Lincoln-Way East has eye-opening performance at Lockport Invite

Lincoln-Way East’s fourth-place finish in the 28-team Lockport Invitational may have caught a few people off guard.

“We were seeded 14th so we were a Cinderella story throughout the tournament,” East coach Chris Olson said.

The tournament format was that teams – not individuals – advanced. East beat Sandburg, 3-2 in Friday’s pool play and that fired Olson up. That was big. We really came out and brought the goods.

“Sandburg had beaten us several times and they were one of the top seeded teams,” he said. “It went right up to dusk. [The third doubles team of] Natalie Gevaudan-Rachel Alexander went to the fifth set of super breakers and had a couple of high overheads in the twilight of the night. Rachel just buried a couple of high balls. There was a lot of excitement. It was very special. We hadn’t beaten Sandburg in about four years.””