Highland’s Madrigal, Quinn take title

Updated: June 11, 2011 8:43PM

They didn’t start the season playing doubles together.

But Aby Madrigal and Liz Quinn were the last team standing on Saturday at North Central High School.

The Trojans captured the state championship with a resounding 6-2, 6-4 victory against Jasper sophomores Ashley Rogers and Elizabeth Theil.

Madrigal, a sophomore, and Quinn, a senior, became just the second girls doubles team from the region to win the state title, after Munster’s Kavita Chowdary and Annie Knish did it in 1996.

“It’s amazing knowing that we’re part of history,” Madrigal said.

“We’ve always been in the shadow of Munster. Hopefully people will start talking about us the way we talk about them.”

Madrigal and Quinn also provided Highland with its first state championship of any kind since 2003, when then-junior Nando Martinez won the 103-pound wrestling title.

“I’m really proud to represent Highland,” Quinn said.

During the regular season, Madrigal and Quinn — who finished with a 12-0 record, not dropping a single set along the way — played just four matches together, three in Highland’s doubles tournament and the finale against Michigan City. They did, however, spend plenty of time practicing together, in anticipation of teaming up for the postseason as part of the Trojans’ revamped lineup after the team’s 3-2 regular-season loss to Munster on April 21. Quinn, who essentially spent all four of her seasons at No. 1 doubles, opened this season with Nikki Goodeve, and also played matches at No. 2 and 3 singles; Madrigal shifted from No. 2 singles, where she also was undefeated, and had a total of four doubles partners this season.

“In a way, we owe this to Munster,” said Highland coach Adam Baez, whose team wound up defeating the Mustangs 3-2 in regionals before losing 4-1 to South Bend St. Joseph’s in the LaPorte Semistate.

“To beat teams that have played all year at this level, it’s very exciting. It tickles me in the tummy.”

The Trojans, notoriously slow starters, had to be tickled with their beginning against Jasper (26-1). They raced out to a 4-0 first-set lead, simply on fire as the Wildcats appeared out of sorts.

“They seemed a little tight, and we knew we had to jump on them right away,” said Quinn, calling the Trojans’ start to the match their best of the season.

Madrigal said they couldn’t afford a sluggish opening against the talented Wildcats, and came out with the appropriate mindset, playing with confidence.

A key for Highland also was its ability to keep Jasper off the net, a place where the powerful Wildcats excel, including in Friday‚s quarterfinals against Michigan City. The Trojans lobbed liberally, forcing Jasper to hit difficult overheads and not allowing the Wildcats easy putaways, and mixed in deft passing shots.

“What’s amazing, that was a heck of a good team,” Baez said of Jasper. “When I saw them, I was, like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ They’re an offensive team, that’s how you play doubles. But we got them out of their style.”

At 5-1 in the first, Highland had two set points fall by the wayside. But at 5-2, Quinn served out the set at love.

The second set — tied at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 — was considerably more competitive, with most of the games going to deuce, if not multiple deuces. The Trojans broke to take a 5-4 lead, then — with Madrigal serving — closed out the match on their first championship point, as Jasper patted a backhand volley into the net.

Madrigal and Quinn shared a joyful embrace. Still on the court, Quinn wore a wide smile; Madrigal shed some tears.

They had envisioned success when the decision was made to pair them, but perhaps not this much success.

“You never think it’s going to happen until it does,” Quinn said.

“People were telling us we can win state, but there are so many great teams,” Madrigal said. “It’s a legit dream come true.”

The title also was special for Baez, who has known Madrigal her whole life as a longtime friend of the family, and who at one time called Quinn ‘The Future’ as her older sisters Katie and Christina previously had played for the program.

For Quinn and Madrigal, the future was Saturday.

“You can never predict winning state,” Baez said. “It’s too big a thing to dream for. But I thought they had a chance.”

Madrigal and Quinn gave themselves a chance at the title with a relatively routine 6-2, 6-2 victory against North Montgomery’s Kiera Bonebrake and Kelly Kyle in the semifinals earlier on Saturday — though both Trojans players and Baez all said the match was closer than the score indicated.

Madrigal and Quinn didn’t play quite as crisply in the semis as they did in Friday’s quarterfinals against Indianapolis Cathedral, committing an uncharacteristic amount of unforced errors — though they still clearly played at a high level.

And they clearly were at the pinnacle of their game in the finals.

“It’s awesome,” said Quinn, Highland’s valedictorian who will attend Notre Dame to study actuarial science. “It hasn’t really hit me that tennis is over. But to do this, and have all my siblings here, it’s pretty sweet.”

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