The Fenwick girls tennis team finished third overall out of the 11 teams at the East Suburban Catholic Conference Meet. Benet won the conference with 94 points, while the Friars garnered 76.
The third doubles team of Christina Janda and Maggie Saltiel advanced to the championship with a win over Providence, but fell to Benet 6-1,6-4 in the final.
Alison Seyfarth and Colleen Bingle defeated Nazareth’s Mary Hoglund and Natalie Bell in the third-place match of first doubles by coming back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
In the medal round of No. 2 singles, Rachel Canfora battled back to defeat Carmel’s Sophia Kannenberg 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.
First singles player Aymsley Upp lost a three-hour match in the opening round Friday to the eventual third-place finisher Jackie Marx of St. Viator. Upp went on to win two consolation rounds before falling to Marist’s Shea Hennessy 6-3, 6-3 in the consolation final to finish sixth overall.
The Friars now turn their attention to qualifying for state by doing well at this weekend’s York Sectional.
“It’s almost the same group of teams as last year’s Proviso West Sectional, so being a bit stronger this year, we’re shooting to get two doubles through again, with a singles player for good measure,” said Fenwick head coach Gerard Sullivan.
Sullivan added that he’s hoping for a top-four seed for Upp, as well as Seyfarth and Canfora in doubles action. Seyfarth and Canfora have a 3-0 record and Canfora was a state-qualifier in 2007, going 1-2 in doubles.
