Naperville Central's Griffin, Liu form good partnership
The newly formed Naperville Central doubles team of Meghan Griffin and Cindy Liu has been perfect so far in seven matches, but there's an unusual dynamic in their partnership.
The two won the first-doubles title at Saturday's Naperville North Tennis Invitational with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Hinsdale South in the final with Griffin, a senior and a veteran of the doubles wars, providing the "oomph" and the freshman Liu, a highly ranked tournament singles player who's just learning the doubles game, acting as the calming influence.
"Cindy is really mellow," Griffin said. "I get uptight and kind of freak out sometimes and she calms me down. Last year my partner, Taylor Spence, who graduated, kept me calm."
While Liu is quick to point out that she has learned a lot about playing doubles from Griffin, just in the last week, she has embraced her role as the cooler head.
"I really benefit from Meghan's experience in doubles, and she can put all the balls away at the net," Liu said. "But I've played singles in a lot of USTA tournaments and I'm used to the pressure. Meghan gets us pumped up and I keep us calm. It evens out."
It was a recent decision to put the two together, because their styles and personalities complemented each other.
Redhawks coach Don Bonet and the girls agreed that the two of them together would have the best chance of making state.
"It's just been clicking," Bonet said. "Cindy is a great baseline player, and it gives Meghan the freedom to roam at the net where she can intimidate people, especially with Cindy behind her hitting those groundstrokes."
Lyons Twp. won the tournament with 36 points, and host Naperville North was second with 35.
"With all the terrible weather this year, we're excited to get a Saturday tournament in," said Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen. "The girls have been missing those higher-level matches they need to prepare for the end of the season. Today they had the chance to work on things in pressure situations."
The Huskies' Hannah Guenther took first place at third-singles while second-doubles Olivia Landiak and Deepthi Ramachandran and third-doubles Tiffany Oken and Kayla Maxson both came in second in their flights.
"Olivia and Deepthi came close to winning," Henricksen said. "They lost 10-6 in a third-set tiebreaker. And Tiffany and Kayla, who are both sophomores, showed me something. When they lost they were upset, but not a hang-your-head, get-discouraged upset. It was more like they wanted to get back on the court and take another shot at the opponents."
Neuqua Valley's junior duo of Erin Alenciks and Megan Hannigan, who paired up for the tournament because their partners were absent, won the third-doubles final 6-2, 6-4.
"We play well together," Alenciks said. "Megan is good at the net and I'm better back. We both served well today and we were communicating well on the court."
According to Neuqua Valley coach Trudy Bennorth, the pairing of those two for this weekend was a one-time thing. They'll be back with their old partners again at next week's Upstate Eight Conference tournament.