North Stars end Vikes' 4-year run

Surrounded by a group of underclass teammates, including freshman doubles partner Liselot Koenen, St. Charles North senior Megan Gow often feels like the elder statesman on the North Stars' girls tennis team.

"I kind of feel like I'm so old compared to everyone," she said, "and playing with a freshman. But it's a lot of fun."

One thing that never grows old for Gow is advancing to the state tournament.

After earning state berths the past three years as a singles player, Gow doubled her pleasure during Saturday's St. Charles East sectional tournament.

In addition to pocketing her first individual sectional title, joining Koenen for a come-from-behind, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 doubles victory over Geneva's Blair Selakovich and Mary Pelling, Gow helped St. Charles North capture its first sectional team championship.

"Winning my first sectional individual title and the team title -- it's really exciting," Gow said. "I can't get too far ahead of myself because we still have state, but I'm happy."

The North Stars ended Geneva's four-year sectional title reign, edging the Vikings 28-27 for team honors.

"It didn't dawn on me (until now) that this is our first sectional championship," said North Stars coach Tim Matacio. "We set three goals at the start of the year. One was to win conference, one was to win sectional and one was to finish in the top 10 at state -- so we've got two out of the three.

"We wished we would have qualified more girls (than three), but obviously the girls we qualified are big hitters."

None more so than junior Annemijn Koenen (26-7), who knocked off previously unbeaten Geneva sophomore Kayla Fujimoto (34-1) by a score of 6-4, 6-3 to win the singles title.

"We always have very close matches," said Koenen, who lost a 7-5, 6-4 decision to Fujimoto earlier this season. "I thought today I just went out there and played my game most of the time. I knew that I needed to keep the ball deep, especially on my second serve.

"It definitely gives me a lot of confidence -- winning conference and sectional."

"Annemijn has played Kayla a lot and Kayla has gotten the better of her," said Matacio, "and today it went the other way. It was Annemijn's day. We hope it will help her seeding-wise, and it's not like it's her only good win. She's had a real solid season."

Fujimoto, who had won 36 of her first 39 games prior to the finals, tried to put the loss in perspective.

"I just wasn't on top of my game and I made a lot of unforced errors early in the points," she said. "I wasn't executing on my volleys. But Annemijn is a good player and she played well today."

It was a win-win day for the Koenen sisters.

"Having my sister win and me win is just phenomenal," Liselot Koenen said. "I'm so excited."

Geneva coach Maureen Weiler hopes her team's hard-luck losses serve as extra motivation for this week's state tourney.

"To lose by 1 point (for the team title), it's always tough," Weiler said.

"Sometimes the little hiccup here makes you more determined to do well at state."

Geneva's Liz Bertrand and Krista Panko defeated St. Charles East's Amanda Gomez and Erin Bowman 7-5, 6-4 for third place at doubles, while Saints junior Stefanie Youngberg earned her third state trip with a fourth-place singles finish.

Youngberg, who lost a 6-2, 6-3 semifinal decision to Koenen, suffered a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-5 third-place setback to Sycamore's Veronica Behrens.

"Just a few more shots here or there would have been nice," Youngberg said.

"But to qualify for state for the third year in a row, I'm really happy."