Girls tennis: Naperville North's Rachapalli, Zhang go the distance to win sectional

Two-and-a-half hours - basically the length of a long movie.

That's the time it took Naperville North's Kavya Rachapalli and Irene Zhang to win the Class 2A doubles title at their school's IHSA girls tennis sectional Saturday.

And they provided just about as much drama as a cinematic thriller.

After losing the first set 6-4 to Neuqua Valley's Audrey Provine and Hanna Beck, they were down 5-4 late in the second. But they rallied to save match point and slip past Provine and Beck 7-5, then battled them to a 4-3 advantage in the decisive third set before ultimately winning 6-3.

"It feels really good, especially because we saved a match point and then came back and won it in the third set," said Rachapalli, a senior. "We tried a lot of new stuff, and now we're more confident to try that stuff at state."

Most players would feel a certain amount of trepidation heading into a third set. Not according to Zhang, who was happy "because we had a fresh start."

Rachapalli and Zhang opened their sectional play in the morning semifinals with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Metea Valley's Taylor Goldman and Abbey Woods. Goldman and Woods went on to take third place with a default victory over Naperville Central's Katie and Elaine Liu.

Beck and Provine, both seniors, played a second substantially long match Saturday. The first was a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) win over the Lius from Naperville Central. That match itself took another two-and-a-half hours, so that's over five hours of tennis for one day. Wow.

"We're almost numb to it at this point," Beck said with a laugh after losing the title match. "After a certain amount of time, your legs are working and you don't even realize it. I think overall we tend to have longer matches just because there are periods of time when we lose a little bit of focus when we're up. We actually probably play a little better when we're down."

The Huskies tied Neuqua Valley with 22 points in the team competition, but the Wildcats technically won the team title by sending more players to state, which starts Thursday at multiple sites in the Northwest suburbs. That included Provide and Beck, along with sophomore singles player Alex Savu, who made it to the singles finals before falling to West Aurora's Maria Goheen 6-0, 6-3.

Savu fought hard to defeat Benet's Daniella Nenadovich 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 in the singles semifinals. By the time the final started, around 12:20 p.m., the wind had picked up, augmenting the chilly temperatures, which she said impacted her game. The three-setter in the semifinals was also an energy drain, she said.

Nevertheless, she's on to state, which was the weekend's ultimate goal.

"I'm just going to learn from my match and train how I've been training," she said. "It's just going to be another tournament."

The uber-quick Goheen wore short sleeves all day, which didn't look all that comfortable considering the wind and cold temperatures. But it served a purpose, she said.

"I was freezing, but if I wear a sweater, I don't feel like I can swing as well," said Goheen, who dispatched Metea Valley sophomore Meera Baird 6-3-, 6-1 in the semifinals. "Honestly, when the sun came out, it wasn't too bad. But when you're moving, it's not as bad."

Baird beat Nenadovich 6-1, 6-1 in the third-place singles match. Metea Valley took third as a team with 17 points.