April 29, 2024
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Youth tennis: Team Westwood places 7th at USTA meet in Indianapolis

La Salle-Peru’s Andrew Bollis, L-P graduate Carlie Miller contribute to strong finish

By Ty Reynolds
The Westwood Tennis Center’s Junior Team Tennis program had two teams qualify for the Midwest Sectional Championship, as the 18U and 14U teams played July 14-16 in Indianapolis. The teams consisted of players from various area high schools, including Dixon, Sterling, Newman, LaSalle-Peru and Geneseo. Back row, from left: assistant coach AJ Segneri, Logan Palmer (Newman HS), Brecken Peterson (Sterling HS), Andrew Bollis (L-P HS), Alex Slaymaker (Geneseo HS), Ellie Aitken (Sterling HS), Carlie Miller (L-P HS), Addison Arjes (Dixon HS), Grace Ferguson (Dixon HS), and head coach Jake Lipka. Front row, from left: Aron Rivera (Challand MS), Joel Rhodes (Newman HS), Micah Peterson (Challand MS), Jenna Mustapha (Reagan MS), Brooklyn Arjes (Dixon HS) and Rachel Lance (Dixon HS).

The Westwood Tennis Center’s Junior Team Tennis program had two teams qualify for the Midwest Sectional Championship, as the 18U and 14U teams played July 14-16 in Indianapolis. The teams consisted of players from various area high schools, including Dixon, Sterling, Newman, LaSalle-Peru and Geneseo. Back row, from left: assistant coach AJ Segneri, Logan Palmer (Newman HS), Brecken Peterson (Sterling HS), Andrew Bollis (L-P HS), Alex Slaymaker (Geneseo HS), Ellie Aitken (Sterling HS), Carlie Miller (L-P HS), Addison Arjes (Dixon HS), Grace Ferguson (Dixon HS), and head coach Jake Lipka. Front row, from left: Aaron Rivera (Challand MS), Joel Rhodes (Newman HS), Micah Peterson (Challand MS), Jenna Mustapha (Reagan MS), Brooklyn Arjes (Dixon HS) and Rachel Lance (Dixon HS). (Photo provided by Breanne Hunter)

A group of local tennis players finished a strong summer with their best performance yet. Team Westwood placed seventh at the United States Tennis Association’s Junior Team Tennis Midwest Sectional last month in Indianapolis.

Westwood’s 18U team, made up of eight players from Sterling, Dixon, Newman, Geneseo and La Salle-Peru high schools, earned its highest finish at the tournament in its fifth time qualifying for the event. The team won a regional tournament on its home courts at Westwood, then defeated teams from the Chicago suburbs at a district tournament in Crystal Lake at the end of June to earn a berth at the tournament.

The team tournament consists of eight players competing in five matches per dual. There is a boys singles match, a girls singles match, a boys doubles match, a girls doubles match and a mixed doubles match. Each game won in those matches accumulates to the total score for each team.

The first two days of the three-day tournament consist of pool play. The top four finishers from each six-team pool advance to Day 3, which features the championship bracket for the top two teams from each pool and the consolation bracket for the third- and fourth-place finishers in each bracket.

Team Westwood finished fourth in its pool with 82 points but was only four points away from winning it; the top two teams each scored 85 points, and the third-place team finished with 83.

That put Westwood in the seventh-place match in the consolation bracket, and they won that with another strong showing on the final day – and they did it for the first time in the advanced division, after previously playing in the intermediate division.

“Me and AJ Segneri, my assistant coach, were pretty impressed,” said coach Jake Lipka, a La Salle-Peru alumnus. “We didn’t have the highest expectations to compete for the win, but that’s really what they did. They just came up a few games short, but it’s our best finish; the other four times we qualified, we finished 13th, 13th, 12th and 10th.”

LaSalle-Peru grad and two-time NewsTribune Girls Tennis Player of the Year Carlie Miller played girls singles and L-P’s Andrew Bollis joined Sterling junior Ellie Aitken to play mixed doubles.

Miller finished 4-1 in girls singles at the tournament and enjoyed her final meet with Team Westwood. The former Cavalier also played for the Sterling club last year, and will play at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“It was definitely a very interesting and fun experience,” she said. “You get to see a lot of different types of players, and a different level of competition that you don’t see that often in a small town, so it really pushed me. We went in with no expectations, just the mindset that whatever happens, happens, as long as we did our best.

“It was a really good way to close out the summer, and it prepared me for higher levels of competition in college. And not only that, it was super fun, a really good bonding experience with all these kids that I’ve played with for the last two summers. We grew so much as a team, and I’m really happy with how it all went.”

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