Listen to this articlePEKIN — Danville and Centennial on Friday combined to qualify three doubles teams for the Class 2A Pekin Sectional semifinals, keeping those athletes' respective seasons going one more day.
There won't be a state tournament this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the Vikings, both the second-seeded duo of Lexi Ellis and Kedzie Griffin and the third-seeded pairing of Josie Hotsinpiller and Ava Towne won two matches.
Ellis and Griffin defeated Normal West's Grace Storm and Emily Vaughan 6-2, 6-2, and then trumped Pekin's Gabby Gonzalez and Malia Connor 6-2, 6-0.
Hotsinpiller and Towne took down Centennial's Yehyun Nam and Bella Roesler 6-1, 6-2, before knocking off Normal Community's Meg Moser and Isabelle McCormick 6-3, 6-3. Hotsinpiller and Towne will face top-seeded Lauren Myers and Sarah Gustafson in Saturday's semifinals.
Ellis and Griffin, meanwhile, draw the Chargers' Aviv Sagiv and Leah Luchinski in the semifinal round. Sagiv and Luchinski, who are seeded fifth, took down Rock Island's Sher Lei and Min Thaw 6-0, 6-0, as well as Moline's Matti Brower and Zayda Graham by a 6-1, 6-3 margin.
No area players remain in this sectional's singles draw, though Centennial's Sandhya Subbiah and Danville's Brooklyn Behrens both advanced to the quarterfinals.