Nazareth’s Straub and Petrovic book return trip to State

Updated: October 17, 2011 7:40PM

Nazareth’s top doubles team doesn’t need the regular season to prepare for the state meet.

For the second consecutive year, Alysa Straub and Alexia Petrovic competed in singles the entire regular season, but came together as a doubles pairing for the postseason. The Burr Ridge residents seemed to have very little trouble in Saturday’s Hinsdale Central Sectional.

The host team’s defending state champion doubles team — Marika Cusick and Caroline Lorenzini — defeated Straub and Petrovic 6-1, 6-2 in the sectional final, played in windy conditions.

Straub and Petrovic will return to the state meet, which begins Thursday in the Northwest suburbs, after finishing fifth in last year’s tournament. The Nazareth duo beat New Trier’s Rebecca Ritchie and Julia Schroeder 6-3, 6-4 to end last year’s state meet.

Straub and Petrovic’s only state meet loss came against Prairie Ridge’s Carolyn Huerth and Allison Murphy in the fourth round, but the Roadrunners returned to beat Huerth and Murphy in three sets in the consolation semifinals. The Nazareth duo went 8-1 in last year’s state meet.

“There are high expectations on them [this season],” Roadrunners coach Melissa Byram said.

Straub and Petrovic were coming off top singles finishes from the East Suburban Catholic Conference one week earlier. Straub won the title by beating Petrovic in the final.

The seeding meeting for the state meet is Tuesday and the pairings are expected to be released later that day.

Cusick and Lorenzini, who are 24-1 on the season, are expected to receive the No. 1 seed as the defending state champions.

One thing the Nazareth pair would like to avoid is an early rematch against Hinsdale Central in the state meet.

“A lot of it will depend on the draw,” Byram said. “There is so much tough competition. Everybody will be at the tournament.”

Byram prefers to have Straub and Petrovic play singles during the season and then combine for doubles with the sectional. It was the same winning formula used last season.

In the sectional semifinal, Straub was hit in the face by a ball and had to take some time to recover by stepping away from the court for a while. Petrovic came over to Straub and said, “I’ll pick you up.”

The pair returned to beat Hinsdale Central’s Kristy Hamilton and Jackie Altansarnai, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, in the semifinals. The match pushed back the start of the sectional final. Cusick and Lorenzini were well rested after beating Hinsdale South’s Emma Adcock and Kim Warpecha, 6-3, 6-0, in their semifinal.

“[Straub and Petrovic] have played together for so long and in the offseason,” Byram said. “They have traveled to Spain together and know where each other’s at on the court. They know each other’s verbal cues.”

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