Naperville North duo continue winning

Updated: October 1, 2011 8:24PM

It’s a “meaner and tougher” Naperville North second doubles team of Kayla Maxson and Tiffany Oken that is on display this year.

On Saturday, the two juniors, who have been undefeated in DuPage Valley Conference play in their three-year varsity careers, played their typical brand of smart, consistent tennis to win the second-doubles final 6-2, 6-2, to help the Huskies to the co-championship of the Naperville North Tennis Invitational.

The Huskies and Hinsdale South tied for first place with 38 points, with Lyons Township getting third with 31. Then there was another tie for fourth with Naperville Central and Neuqua Valley with 25 each.

“We’re playing more aggressively this year,” said Oken. “We’re meaner and tougher. We actually go for more shots instead of playing the baseline. We’re going to the net and putting balls away all the time. We like doubles and we know where to hit the ball.”

Maxson believes that the pair’s two years of experience as partners plays a big part in their success.

“We’ve been playing together for a long time,” she said. ‘We understand each other on the court and we both rally to keep the other’s head held high if things are going wrong. Our game plan is to be consistent. We realize we’re not power hitters. We just have to get the ball back in play and let the opponent hit the extra shot.”

Naperville North coach Heather Henricksen believe that the two, who have been undefeated in conference the past two years, have great communication on the court.

“They’re beyond just keeping each other pumped up,” Henricksen said. “They’re talking strategy the whole time. They both have a high tennis IQ. And with their success they’re just playing with more confidence.”

The Huskies Julia Li and Karen Liu won the third-doubles title with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Downers Grove South and, rather than relying on “mean and tough,” they’re just having fun on the court.

“We know how important it is to have fun while we continue to be competitive,” said Li. “It was important for us to win today because it was the Naperville North Invite.”

“If we miss a ball, we just laugh it off and don’t worry about it,” said Liu. “We don’t dwell on the previous point, we just go forward.”

The Huskies first doubles Kamile Stadalninkaite and Abbie Boswell advanced to the finals with a win over Naperville Central’s Cindy Liu and Cass Goldner in a hotly-contested battle and then took a loss in the final in another close match to Hinsdale South’s Kim Warpecha and Emma Adcock 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

Naperville North second singles Jessica Hu and third singles Hanna Guenther also made it to the final round before they were defeated.

“Our girls are much stronger mentally than we were last year when we were really young,” said Henricksen. “We’re not emotional on the court. We seem to have come past that.”

Lyons Twonship’s Alex Chatt and Meghan Hickey won first and third singles and Hinsdale South’s Lindy Wing was the second-singles champ.

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