Girls tennis: JCA's Bertino continues run of state success

JOLIET – Very few girls tennis players from this area ever find themselves in a position to be in the mix for one medal in the IHSA finals, let alone three during her first three years.

But that's just what Joliet Catholic Academy junior Mia Bertino did this past weekend when she once again performed well enough to be in the hunt for a medal, which are awarded to the top-six finishers at state.

While her third try for a medal didn't start as well as her previous efforts had, Bertino still placed herself in elite company as a top-eight player in Class 1A for the third time.

As a freshman and sophomore, Bertino won her first three matches to advance to the quarterfinals. But each time she fell to the eventual state champion and then had to go into the consolation bracket, where she won one match before being eliminated.

After easily capturing 6-0, 6-0 wins in her first two state matches this year, Bertino saw her championship bracket hopes dashed in the third round when she fell 6-2, 6-4 to the University of Chicago Lab School's Jennifer Lewis to miss a third quarterfinal trip.

However, she bounced back with three-straight victories in the consolation bracket, which set her up for a consolation semifinal match, after posting a 5-1 record in the tournament. That was also as far as Providence Catholic freshman Emma Davis got in the tournament.

Bertino opened consolation play with an 8-1 win before edging Kaneland's Madelyn Jurasek 8-6 in the next round and followed that close call with another 8-1 triumph.

But neither she nor Davis got the chance to play again once bad weather hit the northwest suburbs, which halted play in the event with several matches left to play.

As a result, Bertino finished her very successful season with a 37-3 record with her only defeats coming to two top 2A players from the Joliet area, Plainfield North's Grace Chadick and Minooka's Annabelle Siegel, with the other coming in the tournament to Lewis.

"I was a little discouraged since I lost earlier than I had lost there the last two years," Bertino said. "But I knew that I could advance far in the consolation bracket and ended up having a better record than in the last two years."

Bertino owns another impressive streak by winning three-consecutive sectional singles titles to qualify for state in each of her initial three seasons. She only dropped one game apiece during her final two matches at the St. Francis Sectional.

That came right after she finished in first place in the East Suburban Catholic Conference championship at first singles. It also marked the second year in a row that she was named as the conference's Player of the Year.

"The sectional to me is the most scary tournament since you're trying to qualify, but I tend to play good under pressure," Bertino said. "And here were some tough matches in the conference and I got some good wins. I definitely worked hard in the offseason and I'm kind of used to the high school season and am familiar with my opponents."

It also hasn't hurt Bertino that her sister, Nina, was a four-time tennis state qualifier for the Angels who graduated just before Mia started at the school. She is currently a member of the women's tennis team at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Before turning her attention back to tennis in the spring, Bertino will once again be a regular on the Angels' girls basketball team, which she's done since her freshman year.

"It definitely helps to have siblings that you can play with because I can hit with them," Bertino said. "And a lot of people play tennis all year around, but I think that basketball and tennis compliment each other, like with the foot work."

During her final season at JCA, Bertino hopes to become one of the area's few medalists in the sport. The Angels' only medal winners have been the Class 1A champion doubles team of Maddie Bauer and McCoy Hutchison in 2016 and Jenny Karges, who was fourth in singles in 1988 for St. Francis Academy.

"Next year is my senior year so I definitely have to kick it into gear in this offseason," said Bertino, who has a 4,8 GPA while enrolled in AP and honors classes. "But I have a lot of confidence and I'm excited."

Tyler Eakle, a JCA graduate who is the Angels' head coach, is very happy to have a player like Bertino leading way for his program.

"It's a lot of fun to watch her play," Eakle said. "When there's other matches going on, I have such confidence in Mia that some times you're not really watching her as closely as other matches. But to see how she holds herself on the court and how she goes about what she's supposed to be doing, it's great to have her here.

"She'll have some off-spans of a few minutes, but she'll figure it out. We've had times where she wasn't playing as well as she wanted to, but then in a game or two, she's back to where we all know that she can be.

"We had three captains this year with two seniors and Mia, and she was an outstanding captain. She was leading off practices and talking to everyone at the end of practice to get us out on a good note. So she really stepped up a lot for us in practice, as well."