Trojans bounce back from rough start to defeat Valparaiso on the Chesterton tennis courts, 4-1, as No. 2 doubles Lizzy Navarro and Morgan Matthys deliver the clinching point

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Aside from the obvious rivalry aspect of their meetings, the winner of the annual DAC girls tennis match pitting Valparaiso enters the sectional tournament as the favorite to win.
Based on that, the Trojans’ five-year stranglehold on the sectional title projected as shaky in the early stages of Thursday afternoon’s match at Chesterton’s courts.
At that point, Valpo had the lead in 4 of 5 matches, but the Trojans showed it’s how you finish, not how you start that creates lasting memories.
During a long competition in which the Vikings showed more than enough to prove that they can’t be taken lightly when the schools inevitably meet during sectional play, Chesterton prevailed, 4-1.
It felt much closer than that.
Senior Kenzie Kania, the No. 1 singles player for the third year in a row, shook her slow start and used surgical precision in defeating her opponent 6-2, 6-0, in the first match to finish.
Next, the No. 1 doubles tandem of senior Amelia Smith and junior Genevieve Driscoll won theirs 6-2, 6-1 to improve to 7-0.
But it takes three points to win a match and there was no obvious source for that pint. Valpo won the first set of all three of the other matches.
The two best candidates for the third point, No. 2 singles sophomore Kendall Gallion and the No. 2 doubles tandem of sophomore Morgan Matthys and senior Lizzy Navarro, both lost their first sets by 2-6 margins.
“I was really worried,” Matthys acknowledged afterward. “I was scared. I was getting to myself and I was hitting them all out and everything.”
Matthys isn’t used to losing. She and Driscoll were undefeated at JV No. 1 doubles a year ago and entered the day undefeated at No. 2 doubles for the varsity, including a win over mighty South Bend St. Joseph in Chesterton’s 3-2 near miss against the perennial state contender.
Matthys and Navarro fell behind, 4-5, in the second set. Then they got on a roll and didn’t stop, winning the match 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 for the third point.
Gallion went on to win her match, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Given the lack of varsity experience at doubles beyond Smith, who made it to Indianapolis with her graduated partner Aleksa Sorgic a year ago, the fact that the Trojans haven’t lost a doubles match is quite an accomplishment.
“That was huge for them to turn that around because they were struggling that first set,” Chesterton coach Tom Bour said of the No. 2 doubles tandem. “They couldn’t hit anything, so for them to turn it around was nice to see. It took them a while to get used to the pace of the ball and they were a little nervous at first, but once the nerves got out and they started playing a little smarter, a little higher-percentage tennis, then they did really well closing them out. I was impressed with them.”
Bour has a long history of mixing the right personalities and playing styles to form winning doubles teams, and he never hesitates to shake up the lineup if he doesn’t like how two players are meshing.
“I would say that we clicked right away on court,” Navarro said. “I’ve never played better than I’m playing with her.”
Navarro explained why she thinks they make a good pair.
“I think we both understand the game well enough to where we can help each other out on the court. We also think alike so it’s easy to help each other raise spirits,” Navarro said. “We know what’s wrong when something is bothering the other person and we cheer them up. So I think we’re just connected minds.”
Matthys credits her partner with helping her to bring her mindset to the right place.
“I’ve tried to be more positive because I used to get more negative on myself, but I try to be positive to play better and that gets my head (right),” she said.
Not getting to that head space right from the start gave Valpo the advantage, Matthys said.
“I think we were down on ourselves a lot at the beginning and we weren’t getting excited and everything and yelling and having fun,” Matthys said.
In addressing the slow start, Navarro said, “Nerves definitely were a factor in it, but I think we just needed to warm up and get energy up.”
As for how they accomplished that, Navarro said, “It’s a partner alliance. We cheer each other on. We try to make each other feel good. We don’t let each other get down. And as we do that, we start getting more excited and when we get more balls in play we get way more excited. It’s partners working together.”
Doubles players not fully open to working together run the risking of becoming singles players too far down the depth chart to make the lineup.
“I prefer doubles a lot,” Matthys said. “Singles, I get down on myself too much. With doubles, I like having a partner who cheers me up and I can cheer them up, so I like doubles a lot more.”
Both players said that approach has been a key to their success as a partnership.
“We’re both competitive in a way that helps us move forward,” Navarro said. “We’re not competitive against our partner. We want to win, but we take it a step at a time, both of us.”