Malik lifts CP to 9th straight title

CROWN POINT -- For a girls tennis team seeking its ninth consecutive sectional championship Friday, Crown Point's title hopes came to rest squarely on the shoulders of the Needa Malik, an injury-prone, soft-serving No. 3 singles player who was brought up from JV midway through the season only because Chelsea Viers came down with pneumonia.

"She looks like a strategic ping-pong player," Crown Point coach Brian Elston said. "That's her game. She just tries to keep it in play."

Malik's survival style suited her well in a match that lasted nearly three hours. The junior gutted out a three-set victory over Tara Fieldhouse to earn the decisive point in the Bulldogs' 3-2 victory over Kankakee Valley.

Malik's 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory preserved her perfect record since Elston summoned her from JV. Fieldhouse, appropriately enough, was Malik's first varsity opponent when the Bulldogs defeated the Kougars 4-1 during the regular season.

"She likes to hit it hard, hit it deep," Malik said of Fieldhouse. "I like to cut the ball, slice the ball, put a lot of spin on it. That's basically my game."

Malik, who didn't play last year and got hurt as a freshman, almost didn't try out this spring. Her friends talked her into it.

"I wasn't expecting anything," Malik said, "but it's been a heck of a season."

A season that will continue against Munster in the regional thanks to the biggest victory of Malik's career. She realized rather quickly -- after KV won the other two singles and CP won both doubles -- that hers would be the deciding match.

"I knew it was on me," she said.

And yet, she wasn't nervous.

"Surprisingly, no," she said. "Coach did a really good job of keeping me calm. He told me not to listen to the crowd. That third set, I didn't even look at them."

After Fieldhouse stormed back to take the second set, Malik jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead in the third and never looked back, ending the epic match shortly before sunset.

"She never gave up," third-year KV coach Jacquelyn Wilder said of Fieldhouse. "And that's the first thing I told her when she walked off. She definitely fought hard."

Malik's was the only match with drama. Crown Point's doubles teams of Hannah Tokoly-Kelly Gross and Dana Andreoli-Gabby Touchette won in straight sets, as did KV's Abbey and Jessica Hamstra in singles.

"We were definitely confident," Wilder said. "We knew that this year we'd have the best chance out of any other years that I've coached."

Individually, Abbey Hamstra (12-1) advances to Highland.

"She was so excited that we could possibly win tonight, but she knew that we'd meet up with Munster next," Wilder said. "So she knows now that she can advance (past Highland)."

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, get another stab at the Mustangs, who defeated them 5-0 during the regular season.

Contact David Robb at 648-3122, drobb@post-trib.com or visit his blog at blogs.post-trib.com/robb.