For New Trier’s Ariane Lesterhuis and Keri Rothenberg, the bitter feeling was unfamiliar, almost unrecognizable.
The doubles partners had just lost a set for the first time all season — in the state championship match, no less.
“It didn’t feel very good,” Lesterhuis said. “But we wanted to stay positive. We were really disappointed. But we were also just thinking, ‘We still have one more set to win.’”
Lesterhuis, a junior, and Rothenberg, a senior, entered the Class 2A state tournament as the defending champions in doubles. They were undefeated and were expected by many to win again.
In the state championship match, pitted against Stevenson’s Abby Ma and Sophia Shlyakhta, Rothenberg and Lesterhuis cruised to a 6-3 win in the first set and stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the second set. They were doing what they had done all season.
But Ma and Shlyakhta suddenly got hot, winning six consecutive games to take the second set.
“We knew we would face adversity at some point in the state tournament,” Rothenberg said. “I was prepared for it. I wasn’t freaking out and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we just lost a set.’
“I was just thinking, ‘This is normal. Everyone’s going to face adversity.’ It’s about how you handle it.”
That positive, resilient and in-sync mindset worked wonders for Rothenberg and Lesterhuis, who have played nearly 50 matches together in two years. They prevailed in the ultracompetitive third set to pull out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory, win their second consecutive state title and help the Trevians do the same as a team.
Last year, Rothenberg and Lesterhuis shocked the competition while becoming New Trier’s first doubles team to win a state title since 1990. They were placed in the 5-8 seed group but proceeded to roll to the title with upset wins throughout the tournament.
Compared to this season, though, that 2023 run was easy work.
“Leading up to this year’s tournament, I had a lot of stress and felt a lot of pressure because we did so well last year,” Lesterhuis said. “It’s really hard to win once, but it’s 10 times harder to do it twice.”
As is usually the case, Lesterhuis and Rothenberg see eye to eye.
“Last year was extremely exciting because I think we were both not expecting it,” Rothenberg said. “This year, I would say it was more of a relief for me. As a senior, I really wanted to go out on a high note, and I knew we could win.
“So I felt relief when we did win, and I was really happy with the ending of my high school tennis career.”
Rothenberg will graduate in the spring and intends to play tennis in college, but she hasn’t announced where. Lesterhuis is open to all options for her senior season: singles, doubles with someone else, anything.
“It’ll definitely be a lot different,” Lesterhuis said.
For now, Rothenberg and Lesterhuis remain at the top of Illinois tennis.
“This year, they were expected to go out and win every match they played,” New Trier assistant Donna Chudacoff said. “That’s a lot of pressure for high school kids. There’s a target on your back. But they handled it with tremendous grace, which was just an amazing thing to watch.
“And the matches were much closer than the scores indicate. The points were long. The games were close. So for anyone to think this was an easy thing is mistaken because it wasn’t. It was a major battle for them, and they accomplished a great thing twice.”
Rothenberg and Lesterhuis also played a big part in the Trevians’ 11th state title. Doubles partners Coco Zabel and Julia Ludwig reached the quarterfinals, and Ingrid Fiedler placed sixth in singles. Meanwhile, in Class 1A, Hinsdale South’s Chloe Goins won the state title in singles.
“It’s a great feeling to do it again, and they wanted that,” New Trier coach Jerry Morse-Karzen said. “It’s a testament to how well they hung in there and worked the whole year. And when they had adversity, they met the challenge.”
Sam Brief is a freelance reporter.
