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Sports
Bright outcome on a rainy day : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisBright outcome on a rainy day
| Oswego East doubles finish among state's top 16
| by Kristin Sharp
| 10/29/2009
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Rain dampened the opening rounds of the IHSA girls tennis state tournament, but that didn't stop senior Jourdan Jackson and sophomore Kylee Jackson.
The Oswego East doubles team won its first three matches last Thursday and Friday to reach the fourth round before falling to Lake Forest. State tournament rules state that the consolation tournament will only be played if weather permits. Due to the lack of indoor courts available, the consolation tournament was canceled, eliminating players after one loss.
Jourdan Jackson and Kylee Jackson finished with a 33-2 overall record, finishing 3-1 at the state tournament to uphold their seed in the top 16.
"They had a great finish," Oswego East head coach Mike Dutton said. "They were seeded in the top 16 and finished in the top 16. With last year's record, they finished with a combined record of 65-4 in two years. That's amazing."
The Oswego East pair was originally scheduled to open play last Thursday at Hoffman Estates High School, but rain forced the tournament to move indoors. The Jackson sisters traveled to the South Barrington Tennis Club where they met Effingham St. Anthony's Kathleen Kay and Anna Mitchell where they picked up a 6-2, 6-2 win.
On Friday, the players advanced to the second round - also played indoors - and defeated Lincoln-Way East's Lauren Casey and Tara Casey 6-2, 6-2.
"They saw the Casey sisters just a few weeks earlier and Lincoln-Way East Invite and beat them in three sets. I think they were upset about just losing to Homewood-Flossmoor. It shouldn't have gone to three sets, and this time I think the girls wanted to show what the match really should have been the first time," Dutton said.
The Jackson sisters played their most exciting match in the third round with a dramatic 6-4, 6-4 win over Whitney Young's Gabrielle Moore and Ekaterina Ushakova.
"Ekaterina had a great serve. She even aced Jourdan once," Dutton said. "We were up 5-0 on them in the second set and the Whitney Young girls just came back. They had nothing to lose at that point. It was a really exciting match."
Oswego East moved into the fourth round and met Lake Forest's Faith Bassiouny and Taya Zourbareva, which were seeded in the 5-8 group. The Wolves' run came to an end with a 6-0, 6-3 loss. Lake Forest's team went on to the quarterfinals and upset top-seeded Barrington 6-3, 6-3. They eventually finished third overall, and Lake Forest as a team placed third in the team standings.
"Those girls were really aggressive," Dutton said of Lake Forest's doubles team. "You think that if we could have beat them, we might have beat Barrington too. You never know."
Oswego East sophomore Kelly Zaprzal also competed in the state tournament, traveling to Deerfield to meet New Trier's Anna Kaplan in the first round of singles play. Zaprzal lost 6-3, 6-0 to be eliminated from the bracket.
"The scores were not indicative of how close the match was. It was a much better match," Dutton said.
Oswego junior Bre Vergonet also competed in the singles state tournament, traveling to Five Seasons in Northbrook
Vergonet traveled to Five Seasons in Northbrook to play Downers Grove South's Jenny Hois, who was seeded in the 5-8 group. Hois defeated Vergonet 6-1, 6-0 and won her next two matches before being eliminated in the fourth round.
"Playing inside was a disadvantage to Bre," Oswego head coach Kristin Clark said. "Jenny Hois had four or five different serves and one of them kicked straight off into the curtain and Bre just couldn't get to it. It was an unfair advantage. There's nothing you could do about it, but if it was outside maybe Bre could have got to some of those serves.
"She was disappointed about pulling the No. 6 seed and with no backdraw that was a huge upset to her, but there's so much you can take away from being in the state tournament," Clark continued. "You know there is room for improvement and goals to set for next year. The college scouts are out there looking for good tennis players in Illinois too. She's already talking about how she can't wait until next year."
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