Carmel caps it all with sectional title

Kathleen Felicelli, an American, wore a pink Nepal knit hat with ear flaps and occasionally danced like a heel-kicking leprechaun at the Highland Park girls tennis sectional Saturday.

The Carmel sophomore doubles player, unlike her Nepal-knit-hat-wearing partner, classmate Michelle Kannenberg, tied the strings — dangling at the end of each flap — securely under her chin throughout two taut matches.

It gave her a rash, on a gusty and chilly day.

“That’s OK,” the Corsair said, smiling. “I kept it tied … for good luck.”

What also was tied, late in Saturday’s sectional: the battle for first place.

Carmel and Highland Park had both earned 16 points before the start of the championship and third-place singles and doubles matches.

Carmel later led 19-17, with only one match left: Felicelli/Kannenberg vs. HP’s Rachel Goldberg/Sarah Raab, in the doubles final.

Goldberg/Raab won the first set, 6-4.

Felicelli/Kannenberg took the final two, 6-2 and 6-3.

Game, set … sectional to Carmel.

For the first time since 2002.

Coach Nancy Fehn’s Corsairs ended up with 21 points, to runner-up Highland Park’s 17. Mundelein (12) finished third.

“Staying calm; we stayed calm in the third set,” said Felicelli, also a standout softball and basketball player at the school.

“Not getting mad or upset, after losing a tough point — that also helped,” Kannenberg said after the pair’s first three-setter of the fall.

Two other Carmel entrants qualified for the state meet on Saturday.

Freshman Brienne Minor topped the singles field, a year after her sister, Jasmine (Carmel, ’11), did the same thing at the same site.

Bri breezed, downing Mundelein senior Ari Dechter 6-2, 6-1 in the final, after losing only one game in her first three sectional matches. Dechter, because of an injured right ankle, thought about defaulting before Saturday’s action.

“I let Bri hit too many forehands in her strike zone,” admitted Dechter, fourth at state last fall. “You can’t do that against a player like her.”

Minor (32-3) looked smooth and powerful and precise — all at once. And she played with an expression that one typically makes while squeezing toothpaste on a toothbrush.

“Blank … her expression is absolutely blank on a tennis court. Brienne doesn’t show any emotion when she plays, which is a good thing,” said Carmel assistant coach Josh Moran, a 2003 Warren graduate. “She’s a rock out there, always looks the same. I know she’s got a lot of drive in her. But she chooses not to let anybody see it.”

Wind tried to mess with Minor on Saturday.

It failed, miserably.

“The wind was changing its mind a lot out there,” said Minor, who chats with Jasmine, now at Georgia Tech, at least twice a week and hits a spectacular forehand at least twice a game. “I tried my best to hit my shots and move (Dechter) around.”

Carmel’s No. 2 doubles team, juniors Maclain Edwards/Emily Rhine, also advanced to state, after edging Libertyville’s MK Lee/Arantxa Garcia-Escobar 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in a quarterfinal on Friday. Edwards/Rhine defeated HP’s Janine Cooper/Nicole Berkman 6-1, 7-6 (5) in the match for third place on Saturday.

“Those two, I think, have been playing together since they were 5 years old,” said Felicelli. “They have great reflexes, get everything back. When we play them (in practice), they’re annoying, but they’re annoying in a good way.”

Mundelein senior Ali MacDonald netted her fourth state berth — and second as a singles qualifier — when she beat Libertyville’s Halle Roach 6-3, 6-2 on Friday. MacDonald bowed 6-2, 6-2 to Highland Park junior Jacqueline Baum in the match for bronze on Saturday.

Fehn, Carmel’s coach, wore a near-body-length down winter coat and carried around a blanket for most of Saturday.

Saturday’s final team results also warmed her up quite a bit.

“This is wonderful, and I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Fehn, in her 12th year as Carmel’s coach. “So many of my girls now are playing tournaments year-round and working hard on their games.

“I also owe a lot of our success this year to Josh (Moran). He’s been terrific help, the way he drills with our girls and prepares them for meets.”

At Stevenson: Stevenson coach Tom Stanhope tinkered with his North Suburban Conference-championship lineup.

It became a Stevenson sectional-championship lineup on Saturday.

Stanhope’s Pats tallied 31 points, ahead of runner-up Deerfield (28), and qualified all four entrants to state.

Sophomore Alexxis Kiven and freshman Kendall Kirsch — the No. 1 and No. 2 singles champs, respectively, at last weekend’s NSC Meet — captured a sectional doubles title via default. Stevenson’s Gabby Demchenko/Danielle Vasiliev finished runner-up.

Stevenson freshmen Zoe Manion and Kaylin Dong, meanwhile, excelled in singles – after serving ’em up as doubles players at the conference meet. Manion defeated Dong 6-3, 7-6 (5) for third place.

At Warren: Another sectional, another Poggensee-Wei-Zordani matchup.

Grayslake North senior Kelly Poggensee-Wei downed Lake Forest sophomore Elizabeth Zordani 7-5, 6-4 in the Warren sectional singles championship on Saturday.

A year ago, at the Lakes Sectional, Poggensee-Wei beat Zordani’s older sister, Katie, in a 7-6 (5), 6-1 semifinal.

Poggensee-Wei played her best tennis at state last fall, winning six of eight matches and reaching the semifinal round of the backdraw.

Warren, behind three state-qualifying entrants, finished runner-up (23 points) to Lake Forest (33) on Saturday. Blue Devils freshman Alex Mella placed fourth in singles, while Warren’s Lauren Chibucos/Avani Patel defeated their teammates, Jenna Westerberg/Brittney Sunday, 6-2, 6-1 in the doubles match for third place.