BUFFALO GROVE – Edwardsville’s girls tennis squad had an excellent opening day on Thursday at the IHSA Girls Tennis Championship in the Chicago suburbs.
Three Tigers – Morgan Colbert, Grace Desse and Natalie Karibian - were alive and playing Friday in Class 2A, while the others were eliminated on Thursday.
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Edwardsville head tennis coach Dave Lipe said overall the Tigers had a very good day on Thursday.
“We had eight points and won a total of five matches,” he said. “Our No. 1 doubles team of Morgan Colbert and Grace Desse finished the first day 2-0. We had some tough battles on the court today. Natalie was 2-1 in singles. I thought Abby (Cimaroll) played some of her best test of the year in singles. All our players had a good day and I was proud of all the girls.”
Rock Island Alleman led the team standings with 14 points after the opening day, with Lisle Benet Academy trailing by a point (teams get two points for a win in the championship bracket and one point for a win in the consolation bracket); Bloomington Central Catholic was third at 10 points and Chicago University, Rockford Boylan Catholic and West Chicago Wheaton Academy were tied for fifth with nine points each.
Karibian reached the third consolation round after falling to Elgin's Marta Krakowski 6-1, 6-3 but winning her two consolation-bracket matches over Tinley Park Andrew's Mara Maday 6-1, 6-0 and over Naperville Neuqua Valley's Veena Murali 6-3, 7-5; Karibian will meet Joliet West's Eileen Carney at Palatine High when play resumes Friday.
Desse/Colbert won their only two matches of the day to remain alive in the championship bracket, defeating Lake Forest's Selma Alskafi/Emily Assmussen 6-2, 6-2 and Auroa Metea Valley's Michelle He/Stacy Wei 6-0, 6-2; they take on Barrington's Sara Amano/Nidhi Jha at Buffalo Grove when play resumes Friday.
Abby Cimarolli was eliminated by dropping two matches on the day, falling to Park Ridge Maine South's Jennifer Ptak 6-2, 6-0 in the first round and to Roselle Lake Park's Nina Pasquini 7-5, 6-1 in the first consolation round. The doubles team of Mackenzie Cadigan/Maria Mezo won their first-round match over Champaign Centennial's Madison Scaggs/Victoria Gonzalez 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) to advance, but fell in the second round to Highland Park's Monique Brual/Samara Michael 6-0, 6-1 and were eliminated in the second consolation round by Winnetka New Trier's Natalie Keller/Michelle Buyer 6-0, 6-3.
The Tigers found themselves in a four-way tie for sixth after opening day with eight points which Chicago Whitney Young, Neuqua Valley and Maine South; Lincolnshire Stevenson led with 14 points on the first day, followed by Hinsdale Central (12), Glen Ellyn Glenbard West, Highland Park and LaGrange-Lyons (10 each).
Play in the state tournament resumes throughout suburban Chicago this morning; real-time results can be found at the IHSA web site, www.ihsa.org. The tournament concludes Saturday.
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