Youth tennis: Team Westwood places 7th in Indianapolis

A group of local tennis players finished a strong summer with their best performance yet. Team Westwood placed seventh at the United States Tennis Association’s Junior Team Tennis Midwest Sectional last month in Indianapolis.

Westwood’s 18U team, made up of eight players from Sterling, Dixon, Newman, Geneseo and LaSalle-Peru high schools, earned its highest-ever finish at the tournament, in its fifth time qualifying for the event. The team won a regional tournament on its home courts at Westwood, then defeated teams from the Chicago suburbs at a district tournament in Crystal Lake at the end of June to earn a berth at the tournament.

“It was really fun, and it was neat to see how far we’ve come,” Sterling rising junior Ellie Aitken said. “We had mostly a similar team from last year, and it was really cool to see us do better than what we did last year. It was a unique experience, but it was really a blast. We had so much fun as a team.”

The team tournament consists of eight players competing in five matches per dual. There is a boys singles match, a girls singles match, a boys doubles match, a girls doubles match, and a mixed doubles match. Each game won in those matches accumulates to the total score for each team.

The first two days of the three-day tournament consist of pool play. The top four finishers from each six-team pool advance to Day 3, which features the championship bracket for the top two teams from each pool and the consolation bracket for the third- and fourth-place finishers in each bracket.

Team Westwood finished fourth in its pool with 82 points, but was only four points away from winning it; the top two teams each scored 85 points, and the third-place team finished with 83.

“It was really crazy. We were in every match, there wasn’t one where we were blown out,” Sterling rising senior Brecken Peterson said. “If a couple of things would’ve gone our way, we could’ve been playing for the championship. We all played really well, and it was fun to see.”

That put Westwood in the seventh-place match in the consolation bracket, and they won that with another strong showing on the final day – and they did it for the first time in the advanced division, after previously playing in the intermediate division.

“Me and AJ Segneri, my assistant coach, were pretty impressed,” coach Jake Lipka said. “We didn’t have the highest expectations to compete for the win, but that’s really what they did. They just came up a few games short, but it’s our best finish. The other four times we qualified, we finished 13th, 13th, 12th and 10th.”

LaSalle-Peru grad Carlie Miller played girls singles, and Newman rising senior Logan Palmer played boys singles. Peterson teamed up with Geneseo’s Alex Slaymaker in boys doubles, Dixon rising juniors Grace Ferguson and Addison Arjes played girls doubles, and Aitken joined L-P’s Andrew Bollis to play mixed doubles.

“Coach Jake had the goal for us to be in the top 10, but a lot of us had the mindset that we had nothing to lose. We had already come this far, so why not give it our all and show what we’ve got, and we definitely did that,” Aitken said. “It was really close. We were only three games away from winning our pool, and that stung a little bit. But we did so good as a team, we were really able to compete instead of just play, and it was really fun to be part of it with some of the best kids and teammates.”

Peterson and Slaymaker went 5-0 for the tournament. Both of them played at the IHSA State Tournament this past spring, with Peterson playing singles and Slaymaker teaming with Sam Mossbarger in doubles.

The doubles experience was different for Peterson, but playing with Slaymaker made things easier.

“Alex is a good friend, and he’s a really good player, so it was really a nice change of pace for me,” Peterson said. “It’s different than what I do during the high school season, and there were some really good doubles team down there. We knew it was going to be a challenge, but we came out of the gate and played our best from the get-go. We relied on what we know to play our best, and we really just trusted each other.”

Aitken also has been a singles player during the high school season, so her foray into doubles was a step out of her normal routine. But like Peterson, she enjoyed the experience.

“It’s definitely a change having a partner on the court instead of just being out there by yourself, but it’s kind of fun to have someone else to rely on and help you during the match,” Aitken said. “There’s someone there to talk to during the match, to pick you up, and it was a refreshing change for me. It was kind of fun playing doubles after being so used to playing singles.”

Miller finished 4-1 in girls singles and enjoyed her final meet with Team Westwood. The former Cavalier also played for the Sterling club last year and will enroll at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this fall to play tennis for the Kohawks.

“It was definitely a very interesting and fun experience,” she said. “You get to see a lot of different types of players and a different level of competition that you don’t see that often in a small town, so it really pushed me. We went in with no expectations, just the mindset that whatever happens, happens, as long as we did our best.

“It was a really good way to close out the summer, and it prepared me for higher levels of competition in college. And not only that, it was super fun, a really good bonding experience with all these kids that I’ve played with for the last two summers. We grew so much as a team, and I’m really happy with how it all went.”

Aitken and Peterson also enjoyed the team aspect of the tournament.

“It’s a unique experience to play as a team instead of individually, because you feel like you have people there to back you up,” Peterson said. “The team chemistry was great, and everybody got along and really had fun together.”

“It’s really fun to make tennis into a team sport, where you can score points for your team and they can score points to help you,” Aitken added. “You don’t win or lose by yourself, and it’s nice to have that. It’s fun to switch it up from what we do in the high school season.”

The 14U team also qualified for the Midwest Sectional for the first time but did not advance to Day 3. The six members of that team were Sterling’s Aaron Rivera and Micah Peterson, Newman’s Joel Rhodes and Dixon’s Jenna Mustapha, Brooklyn Arjes and Rachel Lance.

“It was their first tournament experience, and the kids had a great time,” Lipka said. “They learned a lot about the little things you have to do to advance and become stronger players.

“It’s just great to see the growth from all those kids who come out to lessons and programs two times a week at Westwood. We’re blessed to have this.”