New doubles pairing leads Lyons

Lyons Township’s No. 2 doubles combination of Megan Hickey and Samantha Sherman hasn’t been together long and coach Bill Wham hasn’t decided if the duo will continue together into the postseason.

But Hickey and Sherman tried to state their case as a doubles pairing at Saturday’s West Suburban Silver meet at Oak Park-River Forest.

The duo hope to stay together for Saturday’s Hinsdale Central Sectional. LT is assigned to a competitive sectional, which includes the host Devils and Hinsdale South. Doubles teams need to finish in the top four in the sectional to advance to the state meet beginning Oct. 20 in the Northwest suburbs.

“We communicate really well together,” said Hickey, a freshman.

“We want to get to state,” added Sherman, a sophomore. “It will be good if we can make it. We like trying.”

Hickey and Sherman own a 2-2 record after finishing fourth in the conference. Three of the Lions four doubles teams placed fourth while the No. 1 doubles team of Maeve Plunkett and Maggie Schwartz placed fifth with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Downers Grove North’s Marion Zarfoss and Zoe Vanikos.

Hickey and Sherman lost their final match to Glenbard West’s Hannah Foth and Madeline Morris, 6-3, 6-3.

LT (23 points) took third place. The Lions best results were turned in by a pair of runner-up finishes for No. 1 singles Alex Chatt and No. 3 singles Katie Miller.

Hinsdale Central entered the conference meet with 41-of-42 wins in dual meets. The Devils won their 10th consecutive conference title and 32nd overall. The Devils swept all seven division titles in the conference meet.

Alex Solovyev beat Chatt 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 and Rugile Valiunaite won over Miller 6-1, 6-2 in that final.

The brief history between Hickey and Sherman was the result of some juggling of LT’s lineup. The Lions competed in the meet without Kristen Thoms, who has likely suffered a season-ending injury after starting out the season as the only freshman on the varsity. Hickey started out this season on LT’s Frosh-Soph team, but was later promoted to help on doubles. Wham juggled the pairings between the four girls at the top two doubles teams before settling on the current lineup.

“We made a switch. That’s what we had to do,” said Wham, who will decide his sectional pairings later this week before Wednesday’s seeding meeting.

The Lions No. 3 doubles team of Anne Wiedner and Gabriela Pavletic placed fourth after losing to York’s Dana and Laurel Chamberlin, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. At No. 4 doubles, Glenbard West’s Madelyn Sandoz and Betsy Kinsey won the third-place match 6-1, 6-3 over LT’s Cassie Morris and Kali Sebastian.

No. 2 singles player Kate Stanton placed fifth after beating Downers North’s Stephanie Marich 6-3, 6-1.

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