Ashley Hatch and Sarah Pankow are used to providing each other support.

Just not side by side.

Hatch, a junior and Yorkville's No. 1 singles player, and Pankow, a sophomore at No. 2 singles, had never played doubles together before last Saturday.

They made a quick connection. Hatch and Pankow beat Aurora Central Catholic, Kaneland and Sycamore to take the championship at the Yorkville Doubles Tournament.

How'd they do it?

It starts by being each other's No. 1 fan.

"The biggest thing was the support; we high-fived every single point," Hatch said. "Whenever one of us was down, we'd pick each other up."

"Even when we lost a point, we'd tell the other one 'Good job,'" Pankow said.

Neither girl plays much doubles, but they expected to do well.

They practiced by doing volley drills, lob drills, although never played side by side. Kaneland proved their toughest match, Yorkville winning eight games to three.

"Starting off we were trying to figure things out, but once we got momentum going it was solid," Hatch said.

On a Yorkville team without a senior, Hatch is clearly the Foxes' most experienced player. It's been a good year for her and Pankow.

Hatch has only two losses, to Ottawa and to West Aurora star Maria Goheen. Pankow has just one loss, also to Ottawa.

"It's going good," Hatch said. "With some of these new girls, I remember starting off when I was one of the younger players. It's cool seeing these younger girls coming up that I knew from USTA."

Pankow admitted that she is still finding herself as a player.

She played tennis about five years ago for fun, then quit for a while before taking it back up in high school. As a freshman she played JV No. 1 singles, varsity No. 3.

"I haven't played competitively very long; I'm still trying to figure out where I'm comfortable," Pankow said.

She learned a lot in her lone loss this year.

"I have to be just as aggressive as them, keep that momentum throughout the match," Pankow said.

This year for Hatch has been a year of refining her game. She considers her serve to be one of the more aggressive parts of her game, but she's still working to get more power on it. She's also tweaked her forehand and backhand.

Sectionals will certainly be difficult, with the likes of West Aurora and the Napervilles, but both Yorkville girls are looking ahead to conference Oct. 5-6 at Rochelle.

"Winning this tournament, it's a good motivation and confidence-builder for conference coming up," Hatch said.

• Yorkville's No. 2 doubles team of Emma Lacy and Lexi Roehe went 1-2 at the tournament, beating Kaneland. The No. 3 team of McKaylee Clements and Loren Wood won a total of nine games and the No. 4 team of Bea Strebel and Madi Bradford won eight.

Morris beat the Foxes 3-2 in a dual Sept. 18. Hatch and Pankow won singles matches.