Girls tennis: Geneva 2nd at UEC River tourney, but wins overall title
Geneva entered this weekend's Upstate Eight River Division girls tennis tournament with a 4-point cushion over St. Charles North based on conference dual meet results.
It turned out the Vikings needed every point to hold off a surging St. Charles North squad.
The host North Stars swept all four of the championship doubles matches Saturday morning and picked up 35 points to win the tournament.
However, runner-up Geneva mustered 32 points, highlighted by junior Grace Krueger's title at No. 1 singles to take home the conference championship plaque for the second straight year by a razor-thin 66-65 margin.
St. Charles East picked up a pair of second place finishes in doubles and retained third place overall over Batavia while Elgin, Larkin and Streamwood rounded out the field.
"Every point mattered. It was St. Charles North's day in doubles, but I thought we played extremely well all-around," said Geneva coach Zach Evans.
"We came in ahead and played hard for every point to maintain our lead," Krueger said.
"To be able to say that we had four conference champions out of seven spots is pretty legit, but you have to give credit to Geneva. They played great in our dual meet and got us 5-2 there," said St. Charles North coach Sean Masoncup.
Krueger defeated Streamwood's Alaina Kanthaphixay 6-3, 6-4 in the No. 1 singles championship while third-seeded Elizabeth Prendergast earned a critical second place finish for Geneva at No. 2 singles, dropping the title match to Elgin's Marta Krakowski 6-0, 6-1.
Prendergast rallied from a set down to defeat Batavia's No. 2 seed Maddie Rea 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in Friday's semifinal match.
"Liz played a great match to get into the championship and those were huge points for us," Evans said.
At No. 3 singles, Batavia senior Kate McClure rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 decision over St. Charles North's Maddie Murray.
In the No 1. doubles final, the North Stars' tandem of Morgan Rerko and Emma Spellman handled St. Charles East's Emily Sullivan and Paige Ackerman 6-4, 6-1. Spellman held serve in a marathon game trailing 3-2 in the first set to set the tone for the remainder of the match.
"That was one of the key games to get our momentum back," Spellman said. "From there I think we were less nervous and we were going for things more."
Brittany Rohrsen and Breanne Warner delivered a 6-3, 6-4 win for the North Stars at No. 2 doubles over Geneva's Maddie Krafcisin and Grace Hahn, breaking serve to close out the match.
"Geneva came prepared and they were on their game, so it was tough," Rohrsen said. "My partner definitely helped me out and stayed calm and it felt great to pull through."
The North Stars continued to roll as Delaney Goldsworthy and Melanie Masa posted a 7-6 (8), 6-0 victory over Geneva's Emily Drake and Lauren Burgess at No. 4 doubles while Kate Boeke and Julia Nickolson closed out the meet in style by rallying for a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 triumph over St. Charles East's tandem of Michelle Navid and Maggie Petrov at No. 3.
"We had our chances and I would have loved to have won, but it's tough. Geneva and North are solid up and down," said St. Charles East coach Matt Bulman. "I'm really happy with the girls overall. It's the end of the season for a lot of them and we ended on a high note in a lot of spots."