Girls tennis: Lopez sisters lead Glenbard West to sectional title
Glenbard West junior Sienna Lopez faced a very familiar rival in the St. Charles East Class 2A sectional singles championship match Saturday - her teammate and freshman sister Shannele.
The older Lopez won the contest to take the first place medal, secure a berth in the state meet next week and claim family tennis bragging
rights.
Their first and second place finishes coupled with the Hilltoppers' doubles teams taking third (Sarah Burke, Sophia Fausey) and fourth place (Ashley Samuta, Emma Chirila) earned Glenbard West its third straight sectional title with 31 points.
The Glenbard West doubles teams will join the Lopez sisters at the state meet.
"I knew we had a good shot at winning the sectional. There are a lot of good teams here so we needed to play good tennis for sure. And I feel like we really did today and yesterday," said Glenbard West coach Kevin Graham. "Getting all four teams (to state) really helps us to push. We were sixth last year as a team so we are hoping to get in the top five this year."
"It was a little nerve wracking because it was my sister," Sienna Lopez said about the championship match. "But I have played her in practice and I'm used to it."
"It was a little bit awkward. I didn't know who to root for." Graham said. "It was fun to see them get a good match with hitting back and forth."
The Lopez family split its loyalty.
"I was rooting for our younger daughter while my wife was cheering our older daughter," said Santiago Lopez, the girls' father.
After dropping the first set 6-1, the younger Lopez defaulted the match. She was unable to recover from a grueling 2-6, 6-3 7-6(5) semifinal win over Wheaton North's Madeline Fidel.
Fidel rebounded in the third place match to beat Glenbard North sophomore Sage Hills in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. The senior also earned a state berth and helped her team finish third (13 points).
Fidel plans to place higher in her fourth trip to state.
"I hope to get at least in the top eight since I got into the top 16 the last two years," Fidel said.
Hills also qualified to compete at state.
Led by the first-place finish of doubles team Sammy Choi and Emily Orlove, Wheaton Warrenville South finished second (16 points).
Choi and Orlove squared off against the St. Charles North duo of Shelby Thomas and Emiara Saini in the doubles title match. WW South won a contested first set, 6-4, and then dominated in the second, 6-1, to win the match.
Choi will be making her fourth appearance at state - her first in doubles competition.
"The second set went a lot cleaner," Choi said. "Once we started adapting to their game, we started dealing with it a lot better and smarter."
"We were more aggressive at the net in the second set," Orlove added. "In the first (set) we weren't getting there as much."
Thomas and Saini will again represent St. Charles North at state competition.
"I'm really happy. The team we played is probably going to be 1-2 seed or a 3-4 seed at state and we gave them everything that they could handle," said North Stars coach Sean Masoncup. "They hadn't lost a game at all in the sectionals. We were able to take them to 4 and 1. I think that sets us up for a 9-16 seed at state and hopefully we can make a run."
Glenbard North and St. Charles North tied for fourth place with 12 points each.
St. Charles East finished sixth with 10 points, followed by Batavia (6), Geneva (6), Bartlett (0) and West Chicago (0).
St. Charles East coach Matt Bulman, who in addition to running the sectional tournament hosted last week's DuKane Conference tournament, was glad the weather was more accommodating this weekend.
"I'm very happy the weather cooperated," Bulman said. "It was a little scary yesterday. I thought we might get some sprinkles or snow showers and luckily it held off."