Geneva earns No. 1 seed
The Tri-Cities is blessed with several very good girls basketball teams this year, but if you want to see them all play in the postseason, you better be prepared to drive.
Led by Geneva and including St. Charles North and Batavia, those three high schools all received well-earned high seeds for the state tournament that begins in a little over two weeks. But none of the three can face each other because they are all headed to different sectionals.
It's especially strange to see Geneva and Batavia sent to different sectionals after the Vikings and Bulldogs played in the regional last year. Geneva is the No. 1 seed in the Addison Trail sectional while Batavia earned the No. 4 seed at the Waubonsie Valley sectional.
St. Charles North goes north again, where the Jacobs sectional is broken into four regionals. The North Stars and St. Charles East are the top two teams in the South Elgin regional.
Three Tri-Cities towns, three different sectionals.
"In the 7 years I've been here we've always been in the same sectional with Batavia," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said.
After last year's four battles with Geneva, Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker wasn't too sorry to see the change.
"I got a little tired of playing Geneva four times," DeBruycker said. "I kind of like we only have to play them twice and this gives us a chance to show our skills in a regional where we don't have to play Geneva again right away. I think that was unfair to our conference last year that two really good teams had to meet in the first round.
"It gives our conference a chance to show off. I hope they do well and we do well to give our conference a little more respect than we've been getting the past few years."
The Vikings are the top seed at Addison Trail, the same venue they reached the sectional championship game during Taylor Whitley's freshman year and lost a hard-fought Class AA finale to Montini.
"We're really excited," Nolan said. "Obviously we have to go out there now and play our game. It's (the No. 1 seed) a testament to what we've accomplished."
Geneva also earned a No. 1 seed two years ago in Class AA but lost to Rosary in the regional finals.
Geneva's toughest competition figures to come from No. 2 Hoffman Estates, No. 3 Lake Park, No. 4 Fremd and No. 5 Wheaton North. Glenbard West, Bartlett and Conant round the top eight seeds.
"I wish them luck," DeBruycker said. "They deserve that 1 seed, they have earned that this year."
Hoffman Estates is 19-2 and has won 14 straight games, ranked No. 11 in the Daily Herald. Lake Park is 17-5 and No. 8 in the same poll, and just won a key Upstate Eight game Thursday night over St. Charles North.
The Vikings (22-0) are the only Western Sun Conference team in the sectional.
"We have only played 3 of the teams," Nolan said. "It will be nice to see some different teams."
Looking further ahead, if Geneva can make its No. 1 seed hold up, the Addison Trail sectional winner feeds into Loyola University supersectional against the Niles West sectional winner. The top seeds at Niles West are Loyola, New Trier and Von Steuben. Loyola is the No. 2 ranked team in the state's Class 4A poll, one spot ahead of Geneva.
At the Jacobs sectional, the North Stars could run into Rockford Boylan, the last 4A team out of the state's top 10.
Batavia follows top three seeds Bolingbrook, Hinsdale Central and Waubonsie Valley. Bolingbrook and Hinsdale Central are both ranked in the top 10 in state at No. 8 and No. 10, respectively. Bolingbrook finished second in the state last year.
"I said we could be a three or four," DeBruycker said. "Waubonsie, I haven't seen them too much, but Oswego beat them and we beat Oswego so I kind of thought that might be a comparison game. If you look at the voting it was pretty close. But I'm not going to nitpick over one seed, we're happy to be in the top four. That was kind of a preseason goal."
In Class 3A, Rosary - which defeated Batavia to win the Oswego Holiday Classic - is the No. 1 seed in the Oswego regional. Aurora Central is the third seed. The Royals could face No. 2 Oswego in the regional title game.
Winning the regional would send Rosary to the Marengo sectional.
Pairings will be released Friday at ihsa.org.