{"id":54573,"date":"2026-08-21T02:06:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/54573\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T02:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:06:54","slug":"northwest-herald-girls-tennis-preview-5-to-watch-in-2026-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/54573\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Herald girls tennis preview: 5 to watch in 2026 \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelley Appelhans, Crystal Lake South<\/p>\n

Appelhans has been a model of consistency for the Gators<\/a>. She has 67 career wins and hasn\u2019t won fewer than 20 matches in any of her three seasons. She has been named team MVP every year. Last season, her 20 wins at No. 1 singles helped South win 17 matches. She qualified for state in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

Jordan Cheng, Marian Central (Photo provided by Marian Central Catholic High School)<\/p>\n

Jordan Cheng, Marian Central, jr.<\/p>\n

Cheng, a Northwest Herald All-Area first-teamer last year, has competed in the Class 1A state tournament each of her first two seasons. She won 19 singles matches last year, including two at state. She won the Cary-Grove Sectional singles title and helped the Hurricanes<\/a> capture the team championship.<\/p>\n

\"Evie<\/p>\n

Evie Johnson (Crystal Lake Central High School)<\/p>\n

Evie Johnson, Crystal Lake Central, so.<\/p>\n

Johnson emerged on the varsity scene as a Tigers<\/a> freshman last fall, advancing to the No. 1 singles final in the FVC meet. She then qualified for the Class 1A state tournament out of the Cary-Grove Sectional.<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/p>\n

Anna Mertel (Prairie Ridge)<\/p>\n

Anna Mertel, Prairie Ridge, jr.<\/p>\n

Mertel has anchored the top singles position for the Wolves<\/a> since her freshman season two years ago. She placed fourth at No. 1 singles in the FVC tournament last fall, after finishing second in 2024. She qualified for the Class 1A state tournament in her freshman season. <\/p>\n

\"Gia<\/p>\n

Gia Patel (Joe Aguilar)<\/p>\n

Gia Patel, Huntley, sr.<\/p>\n

Patel has anchored second singles for the Red Raiders<\/a> the past three years, and she has dominated. She won the FVC title at No. 2 singles each of the past three seasons. She has more than 100 career wins, including more than 40 in which she didn\u2019t lose a single game. She will move to No. 1 singles this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelley Appelhans, Crystal Lake South Appelhans has been a model of consistency for the Gators. She has 67…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3043,541,4044,689,28],"class_list":["post-54573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-girls-tennis","tag-high-school-sports","tag-marian-central-preps","tag-premium","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}