Girls Tennis: Oswego East 'really proud' of second-place finish at conference meet

AURORA – Oswego East’s four seniors all medaled but the Wolves came up just short to Minooka in Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference tennis meet in Aurora.

The Indians edged Oswego East and West Aurora, 32-29, while the Blackhawks possessed the tiebreaker having slipped past Oswego East, 4-3, in a dual earlier this fall.

“This is the point of the year where I’ve got to remember missing seniors and moving forward and we’ve got a great group of them,” Wolves coach Pete Conrad said. “All my seniors got medals at conference. You always want to win, but this is probably one of the best second-place finishes we’ve ever had. I’m really proud of them.”

It was just the third time in 10 years that the Wolves weren’t crowned champions and the first time in 14 years that the Indians are reigning supreme in the SPC.

Oswego East earned three first-place finishes, including at No. 1 singles with Makayla Buenafe, who cruised past Minooka, 6-0, 6-0 in the final.

“I focused really hard on just trying to get the win for my team and getting that mentality going by starting off strong and not making any mistakes and stuff like that,” Buenafe said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more from the girls. They played as hard as they could. I’m kind of sad it’s over.”

Her four years have gone by like a Serena Williams serve.

“You’re kind of in denial realizing the four years have gone by so fast,” Buenafe said. “I just go out there with the mentality every time on the court to play the best I can possibly can so you have no regrets.”

No. 1 doubles Crystal Hwang and Jasmine Chen remained undefeated for the Wolves after a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Minooka.

“A lot of people tell us that in individual sports you don’t affect each other, but on the court we’re playing for our teammates,” Hwang said. “It’s nice to beat the other team, but we’re contributing to the whole team and want to win together.”

No. 2 singles Ella Funk took third place for the Wolves, while their No. 3 doubles team of Sofia Calafos and Kate Lindsay upended Minooka with a 7-5 victory in the opening set before falling 6-4, 6-1.

No. 4 doubles Molly Gardner and Gloria Echegoyen also won for the Wolves, beating Plainfield North, 6-1, 6-4.

Gardner’s just a freshman and Echegoyen is a senior, but the two have been a great pairing this fall.

“It’s been really fun to play with her,” Gardner said. “It was scary because I was one of the only freshmen on varsity so it was intimidating, but she’s so good. She’s helped me get through it. It’s going to be sad without her next year.”

Said Echegoyen: “It’s really crazy. This is the best we’ve done. It’s been great. I’m really proud.”

The conference title may have eluded the Wolves this time, but their season still has been a winning one.

“We were down in our numbers, lower than ever before and a couple girls chose not to do tennis as a COVID precaution, so all the girls stepped up this year,” Conrad said. “We had more regular season losses this year than at any point since I’ve been coaching here so to be at the conference tournament on the last day, one match away from winning it, I’m incredibly happy.”

Yorkville saw a couple of its singles players secure medals, and they had to battle some adversity to do so.

Senior Sarah Pankow transitioned from No. 2 to No. 1 singles this year and acknowledged it’s been challenging.

“It wasn’t my best season, but I’m proud of myself for how I’ve performed and with the adjusting to first singles,” she said. “I was really off (on Wednesday) so it felt really good to come out today and win.”

Her teammate Nicola Betz was inspired by a rally and an upset victory against Oswego East on Wednesday and it propelled her to third place in No. 2 singles.

“I dug a big hole and she was beating me 3-0 (in the third set) so I had to motivate myself and my goal was to get to the next round,” Betz said. “I didn’t want to throw my season away with one bad match so I talked to coach (Frank) Yabsley and he told me what to do and that really helped.”