Valpo’s turning point

Updated: May 19, 2011 9:34PM

PORTAGE — On multiple levels, Thursday’s Portage girls tennis sectional championship match against Chesterton meant a great deal to Valparaiso senior Amanda Stolarz, beyond the obvious reasons.

The Vikings lost to the Trojans during the regular season, a match she missed, and one in which the decisive point came at her No. 2 doubles position.

She also attended Chesterton as a freshman.

In the postseason rematch between the teams, Stolarz and junior Sonja Schaefer won at No. 2 doubles to help Valparaiso to a 3-2 victory.

With the overall match tied at 2-2, No. 3 singles player Katie McDonald’s victory secured a third sectional title in four seasons for the Vikings (13-4) — they had lost to the Trojans in last season’s final — and their place in Tuesday’s Portage Regional semifinals against Michigan City.

Chesterton (12-5) had edged Valparaiso 3-2 on April 27, another rainy day after the match had been postponed the previous day; on Thursday, four of those results held, with the Vikings reversing that No. 2 doubles loss. Stolarz and Schaefer beat Amanda Susnak and Brittny Stephan 6-0, 6-2 on Thursday; the Trojans had won 6-4, 6-4 in the regular season, with Stolarz having left school to go home that day because she was sick, also suspecting the match would again be postponed.

“Losing that match, in my spot, that was really tough,” Stolarz said. “But this feels really good. I definitely wanted to get this one. We definitely thought this would be the key point.”

Schaefer said the Vikings played more aggressively at No. 2 doubles this time around. “I played with another girl (Lauren Hoffman), and she’s great, but we don’t have the same chemistry that me and Amanda have,” she said. “We (Schaefer and Stolarz) work so well together. We pump each other up. It’s really fun. I love to be with her on the court specifically.”

When Allison Hauser and Lauren Kammerer completed a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 1 doubles against Sunny Lee and Rachel McCrum to knot the match at 2-2 for the Vikings, McDonald led J.J. Lee 6-0, 4-2. The freshman Lee fought back to tie the score at 4-4 in the second set, but McDonald won two straight games, dropping a total of one point, to wrap up a 6-0, 6-4 title-clinching victory.

McDonald, whose victory ended a hair under 30 minutes after all of the other matches had been finished, remained undefeated for the season at No. 3 singles, with just a loss at No. 2 on Saturday against Culver Academies in that school’s invitational.

“There’s no one I’d rather have out there,” Valparaiso coach Tim Shideler said of McDonald. “I have all the confidence in her. ... I knew she wouldn’t get rattled by the pressure on her.”

The Trojans had won the day’s first two matches, with Bobbi Modesto beating Kelly Kennedy 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, and Margaret Shinn following with a 6-1, 6-1 victory against Caitlin Kennedy at No. 2.

“Disappointing,” Chesterton coach Gretchen Shinn said. “Not much more to say. J.J.’s a freshman, McDonald’s a senior — there’s a lot more experience there. J.J.’s an awesome player. We’re going to see a lot of great things from her in the future. And she wasn’t the only one to lose. Our doubles teams lost too. It just happened she was the last match on the court.”

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