Girls tennis: Weather delays crowning DuKane champion
Crowning the first DuKane Conference girls tennis champion will have to wait until Monday.
Weather played havoc with the conference tournament on Friday and Saturday. Instead of St. Charles East and St. Charles North's outdoor courts, matches were played indoors at the Norris Recreation Center.
With fewer courts available, the pace of the tournament slowed. For both singles and doubles, players finished all of the quarterfinal matches while only two double semifinal contests were completed.
The tournament resumes at 8 a.m. on Monday with matches being played at both St. Charles schools.
"All of the front draw will be at St. Charles East. That's the semifinals, the first and third place matches, and all the back draw, which will be the fifth place matches, will be at St. Charles North." said St. Charles East coach and tournament host Matt Bulman.
"There will be abbreviated scoring because of the weather. No add super tiebreakers. The goal is to finish the tournament so we can clearly define who the conference champion is."
After completing league dual meets, Wheaton Warrenville South and St. Charles North share first place, with Batavia in third followed by Geneva.
In singles competition, seedings accurately predicted the players who would be competing in the semifinal rounds. All of the top four seeds in first, second and third singles won their quarterfinal matches to advance. Both WW South and Wheaton North are sending 3 players to the semis while Batavia is advancing 2.
Former Upstate Eight teams St. Charles North, Geneva and Batavia dominated doubles play. Both St. Charles North and Geneva advanced 4 teams to the semifinal round. Three Batavia duos also moved forward.
"Wheaton Warrenville South and St. Charles North are neck and neck in the tournament. It's a little hard to tell, there are a couple of matches in progress," Bulman said. "And Batavia is right behind them if not right with them."
Competition is more balanced in the DuKane Conference according to the coaches.
"For me it's a lot more fun to coach because we are all more even. Every match is relevant and very important," said Zack Evans, the Geneva coach.
His Vikings left the Upstate Eight as conference champs last year. This year is more of a challenge.
"We're in the hole right now and trying to climb our way back into the tournament," Evans said.
Wheaton North coach Eric Laird agreed that the DuKane is more challenging.
"It's extremely competitive across the board. Back in the DVC (DuPage Valley Conference) there were usually one or two schools at the top and one or two schools playing in most of the championships matches," said Laird. "Over the course of this season we saw a lot of close matches and that has been true here at the tournament as well."