Mendota’s Iris Espinoza will participate in the state tennis tournament after she finished fourth in the singles competition of the LaSalle-Peru Sectional. (Reporter photo)

LaSALLE – Iris Espinoza of Mendota earned a trip to the IHSA Girls’ Class 1A State Tennis Tournament after she participated in the LaSalle-Peru Sectional on Oct. 13-14.

Espinoza, a senior, finished fourth in the singles competition, which was good enough to get a state bid. The top four singles players qualify for the state tournament.

Espinoza began her quest with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Maya Durban of Streator. In the next round, Espinoza scored a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Clara Ferrari of LaSalle-Peru, which assured her of finishing no worse than fourth.

In the semifinals, Abby Aitken of Sterling defeated Espinoza, 6-2, 6-2, which bumped the MHS player to the third-place match. In that match, Katelyn Grell of Sterling upended Espinoza, 6-3, 6-1.

Grace Brandner also played singles for the Lady Trojans and she was knocked out of the tournament after suffering a 6-2, 6-0 loss to Kiara Abbott of Coal City.

Mendota sent two doubles teams to the sectional and both posted 1-1 records.

Marie Barnickel and Leslee Thorson started off with a 6-0, 6-2 triumph over Needs-Kapraun of St. Bede before being eliminated from the competition after a 6-0, 6-0 setback to eventual doubles champions Katie McGraw and Ellie Gallagher of Ottawa.

The Mendota duo of Emma Boatman and Cheyenne West won their first match over Ator-Smith of St. Bede, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4. Boatman-West saw their season come to a close after a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Erin Vits and Maddy Jacobs of Sterling Newman.

In team standings, Ottawa took first place with 21 points, edging Sterling Newman, which had 20 points. Sterling was third with 19 points and the Lady Trojans finished fourth with 16 points. Rounding out the team standings were L-P (12), Coal City (8), Princeton (6), Morris (4), Streator (2) and St. Bede (0).