Running it down!

Winning key matches during the first round, the Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School tennis squad captured the All-City title Thursday, Sept. 16. A team total of 14 points awarded the Boilers the team title while Kankakee and Bishop McNamara tied for second with eight points each. Although BBCHS took the team championship, there was a distribution of the singles and doubles title. Senior Hannah Wilkinson took her top seed in the singles bracket to take the championship for Kankakee by beating Kristen Sproat of BBCHS 6-1, 6-2.

³Hannah has really started playing better after we put a finger on what was troubling her,² noted coach Nate McCue. ³We needed her to play her game and not worry about getting in long rallies.² McNamara¹s doubles crew of Marche Gibbs and Denise Baron topped the pair of Majesta Moliga and Kelsey Zajc of BBCHS 6-3, 7-5. ³We¹ve played better than we did today, but the girls were able to get the points,² said Irish coach Fred Bell. ³The biggest problem was that they needed to play more of a volley game and set-up winners.² A first round loss by McNamara¹s Claire Schmidt to Bradley¹s Karin Linman resulted in a five point swing, considering it awarded two points for BBCHS instead of two for McNamara and another point for possible third place finish. Linman was able to pass Schmidt 7-5, 6-3, starting BBCHS towards the title. ³That was a big match for us,² explained coach Cathy Olshefski. ³This was a rematch of a three-set loss Karin suffered to Claire setting up an excellent All City match.²

More first round setbacks played big in the final outcome when Kankakee¹s doubles pair of seniors Aleisha Rabideau and Ingrid Huchard beat sophomores Jenna Frazier and Claire Fisher of McNamara 6-3, 6-3, knocking the Irish from collecting more points. Wilkinson¹s singles trip started with a first round bye before meeting Linman for a 6-2, 6-1 decision, setting up the match with Sproat who took her first round bye to the title match. Beating Hogan of McNamara 6-0, 6-1, Sproat used her second seed for an eventual second place finish. McNamara¹s Kelsi Hogan beat Kankakee¹s Laura Moore 6-3, 7-5 in the first round before meeting with Linman for a 6-0, 6-2 loss. The 6-0, 6-1 setback meant third place for Linman and fourth for Hogan.

Doubles play featured the grouping of Gibbs and Baron that resulted in one of the toughest matches of the day. Seeded second, Gibbs and Baron started their championship trek by outlasting Bradley-Bourbonnais¹ Sevgi Sipahi and Sue Tai in a marathon match. The 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3) went in McNamara¹s favor. After such a tiring and lengthy session, the Irish pair had to regroup and recharge for their battle with the meet¹s top seeded team. Moliga and Zajc took a first round bye to their match with Rabideau and Huchard of Kankakee. The Boiler pair enjoyed a 6-1, 6-2 win over the duo who came from their big win over McNamara¹s Frazier and Fisher in the first round. Rabideau and Huchard finished fourth after Moliga and Zajc beat them 6-1, 6-2 in the second round and Sipahi and Tai gave them a 6-4, 6-1 setback. The BBCHS duo started their day with a solid 6-4, 6-3 win over Kankakee¹s Brittany Brooks and Alyse Householter. A team win for the Boilers showed their talents and how each is working for the group. ³Normally, a match is mostly one-on-one, but in All-City it is definitely a team event,² noted coach Olshefski. ³All the girls played very well and earned the title in a very tough field.²