The Times Area Roundup: Rains pause L-P Sectional girls tennis; Fieldcrest football scores fourth win

GIRLS TENNIS

Ottawa sending multiple players to state: At Peru, weather wreaked havoc on the schedule at the the Class 1A La Salle-Peru Sectional on Friday and Saturday.

Some of Friday’s matches were moved indoors and the sectional was unable to get through the quarterfinal round, which typically happens on the first day of sectionals.

On Saturday, weather delayed the start until 1 p.m. with five quarterfinal matches left to be played.

The quarterfinals were completed, but rain began to fall during the semifinals, which caused the rest of the sectional to be postponed until 1 p.m. Monday.

Ottawa and Morris both had three entrants reach the semifinals to qualify for state. Ottawa and Morris also were locked in a tight battle for the sectional title, with Morris having the upper hand with a four-point lead entering the semifinal round.

Both of the Pirates’ doubles teams qualified for state.

Rylee O’Fallon and Emma Cushing, the No. 1 seed, won two matches Friday morning to advance to the semifinals and were warming up for the semi when the postponement happened.

O’Fallon and Cushing beat Pontiac’s Holli Vuong and Olivia Bonnivier in the quarterfinals.

No. 2-seeded Makenzie Eichelkraut and Zulee Moreland topped Morris’ Callie Fulkerson and Ava Conley 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

For Morris, Meghan Bzdill and Shreya Patel won 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 over L-P’s Kylee Halm and Cali Mickley in the quarters.

In the semis, O’Fallon and Cushing will play Bzdill and Patel, while Eichelkraut and Moreland will face Pontiac’s Brooke Burger and Olivia Masching.

In singles, Ottawa’s Layne Krug defeated L-P’s Eva Cervantes 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semifinals.

Morris had both singles entrants qualify for state as No. 1-seeded Julia Borgstrom beat Streator’s Danielle Sterner 6-0, 6-0 and Skyler Saelens defeated St. Bede’s Bailey Engels 6-0, 6-1.

In the semis, Borgstrom will play Krug, while Saelens will face Coal City’s Abby Stiles, who advanced with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Streator’s Rheagan Goluba in the quarters.

Football

Fieldcrest 38, Alton-Marquette 12: At Alton, the visiting Knights kept their playoff hopes alive, moving to 4-4 with the dominating road victory. Fieldcrest led 22-0 after one quarter and 30-0 by halftime. Koltin Kearfott had a 12-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.

Eddie Lorton ran for 135 yards and two TDs of 18 carries. Brady Ruestman completed 4-of-5 passes for 107 yards and one TD, adding a 35-yard rushing touchdown. Jozia Johnson caught two passes for 52 yards and a touchdown, with Modro adding a pair of receptions for 39 yards. Lucas Anson added a pick-six to Fieldcrest’s scoring.

Fieldcrest is at LeRoy (7-1) Friday night.

Boys soccer

IVC 5, Earlville 1: In the 1A Port Byron Riverdale Regional, the Red Raiders saw their season halted with the loss.

Griffin Cook scored on a penalty kick for the lone goal for Earlville (14-5-1).

Girls volleyball

Newark runner-up in Moldenhauer: At Bradley-Bourbonnais’ Moldenhauer Classic, Newark posted a 3-1 record led by Kiara Wesseh (23 kills, 49 digs), Elle Norquist (51 digs), Lauren Ulrich (75 assists, 15 kills, six aces) and Kodi Rizzo (16 kills, six blocks, seven aces) to finish second.

Ulrich and Wesseh were both all-tournament selections for Newark, which fell to the hosts 30-29, 25-17 in the championship.

Seneca posted a 2-2 record in the Moldenhauer, with Faith Baker named all-tournament.

Streator 2-1-1 in Mendota: In the Mendota Invitational, Streator scored its 20th win of the season by going 2-1-1 with a loss to Annawan, split with Ottawa and wins over Mendota and Putnam County.

Rilee Talty (42 digs), Devin Elias (14 kills), Emma Rambo (15 kills, five aces, 75 assists), Sonia Proksa (26 kills, 10 digs), Alexa Jacobs (17 kills, four blocks) and Sophia Pence (17 kills, eight aces, 21 digs) led the Bulldog Spikers (20-9-2).

Girls cross country

Ottawa 4th at I-8 Meet: At Morris, the Pirates placed fourth of five teams at the Interstate 8 Conference Meet. Shaylen Quinn (11th, 21:30.63) and Addyson Miller (13th, 21:37.25) scored top-15 finishes for Ottawa.

Streator 4th at ICE Meet: At The Eastwood, host Streator was fourth of four teams in the Illinois Central Eight Conference Meet, its top finish Lily Kupec’s run to 20th in 24:41.58.

Sandwich 2nd at KRC Meet: At Emricson Park, the Indians used a first-place finish of 18:56.07 from Sundara Weber — more than two minutes better than the runner-up — and Emily Urbanski’s seventh-place 22:19.67 to finish second in the seven-team Kishwaukee River Conference Meet.

Fieldcrest 6th in HOIC Meet: At Eureka Lake, Fieldcrest was sixth of six teams in the Heart of Illinois Conference Meet, with Claire Phillips (18th, 21:06.70) posting the Knights’ top finish.

Boys cross country

Bulldogs 4th at ICE Meet: At The Eastwood, host Streator was fourth of four teams in the Illinois Central Eight Conference Meet. The Bulldogs’ top finish was Chase Lane’s 19th-place run of 19:32.96.

Indians 5th at KRC Meet: At Emricson Park, Sandwich finished fifth in the six-team Kishwaukee River Conference Meet. Max Cryer (9th, 18:44.91) and Alex Walsh (11th, 18:49.27) led the Indians.

Krischel 7th at HOIC Meet: At Eureka Lake, Fieldcrest’s Caleb Krischel was 7th with a time of 16:13.20 in the Heart of Illinois Conference Meet. The Knights did not field a full team.

IESA cross country

Shepherd/Central runners run to state: A pair of runners from the fledgling Ottawa Shepherd/Central cross country program qualified for and ran at the IESA Class 3A State Meet on Saturday.

Atlas Brown (148th, 12:47.2) in the boys race and Savannah Markey (208th, 15:25.9) in the girls race were the third-year program’s state qualifiers.