You could say it’s in the genes, but that would be wrong. The Matko sisters of West Aurora don’t get their tennis prowess from their parents.
“My husband and I don’t even play tennis,” said their mother, Ivanka Matko. “It’s just been their hard work.”
Whatever it is, it was on full display this weekend as the girls state tournament became the Matkos’ personal invitational. Their dominance led West Aurora to its second straight team state championship Saturday, the clincher coming courtesy of senior Michelle Matko in the singles quarterfinals.
Sophomore twins Natalie and Stephanie Matko repeated as doubles champions, defeating Nicole Griglione and Liz Fraker of Champaign Central 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in a comeback battle that tested whether they were truly champions.
The Matkos lost big in the second set and trailed 3-0 in the third before winning six of the last seven games.
“It says we never give up,” Natalie Matko said. “We just said we weren’t going to lose.”
Older sister Michelle Matko, a 1-2 seed in singles, was locked in a marathon match for the singles title with Glenbrook South’s Chrissie Nolan. Nolan had outlasted 1-2 seed Margaret Purcell of Lake Forest in a three-set semifinal, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 before facing Matko in the championship match.
Because of three straight days of rain that forced the cancellation of the backdraw and scattered players to different indoor sites, players were forced to play three rounds on Saturday. Those factors, along with the Matko twins’ three-set doubles title match, forced the championship singles match to a 9 p.m. start.
The Matko sisters combined for 30 of West Aurora’s 40 points before the singles championship, giving the Blackhawks back-to-back state team championships in a rout over Barrington. They would have won the team title based solely on the points won by the Matkos.
“We played pretty well,” Natalie Matko said in the understatement of the season.
That wasn’t the case throughout the entire doubles final. Stephanie and Natalie were tight after the second set and couldn’t relax at the start of the third, missing shots and hitting into errors. But a gut check, more lob shots and a little encouragement from coach Brian Brooks fueled the turnaround.
The key was the eighth game of the third set, when the Matkos broke Champaign’s serve to tie 4-4. They won on a double fault when Griglione served into the net.
“We just cut loose and made all the shots we needed to,” Stephanie said.
The comeback, especially that late in the match, caught Champaign off guard.
“We didn’t expect they’d come back like that,” Griglione said, “but we didn’t expect to shut them out, either.”
If it’s not in the genes, where did all the Matkos’ tennis talent come from? Michelle says she was 6 when she got the itch. She’d sit in the pool at her swim club and watch the tennis players next door, and eventually she realized she wanted to try tennis.
The twins were a little older–8 or so–when they picked it up.
“They saw me win trophies, and they wanted trophies of their own,” Michelle explained with a laugh.
Michelle Matko had been the odds-on favorite for the singles title since August but tried to concentrate on each match as it came. After beating Loyola junior Olga Gvozdenovic 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals Saturday afternoon, Matko was still sticking to her tunnel-vision philosophy. Because there was only one match left, it would become one set at a time, or one point at a time.
“There’s been a lot of pressure on me the whole season, but I don’t worry about it,” she said before the final. “I’ve stayed really focused the whole season and the whole tournament, and that’s made a big difference.”
The rain-altered schedule meant the finalists would have to play three matches Saturday instead of two, a day after playing three to get into the quarterfinals.
Matko had some trouble with her serve in the quarters, falling behind Wheaton-Warrenville South sophomore Julie Penn before rallying to win 7-5, 6-1. But Matko dominated Gvozdenovic in the semis and had about 2 hours more rest before the final than Nolan, who had to endure the marathon semifinal with Purcell in the best singles match of the tournament.
