Oak Park and River Forest High School freshman Lucy Stein put forth a very solid effort in the IHSA girls tennis state finals, Oct. 19-21, in Buffalo Grove.
In her opening match, she defeated Elizabeth Dahiza of New Trier 6-2, 6-0, then rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Paulina Masherava of Vernon Hills in the second round.
After losing her third-round match to Riley Lepsi of Wheaton-Warrenville South 5-7, 2-6, Stein notched two consecutive wins in the consolation bracket: 8-1 over Rina Matsunaga of Glenbrook North and 8-1 over Maya Kasza of Lane Tech. Her run ended in the consolation quarterfinals with a 2-8 defeat to Lake Forest’s Isabelle Chang.
Stein, OPRF’s only state finals participant, amassed six points to give the Huskies a tie for 24th in the team standings.
Fenwick
In its first season in Class 2A, Fenwick High School, which won last year’s Class 1A championship, put forth a credible showing, finishing in a tie for 11th place at the state finals with 11 points.
Junior Lily Brecknock, last year’s 1A champion, had a good run this year. She defeated Laila Browne of Sandburg, 6-1, 6-2, in the first round, then blanked Edwardsville’s Gabriella Hill, 6-0, 6-0, in the second round.
Brecknock lost her third-round match, 4-6, 0-6, to New Trier’s Madison Liu. However, she bounced back, winning her next two matches in the consolation bracket: 8-2 over Glenbrook South’s Sophia Denizov and 8-4 over Glenbrook North’s Katelyn Wu.
In the consolation quarterfinals, Brecknock lost 3-8 to Helena Klooster of Marist.
The Friars’ top doubles pairing of senior Trinity Hardin and junior Megan Trifilio also participated in the state finals. The duo rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 first-round victory over Lilliam Dockal and Emily Halat of Maine West, then edged past Libertyville’s Hadley Warren and Taya Breslow 7-6 (9-7 in tiebreaker), 6-1 in the second round.
Hardin and Trifilio lost their third-round match, 0-6, 0-6, to New Trier’s Coco Zabel and Julia Ludwig. In the consolation bracket, the duo knocked off Olivia Reynolds and Julia Wojtowicz of Peoria Richwoods 8-2, but lost their last match 1-8 to Deerfield’s Valentina Bellagamba and Liza Gleyzer.