Lake Central prevails 3-2 in dramatic DAC first-place showdown with Chesterton, endangering Trojans’ 3-peat quest

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The drama can’t get any more riveting, the crowd reactions any louder at high school tennis than when each team already has won two points, and the only competitors remaining are the two best players at the courts and the match goes into a third set. Mix in the fact that the schools are the only undefeated ones in the conference and everything amplifies.
That was the case Thursday at Chesterton, where visiting Lake Central showed why it’s ranked No. 25 in the state, and the host school showed just how little separates the teams.
LC freshman phenom Nora Karr prevailed to swing the match to the visitors, 3-2, but it took her repeatedly hitting spectacular shots to close out Kenzie Kania, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Do the math and you’ll see that the girls played 27 games. Karr won 14, Kania 13. It looked that close, felt that close. Trying to sense which player would outlast the other was an exercise akin to trying to catch the cold wind, which blew even harder it seemed, as the final match heated up.
Karr consistently seared serves to the corners and returned lasers sent her way. Karr made the court seem vast the way that she had a knack for placing balls to locations impossible to reach. And Kania was up to the task of matching her, and even took a 3-2 lead in the final set. From there, Karr played her best tennis of the match, bumping Chesterton into a second-place tie with Crown Point with 4-1 records late in the seven-game DAC schedule.
Chesterton’s effort at a third consecutive DAC title isn’t dead yet, but it’s on life support and out of the Trojans’ hands. If Crown Point can win at home Tuesday, May 13, vs. LC, then barring any of the three schools suffering a monumental upset loss elsewhere, Chesterton’s three-peat would be successful with a shared title with Lake Central and Crown Point.
After Thursday’s match, Chesterton head coach Tom Bour gathered the players on the court and imparted a message heavier on “job well done,” than “opportunity lost.”
“I told the girls that you have to have the opportunity to be in this position and we’ve been in this position several years and it’s an honor to be in that position,” Bour said. “We lost to a very good team. It’s not like we got upset or anything like that. They’re a darn good team, so we have a lot to hold are heads up high about.”
Bour had not seen Karr play in person until Thursday and left impressed.
“Her serve was very good. Her volleys were outstanding,” Bour said. “When she came to the net, boy she won a lot of points. Kenzie had to hit an unbelievable shot when she was at the net. Anything close and she volleyed.”
Chesterton’s No. 1 doubles team, Aleksa Sorgic and Amelia Smith, won their match 6-3, 6-0 to push their record to 10-1 overall and 5-0 in DAC play. No. 2 doubles team, Anisa Faroh and Lauren Pilarski, won 6-3, 6-0 to improve to 11-0 overall and 5-0 in conference.
“I can’t say enough good things about the doubles. They have to feel some pressure knowing that we have to have those to have a chance because we knew what we were up against with their No. 3 and No. 2 (singles),” Bour said. “For our 2 doubles to roll and for our 1 doubles to come off a kind of sketchy performance against Crown Point, even though they pulled it out, was nice to see. We’re still in good spirits. Like I said, we lost to a good team. It’s nothing to hold your head down about.”
Chesterton (7-3) sandwiches its final two DAC matches, at home vs. Merrillville for senior night Tuesday, and home vs. Michigan City on Thursday, around a nonconference match at a strong Munster squad Wednesday.