Chesterton tennis No. 1 doubles tandem of senior Aleksa Sorgic and junior Amelia Smith ends historic season splitting a pair of matches in Indy in doubles regional championship

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The sprawling, sparkling, tennis complex at North Central enabled the Indianapolis high school to serve as host of three IHSAA state tennis tournaments at once.
The team finals, the regional singles and the regional doubles, in other words the very best girls high school tennis players in the state, flocked to one place to show their stuff.
Chesterton’s No. 1 doubles team of senior Aleksa Sorgic and junior Amelia Smith showed well. The Trojans defeated Fairfield freshman Vienna Griffith and senior Elise Schwartz 6-3, 6-1 in the regional semifinal to advance to the regional championship match. Park Tudor (25-0) defeated the Trojans, but not without a fight, 6-1, 6-3. The tandem of senior Emelyn Harris and junior Marissa Benge moved on to next weekend’s finals at the same site.
Sorgic and Smith made Chesterton tennis history by advancing farther than any doubles team in program history. They also became the first doubles tandem to be ranked No. 1 in District 1, which has more than 60 tennis programs in it. Sorgic and Smith finished the year with a 24-2 record and counted wins against powerhouse programs such as Munster, Northridge and South Bend St. Joseph.
“As coaches, it was a great experience they gave us down in Indy and a memory our program will keep forever,” Trojans tennis coach Tom Bour said.
The day even included a coaching point Bour can share with future teams.
Sorgic explained that some rackets have strings designed with power in mind, others with spin. Sorgic’s strings are set up for power, Smith’s for spin.
Sorgic broke a string during the Fairfield match. No problem. It happens. Just reach into the equipment bag and pull out the second racket that made the trip, right? Well, not in this case.
“I literally never have broken my strings,” said Sorgic, whose brother Luke is the No. 1 singles player on the CHS boys tennis team. “I just give all my rackets to Luke because he plays way more and he actually breaks them quite frequently. It was a dumb mistake. I should have brought two.”
She played the rest of the Fairfield match with Smith’s backup racket, packed just in case.
“It was different,” Sorgic said. “I wasn’t playing very well.”
The gap of a few hours between the end of the Fairfield match and the beginning of the regional championship enabled Sorgic to have her racket repaired in time for warmups, part of which were spent with Bour and team manager, CHS boys tennis player Peytan Belegal.
“My parents got it restrung at a racquet club near here, “ Sorgic said. “I played much better in the second match as far as ground strokes. My racket wasn’t right in the first match, which was a bad mistake.”
Park Tudor put the Trojans on their heels at the start, but as the day progressed the match became more competitive. As expected, considering how much talent moved on both sides of the court, precisely placed, powerful shots from both sides somehow were returned, entertaining spectators throughout the match.
“They had really good ground strokes and they have more experience as far as doubles,” Sorgic said of the regional champs. “They seemed cohesive and in sync. They had hard ground strokes, hard serves, hard volleys. They were good.”
For Sorgic, it spelled the end of a four-year tennis career that earned her three all-DAC honors. She played wherever Bour and assistant coach Scott Garrison believed it would best benefit the final score. As a freshman, that meant No. 2 doubles, then No. 1 singles as a sophomore, No. 2 singles as a junior before returning to doubles this season.
Sorgic said she was happy she made the switch to double up with Smith.
“For sure, it was such a cool experience,” Sorgic said. “I’m really grateful that Amelia and I are here. I wish my team was here. I think it’s really cool. I’m glad my senior year could end like this and have a few more matches.”
Sorgic said she will attend Indiana University and possibly play on the club team if her academic schedule doesn’t preclude her from doing so.
“I will always play tennis,” she said. “I’ve played it my entire life.”
Smith and No. 1 singles player Kenzie Kania will form the core of next year’s team that will gun for a sixth consecutive sectional title.
Smith already has three varsity letters, two all-conference honors and all-district honor on her resume.
Asked if she would try to challenge Kania next year for the No. 1 singles spot, Smith instantly dismissed that as a possibility.
“No, I really like doubles. I want to find somebody to bring up with me and maybe do what Aleksa and I did, one of the younger girls, take her under my wing and train her over the summer with me, just focus on doubles and see if we can get really good chemistry,” Smith said.
Sorgic and Smith didn’t win but played well enough to get under their opponents’ skin at times.
“They started getting a little mad, but I think we gave them a run for their money a little bit,” Smith said. “They were just more consistent.”
Bour said that Sorgic and Smith were the first players from the girls program to make to Indianapolis since No. 1 singles player Meg Modesto did 10 years ago.
In Saturday’s team competition, Jasper defeated Westfield 4-1 in the semifinal round and then beat Brebeuf by the same score for the state championship. Munster lost to Brebeuf 3-2 in the semifinal round.