With three weeks to go before the girls tennis All-City competition on Oct. 1, Kankakee hosted Bradley-Bourbonnais on Wednesday for a preview.

The Boilermakers picked up wins in three of four singles matches and three of four doubles matches, earning a 6-2 victory over the crosstown rivals and showing no indication that their decades-long reign as All-City champs will be surrendered without a fight next month.

Senior Mary Claire Dwyer was victorious at No. 1 singles, taking down Kankakee’s Charisma Hill 6-2, 6-0. She said she has been happy with the team as well as in her play early on in the season.

“I really like our team this year, and I feel like we have a good lineup,” Dwyer said. “I feel like I played pretty well today. I’m always wanting to work on my serve and work to be just a little bit more consistent, because other schools in our conference are really good and they train year round.”

The longest match of the day was at No. 2 singles, where the Boilermakers picked up another win thanks to sophomore Lauren Fischer.

She won a tough first set 7-5 before Kankakee’s Samantha Medina rebounded to take the second set 6-3. Fischer then pulled away to win the tiebreaker 10-4.

“I feel good, and I feel like we all picked up a lot more than we put down,” she said. “Our team goal is for everyone to keep working hard and playing hard, and my personal goal is to do the same.”

Bradley-Bourbonnais also got a singles win from No. 3 Jordynn Ryan. Lillian Myrick and Madyson Bittles won at No. 2 doubles, Aurora Ramos and Eva Mancenido Anton won at No. 3 doubles and Bella Beaver and Natalia Grabow-Foote won at No. 4 doubles.

Head coach Tyler Bontrager said its been nice to see how the team has been performing to this point.

“I’m really encouraged by how our girls are fighting on the court,” he said. “They never give up, they never sell themselves. They’re out there trying hard the entire time, and I can’t ask for more than that... We have a great group of girls that are there for each other, so to continue to see that would be great. Then we’ll see where we are at the end of the season.”

The Boilermakers will head to the Lincoln-Way East Invite on Saturday before visiting Lincoln-Way Central on Sept. 16. The following day, they’ll host Bishop McNamara for another All-City preview.

Kankakee’s singles win came from freshman Samantha Paquette at No. 4 while the experienced doubles team of senior Mishelle Gaytan and junior Ava Nelson grabbed a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles.

It is the duo’s third season as doubles partners, and Gaytan said they hope to finish out the rest of the season as strong as they can.

“I’ve just been trying to do my best this year, especially since it’s my last season here,” Gaytan said. “I think we have a good chance of winning at conference, and maybe even winning doubles at All-City just on the results from this game.”

Nelson said that the experience the pair has on the court together has helped them improve over the last few seasons.

“As the years go by, we definitely have a stronger bond,” Nelson said. “From my freshman year to now, we definitely have grown together in many ways. It definitely helps having a consistent partner.”

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Bradley-Bourbonnais' Haley O'Malley makes a return hit in a doubles match against Kankakee on Wednesday, September 10, 2025. (Nicholas Holstein for Shaw Local)

Kankakee assistant Jeremy Ahlden said he was enthused by the team’s performance Wednesday and thought there was plenty to build on going forward.

“Our No. 1 doubles played great today,” he said. “They were very consistent, along with our singles. ...Overall, the team is just going to continue to improve. We’ll be happy to see (Bradley-Bourbonnais) at All-City, and hopefully have a different result.”

The Kays have a busy conference schedule over the next two weeks, with a nonconference visit to Watseka in between on Sept. 17, before hosting Bishop McNamara on Sept. 24.