Naperville Central’s Tiffany Chen reaches semifinals

Naperville Central sophomore Tiffany Chen has advanced to Saturday’s singles semifinals at the state tournament.

The second-seeded Chen defeated Marian Catholic’s Gaby Rosales 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, using a powerful serve and long lobs to keep Rosales on her heels.

“I knew I had to keep the ball deep, so I did that and tried to move my feet a lot,” Chen said. “There’s a lot of great players left. I’m going into tomorrow just trying to see what happens. I don’t set goals, so we’ll see what happens.”

Chen goes against New Trier senior Carol Finke, the tournament’s 16th seed, who took more than two hours to defeat Lake Forest’s Elizabeth Zordani 6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.

The two players went back and forth with blazing serves, well-placed volleys and terrific touch on their shots. After a lengthy back-and-forth while on deuce, Finke pulled ahead and was able to emerge with a win.

“It was pretty even most of the time, but pretty nerve-wracking,” Finke said. “I just kept thinking to myself ‘No regrets,’ that was the one thing. I just wanted to keep going with my shots.”

Lyons’ Alex Chatt, the top-ranked player in the bracket, will face Hinsdale Central freshman Bella Lorenzini in the other singles semifinal Saturday.

Naperville Central heads into Saturday action in fifth place with 27 points, based on 12 in singles and 15 in doubles. New Trier is in first place with 37 points, followed by Lake Forest with 35 and Hinsdale Central with 33.

Among Naperville-area players in singles, Neuqua Valley’s Anusha Pai lost 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth consolation round, while Benet’s Leah Tzakis won 6-0, 6-0. Tzakis then lost 0-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In doubles, Naperville Central’s Cindy Liu and Cass Goldner won 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth round of the championship bracket before falling 6-2, 6-2, to Oak Park-River Forest’s Taylor Arends and Tess Trinka.

In the consolation bracket, Naperville Central’s Meaghan Bedigian and Sara Furukawa won 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth round and 7-5, 6-4 in the fifth round and 5-7, 7-5 (5), 6-2 in the sixth round. They lost 6-3, 6-1 to Hinsdale Central’s Rugile Valiunaite in the seeventh round.

Neuqua Valley’s Riti Vohra and Taylor Hershey won 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 in the fourth round and Naperville North’s Julia Li and Jessica Hu won 6-3, 6-3. Vohra-Herhey lost 6-1, 7-6 (8) in the fifth round, but Li and Hu teamed up for a 6-3, 6-4 victory before falling 6-2, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2) to Highland Park’s Nicole Berkman and Janine Cooper in the sixth round.