Eagles sweep doubles, earn girls tennis victory

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ALGONQUIN – Lindsey Gardeck and Kassy Bernardo led the Jacobs doubles’ contingent that proved to be the difference Tuesday against Woodstock in a Fox Valley Conference girls tennis match.

Gardeck and Bernardo defeated Rachel Bellavia and Molly Besler, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 1 doubles to lead the Golden Eagles to a sweep in the four doubles matches and a 5-2 victory. The win improves Jacobs’ record to 12-1 overall and 3-1 in the FVC, a mark coach Jon Betts was not expecting after losing 15 seniors from last year’s team.

“I expected to have two or three wins at this point,” Betts said.

Gardeck said the teams were evenly matched, which was reflected in the match score and the length of the points.

“It was like the same skills,” Gardeck said. “There wasn’t one team that was better.”

The difference was a matter of effort and being more consistent, Bernardo said. The Jacobs duo was able to get to more balls and controlled the net better.

“I think we worked harder and got more balls in,” Bernardo said.

Gardeck, a senior, and Bernardo, a sophomore, are teaming up for the first time this year. With a lot of early season matches thanks to some weekend tournaments, the tandem said they are feeling comfortable as a team.

“We have good court chemistry,” Gardeck said. “We just bonded right away.”

Jacobs also got wins from Marcilyn Rowan and Lauren Steinkamp at No. 2 doubles, Alex Buettner and Becky Oberhauser at No. 3 doubles, and Anna Taylor and Autumn Hackett at No. 4 doubles.

Blue Streaks coach Steve Bridges said that his team has battled this year but has had trouble coming out on top in close matches. Bridges points to consistency and taking advantage of opportunities as possible reasons for the losses, but said identifying the reasons is different than rectifying them.

“Matches that are close are usually won by the team with the fewest mistakes and is aggressive with the easy ones,” Bridges said. “If I had the answers, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Woodstock got its two victories at the top two singles spots.

Asako Yagasaki won at No. 1 singles for the Streaks, defeating Nikki Wahlberg, 7-5, 6-3. Adrienne Long won at No. 2 singles for Woodstock with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Stephanie Saavedra.

Yagasaki, a foreign exchange student from Japan, played a consistent backcourt game and was able to apply pressure on Wahlberg at the net.

Getting competitive play and wins at No. 1 singles was something Bridges wasn’t expecting this season.

“Asako has been a nice surprise,” Bridges said. “She’s a pretty good player.”