round of the consolation bracket and twins Ashton and Heather Nisbet get to the consolation fourth round on Friday.

"She played awesome," said Schrammel of Boyd. "She played absolutely awesome. She did much more than I expected. She did much better than I think she expected. The twins played just as well."

As a team, Barrington is in seventh place with 19 points. Hinsdale Central leads with 44.