Girls Tennis: Homewood-Flossmoor topples Lockport
By Tim Tierney For Sun-Times Media September 12, 2012 10:06PM
Homewood-Flossmoor's Sophia Osabuohien returns the ball during a doubles tennis match against Lockport Wednesday, September 12, 2012. | Brett Roseman~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: October 15, 2012 9:24AM
Homewood-FIossmoor’s No. 1 doubles victory Wednesday over Lockport wasn’t quite straight-up payback, but it was pretty close.
H-F’s Timara Maxwell and Allisson Lesner lost to Lockport’s Kelsey Forkin and Kat Samardzija in the final at Saturday’s Lincoln-Way East Invitational, but Maxwell teamed with Sophia Osabuohien on Wednesday to defeat the same Porters duo 6-1, 6-4 in the Vikings’ 7-0 dual victory at Lockport.
“It was revenge,’’ Maxwell said with a smile. “We got our revenge from Saturday.’’
“We had motivation to beat Lockport and we pulled through,’’ Osabuohien said. “I was at No. 2 Saturday. I switched to No. 1 (Wednesday). I wanted to show I could be at No. 1 doubles.’’
After some animated instruction from coach Don Baron during a break in the match, Maxwell and Osabuohien recovered from a 4-3 deficit in the second set to win three straight games.
“He basically told us to keep up our momentum because one game separating us is really nothing,’’ Maxwell said of her coach’s visit. “We just made more careful shots, smarter shots.’’
“He also told us when you’re up in the second set and you get back down, it’s hard to get back up,’’ Osabuohien said. “But me and Timara, we pulled it out. We knew what to do and where to hit.’’
H-F’s Adesewa Osabuohien was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Lockport’s Caroline Plecki in No. 1 singles after Adesewa missed Saturday’s invitational because of a knee injury.
“I’ve got to get my endurance back and my speed,’’ she said. “I just stayed focused. I was determined to get 6-0, 6-0. My groundstrokes weren’t so there because I hadn’t hit in like six days because of my knee. I am a little rusty.’’
H-F’s Faith Huckabee, No. 1 singles champion at Lincoln-Way East, won No. 2 singles 6-0, 6-0 over Lockport’s Sam Pindak.
“I think our team definitely stepped up,’’ Baron said. “We played well (Wednesday), we played intense. They knew it was a good, challenging (SouthWest Suburban Blue) conference match. Lockport has a solid team.’’
In No. 2 doubles, H-F’s Kaela Mack and Lesner won 7-5, 6-0 over Lockport’s Judy Stanford and Brit Kupiec.
“They all competed hard,’’ Lockport coach Bob Champlin said. “We knew coming in they were a really good team. Positives I can take away, we went from 6-1 to 6-4 in the doubles match. We got better at that position.’’
