Dixon girls win first sectional tennis title since 2005: Saturday’s Sauk Valley roundup

Girls tennis

Dixon wins sectional title: Dixon won the Class 1A Rochelle Sectional title with 26 team points on Saturday. It was Dixon’s first sectional tennis title since 2005 as the Duchesses got over the hump after placing second by two points last year.

Grace Ferguson and Addison Arjes both qualified for state singles after reaching the semifinals on Friday. Ferguson won the singles title 6-0, 6-0 over Arjes.

Dixon’s Arielle Tefiku and Jenna Mustapha fell in their second match 6-3, 7-6 (3) to a duo from Rockford Lutheran. Brooklyn Arjes and Rachel Lance also helped Dixon’s cause with a doubles win before falling in their second match 3-6, 6-4, 5-2.

Sterling’s Aitken back to state: Sterling senior Ellie Aitken qualified for state singles for the fourth straight year after reaching the semifinals in Friday’s Class 1A Geneseo Sectional.

She fell 6-4, 7-5 to Dunlap’s Alassea Michel in the semifinals before winning the third-place match 6-2, 6-1 over Geneseo’s Addison Snodgrass.

Dunlap (28 points) won the team title and Geneseo (15) was second. Newman (4) was fifth.

Volleyball

Eastland 4-1 at Linda Ludwig Tournament: Eastland beat Orangeville 21-7, 13-21, 15-11; Newman 21-9, 21-7; Rock Falls 21-9, 21-9; Riverdale 21-18, 21-19; and fell to Stockton 25-21, 25-23 at its home tournament.

Stockton went 5-0 to win the tournament.

Trixie Carroll (55 kills, nine aces), Olivia Klinefelter (nine aces, 25 kills) and Morgan McCullough (51 digs) earned all-tournament for Eastland (23-9).

Milledgeville (20-8) went 3-2 at the tournament as Kendra Kingsby made all-tournament after 41 kills, four aces and 35 digs.

Oregon’s Madi Shaffer also made all-tournament.

Rock Falls went 2-3 as Miley Bickett had 77 assists and 37 digs.

West Carroll 1-3 at Pecatonica tourney: The Thunder fell in straight sets to Scales Mound, Pecatonica and North Boone before beating Warren 12-21, 21-19, 15-10.

Boys soccer

Sterling 4, Orion-Sherrard 0: The Golden Warriors advanced to Wednesday’s Class 2A Geneseo Regional semifinal to face top-seeded Dunlap at 5 p.m. Dixon takes on Geneseo in the following game at Geneseo Middle School.

Marian Central Catholic 2, Oregon 0: The fourth-seeded Hawks closed the season 11-11-2 after falling in the Class 1A Marian Regional semifinals. Fifth-seeded Marian advances to Tuesday’s regional final against top-seeded Richmond-Burton.

Boys cross country

Amboy second at NUIC meet: Amboy’s 66 points were second to East Dubuque (30) and Forreston (70) took third. West Carroll (107) took fifth, led by a third-place finish by Roscoe Davies (17:13.45). Andrew Richardson of ED won the race in 16:44.27.

Henry Nichols (17:47.6) led Amboy with a fifth-place finish and Atticus Horner (18:41.84) was 10th.

Noah Genandt (18:24.33) took ninth for the Cardinals and Landon Graden was 12th.

Morrison’s Isaiah McDearmon (18:07.1) took seventh.

Girls cross country

Morrison’s Christin takes first at NUIC meet: Morrison junior Emma Christin was overall medalist in Saturday’s conference meet with a time of 22:23, winning the race by 23 seconds.

East Dubuque (28) won the team title, with Eastland (70) in third, followed by Amboy (73) and Forreston (89).

Adelle Wilkinson (23:29) took fifth and Deyanise Nieves (23:41) was sixth for Eastland.

Addison Pertell (24:30) and Natalie Pratt (24:46) were 11th and 12th for Amboy.

Hayden Harvey’s 14th-place finish in 25:03 led Forreston.