Lake Zurich Girls Tennis Team Concludes Tough Season With Winning Record

In his first season as the coach of Lake Zurich Bears varsity girls tennis team, Aaron Rogers guided the squad to a record of 8-7 (2-4 in conference). He was the junior varsity coach last year, and also coached the junior varsity boys team for the last two years.

"We have a very tough conference schedule that includes Lake Forest--a top 4 team in state in 2009  - Stevenson, Libertyville as well as many others, so it was really important that we started the season strong and get some good wins as well as confidence  under our belt," said Rogers. 

"Most of our matches this year were competitive (win or lose) with many of them coming down to the final match to decide the outcome.  We graduated eight of our starting eleven from last year's team, so we had a lot of new faces that took a big step from last year and were required to play big roles.  Overall, it was a successful season."

The Bears finished the season in fifth place out of seven teams in the Lakes Division, sixth place out of 14 in the conference tournament and sixth of nine in sectionals.

Some of the star players on the team include:

Senior Kristy Peterson, who finished 20-10 at both #1 singles and #1 doubles. She took fifth place in conference at #1 doubles with her partner, freshman Sam Wilson.

Senior Monica Gasiorek finished with a 19-11 record at #1 singles, #2 singles and #1 doubles. She took sixth place at #1 singles.

Kristy and Monica partnered up for the sectionals and went 2-1, losing in the state qualifying round.

"One of the most difficult things as a coach is keeping the energy, focus, intensity and confidence level high regardless of the opponent and outcome of the matches," said Rogers. "We play some very difficult teams throughout the year that simply have more talent than we do and it's easy for the girls to get discouraged."

Rogers felt his team did a great job of preparing for matches and rising to the challenge by playing some of their best tennis against some of the toughest teams. "On the other hand, we had some letdown matches where we didn't play up to our potential and some teams stole a victory from us."

Rogers cited the lack of practice and recovery time between matches that made it a trying season for his team. "We really have to use each match as a learning experience and (as) pseudo-practices until we have a day off."

When asked what schools were the toughest that Lake Zurich encountered this season, Rogers said "Lake Forest, Stevenson and Deerfield."