Central doubles, singles players battle it out to improve on last year's IHSA finish
Central athletes and coaches show off the third-place trophy the girls tennis team received at the IHSA tournament Saturday. The team finished one point ahead of fourth-place finisher York and one point behind second-place Stevenson. (photo courtesy of Shawna Zsinko)
Hinsdale Central varsity girls tennis coach Shawna Zsinko was feeling pretty good about her team's chances at the IHSA state tournament Oct. 25-26 at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. After all, the team had won conference and sectionals.
Then her perspective changed.
"When the draws initially came out on Tuesday (Oct. 22), I was a little taken aback," Zsinko said. "Only one of my teams was even seeded - and seeded a little lower than I would have thought. My initial impression, was wow, they didn't want us to do anything in this tournament because they didn't even seed us."
She had one message for her athletes: "You can go in and beat a seed and take their spot."
"That's kind of what they did," she added.
The team improved on its fifth place performance last year at state by coming in third with 19 points, just one point behind second-place Stevenson. New Trier took the title with 35 points.
Leading the way was the No. 1 doubles team of senior Abigail Gambla and junior Sydney Shuster, who came in sixth. The two won six of their eight matches to earn six of the team's points.
"I was very proud of how we did this year," Gambla of Hinsdale said. "Honestly, I achieved my goal going into the season, both individually and as a team. I'm so proud that we placed."
She said she and her teammates knew state was not going to be easy after they saw the seeds and the pairings.
"I knew that overall as a team we would really have to work hard and that every single match would count," Gambla said. "It didn't matter if it was in the main draw or the back draw. Everything counted toward our team points."
Gambla's most memorable match was the consolation quarterfinals against York's CJ Coan and Josie Coan. She and Shuster won in a tiebreaker.
"The team is really good," Gambla said. "Last week we had lost to them in a super-tight match in our sectional final. We really wanted to come back and win this match in such a high stakes tournament.
"We went to a third set and it was even a tight tie-breaker," she added. "We ended up winning 10-7, so super close. It was really amazing to get that win."
Zsinko said the play of Gambla and Shuster showed they should have been seeded higher than 9-16.
"In the backdraw, they ended up beating two of the three 5-8 seeds they played," she said. "I think they proved they deserved to be a 5-8 seed.
"They beat the second New Trier team and they beat the York team they had lost to super close. They did a great job," Zsinko added.
The No. 2 doubles team of junior Lauren Panveno and Sophia Virmani lost in their first round to New Trier's No. 1-seeded Keri Rothenberg and Ariane Lesterhuis before going on to win three matches and ultimately losing in the fourth round consolation match.
"That was pretty brutal," Zsinko said of the first draw. "They had a decent match. They won a ton of backdraw matches."
In singles play, senior Kotryna Tomas made it to the third round consolation match and junior Asha Sarai made it to fifth round consolation play. Zsinko praised the girls for their tenacity.
"(Sarai) had close matches with seeds and she wasn't seeded," the coach said. "Kotryna had some tough matches, too."
Tomas said knowing how important every point was helped her in some difficult contests, including the second round consolation match when she beat Whitney Young's Leena Manadan.
"My third match was a tougher one slightly, because in the second set I had some moments where we had some tight points. I knew I had to pull through for the team. That's kind of what kept me going," Tomas said.
Zsinko said ultimately she was very happy with the results.
"I thought there was no way we were on the podium and ended up getting third - and only a point off from tying for second," she said. "I'm really proud of the girls. They played really hard and they had to overcome some difficult draws. They fought had and they got us on the podium."
Gambla and Tomas said their teammates did a great job of supporting each other and keeping the energy up.
"Every time we would come off the court, they would run on over and really hype us up after any match," Gambla said.
Tomas said her final match in third round consolation play was late enough that all her teammates could be there.
"Even though I didn't win that match, they helped me win the first set and keep fighting as it went on," she said.
Knowing this was their last time playing tennis with Central made the tournament bittersweet, the seniors agreed.
"It's sad that it's over, but the experience I had and the memories I made are really great," Tomas said. "I'm really glad I played for Central and it's definitely something I would do again."
Gambla said she'll miss everyone on the team.
"We've had our ups and downs, but we really pulled through in the end," she said. "I think that's just amazing and speaks to the strengths of our team."
