First day of Glenbrook North girls tennis sectional devoid of upsets

NORTHBROOK — With one singles quarterfinal match left to be played, there’s a very good chance all the top seeds at the Glenbrook North girls tennis sectional will advance to state.

Glenbrook South senior Caroline Ryba and Glenbrook South junior Annemarie Emme both advanced without dropping a game in their two matches Friday. The same thing held true for Glenbrook South juniors Martina Dragoytchev and Jessica Chepurda, the No. 1 seed in the sectional’s doubles draw.

Maine South’s pair of state qualifiers nearly accomplished the same feat. Maine South sophomore Leigh Friedman lost just one game en route to her second-straight state berth, while freshmen Marti Wind and Kamila Czosnyka — the No. 2 seed in doubles — qualified for state by only dropping two games in their pair of matches.

Glenbrook North sophomore Maddy Kahn, the No. 3 seed, is the favorite to pick up the fourth and final state berth in singles. However, she will have to wait until Saturday morning to try to punch her ticket after Maine South junior Randi Wind and Maine East junior Jessica Ilc played a long singles match. Randi Wind emerged with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory, but there wasn’t enough light for her to play against Kahn on Friday.

The key moment in Randi Wind’s win came when the score was tied 3-3 in the third set and Randi Wind was serving. The game lasted for more than 10 minutes as Ilc threatened to break, but Randi Wind eventually won it to take a 4-3 lead.

The Maine South junior then broke Ilc’s serve in the following game, and she closed out the match soon thereafter.

“It could have gone either way,” Ilc said of Randi Wind’s long service game. “It would have made the game completely different. … It’s frustrating, but you have to move on. I tried to keep it together (after she took a 4-3 lead), but it just wasn’t going my way.”

The match between Randi Wind and Kahn will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The Glenbrook North Sectional’s semifinals are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Dragoytchev and Chepurda will play Loyola’s Witkowski sisters — freshman Caroline Witkowski and junior Abby Witkowski — in their semifinal match. Mardi Wind and Czosnyka will play Glenbrook North freshmen Colette O’Regan and Hailey Koretz on Saturday morning. The Witkowski sisters and the Spartans’ all-freshman doubles team both qualified for state on Friday.