Winning a West Suburban Conference Silver Division championship in girls tennis is almost as impressive as taking home a IHSA state title.
Oak Park and River Forest High School girls tennis coach Fred Galluzzo certainly knows how difficult achieving success is in the Silver each season.
“Hinsdale Central finished first, Lyons Township second and Glenbard West fourth in the state last year,” Galluzzo said about the Huskies’ main conference rivals. “Three of the state’s top finishers from 2016 are in our conference.”
OPRF tied with eight other teams for 30th at the 2016 state finals. That’s a good result by most conference standards. Then again, the West Suburban Silver isn’t like most conferences.
“It’s a little intimidating,” said Sophia Kreider about OPRF’s conference opponents, “but we’re also a strong team. It’s great to play the top competition in the state.”
Overall, the Huskies are off to a good start with a 5-2 record in dual matches.
“So far we’ve had a good run,” Galluzzo said. “We’ve had a good dual-meet season up to this point. It sounds crazy to say, but I would say the highlight has been our match against Lyons Township. It was a good showing (OPRF lost 4-3) and very competitive.”
“This week, we’re facing Whitney Young, Hinsdale Central and Fenwick before heading to the Prospect Tournament,” Galluzzo said. “We had good showings at the season-opening New Trier and Deerfield Tournaments and we were able to establish our lineups for the season.”
With postseason play only a few weeks away, it’s beneficial the Huskies have their lineup in order.
Emma Proctor and Andrea Krunic are the first and second singles players, respectively, with Elyse Kanagandram also playing well.
“I have high hopes for Elyse,” Galluzzo said. “She’s been coming on strong and she’s going to be tough going forward.”
Kreider and Maya Jamroz comprise the top doubles team for OPRF, followed by Hannah Keidan and Jane Belcaster at No. 2 doubles and Marguerite Kosterman and Grace Medina at No. 3 doubles. To some extent, the doubles pairings are interchangeable and could rotate in terms of their order. The bottom line is OPRF has valued depth in doubles with six solid players.
According to Kreider, chemistry between partners is a must in order to be an effective doubles team.
“Communication with your partner is definitely important,” Kreider said. “Being able to bring each other’s spirits up is also vital because if you feel down, it brings your level of play down.”
Kreider draws inspiration from the recent US Open, in which all the semifinalists in the women’s draw were Americans. Sloane Stephens defeated Madison Keys 6-3, 6-0 in the championship match.
“Those ladies all work hard and put lots of effort into it. They focused on the task at hand and just went for it,” Kreider said. “Sometimes when I’m not playing well, I remind myself that I need to relax, just be myself and go for it.”
The Huskies are relatively young. The growing pains of last season have hastened the team’s development this fall.
“We’re much more experienced at doubles,” Galluzzo said. “We had several ladies that dealt with the pressure of the state tournament (last season). Sophia, Maya, Hannah, Emma and Grace all gained valuable experience.”
Keidan also believes the team is better off this season.
“We understand each other better,” she said. “Practices have been good and we’ve been working well together.”
Considering Hinsdale Central has won the most state championships (17) in state history, OPRF concedes winning conference is virtually impossible. The Red Devils also claim nine runner-up and six third-place showings at the state finals.
“It sounds ridiculous, but in our conference we’d like to finish second,” Galluzzo said. “Hinsdale is the class by far, so we want to beat out Lyons Township and Glenbard West for second place.
“Of course, we would love to win our sectional (OPRF hosts a Class 2A sectional this season). It’s going to be a challenge. We would love to qualify our top two singles players as well as our top two doubles teams.”
Once the playoffs start, a team’s seeding can play a major role in its chances for a high finish at state.
“Once we get to state, it’s going to be a matter of seeding,” Galluzzo said. “When we went to two classes last year, the draw was cut to 64 which means only the top 16 are seeded. That also means several good singles players and doubles teams are going to be unseeded.
“While a top 10 finish in the state isn’t out of the question, lots of things will have to go just right for that to happen.”