How the supporting cast led Hononegah to only its fourth NIC-10 girls tennis title

ROCKFORD — Maddie Schultz's tennis career ended a week early. But it ended in style.

She plays No. 3 doubles for Hononegah, but high school teams are only allowed two doubles teams in the postseason. Schultz and junior partner Morgan Jackson won’t play at sectionals. But Schultz went out in style Saturday, teaming with Jackson to edge an Auburn duo 6-4, 7-5 in a third-place match that helped clinch the NIC-10 title for Hononegah.

That is only the fourth NIC-10 girls tennis title in Hononegah history. Auburn, the preseason favorite, had won six of the previous 15 titles.

“It’s super exciting to be part of this team,” Schultz said. “It was really fun to play, especially for my last match in my Hononegah career. It was something I will remember for a long time, being able to be there for my team and make something cool happen.”

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The cool part about conference tennis is that the players normally farthest from the spotlight can have the biggest impact. Hononegah (7.2 points) came in with a tiny edge of Auburn (7.0), Boylan (7.0), Guilford (6.4) and Belvidere North (6.2) under a system that awards teams one-tenth of a point for each individual match it wins in its nine dual meets, plus one point for each school entry it finishes ahead of in the conference tournament.

Auburn and Hononegah played each other in both singles finals and No. 1 doubles. But Hononegah’s Maggie Peterson and Natalie Zeiter took third at No. 2 doubles while Auburn finished seventh. That four-point gap means Hononegah would have won the title even if Auburn had won all four head-to-head matches with Hononegah.

“No. 2 and 3 doubles, that’s what determines a lot of this,” Hononegah coach John Torrence said. “That shows you the importance of the whole team. A lot of things can happen in 2 and 3 doubles. Them coming through is really big.”

Peterson and Zeiter clinched the title for Hononegah just a handful of minutes before Schultz and Jackson finished their match, beating a Belvidere duo 6-2, 6-2.

“There was definitely some pressure,” Peterson said. “It’s conference. I never expected us to get this far, but I knew we had it in us and we proved what we could do.”

“As a team,” Zeiter said, “we have grown a lot. That’s why we are in the position we are today.”

It was the second consecutive year that Auburn’s stars dominated but the Knights still lost. Last year, Auburn won four of the five titles but lost by two-tenths of a point to Guilford after taking seventh at No. 3 doubles.

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“My girls all gave it their best effort,” Auburn coach Tracy Palmer said. “They just came out a little short.”

Auburn won both singles titles, with Amy Park beating Hononegah's Lizzy Schindler 6-3, 6-0 at No. 1 and Avery Trapp topping Hononegah's Elle Loch 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 2 spot. The Knights also won a No. 1 doubles, with Addysen Feng and Rebecca Wang winning 6-4, 6-2 over Hononegah's top-seeded Karlie Anderson and Kassidy Anderson.

Guilford's Tyler Borgialli and Mimi Runne won at No. 2 doubles over Belvidere North's Meghan Tryon and Bella Wright and North's Alicia Downey and Savvanah Mirab won No. 3 doubles, outlasting Guilford's Crystina Gonzalez and Vivian Otto 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Guilford beat out Hononegah, 55-50, to win the JV title.

Hononegah's conference titles in girls tennis

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Hononegah in top 3 in every division to win NIC-10 girls tennis title