Why Auburn dominates more at IHSA sectionals than in the NIC-10
MACHESNEY PARK — Auburn was edged in the NIC-10 tournament the last two years, but easily won its fifth consecutive Illinois High School Assocation sectional plaque Saturday. Auburn finished with 28 points to 20 for Huntley and 18 for third-place Hononegah, the NIC-10 champ.
“I like trophies we don’t have to trade with people,” Auburn coach Tracy Palmer said, referring to the conference’s traveling trophy, now at Hononegah. “I like that we can keep it, not like the conference that goes from school to school. This is much better.
“These girls were antsy all week, worried about their games. I was happy about that, because the edgier they are, the more focused they are.”
More:How the supporting cast led Hononegah to only its fourth NIC-10 girls tennis title
No one, he said, was more anxious than sophomore Avery Trapp, the league’s No. 2 singles champion the last two years. But there are no No. 2 divisions in the postseason. Just singles and doubles. And Trapp earned her first trip to state by finishing second to teammate Amy Park at the Class 2A sectional at Harlem. That included a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 semifinal upset over Hononegah’s two-time conference runner-up Lizzie Schindler that took 3 hours and 15 minutes to play.
“I was so exhausted,” Trapp said. “It’s hard, because we kept going to deuce. We would each hit winners on each other, slamming it at each other. It was really tiring. And she never let up on me. Even when she was down, she kept battling at me, she kept taking games from me. It was awesome.
“It meant a lot to me because I have played Lizzie so many times in the past. She has won a lot. I have won a couple of times, too. It was epic because I always play my best against her. She is so amazing. She is such a good player. It’s really cool because we have always been battling it out. I respect her a lot.”
Most long high school girls matches involve a lot of careful moon-ball shots, trading lobs back and forth. But these two mixed in a lot of hard forehands or sharply angled backhands.
“We both play with aggressive attack shots,” Schindler said. “We both know each other’s style. Sometimes you have to throw in moonballs, but aggression is what we like to do.”
And that is how Trapp ended the match, with two clean winners. To break one last deuce, she took a short ball and ripped a forehand past Schindler. Then, on her first match point, she hit a short, sharply angled backhand that Schindler reached. When Schindler raced back to the middle of the court, Trapp hit another backhand to the identical spot that Schindler couldn’t get back to.
“She’s got a great backhand and forehand,” Schindler said. “Her backhand is a lot better than my backhand. She just stayed steady and didn’t let my attack shots affect her.”
Trapp thought it was especially “cool” to beat the rival who eliminated her at sectionals last year, one match short of state, with back-to-back clean winners.
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“I am a line hitter,” Trapp said. “I paint the lines. It is not entirely a good thing because if you miss just by an inch it’s out. It’s a risky move but I am used to it. It’s crazy. I love my angles so much.”
Auburn has struggled a little in conference play, which has five entries in five divisions, but the Knights' top-end talent has carried them through in sectionals, which has only four entries in two divisions.
Auburn juniors Addysen Feng and Rebecca Wang easily won the doubles title, losing only seven games in eight sets. Park dropped just four games in eight sets in winning her fourth straight sectional title, two in doubles and the last two in singles.
Schindler and twins Karlie and Kassidy Anderson advanced to state for Hononegah, both taking third. The senior twins lost to a team from Huntley 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals and beat Huntley’s No. 2 team 6-1, 6-4 for third. A year ago as juniors, the Anderson twins finished one match short of state, losing to a Huntley team in the quarterfinals in their first year as a doubles team.
“We never played against each other growing up because one of us is more competitive than the other and it never really worked out,” Kassidy said, referring to Karlie. “She’s always been a better player than me. It’s cool to play with her now.
“It’s definitely challenging to not take our match to our house afterward and just get over it. People probably think we get mad at each other, but it’s just because we’re sisters. We know we can take it out on each other. I wouldn’t get mad if it was someone else.”
There was no reason to get mad Saturday.
“State is going to be super exciting,” Karlie said. “We get to go together. It makes it extra special.”
Class 1A
Two local singles players and one doubles team finished in the top four at Rochelle to reach state. Boylan finished second as a team with 19 points, well behind Sycamore’s 31, and Rockford Lutheran took fourth with 10 points.
Boylan senior Emily Kielty beat Belvidere sophomore GiGi DeGennaro 6-2, 6-0 in the third-place match. Boylan junior Elizabeth Fitzgerald and senior Elise Pecora took second at doubles, losing 6-3, 6-1 to Dixon in the finals but losing only a total of eight games in their other six sets.
Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and three years covering the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Auburn girls tennis team wins fifth IHSA sectional in a row
