Girls Tennis: Skyler Saelens, Julia Borgstrom help lead Morris to 1st sectional title since 2015

LA SALLE – Morris sophomore Skyler Saelens and junior Julia Borgstrom battle against each other every day in tennis practice.

But during Monday’s completion of the weather-delayed Class 1A La Salle-Peru Sectional, the pair of singles players were looking across the net from one another as opponents.

Saelens and Borgstrom advanced to face each other for the singles championship, with Saelens earning a 6-1, 6-1 victory that also helped Morris capture a first sectional title since 2015.

Morris finished with 28 points, Ottawa runner-up with 23, and La Sale-Peru and Pontiac tied for third with 12 each. All participating players on Monday had already qualified for the state meet.

“I don’t ever remember anyone mentioning the last (Morris) sectional championship in girls tennis, but I guess we can now.”

—  Morris junior tennis player Julia Borgstrom

“I guess I’m just super competitive whether its practice or matches,” said Saelens, who along with Borgstrom will be making a first trip to the state meet. “I play to win no matter what. I will say playing Julia was less pressure, I think just because we both knew we were advancing to state, we knew we were going to win the sectional as a team and also, she’s my teammate. In practice against each other it’s always pretty even between us, so I guess today was my turn. It could have gone either way.

“I feel like we both tried to enjoy the experience, but it was definitely the most surreal match I’ve ever played.”

Saelens advanced to the final with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Coal City’s Abby Stiles, while Borgstrom defeated Ottawa’s Layne Krug 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals.

“It didn’t really hit me until late in the match, like ‘This is real, this is a real match,’ because I’m just so used to playing Skyler in practice every day,” Borgstrom said. “I know we both wanted to win, but honestly, it was hard for me to mentally play as if I was playing someone other than my teammate. I will say that if I had to lose to someone, I’ll take losing to Skyler in a sectional championship every time.

“The biggest key to the outcome was simply Skyler was just the more consistent player. She kept the ball inbounds, she kept rallies going, and I struggled to match how well she played.

“It been awhile. I don’t ever remember anyone mentioning the last [Morris] sectional championship in girls tennis, but I guess we can now.”

Stiles rebounded for a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) win over Krug in the third-place match.

Ottawa seniors Rylee O’Fallon and Emma Cushing have been friends since first grade, played as a doubles team as sophomores, and both advanced to state last year: O’Fallon in doubles with Jenna Smithmeyer; Cushing as a singles player.

O’Fallon and Cushing topped Morris’ Meghan Bzdill and Shreya Patel 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals, then defeated Pontiac’s Brooke Burger and Olivia Masching 6-1, 6-1 in the championship match.

“I think we were both frustrated on Saturday after sitting for five hours, then warming up for the semifinal and then being called off the court just before we were going to start,” O’Fallon said. “I kind of wish we’d been able to finish things on Saturday to have more time to prepare for state, but I guess I also feel we now won’t have as much time off in between and hopefully still be in a groove.”

Cushing said returning to a doubles team took some time to get used to, but it didn’t take too long.

“It definitely feels different,” Cushing said. “Our first match this year, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh’, but it was just getting used to playing doubles again. When we played Morris during the regular season, Rylee and I played singles that day, so we didn’t really know what to expect from [Bzdill and Patel].

“We had to make some adjustments because of the number of slices they use, but I think we did a good job of doing what we needed to do to win.”

Ottawa’s Makenzie Eichelkraut and Zulee Moreland, after dropping a 6-1, 6-1 decision to Burger and Masching in the semifinals, came back to win the third-place match 6-3, 6-4 over Bzdill and Patel.

Pairings and locations for the state finals are expected to be released Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.