High school girls tennis: Jacobs finishes 4th after 9-hour day of tennis at Jacobs Invitational

ALGONQUIN – Lindsay Cunningham twice avoided defeat against York’s Aleksina Jovic in her sixth and final match at the Jacobs Invitational on Saturday, staving off a pair of match points and winning a seven-point tiebreaker, 12-10, to force a decisive third set.

“It’s the tournament that won’t ever end,” a Jacobs parent joked of the two-day 32-team meet before Cunningham and Jovic battled in a 10-point, super tiebreaker to determine the winner.

Cunningham took a quick 5-1 lead, but Jovic stormed back with six straight points in the super tiebreaker to take the lead for good en route to a thrilling 6-2, 6-7 (10-12), 10-6 victory at No. 2 singles.

Teammates Nikole Gilman and Lindsey Taylor raced over to congratulate Cunningham on her hard-fought match and parents applauded the sophomore’s effort as she walked off the court.

Jacobs also lost a 10-point super tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles, with York’s Cate Duhig and Isabella Nicoli defeating Amber Seong and Ramya Nissankula, 6-2, 2-6, 10-5.

A win in either match would have given Jacobs the win. Instead, it was York that came away with a 3-2 win over Jacobs to take third place. The Eagles (4-2) took fourth, also losing to tournament champion Glenbard West in the championship bracket semifinals.

Cary-Grove and Huntley lost their first matches Saturday and competed on the consolation side.

“A lot of nerves, but it was also a lot of fun to play under pressure,” said Cunningham, who started 4-0 in the tournament before losing her last two matches. “I think it will prepare me for tough matches that I’ll have throughout the season, and it will help me be better the next time.”

The first matches of the day started at 8 a.m., and Cunningham’s last match didn’t end until 5:30 p.m.

“[Jovic] got to every ball and got it back every time,” Cunningham said. “It was a lot of fun, but also very tiring.”

Jacobs assistant coach CeCe Cahill said Cunningham has improved a lot throughout the summer. Last season, she won the FVC Tournament title at No. 3 singles as a freshman.

“I think we even surprised ourselves,” said Cahill, a former IHSA state champion. “To get top four in the tournament is very exciting. I was really hoping Lindsay was going to pull that one out. Mentally, and I say this for the whole team, they’re only going to get better with more match play.”

All five Jacobs teams finished the tournament with a record of .500 or better. The No. 1 doubles team of Kylie Skepnek and Gilman was 4-2, while Haley Steinkamp (No. 1 singles), Seong and Nissankula, and Taylor and Paige Shiakallis (No. 3 doubles) all went 3-3.

Skepnek and Gilman beat York’s Melissa Cartis and Gianna Nikoleit, 7-5, 6-2, and Steinkamp – who battled through a hamstring injury going into her last match – beat Eva Jacobsthal, 6-1, 6-1.

“It was a challenging match, but we kept a positive attitude,” said Nissankula, who is playing with Seong for the first time after winning the No. 3 doubles flight at the FVC Tournament last season.

“We’re constantly trying to bring each other up ... and there’s lots of talking and high-fiving.”

Despite the team losing its final two matches against Glenbard West and York, Seong was encouraged by Saturday’s results.

“There are some things to work out, but I think we did very well for our first big tournament,” Seong said. “It’s nice to get as far as we did. We all just want to do our best and have fun.”